The Rhyniognatha (ry-neo-na-tha), also simply called the "Rhynio", is the last new creature added to ARK: Survival Evolved. It was submitted as a competitor in February 2023, and its victory was announced in Community Crunch 348[1], making it the third Creature Vote winner. It is a gargantuan insect found only on The Island and Lost Island that features a variety of resin-based abilities, including ranged attacks and transport utility.
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.
“
Species
Rhyniognatha antiquagenitor
Time
Early Devonian
Diet
Omnivore
Temperament
Aggressive
Wild
I swear, every new creature I come across here makes me more sure they've all had their genes tampered with. I know I'm right about this. Take this monster bug I'm calling 'Rhyniognatha antiquagenitor' -- big enough to headline a horror flick, but still light enough to fly and skate across water.
Would you believe it also makes a weirdly useful, quick-hardening resin with a variety of uses? It can thicken up its shell for a defensive boost, spray hard bullet-like globs, or squirt soft globs that harden on impact to gum up incoming predators!
Domesticated
These overgrown earwigs are just what you need to level up your tribe's aerial defenses! And here's a tip: if you crush up the right Arthropleura, you'll get an enzyme that makes Rhyniognatha glue as TEK-disruptive as Dinopithecus dung. Plus this bug can glue itself to creatures or cargo and carry things around your base!
That said, Rhyniognatha-raising isn't for the squeamish... Their males have a pheromone that invites egg-laying females to use them as hosts. Harvest that pheromone, and you can mark any creature for the female to lay her eggs on. The host then incubates a new generation of larvae that can reap its best traits in the process.
If some poor beast gets eggs laid on it by accident, you might still be able to save it by popping it in a cryopod and freezing out the larvae.
This section displays the Rhyniognatha's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Rhyniognatha. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Rhyniognatha 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 Rhyniognatha's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Rhyniognatha's "body main" 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.[2]
Rhyniognatha
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.
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.[3]
Rhyniognatha
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.
The amount of Resin that consumes and the type of projectile that it shoots depends of the selected projectile.
Needle consumes 1 resin per shot and does 75 damage.
Rocket consumes 3 resin per shot and does 100 damage, if the player holds the shot button for some seconds while focusing on the target, the projectile will follow the selected target. This projectile adds resin coverage on the target when impact.
Bomb consumes 5 resin per shot and does 300 damage on impact and 0 damage for every tick, if the target steps on the resin it will gain more resin coverage over the time.
While mounted, the list of its abilities is displayed on the bottom left of the screen. You can hide this list with Ctrl + +. On the left side of the hotbar are three gauges: countdown until the next roar, chosen shooting mode, and Resin stock.
It passively produces a substance called Resin when Sap is left in its inventory, at a 1:1 rate every 5 seconds.
It can protect itself with a Resin-made armor, by pressing Ctrl + C or via the wheel menu. It costs 1 × Resin every 30 seconds, halves incoming damage, and reduces speed. When in an armored state, the Resin gauge is colored orange, and gradually depletes.
It can walk on water. When close to the water surface, press the Space key to "land" and glide on the water surface; you take off from the water with the same key.
It can swim underwater, either by diving from the sky or walking from the shore. Press Space to take off from the surface. It has an Oxygen gauge, which means it can drown.
It flies with the same maneuverability as a Tapejara, and can hang on vertical surfaces such as walls, cliffs or sequoias with the Space key.
It has a 2 seater Saddle, for enhanced transport or fire capacity.
It allows the rider and passengers to use weapons and tools while mounted- on the ground, on vertical surfaces, on- or in- the water, and while flying.
It can roar to apply the fear debuff its opponents, like a Yutyrannus, by pressing C while landed. While flying, C instead descends while X ascends.
It has several attacks. To cycle through the different projectiles, press Ctrl + , or use the radial wheel menu. Shoot with :
Melee: The only attack that can be used underwater, it strikes with its forward limbs. Press to strike.
Needle: Fires a Resin needle, with a maximum of 75 damage per needle. Shoot with the , which can be held to continue shooting. This attack costs 1 × Resin per shot, and builds stacks of resin if the target has already been afflicted with the debuff from the homing or pool attack.
Rocket: Fires a slower resin ball that inflicts the target with the Resin debuff. Holding creates a locked on target rocket. This attack costs 3 × Resins per shot.
Sticky Bomb: Fires a heavy projectile that leaves a pool of resin on the ground, and builds stacks of the Resin debuff on creatures that contact it. This attack costs 5 × Resins per shot.
Much like an Exo-Mek, it can carry some structures such as Vaults for a cost of 1 × Resin every 30 seconds. The weight of items within the structure do not affect the Rhyniognatha. Grab and set down the structure by pressing Ctrl + .
It can carry all, and larger, creatures that a Quetzal can, as long as they don't have a platform saddle equipped.
Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Rhyniognatha. Using Megatherium can be an effective strategy as they are strong against bugs, such as the Rhyniognatha. If on foot, you can use Harpoon Launcher with Net Projectile ammo to immobilise it, followed up with a Pump-Action Shotgun to finish it off. Bug Repellant will also work on the Rhyniognatha, allowing survivors to pass by them without needing to fight.
Drops
On official settings, only the male drops Rhyniognatha Pheromone. The pheromone is required for the impregnation of tamed creatures.
Wild Rhyniognatha cannot be tamed, and domesticated Rhyniognatha cannot be bred. In order to get a tamed Rhyniognatha, a tamed creature must be impregnated by a female Rhyniognatha (the creature will be killed in the process when the creature is born, so only use ones you are willing to sacrifice) and the resulting baby must be imprinted on after its birth.
Impregnation
In order to do this, you must find Rhyniognatha Pheromone dropped by a male Rhyniognatha. Once obtained, hold onto the Pheromone until you find a female Rhyniognatha. Weaken the female Rhyniognatha until it's below 10% HP, and then use the pheromone on your creature of choice (there will be an effect surrounding it while the pheromone is in use). After this, the female Rhyniognatha may attempt to impregnate the creature with the pheromone.
Only creatures with a drag weight of 300 and above can be used for impregnation. As a result, some creatures we would expect to be able to use based on visual size are not suitable because of their low drag weight like Stegosaurus and Megatherium. The best creatures to use are anything with a drag weight above 900 which all give 100% Host Size. In this regard there is no difference between using a Brontosaurus or a Giganotosaurus or a Carcharodontosaurus; the difference comes down to what stats the host dino has and which stats are randomly inherited from the host upon impregnation. Therefore it is possible to use multiple cloned dinos with the same female Rhyniognatha, and have different stats and levels as a result of the random stat selection.
After impregnating the creature, the Rhyniognatha will slowly drift off. You can utilize a Transponder Node and its Tracker to track down the creature while it's slowly flying away passively, or simply trap them in a wide open cage with exits that your creature can safely exit. It is possible to use a large trap like 8 stone behemoth gates in a row to use a female Rhyniognatha to get multiple tames impregnated with the same female, having a behemoth gate at each end and in the middle to be able to close it in while you move the impregnated dino out and put another one in its place.
In Ark: Survival Ascended, it is not possible for the Rhyniognatha to impregnate your creature while trapped, as the structures blocks its animation. It is still possible to trap it to lower its health and prepare your creature for the impregnation.
Using a Cryopod on an impregnated creature destroys the embryo, so instead you will need to move them either the long way back, or through other flying methods like Hover Skiff or where applicable, Tek Teleporter.
Pregnancy
Once impregnated, the gestation period begins, during which the growing embryo can be seen on the creature itself when focusing the camera on it while dismounted. Pregnancy lasts until the host/surrogate dinosaur dies or the player chooses to end the pregnancy. Prolonging the pregnancy allows time to meet the unusual food cravings that function similarly to imprinting. (Note that the host's health will drain at a constant rate as will its food, the health and food lost is percentage based and in line with how far along the gestation of the larvae is; the host will hit zero health upon time of birth)
Once the period ends, the baby forcefully 'ejects' from the dinosaur killing it in the process and landing some distance away from where the dinosaur died.
Due to inaccuracy in the game code, there is a risk the host creature might die from starvation just a few seconds before the baby Rhyniognatha is born, thus preventing the birth from happening. Giving some food to the host creature during the last minutes or seconds might help work around this bug.
Baby
Upon bursting out from the host, the Rhyniognatha will be juvenile at 30% maturation. It will not be hostile and can be claimed by any player. They can be raised just like any other omnivore without issue. You can feed it some Berries for 20 Food points or with Raw Meat for 50 Food points.
Once your Rhyniognatha has reached adult age, even though they cannot be bred, a Cloning Chamber is a viable option for producing more Rhyniognathas, although this has several drawbacks. Any Ryniognatha above level 82 (83 and higher) cannot be cloned due to the shard cost exceeding the shard numbers the chamber can hold. Likewise cloned Rhyniognathas will not receive the benefits of imprint bonuses.
Post-birth stats
The stats of the baby Rhyniognatha will be inherited from the mother and host tame similar to how it works in the case of regular breeding, inheriting a mix of stat points from either "parent". However, these stat points will not necessarily be inherited at 100%. There are three values that affect how much of a "parent's" stat is transferred to the baby:
Craving Satisfaction starts at 0% with no cravings fulfilled and increases by 20% per craving to a max of 100%. This means the host creature will only have a maximum of 5 cravings before the Rhyniognatha baby hatches.
Host Size Quality is dependent on the drag weight of the creature, this determines how much of the chosen hosts stats are transferred onto the baby. The smallest drag weight creature that can be fed a pheromone and used for pregnancy is 300, giving 25% host size. This rises up to 100% host size quality for anything above 650 drag weight that can be force fed food. The formula for Host Size Quality is : Host Size Quality = ([Host Creature Drag Weight] - 300) / 350 * 75% + 25% For example, the Rex Drag Weight is 550 so its Host Size Quality is (550-300) / 350 * 0.75 + 0.25 = 250 * 0.002142 + 0.25 = 0.5357 + 0.25 = 0.7857 = 78.57%
Egg Quality depends on the level of the wild female Rhyniognatha used. On official servers, this starts at 27.5% for a Level 5 and rises up to 100% for a Level 150, with every 5 levels increment raising the egg quality up by 2.5%. More generally, it starts at 27.5% (25% + 2.5%) for the minimal level allowed by the server settings and rises up to 100% for the maximum level allowed by the server settings, with each level increment allowed by the server settings raising the egg quality up by 2.5%.
Depending on if the stat gets inherited from the mother Rhynio or the host creature, the stat points transferred can be calculated using the following two formulas:
where all percentage values need to be in decimal form (i.e. 25% = .25).
In order to get perfect stat transfer to the baby, all of these qualities need to be at 100% at the time of its birth. They can be seen in game by enabling the extended HUD (default key H on PC) while looking at the hosting tame.
With a Triceratops host the max stat transfer possible is 25%, 78% with a Rex and 100% (Seemed to give 95% on giga on ASA, further testing needed) with a Giganotosaurus. The higher the drag weight the surrogate tame is, the higher the percentage of the chosen stats are transferred to the baby, thus Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Megachelon are the best options.
The Rhyniognatha babies inherit stats and color from the mother and surrogate parent, making it possible to raise a Rhyniognatha with 254 or 255 values (Tested on Ark Survival Evolved Unofficial Server). Because the mother needs to be wild, it cannot be affected by Mutagen as other normal originally wild tames would.
Food cravings
NOTE: Craving must be placed in your character's inventory. No need to place it in your last quick slot. Then hold E on the host, a radial menu will appear with an option to give the craving.
The Rhyniognatha can crave many resources and consumables. So far the following are confirmed:
The fertilization state of the Eggs does not matter, it accepts both.
Craving spawn command
c gfi SubstrateAbsorbent 5 0 0 | c gfi SnailPaste 5 0 0 | c gfi AmmoniteBlood 5 0 0 | c gfi BlackPearl 5 0 0 | c giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Test/PrimalItemConsumable_Egg_Hesperonis_Golden.PrimalItemConsumable_Egg_Hesperonis_Golden'" 5 0 0 | c gfi PrimalItemConsumable_Egg_Carcha 5 0 0 | c gfi Egg_Gigant 5 0 0 | c giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Test/PrimalItemConsumable_Egg_Quetz.PrimalItemConsumable_Egg_Quetz'" 5 0 0 | c gfi Element 5 0 0 | c giveitemnum 161 5 0 0 | c gfi Honey 5 0 0 | c gfi kibble_base_large 5 0 0 | c gfi Kibble_Base_XLarge 5 0 0 | c gfi Kibble_Base_Special 5 0 0 | c giveitemnum 250 5 0 0 | c giveitemnum 225 5 0 0 | c giveitemnum 223 5 0 0 | c giveitemnum 227 5 0 0 | c giveitemnum 226 5 0 0 | c giveitemnum 224 5 0 0 | c giveitemnum 251 5 0 0 | c gfi SweetVeggieCake 5 0 0 | c gfi Horn 5 0 0
Utility
Rhyniognatha has the ability to utilize a material called Resin, which is periodically generated when leaving Sap inside its inventory in a 1-to-1 exchange. It acts as a tool both for setting Resin Armor with enough Resin, or as an ammo for Resin Attack on its tail.
Bomb projectiles explode a puddle of Resin, gradually sticking affected creatures and enemies in a spot for a short duration. This resin variant applies the most resin debuff than the other 2 variants below.
Needle fires a rapid shot of Resin, acting more of that similar to an Assault Rifle. Damage caps off at 75 damage per needle.
Rocket fires a slower shot of Needle made of Resin, but produces more damage, more than enough to inflict resin debuff. Holding down the right mouse button will allow you to fire it as a homing projectile.
Resin armor gives it more durability, allowing it to take more damage against incoming damages, but limits itself to the ground (or sea), and prevents it from firing projectiles or carrying anything. It also drains resin when it is active.
Roles
Creature and Furniture Carrier: It can carry huge creatures up to rexes. It also has the ability to carry certain single furniture like a Vault and places them as an Exo-Mek would.
Heli-Creature: With its ability to fire a projectile using its tail while hovering in the air, it can easily attack from afar and above.
Players can wield weapons while riding it whether being the driver or passenger. With higher quality ranged weapons, paired with its high agility and mobility, it can act as a living helicopter that is armed to the teeth.
Scarer: It can utilize a roar that scares most creatures, including Yutyrannus. Does not work on Nameless.
Titan Killer: With high mobility, melee, armor abilities, and health, a small group of players armed with good ranged weapons is able to take down any of the three titans in minutes, provided they are constantly moving to dodge their devastating attacks. Level up Stamina to diminish the need to stall the fight to replenish it. Increase Health in case you accidently get hit.
Farming Assistant: When a Rhyniognatha carries a Vault, its content weight is completely ignored. This ability is useful for Metal farming runs or any other heavy resources run. You can unload your Ankylosaurus into a Vault and continue your Metal run until the Vault is full, your Rhyniognatha will have no difficulty to carry the Vault back to your base.
Taming Assistant: It is the only tame that can carry wild creatures with a Drag Weight above 400 and up to 600, and drop them in a safe taming pen. You can level up Health to tank the damage while you carry the creatures, or alternatively, you can use its scare ability to frighten the animal you intend to carry before picking it up, which in most cases prevents it from attacking your Rhynio while it is still feared. Typically by the time its fear wears off and it begins attacking again, the scare ability has refreshed for another round. This option is useful if you wish to avoid over-leveling health and don't mind occasional rest stops.
For creatures that cannot be grabbed, or even in general, players can equip weapons to knock them out with (such as a Longneck Rifle and Tranquilizer Darts) while riding a Rhyniognatha. Thanks to its mobility, the player can hover above a land creature and shoot it with tranquilizers with little to no risk of harm to their mount or themselves. Alternatively the player can tank the damage (level Health), especially in the case of other flyers and water creatures that can get on the same elevation as the player. If the server allows leveling flyer speed, its Movement Speed may also be leveled to help with following fast or running creatures.
Carriable Creatures
The Rhyniognatha can carry all creatures that a Quetzalcan carry as well as a number of creatures with a higher Drag Weight (up to 600).
The following creatures can exclusively be carried by the Rhyniognatha :
For information pertaining specifically to the real-world Rhyniognatha, see the relevant Wikipedia article.
With the release of Community Crunch 355, it was revealed that the Rhyniognatha would be the final piece of content added to the original Ark: Survival Evolved before focus is shifted fully to Ark: Survival Ascended.
The original dossier was made in 2021 by Zichfried[4].
Before the patch 358.7, the Rhyniognatha was faster than a Wyvern, but is now slower than a Pteranodon. This massive speed nerf (approximately 40%) was implemented to address PVP balance concerns.
Rhyniognatha is the second entity to have a key tutorial text at the bottom left, the first being Exo-Mek while under its RTS mode.
Rhyniognatha combines a lot of features from multiple creatures:
The way to tame and give birth is similar to Reaper, except its targeted at a creature and will need to be fed random items to increase its potential max level.
Its ability to carry creatures is seen in most fliers, but it can also carry Vaults like Exo-Mek does while flying.
It can carry some heavy creature like Quetzal, but is able to carry even more, including some of the climbing creatures.
Its scare roar ability is similar to Sinomacrops, but its roar can scare off much larger creatures.
Probably because of its utility, the growth rate is comparable to Giganotosaurus, but since it has 30% maturation upon birth, it's total maturation time actually comparable to Yutyrannus.
Yes
Region 0:
Region 1:
Region 2:
Region 3:
Region 4:
Region 5:
Rhyniognatha
ARK: Survival Evolved. It was submitted as a competitor in February 2023, and its victory was announced in Community Crunch 348[1], making it the third Creature Vote winner. It is a gargantuan insect found only on The Island and Lost Island that features a variety of resin-based abilities, including ranged attacks and transport utility.
Health
Stamina
Oxygen
Food
Weight
Melee Damage
Movement Speed
Torpidity
Cloning Chamber.
Element Shards
Sap inside its inventory into 
Resin, one at a time every 5 seconds.
Rhyniognatha Saddle has one rider seat and one passenger seat.
Oxygen gauge, which means it can drown.
Tapejara, and can hang on vertical surfaces such as walls, cliffs or sequoias with the Space key.
Yutyrannus, by pressing C while landed. While flying, C instead descends while X ascends.
Exo-Mek, it can carry some structures such as 
Vaults for a cost of 1 × 
Quetzal can, as long as they don't have a platform saddle equipped.
Bug Repellant will also work on the Rhyniognatha, allowing survivors to pass by them without needing to fight.
Rhyniognatha Pheromone dropped by a male Rhyniognatha. Once obtained, hold onto the Pheromone until you find a female Rhyniognatha. Weaken the female Rhyniognatha until it's below 10% HP, and then use the pheromone on your creature of choice (there will be an effect surrounding it while the pheromone is in use). After this, the female Rhyniognatha may attempt to impregnate the creature with the pheromone.
Stegosaurus and 
Megatherium. The best creatures to use are anything with a drag weight above 900 which all give 100% Host Size. In this regard there is no difference between using a 
Brontosaurus or a 
Giganotosaurus or a 
Carcharodontosaurus; the difference comes down to what stats the host dino has and which stats are randomly inherited from the host upon impregnation. Therefore it is possible to use multiple cloned dinos with the same female Rhyniognatha, and have different stats and levels as a result of the random stat selection.
Transponder Node and its Tracker to track down the creature while it's slowly flying away passively, or simply trap them in a wide open cage with exits that your creature can safely exit. It is possible to use a large trap like 8 stone behemoth gates in a row to use a female Rhyniognatha to get multiple tames impregnated with the same female, having a behemoth gate at each end and in the middle to be able to close it in while you move the impregnated dino out and put another one in its place.
Cryopod on an impregnated creature destroys the embryo, so instead you will need to move them either the long way back, or through other flying methods like 
Hover Skiff or where applicable, 
Tek Teleporter.
Berries for 20 Food points or with 
Raw Meat for 50 Food points.
Megachelon are the best options.
Mutagen as other normal originally wild tames would.
Absorbent Substrate
Achatina Paste
Ammonite Bile
Black Pearl
Golden Hesperornis Egg
Carcharodontosaurus Egg
Giganotosaurus Egg
Quetzal Egg
Element
Gasoline
Giant Bee Honey
Superior Kibble
Exceptional Kibble
Extraordinary Kibble
Battle Tartare
Calien Soup
Enduro Stew
Focal Chili
Fria Curry
Lazarus Chowder
Shadow Steak Saute
Sweet Veggie Cake
Woolly Rhino Horn
Nameless.
Stamina to diminish the need to stall the fight to replenish it. Increase 
Health in case you accidently get hit.
Metal farming runs or any other heavy resources run. You can unload your 
Ankylosaurus into a Vault and continue your Metal run until the Vault is full, your Rhyniognatha will have no difficulty to carry the Vault back to your base.
Longneck Rifle and 
Tranquilizer Darts) while riding a Rhyniognatha. Thanks to its mobility, the player can hover above a land creature and shoot it with tranquilizers with little to no risk of harm to their mount or themselves. Alternatively the player can tank the damage (level 
Movement Speed may also be leveled to help with following fast or running creatures.
Basilisk
Diplodocus
Gallimimus
Kaprosuchus
Karkinos
Magmasaur
Megalosaurus
Paraceratherium
Procoptodon
Reaper
Rex
Rock Drake
Spino
Tapejara
Yutyrannus
Platform Saddle.
Reaper, except its targeted at a creature and will need to be fed random items to increase its potential max level.
Desmodus, 
Tropeognathus.
Sinomacrops, but its roar can scare off much larger creatures.
ARK: Survival Ascended Changes
3 May only be born from impregnated creatures.