Megatherium

This article is about Megatherium, not to be confused with Megalania, Megalosaurus, Megaloceros, Megalodon, or Meganeura

Megatherium

Dossier

These values may differ with what you see in-game or written elsewhere. But that is what the dossier says.

Common Name

Megatherium

Group

Mammals

Species

Megatherium formipavor

Time Period

Late Pliocene - Early Holocene

Diet

Omnivore (primarily Herbivore)

Temperament

Passive, but aggressive to insects

Release Versions

258.0
May 30, 2017

755.0
June 19, 2017

509.0
June 14, 2017

Not Yet Released

599.0
November 30, 2018

Spawn Command

admincheat summon Megatherium_Character_BP_C
or
admincheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Megatherium/Megatherium_Character_BP.Megatherium_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 35

Domestication

Tameable

Rideable

Breedable

Yes

Yes

Yes

Torpor Immune

No

Taming Method

Knockout

Preferred Kibble

Superior Kibble

Preferred Food

Raw Mutton

Equipment

Megatherium Saddle (Level 52)

Rider Weaponry

Yes

Humans Can Carry

No

Data

XP For Kill

8 XP

Drops

• Hide
• Pelt
• Raw Meat
• Raw Prime Meat

Feces Size

Medium

Drag Weight

295

Radiation Immune

No

Carryable By

• Fire Wyvern
• Forest Wyvern
• Ice Wyvern
• Lightning Wyvern
• Megalosaurus
• Poison Wyvern
• Quetzal
• Tek Quetzal
• Tusoteuthis
• Zombie Fire Wyvern
• Zombie Lightning Wyvern
• Zombie Poison Wyvern

Immobilized By

• Chain Bola
• Large Bear Trap

Can Damage

Thatch
Greenhouse
Wood
Lumber
Glass

Reproduction

Gestation Time

7h 56m 11s

Baby Time

9h 15m 33s

Juvenile Time

1d 13h 2m 11s

Adolescent Time

1d 22h 17m 45s

Total Maturation Time

3d 20h 35m 32s

Breeding Interval

18h - 2d

Habitat

Colorvision Prota- / Deuteranopia Tritanopia

Common             Rare
  Untameable   Cave

The Megatherium (meg-ah-theer-ee-um), or Giant Sloth, is one of the creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Basic Info

Dossier

This dossier section is intended to be an exact copy of what the survivor Helena, the author of the dossiers has written. There may be some discrepancies between this text and the in-game creatures.

	“	Wild Megatherium formipavor is one of the larger mammals on the Island. This is most shocking because it is essentially a giant sloth...if you crossbred it with an elephant and a bear! Because of its size and girth, the Megatherium is uncommonly resistant to being knocked unconscious. Despite primarily being an herbivore, a typical Megatherium is very intent on consuming the Island's many insects. It is particularly adept at removing their insides without damaging much of the shell, maximizing extraction of chitin. The otherwise slow and peaceful Megatherium becomes faster and aggressive in the presence of these creatures. Domesticated Megatherium is an incredibly useful creature to tame, so long as you don't intend to fight other tribes. It's enormity, high resistance to torpor, and voracious attitude toward insects (and arachnids) makes it ideal for farming large quantities of chitin from the bugs of the Island, or simply defending against them.	„
		~ Helena

Behavior

Megatherium is a slow, gentle creature that will not attack a player unprovoked. This changes if there are insects nearby, at which point the Megatherium will become aggressive to any insect, player, or dinos nearby. This is accompanied by a cloud surrounding its head to indicate it's transitioned state of temper.

Appearance

Among the largest mammals yet found on the island, the Megatherium is a slow-moving and formidable omnivore, roughly similar to a bear in appearance, but with a small head and heavy limbs that betray its sloth ancestry. While normally content to browse from tall trees or dig for roots and tubers, giant sloths are avid insectivores and will prey upon the island's giant arthropods when they can, cracking open exoskeletons with their hooked claws and extracting the meat with a long, muscular tongue. Smaller insects like the Titanomyrma are eaten wholesale.

Color Scheme and Regions

This section displays the Megatherium's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Megatherium. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Megatherium will randomly spawn with to provide an overall range of its natural color scheme. Hover your cursor over a color to display its name and ID.

Server admins can use this region information in the Console Command "cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID>".
For example, "cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6" would color the Megatherium's "main body" magenta.

Region 0: Main Body	Region 1 is not used for this Creature.	Region 2 is not used for this Creature.
Region 3 is not used for this Creature.	Region 4 is not used for this Creature.	Region 5: Hands and Feet

Region 0: Main BodyRegion 5: Hands and Feet

Drops

• Raw Meat
• Raw Prime Meat
• Pelt
• Hide

Base Stats and Growth

Note that creatures will have different stats in Survival of the Fittest

Basic Stats

Attribute	Amount at Level 1	Increase per point		Taming Bonus
		Wild	Domesticated1	Add	Mult
Health	740	+148	+5.4%	0.07
Stamina	400	+40	+10%
Oxygen	270	+27	+10%
Food	3000	+300	+10%
Weight	725	+14.5	+4.5%
Melee Damage	322	+1.6	+1.7%	7%	17.6%
Movement Speed	100%	N/A3	+1%
Torpidity	1000	+60	N/A4	0.5

¹Percentages are based on the value of the stat the moment the creature was tamed (after taming effectiveness)
²The absolute Base Damage is shown here instead of the percentage.
³Wild creatures do not level up movement speed
⁴Torpidity increases every level on wild creatures, but can not be increased once they are tamed.

• For a comparison of the stats of all creatures, see Base Creature Statistics.
• For an explanation of exactly how the levelup calculation works, see Creature Stats Calculation.

Movement Speed

Movement Type	Base Speed	Sprinting		Stamina Used
		Wild	Domesticated
Walking	320	1280	960	14
Swimming	300	N/A	N/A	N/A

• These are the base speeds of the creature at 100% Movement Speed
• For a comparison of the speeds of all creatures, see Base Creature Speeds

Attack Values

Claw or Bite		Stamina Cost	Attack Range			Description
			Base	Minimum	Activation
		0	0	0	0

Slam		Stamina Cost	Attack Range			Description
			Base	Minimum	Activation
		0	500	0	0
Attack Type		Damage	Projectile Values			Torpor Values		Status Effect: Stamina			Status Effect: Torpidity
			Life	Impulse	Radius	Base	Mult	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount
Melee		49

Claw		Stamina Cost	Attack Range			Description
			Base	Minimum	Activation
		0	500	0	0
Attack Type		Damage	Projectile Values			Torpor Values		Status Effect: Stamina			Status Effect: Torpidity
			Life	Impulse	Radius	Base	Mult	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount
Melee		32

Bite		Stamina Cost	Attack Range			Description
			Base	Minimum	Activation
		0	650	0	0
Attack Type		Damage	Projectile Values			Torpor Values		Status Effect: Stamina			Status Effect: Torpidity
			Life	Impulse	Radius	Base	Mult	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount
Melee		32

Wild Stats Level-up

Type in values of a wild creature to see on which stats it's emphasized. Green values on a high-level creature are very good for breeding. If you have already tamed your creature you can try to recover the breeding-stats with an external tool.

Megatherium

The stat-calculator does not work in the mobile-view, see here for alternatives: Apps

Note that after the creature is tamed it gets bonuses on some stats depending on the taming effectiveness. This makes it hard to retrieve the levels on a tamed creature, so this tool is only for wild ones, but gives a first impression, how well the stats are distributed.

Taming

For general infos about domesticating a wild creature see Taming.

KO Strategy

Build a small bin with stone pillars and metal fence foundations to knock this huge beast down, stay aware that when you try to knock him out in an open area on a mountain, he is able to simply knock you off the mountain.

Taming Food

Level 1					Time
Superior Kibble	7	0	0	0	0:13:08
Raw Mutton	14	33	8	4	0:24:39
Giant Bee Honey	9	37	8	4	0:25:21
Cooked Lamb Chop	26	145	32	16	0:45:44
Raw Prime Meat	18	70	16	8	0:31:42
Cooked Prime Meat	35	228	50	25	1:01:33
Raw Prime Fish Meat	43	103	23	12	0:37:51
Raw Meat	52	387	84	42	1:31:33
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	86	314	68	34	1:17:47
Mejoberry	86	383	83	42	1:30:50
Cooked Meat	103	382	83	42	1:30:40
Berries	129	383	83	42	1:30:50
Raw Fish Meat	129	504	109	55	1:53:33
Cooked Fish Meat	257	501	109	55	1:53:07
KO: × 100; × 41; × 12; × 7; × 5; × 3
Torpidity-depletion: 0.9 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:18:31

Level 30					Time
Superior Kibble	12	0	0	0	0:22:31
Raw Mutton	24	88	21	11	0:42:15
Giant Bee Honey	15	88	21	11	0:42:15
Cooked Lamb Chop	44	351	81	41	1:17:23
Raw Prime Meat	30	167	39	20	0:52:49
Cooked Prime Meat	60	562	130	65	1:45:31
Raw Prime Fish Meat	75	266	62	31	1:06:01
Raw Meat	89	945	218	109	2:36:41
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	149	780	180	90	2:14:45
Mejoberry	149	950	219	110	2:37:23
Cooked Meat	178	945	218	109	2:36:41
Berries	223	947	219	110	2:37:02
Raw Fish Meat	223	1241	287	144	3:16:17
Cooked Fish Meat	445	1238	286	143	3:15:51
KO: × 274; × 112; × 31; × 18; × 13; × 7
Torpidity-depletion: 1.5 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:30:32

Level 60					Time
Superior Kibble	16	0	0	0	0:30:01
Raw Mutton	35	201	49	25	1:01:37
Giant Bee Honey	22	204	49	25	1:01:58
Cooked Lamb Chop	64	647	156	78	1:52:33
Raw Prime Meat	43	324	78	39	1:15:42
Cooked Prime Meat	86	986	237	119	2:31:14
Raw Prime Fish Meat	107	486	117	59	1:34:11
Raw Meat	128	1636	393	197	3:45:20
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	214	1357	326	163	3:13:32
Mejoberry	214	1642	395	198	3:46:02
Cooked Meat	256	1636	393	197	3:45:20
Berries	320	1636	393	197	3:45:20
Raw Fish Meat	320	2129	512	256	4:41:40
Cooked Fish Meat	640	2129	512	256	4:41:40
KO: × 454; × 186; × 51; × 29; × 21; × 11
Torpidity-depletion: 1.96 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:38:47

Level 90					Time
Superior Kibble	21	0	0	0	0:39:24
Raw Mutton	45	335	83	42	1:19:13
Giant Bee Honey	28	332	82	41	1:18:52
Cooked Lamb Chop	83	983	244	122	2:25:57
Raw Prime Meat	56	523	130	65	1:38:35
Cooked Prime Meat	112	1478	366	183	3:16:57
Raw Prime Fish Meat	140	763	189	95	2:03:14
Raw Meat	167	2421	600	300	4:53:59
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	279	2016	500	250	4:12:19
Mejoberry	279	2428	602	301	4:54:41
Cooked Meat	334	2421	600	300	4:53:59
Berries	418	2424	601	301	4:54:20
Raw Fish Meat	418	3139	778	389	6:07:55
Cooked Fish Meat	835	3135	777	389	6:07:28
KO: × 634; × 259; × 71; × 41; × 29; × 15
Torpidity-depletion: 2.37 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:44:46

Level 120					Time
Superior Kibble	26	0	0	0	0:48:47
Raw Mutton	55	496	126	63	1:36:50
Giant Bee Honey	35	514	131	66	1:38:35
Cooked Lamb Chop	102	1359	346	173	2:59:22
Raw Prime Meat	69	754	192	96	2:01:28
Cooked Prime Meat	138	2022	514	257	4:02:40
Raw Prime Fish Meat	172	1067	271	136	2:31:24
Raw Meat	206	3277	832	416	6:02:38
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	344	2737	695	348	5:11:05
Mejoberry	344	3284	834	417	6:03:20
Cooked Meat	412	3277	832	416	6:02:38
Berries	515	3277	832	416	6:02:38
Raw Fish Meat	515	4225	1073	537	7:33:17
Cooked Fish Meat	1030	4225	1073	537	7:33:17
KO: × 814; × 333; × 91; × 52; × 37; × 19
Torpidity-depletion: 2.75 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:49:28

Level 150					Time
Superior Kibble	31	54	14	7	0:58:09
Raw Mutton	66	697	181	91	1:56:11
Giant Bee Honey	41	689	179	90	1:55:29
Cooked Lamb Chop	121	1767	459	230	3:32:46
Raw Prime Meat	82	1009	262	131	2:24:21
Cooked Prime Meat	164	2605	676	338	4:48:23
Raw Prime Fish Meat	205	1409	366	183	3:00:26
Raw Meat	245	4188	1086	543	7:11:17
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	409	3508	910	455	6:09:52
Mejoberry	409	4196	1088	544	7:11:59
Cooked Meat	490	4188	1086	543	7:11:17
Berries	613	4192	1087	544	7:11:38
Raw Fish Meat	613	5388	1398	699	8:59:33
Cooked Fish Meat	1225	5383	1396	698	8:59:06
KO: × 994; × 406; × 111; × 64; × 45; × 23
Torpidity-depletion: 3.11 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:53:20

Note that the values are for optimal cases, always bring extra supplies!
For a level-dependent count of resources needed, try an external taming calculator.

Ingredients for Superior Kibble: 2 ×  Citronal , 1 ×  Prime Meat Jerky , 1 ×  Large Egg , 5 ×  Fiber , 2 ×  Rare Mushroom , 1 ×  Sap , Water

Combat

This section describes how to fight against the Megatherium.

General

The Megatherium is a large omnivore, eating both plants and animals. It is slightly larger than the Wooly Rhino, but smaller than the Mammoth. They are similar to a Chalicotherium, walking on their knuckles and they can even sit.

Strategy

The Megatherium can easily get stuck on rocks and trees. By then taming or killing is very simple.

Weaponry

Any gun or a crossbow can make short work of a Megatherium, but it is advised to have a mount nearby, as Megatherium can be quite fast.

Dangers

Becomes more powerful when it kills insects. It will get a glowing aura around it which means, like it says below, the "Bug Killer" buff is active. Because of this, they should be avoided at all costs when riding an insect mount. Especially if they are high level, even a melee damage oriented mantis with a good quality sword is in extreme danger in the vicinity of these creatures. If chased while riding a Mantis, use their leap attack to get away!

It is worth noting that when the 'Bug Killer' buff is active, Megatherium appears to enter an 'enraged' state. During this period, any creature (or player) close enough to them are at risk of being attacked.

Weakness

The Megatherium loses a lot of power when not buffed. If it is buffed then attack it with ranged weapons or wyverns. Don't come too close if it's buffed! For example, a level 12 buffed wild megatherium is capable of doing around 150 damage per hit.

Utility

Roles

Tank

The Megatherium's moderately high base HP can make it a great tank. (Level Health)

Chitin Farmer

Once a ridden Megatherium kills an insect ( Meganeura, Giant Bee, Titanomyrma, or Pulmonoscorpius) or arthropod ( Araneo, Arthropleura, Mantis, or Trilobite), it will get a buff called "Bug Killer". Bug killer causes the Megatherium's damage to multiply by 250% to any target for 120 seconds (which is multiplicative with the passive 150% multiplier against bugs.). When "Bug Killer" is active while fighting bugs, the Megatherium's damage will be multiplied by 375%. In addition, this buff reduces all damage by about 75% (35 damage from a tranq arrow fired from a primitive crossbow is reduced to 8 damage on a wild Megatherium.) This makes the Megatherium incredibly potent against bugs. Harvesting the bug's corpses will yield a massive amount of Chitin. At 200% Melee Damage, you can easily get 200+ chitin from a single scorpion. They are, however, too large to fit into many caves unless you take them in Cryopod.

DeathWorm Killer

A Megatherium under its "Bug Killer" buff can make killing Deathworms a much easier process.

Gatherer

The Megatherium is able to collect berries and fiber from bushes, thatch and wood from trees and meat, chitin and hide from corpses. (Level Melee Damage, Stamina, Weight, and Speed (optional))

Broodmother Killer

A Megatherium makes killing the Broodmother Lysrix much easier due to its "Bug Killer" buff and is also able to easily fend off the many Araneo spawned by the boss.

Collectibles

Resource	Efficiency
Chitin	★★★★★
Thatch	★★★★★
Cactus Sap	★★★★★
Berries	★★★★☆
Fiber	★★★★☆
Hide	★★★☆☆

Gallery

• 

Notes/Trivia

For information pertaining specifically to the real-world Megatherium, see the relevant Wikipedia article

• The dossier was revealed on July 29, 2015
• The full-name of the Megatherium Formipavor means "Great beast that causes fear", a reference to its size and large frightening claws.
• Although described as omnivorous, the real animal was likely just a herbivore. This change in diet is based on the dietary habits of anteaters (which are related to sloths) and a controversial theory that Megatherium may have supplemented its diet with meat.
• The Megatherium in-game is one of the most accurate models of any genera present. The only noticeable inaccuracy is that the ARK creature walks on its whole foot like most animals. It is known from trackways of other ground sloths, the design of the animal's feet, and modern relatives such as the giant anteater; that ground sloths actually walked on the sides of their feet.