or
cheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Piranha/Piranha_Character_BP.Piranha_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 35
Variant Aberrant Piranha
cheat summon Piranha_Character_BP_Aberrant_C
or
cheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Piranha/Piranha_Character_BP_Aberrant.Piranha_Character_BP_Aberrant'" 500 0 0 35
No
Yes
The Piranha (previously also named Megapiranha) is one of the creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.
Basic Info
Dossier
This section is intended to be an exact copy of what the survivor Helena Walker, the author of the dossiers, has written. There may be some discrepancies between this text and the in-game creature.
- Wild
Megapiranha magnadmorsus is carnivorous fish found fairly commonly in the rivers and ponds of the island. Its bite is incredibly powerful; I've even seen them break through the armored turtles of the island. Megapiranha has one of the strongest bites, pound-for-pound, of any creature on the island. When encountering a Megapiranha, be on the lookout for the rest of the school. No one Megapiranha is an overwhelming threat, but their tendency to swarm prey can make short work of much larger and stronger creatures. Any given Megapiranha is easy to kill, but killing the entire school can be a daunting task.
- Domesticated
Like some of the other creatures on the island, a tamed Megapiranha is best suited as a guard. Their high metabolism makes them require more food than many other creatures, but they are very adept at hunting their own food, particularly the Coelacanths.
Behavior
Very aggressive to anything that is in their immediate vicinity, they will even attack the mighty Tyrannosaurus, although these attacks usually prove futile. Megapiranha tend to stay in groups of 4-5. In such numbers, they can tear through weak armor in a matter of seconds. Players who cross large bodies of water often find multiple schools converging on them, which can prove a problem even for the most advanced of players.
Appearance
Traversing the island's freshwater rivers and lakes can be a dangerous proposition, especially when the fearsome Megapiranha is in the area. As large as a coelacanth and far more aggressive, these fish usually travel in small groups to hunt, swarming weak and wounded animals in a flurry of snapping jaws and cutting teeth. The Megapiranha's rough skin and violent behavior make it unmistakable for any other fish species.
Color Scheme and Regions
This section displays the Piranha's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Piranha. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Piranha 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.
This information can be used to alter the Piranha's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Piranha's "body" magenta.
Body
Fin Base
Eye Area and Stripes
Region 3 is not used
for this Creature.
Fins
Patterning
Drops
Base Stats and Growth
| Attribute | Base Value | Level Increase |
|---|---|---|
| Wild | ||
 Health |
150 | +30 |
 Stamina |
120 | +12 |
 Oxygen |
N/A | N/A |
 Food |
1200 | +120 |
 Weight |
15 | +0.3 |
 Melee Damage |
22 | +1.1 |
 Movement Speed |
100% | N/A |
 Torpidity |
250 | +15 |
- 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 [u/s] |
Base Speed | Sprinting Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Wild | Wild | |
| Walking | 250
|
? |
| Swimming | 250
|
1000 |
- 1These are the base speeds of the creature at 100% Movement Speed.
- 2These are the speeds of the creature tamed and non-imprinted.
- For a comparison of the speeds of all creatures, see Base Creature Speeds.
| Melee | Stamina Cost | Attack Range | Description | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base | Minimum | Activation | The Megapiranha bites the target. | ||||||||||
| 0 | 110 | 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 | 22 | ||||||||||||
Taming
The Piranha can be 'tamed' using a 
Fish Basket 
. However, their level are affixed, thus cannot earn any experience, and they do not eat from the trough. The engram for the basket can only be learned on Aberration and you need amongst other things 60 × 
Fungal Wood . You can also transfer tamed piranhas or pre built fish baskets to the desired map via a 
Tek Transmitter.
Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Piranha.
General
Any melee weapon will suffice to kill them off, as they have relatively low health. Make sure that you do not stay nearby them for so long, as others will swim over and pile themselves on. At that point, it becomes dangerous. Stepping away from the water removes them as a threat entirely.
Tamed mounts such as 
Baryonyx are sufficiently easier to kill them on instead of a 
Pike or 
Sword, this is because of their stun.
Strategy
Use the range provided by a Pike or 
Spear to poke at the Megapiranha from a distance. If possible, lure them to the shore and get them stuck in the shallows. It is not practical to use a ranged weapon, as they swerve often, and only 
Crossbows work underwater. Before crossing a river just get deep enough to see underwater and look around for piranha, wait there long enough for any that are around to come to you, if nothing comes you are safe to cross, if they do come try to stand knee deep until they are pretty close and they may get stuck in the shallows. It is also wise to take a running leap across a river after you have checked it, this will help to clear the distance just in case.
Weaponry
The best weapons to use are Pikes and Spears because they can hit the piranha without getting close enough for it to fight back. If the piranha is exposed you can hit it with ranged weapons like a 
Slingshot or 
Bow.
Dangers
Piranha employ swarm tactics to kill their prey. Make sure you stay as far away from them as possible, or if you feel confident, let them gather so you can hit them all at once.
Weakness
They have a small health pool, so they do not take a while to be killed if they are singled out and separated.
Utility
Roles
Food Source: You can tame piranhas to slaughter them later for 
Raw Fish Meat.
Damage: They don't do a lot of damage, but they attack very quickly and may be helpful as underwater guard dogs.
Pet: Although only marginally useful, some consider keeping them as pets.
Swarmers: They are possibly the best underwater swarmers besides the 
Eel, as they are fast, do medium damage, and attack very quickly.
Collectibles
Notes/Trivia
For information pertaining specifically to the real-world Piranha, see the relevant Wikipedia article.
- Piranhas can make crossing rivers difficult for survivors starting off in the game. It is recommended to try to find a shallow place to cross or avoid crossing altogether until you get some gear to protect yourself. If you have a corpse you can drag it into the water to potentially lure piranhas in either to find out if there are any and/or eliminate them.
- The Piranha's design is similar to that of the titular fish in "Piranha 3D", a 2010 horror-comedy film.
- The Piranha used to be named Megapiranha in game. They are still named that way in ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile.
- The Piranha was not tamable until Aberration was released.
- The Piranha are cloned by the
Overseer to maintain their presence in the ecosystem, because they are either completely unable to breed or their population is unable to recover manually.
- The game does not assign any genders to the Piranhas, making players unable to breed them.
- Piranha do not produce Feces.
- Real Piranhas are social animals that live in schools. ARK: Survival Evolved's Piranhas can be found together but mostly found on their own.
- The Piranha along with Coelacanth, Leech, Sabertooth Salmon and Trilobite became tamable with the Fish Basket introduced in Aberration.
- They sometimes get beached when chasing targets that are close but no longer in water, causing them to die instantly. This mechanics can be utilized by players to get free fish meat.
Changelog
| Patch | Changes |
|---|---|
| 174.0 | Adjusted Megapiranha spawn rates to be more common at inland lakes and rivers |
| 174.1 | Increased Megapiranha turn rate |
| 175.0 | Now spawn in larger groups |
| 240.0 | Megapiranha now drops Fish Meat instead of regular  Meat
|
| 240.2 | Fish should no longer get knocked around as much after death |
| 244.2 | Fixed issue with fish endlessly spawning on land near the Redwoods biome |
| 245.0 | Fish can now be fished using a  Fishing Rod
|
| 253.9 | Fixed Megapiranha over-spawning issue on The Center |
| 254.5 | Megapiranha can no longer receive buffs or debuffs |
| 259.0 | Removed Megapiranha spawns from shallow pools in the Redwoods |
| 261.0 |
|
| Unversioned Hotfix | Changed the name of the  Megapiranha to just "Piranha" ingame
|
| 262.0 | Fixed an issue where wandering fish would cluster into a corner |
| 275.0 Aberration Expansion Release |  Aberrant Piranha added
|
| 275.31 | Removed Aberrant Piranhas from the starting area pool in Aberration |
| 279.22 | Piranhas now will not attack a  Sarcosuchus anymore and will instead flee when they encounter one, tamed or wild
|
| 305.12 | Fixed a bug where the Fish Basket wasn't returning creatures properly
|
Gallery
Size comparison
Render of a Megapiranha
1 Can be kept and released in a
Fish Basket 
. Untameable on ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile.