Taming a dinosaur in Ark Survival Evolved is no easy task, taming a towering carnivorous T-Rex or Spinosaur is a whole other story. Just taking it down will often take several players, and then you’ve got to keep it fed, protected and sedated with narcotics for the several hours it will take to convince it to join your tribe. If this is your first time going after one of the islands deadliest predators you’ve come to the right place, we’ve tamed our own and documented the process with some tips on making it as easy as possible.

Supplies

Tranq Arrows

You’ll need plenty of supplies for either of these beasts. To take down a T-Rex it takes approximately 50 Tranq arrows to the head, but always bring more in case. A Spinosaur will take approximately 25 more than the T-Rex depending on the level of course, so pack at least 75.

Narcotics/ Narcoberries

Narcotics is another thing you’ll need a lot of. The T-Rex and Spino have Torpor that depletes very rapidly which requires you to constant be feeding in Narcotics/ NarcoBerries. It is highly recommended that you use Narcotic for a sedative because you’ll need about three times as many berries to do the job.

T-Rex Narcotics/ Narcoberries: At least 150/ 600

Spino Narcotics/ Narcoberries: At least 200/ 700

Always have more on reserve especially if the animal is over level 20. You don’t want to get to 95% tamed and have it wake up, wasting all of the previous resources used.

Meat

The favorite food of both the Rex and Spino is prime meat. Feeding it its favorite food will dramatically cut the time to tame it, so try to gather as much as you can. You can find prime meat on a lot of the bigger dinos including Stegos and Brontos.

If you’re feeding it both prime and regular meat, make sure the prime is ahead of the regular meat in the inventory so that it eats it first. Some players will construct a preserving bin near the dino so that they can continue collecting prime while it’s down. The bin will keep it fresh, as Prime tends to spoil very quickly.

Rex Meat Requirement: 200 – 400 raw regular meat

Spino Meat Requirement: 200 – 400 raw regular meat

How to Tame

Knocking It Out

The hardest part when taming an apex predator is of course knocking it unconscious. Your go to weapon of choice here is the Tranq arrow, the amount of which is listed above. Ideally you should have at least two people aiming for headshots with tranq arrows to knock the beast down as fast as possible.

Positioning also plays a large role when taming the Rex and Spino. Their bites make quick work of players no matter how well armoured they are. Try to lure them to cliffs where they will get stuck at the bottom allowing you to rain arrows down onto them at will. Spinos can climb some steep surfaces though, so make sure the area you’re standing on is pretty steep.

The Taming

Now that it’s out cold, get your prime meat in there first. An animal will eat the items that are in it’s inventory in order so make sure the Prime is to the left. You’ll also want to load them up with narcotics because both the Spino and Rex lose Torpor very quickly.

You’ll want to have at least one person manning the Narcotics and ideally another player running security. These are big beasts you’ve knocked down and if you’re on a PvP server they’ll attract a lot of unwanted attention. Other carnivorous dinos will also try to take advantage of the easy meal so get ready to run them down.

Taming time for Spinos and Rexs varys greatly with the level and whether or not you’re using Prime Meat.

Rex Taming Time: 2 – 9 hours

Spino Taming Time: 2 – 10 hours

Remember: For best results use Prime Meat and Narcotics. They will increase your taming efficiency and reduce the amount of time it takes to tame.