The Megachelon is a tame with a shell that can be built on, Also growing rare resources on its shell. When submerged, air bubbles will be generated around the shell.
Appearance
The Megachelon is a giant, six-legged, four-eyed turtle with almost human-like facial features; possessing wrinkled skin, external ears, and a toothy mouth instead of a hardened beak. It can be found swimming slowly through the ocean biome of the Genesis simulation, functioning as a living, breathing island; carrying its own unique little ecosystem on the back of its flattened, stone-like shell where moss, grass, and shrubs all grow out of its body, becoming more and more overgrown with the passage of time. While floating along the water's surface or walking across land, the lush habitat it carries with it attracts flocks of birds, which circle the Megachelon in wheeling flocks.
Color Scheme and Regions
This section displays the Megachelon's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Megachelon. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Megachelon 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 Megachelon's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Megachelon's "dark scales" magenta.
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.[1]
Megachelon
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.
Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Megachelon.
General
The Megachelon is very slow and you should be able to outswim it.
When fighting underwater use a Crossbow or an underwater tame.
Try to stay on its shell and stab it with a Spear or Pike. The Megachelon can't hit you when on its shell and it will provide you with oxygen
Weaponry
Any weapon that can fire underwater or a high Dps weapon.
Dangers
None except the high damage per hit. However, due to its high health pool, other dangers such as Electrophorus, Manta and Megalodon are to be expected from as it will take a long while to kill it. Keep in mind that while slow and vulnerable, a Megachelon that manages to land hit on players will make short work of them. Be sure to not expose yourself to its powerful jaws.
Weakness
The Megachelon is extremely slow. Meaning a player can keep their distance while attacking easily.
Its turning radius is also atrocious, making it very easy to get killed by something like Sarco once you get behind it, because of this, even Wild Electrophorus can easily outflank it, and slowly draining its health.
For general information about domesticating a wild creature see Taming.
Passive Tame
The Megachelon must be tamed passively with a unique mechanic; locate a Parakeet Fish School (also called Microbe Swarm when they target you) which can commonly be found in the deeper depths and let it target you. Slowly bring the school to the Megachelon and they should start to follow it, initiating the taming process. Make sure that when you are approaching the Megachelon with the Parakeet Fish School, the fish school is targeting you as a survivor, NOT a tame that you are riding. Make sure it says that you are being targeted by a Microbe Swarm when approaching the Megachelon. Otherwise, the fish school can bug out and not properly initiate the taming process. These fish are easily distracted by other tames, structures and even shoulder pets confuse them. If they do stop following you, even when right in the middle of the swarm, you can't force them to pick up the scent, even munching rare flowers doesn't help. If you go far away, like "teleport out of the biome" far, and leave them for a while, sometimes they will sort themselves out. Your best strategy is to head down and get another swarm.
Megalodons commonly attack the Megachelon so make sure you kill any of them in the vicinity. If they attack the Megachelon, or if you accidentally hit it, the taming progress drops down to 0. Also, Sabertooth Salmon and Coelacanth will constantly spawn and attack the Parakeet Fish School and eventually kill it; this is an "anti-trap" mechanic to ensure that it is being tamed as it roams around the water, though it will still need protection.
But you don't necessarily have to kill salmon and coelacanths.
They will not attack you only at the sight of the survivor (even if you are riding the creature) swimming with the school of fish and Megachelon, but on the contrary, they will run away from you.
The next time a megalodon, manta ray, or other hostile towards the player, sink below the Megachelon and kill them there, keeping just below the Megachelon.
It is also recommended that only at the beginning, you leave just in time to avoid being hit by the attacker in order to get the target of the enemy first.
Utility
Megachelon are tamed primarily for their utility purposes; providing a platform for which to keep afloat on the open sea, on which many useful structures can be built, ranging from bases, to storage sheds, and farms. Their ability to provide Oxygen to survivors and creatures while submerged also opens doors to further underwater utility, though the Megachelon is not restricted entirely to water; capable of hauling itself out onto land if needed. While the Megachelon doesn't appear to have any special reductions on Weight for resources, its high weight capacity allows it to ferry materials and passengers with ease. Megachelons also passively produce Rare Mushrooms and Rare Flowers with no limitation.
Megachelons are not, however, often used in direct combat, as they are very slow creatures, with abysmal turning speed. Despite its powerful bite, it fares poorly against mobile opponents, even with a secondary attack that blasts air at aggressors in a frontal cone to lift or push them. They are particularly susceptible to Cnidaria; as though the jellyfish might might be a lethal scourge to most other creatures, they find emptying the Megachelon's high health pool more difficult, but are still capable of stun-locking your poor turtle and leaving it vulnerable to far more damaging ocean threats. To eliminate this possibility, your Megachelon can find peace and security with a Basilosaurus as its guardian, as the whales are immune to Cnidaria stings.
Roles
Mobile Base: The Megachelon's shell functions as a huge platform saddle, offering the ability to create a base on its back. Unlike any other tame that offers this role, the Megachelon offers both land, and sea versatility, though it is more at home in the latter. Aside from this, it also provides unique benefits that no other tame with traditional platform builds can bring to the table.
Diving Rig: The Megachelon has breathing vents along its body from which it pumps Oxygen into the water while submerged, allowing you to breathe underwater. This offers immense benefits when harvesting resources from the deep sea, such as Oil and Silica Pearls; letting you swim out on your Dunkleosteus or Anglerfish, then returning to your Megachelon to catch your breath and unload your spoils, where its high Weight stat gives it a bulky carrying capacity to help make off with the goods. Such a use of the Megachelon can even replace the expensive cost of maintaining a SCUBA Tank. This, in turn, allows the Megachelon to function as a true underwater base, free from traditional oxygen constraints. This can likewise be life-saving in deep-water areas where access to the surface is cut off, and your next chance for a breath of air could be miles away.
Living Plantation: The Megachelon offers the unique ability to irrigate any number of Large Crop Plots placed on it's back, providing an infinite water supply to these plots, and ensuring they'll never dry out. Likewise producing Large Animal Feces, they can also provide nitrogen for the crops as well. To aid in this, a Dung Beetle can be kept in a Wooden Cage on their back and set to wander, to convert the Megachelon's droppings into Fertilizer. In addition, the Megachelon passively produces Rare Flowers and Rare Mushrooms in its inventory. This alone is valuable, but its flower production may be paired with Bee Hives, which require Rare Flowers to fuel, and can be placed on its back; turning the giant turtle into a walking, swimming Honey farm.
Fishing Trawler: As a platform, and possessing the ability to reposition itself anywhere in the sea, the Megachelon offers a fine fishing experience. Any number of Benches or Chairs may be placed in varying directions, allowing you to make full use of a Fishing Rod, which from the previously mentioned ability to fuel Bee Hives placed on their back, offers a limitless supply of the best fishing bait available for a rod. Alternatively, the Megachelon is a wonderful platform to employ the use of Fishing Nets if you lack the bait for a rod. If you'd rather let a tame do the fishing for you, as a living island, the Megachelon makes a wonderful home for Otters, Hesperornis, Ichthyornis, and Pelagornis. Regardless of your method, at the end of the day the Megachelon's back has plenty of room for Cooking structures to grill your catch.
Dino Ferry: The Megachelon's vast carrying capacity allows it to handle the weight of some of Ark's biggest behemoths. If a Cryopod isn't an option, then the Megachelon is more than capable of getting nearly any creature over a body of water and to its next destination. This works especially well in maps where the water is less concentrated around the ARK's edges, and more a core feature that separates regions from one another. Maps such as The Center, Valguero, and Fjordur are prime examples of this.
Siege Engine: Though a poor choice to use in traditional combat, due to its slow movement speed and limited attack options, Megachelons can still find a place on the battlefield through a combination of traits that make them a surprisingly effective battle-barge. Megachelon have an extremely large health pool and resistance to projectiles on its shell, allowing it to tank bullets from Auto Turrets if positioned properly against them, and perform the role of a turret-soaker. Structures can also be built on the back of the Megachelon to protect the rider, so turrets aimed against players can be made ineffective in that purpose. Its function as a platform also allows for the construction of various siege weapons such as player-mounted turrets, like the Catapult Turret, or even Cannons, and with a high enough carrying capacity to haul the ammo into war, they can be put to use once the enemy turrets have been drained.
Chitin Farm: Wild Megachelon can be hunted and harvested for their shell fragments, which equal 50 Chitin when put into an industrial grinder. On top of that, tamed Megachelons can be bred, allowing a constant source of shell fragments, and in turn, chitin. This makes Megachelons a secondary source of chitin with the primary source coming from arthropods.
Limitations
All structures except for Tek Transmitters, Pipes, Auto Turret, Crop Plots with Plant Species X, Behemoth Gateway, Vault, and Industrial Forge can be built on its back including feeding troughs, storage chests and beds. However, the saddle has a limit of 188 structures on its back. Every little thing counts from foundations to electrical keypads (including structures that are built alongside the saddle like ladders).
Weight inside the inventory of storage structures on the saddle is not ignored by the Megachelon. Take advantage of animals that have weight reduction capabilities to greatly enhance your overall carry capacity.
The saddle cannot be removed from the Megachelon if structures are still on the platform. To remove the saddle, all structures must be destroyed first.
The saddle cannot be dyed if structures are still on the platform. To dye the saddle, all structures must be destroyed first.
Structures can be placed on its back without having a saddle. Use caution when removing/equiping saddle for it will destroy structures currently on its back.
The Megachelon is the first aquatic creature that can house an underwater, waterproof base.
Megachelon is often followed by a flock of small birds which it doesn't control, but the birds make for a nice aesthetic.
The amount of cosmetic vegetation that grows on the Megachelon's shell is directly tied the combined weight number of Rare Flowers and Rare Mushrooms it has produced in its inventory, slowly and subtly changing its cosmetic appearance with a new 'growth stage' for roughly every 100 weight units that have been produced; reaching the final stage of plant growth at around 1,000 units of weight. This final cosmetic growth stage can be kept indefinitely as long as the combined weight of flowers and mushrooms is equal to or greater than 1,000 units. Removing flowers and mushrooms to below this weight amount will result in reverting the Megachelon's plant growth cosmetic in proportion to the amount of weight that remains (E.G. 500 weight units of flowers and mushrooms will result in the 50% growth appearance, less than 100 units of weight remaining will revert the Megachelon's growth stages completely and reset it to bare-shelled). The transition in appearance is not instant, however, and the change in cosmetic growth will occur the next time the Megachelon produces flowers and mushrooms in its inventory, functioning as a 'growth check' mechanic. Note: although it also produces Amarberry Seeds and Azulberry Seeds, these do not contribute to the cosmetic growth stages. (Needs further testing)
When submerging (pressing C on PC version) any players standing on the back of the Megachelon are moved to a passenger seat.
Like all Genesis: Part 1 exclusive creatures, the Megachelon does not have a proper Dossier made by Helena, as Helena was not present as a normal survivor in the simulation.
Megachelon can only be bred or hatched at extreme depths. Seafloor on The Island is not deep enough. Even large amounts of Air Conditioning or Dimetrodons will not bypass the depth requirement for eggs, as it will still say that it is too hot. Can be bred/hatched in particularly deep parts of the Genesis ocean. Some spots include the area around the mission beacon for "One Tough Moeder". Yet some particularly deep parts of Ragnarok are deep enough to breed and raise the megachelon. Tested on or The Center, great depths works there as well. Can’t be bred on Valguero. Babies can be Cryopoded and moved to shallow water or land after hatching.
Its base Weight capacity beats the Basilisk and can level further than a Gasbags, making it the best permanent tamed creature to carry a lot of stuff.
The code name of the Megachelon is Giant Turtle.
The Megachelon is one of the two creatures that provides oxygen to the player while underwater, with the other being Diplocaulus.
The Megachelon may get its name from the real-life extinct genus Megalochelys, a giant, prehistoric tortoise that's among the largest to ever exist.