ARK: Thorny Dragon – How to Tame, Feed and Breed!

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Find out everything you need to know about the Thorny Dragon in our ARK: Survival Evolved guide. But also how to catch it, tame it, feed it, and also raise offspring.

The Thorny Dragon joined ARK in the Scorched Earth DLC, so you can only find him on these maps: Scorched Earth, Ragnarok, Extinction, Genesis Part: 1, Genesis Part: 2, Crytal Isles, lost Island, and Fjodur.

This is the Thorn Dragon in ARK: Survival Evolved

Looks: The Thorny Dragon in ARK is just a larger version of the Thorny Devil from Australia. Its body is covered with spikes and scales.

Wild: The thorny dragon is aggressive towards smaller creatures that it attacks in its pack, which consists of three specimens in total. Once you attack a Thorny Dragon, its companions will get angry and fight and follow you.

Domesticated: The Thorny Dragon’s saddle is similar to that of the Argentavis, a mobile workbench that further reduces the weight of certain resources:

• Straw and fiber only weigh 20% of their original weight.
• Stone and wood only weigh 50% of their original weight.

In addition, the Thorny Dragon can fight with its bite attack both in melee and in ranged combat with its spike attack, which allows it to shoot spikes.

How to tame the Thorny Dragon in ARK

How to hunt the Thorny Dragon: In order to tame him in peace, you should eliminate all wild creatures around him. That includes his two companions, unless you want to tame them. After that, you can lock him up with a chain bola or lure him into a bear trap, making it easier to shoot him unconscious with tranquilizer darts.

How to tame it: Once it’s unconscious, put meat or kibble in its inventory and feed it to tame it. To keep the stun value high when taming, use Narcoberries or Narcotics.

How to craft the Thorny Dragon saddle

To craft the Thorny Dragon saddle you need to reach level 40 and spend 18 engram points to unlock the recipe. To craft you will need the following resources:

• 270x fade out
• 150x fiber
• 125x wood
• 85x tone
• 35x metal ingots

How to feed Thorny Dragon in ARK

Once you’ve tamed your Thorny Dragon, it’s important to know what it eats. Thorny Dragons are carnivores, making the food choices more accessible.

• Normal kibble
  • Ingredients: 1x Medium Egg, 1x Cooked Meat Jerky, 5x Fiber, 2x Longrass, 2x Savoroot, 1x Water
  • Ingredients for Cooked Meat Jerky: 1x Cooked Meat, 1x Oil, 3x Sparkpowder
• kibble (Camelosaur Egg):
  • Ingredients: 1x Camelosaur Egg, 50x Chitin, 1x Savoroot, 2x Mejoberry, 3x Dietary Fiber, 1x Water

• Raw Mutton:
  • Obtained by gutting Ovis.
  • Cooking it becomes the cooked lamb chop
• Raw Prime Meat:
  • Gained by gutting larger creatures
  • Cooking it becomes Cooked Prime Meat
• Raw Prime Fish Meat:
• Raw meat:
  • Earned by gutting a creature
  • Cooking turns it into cooked meat
• Raw Fish Meat:
  • Obtained by gutting fish
  • Cooking turns it into cooked fish meat

Breeding the Thorny Dragon in ARK

How to prepare for breeding: If you have a male and a female specimen, it is best to build an enclosure large enough for both. Place both creatures in the enclosure and let them roam using the command menu. Alternatively, you can also set them directly to “Pair”, but a player must be nearby. Otherwise, the pairing will be broken due to rendering.

The breeding interval for a Thorny Dragon is 18 to 48 hours.

How to hatch eggs: If you get a fertilized thorn dragon egg from a successful mating, hatching will begin. The ambient temperature of the egg should be between 22°C and 28°C for hatching and 25°C in the egg incubator. According to the default setting, the little Thorny Dragon Baby hatches after about 2.5 hours. After that, it will need about 5 hours of your attention, during which you will have to constantly put food in its inventory.

Once it has reached juvenile status, it can feed itself from troughs. The total ripening time is about 2 days and 1 hour.

Beginner tips for breeding in ARK can be found here:

Looking for other helpful guides on ARK: Survival Evolved? Then check out our ARK guide overview where you can find more of our dinosaur, crafting, resource and technology guides. You can also chat with us and other players on our Discord server. We look forward to you!