The Sinomacrops (SI-no-mah-crops; sometimes referred to simply as Sinoma or Sino) is a small, nimble creature in the Lost IslandDLC, excelling at boosting a survivor's mobility.
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.
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Species
Sinomacrops bondei
Time
Mid-Late Jurassic
Diet
Insectivore
Temperament
Docile... usually
Wild
Sinomacrops bondei is a friendly and curious little pterosaur. It may approach and investigate unfamiliar creatures, but Sinomacrops does spook easily. When threatened, it will unfurl its wings to reveal deimatic eyespots in an attempt to confuse or scare predators away. Still, Sinomacrops seems to be a highly intelligent creature that craves social interaction.
While it's normally curious and friendly, Sinomacrops' adorably oversized mouth turns into a deadly weapon at the slightest sight and smell of insects. Even alone, this cute little critter can take down insects far larger than itself. Unfortunately, this means that armor made from chitinous plates is going to trigger an attack response from the otherwise sweet-hearted pterosaur.
Domesticated
Taming a Sinomacrops is fairly straightforward (in theory) -- just feed them without scaring them. Once tamed, they absolutely love travelling with their humans, and prefer to cling to them whenever possible.
Not only are they sociable, but they're fiercely protective once bonded. Any small creature approaching someone with a tame Sinomacrops will be met with its flashing eyespots and piercing shriek. That’s usually enough to stun an undersized interloper.
For such a small flier, Sinomacrops can carry surprisingly heavy loads. It can even support the weight of a fully-grown human adult, though it will struggle to gain altitude. Still, any creature companion that can double as a glider and parachute is invaluable for anyone traversing an ARK... as long as they bring plenty of snacks for their new friend.
Sinomacrops is a small, winged reptile with a short, rounded head and large eyes. Most of its body is covered in short fur, which is longer on the top of its snout and ringed tail. Short, curved stripes decorate each side of its head. While their shape can initially appear similar to a Dimorphodon, the Sinomacrops is easily identifiable by the colorful, eye-like pattern on its wings.
Color Scheme and Regions
This section displays the Sinomacrops's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Sinomacrops. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Sinomacrops 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 Sinomacrops's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Sinomacrops's "main body" magenta.
Region 0: Main body
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55
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62
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64
71
Region 1: Wings bottom
22
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55
63
64
71
76
77
100
Region 2 is not used for this Creature.
Region 3: Belly
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63
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77
82
100
Region 4: Wing spots
22
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48
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58
64
67
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88
100
Region 5: Back
13
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55
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62
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71
100
Behavior
Found most commonly flying around the jungle, Sinomacrops are usually passive and friendly, approaching survivors to sit in front of them- Unless spooked (such as by sprinting), where they will flee. However, when wearing Chitin Armor, they become highly aggressive, instead attacking anyone wearing it.
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]
Sinomacrops
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 Sinomacrops screams and flaps its wings while its spots light up, scaring any small creature nearby.
Creatures below Drag Weight of 80 are affected, with the exclusion of other Sinomacrops.
This action can be done automatically by the Sinomacrops whenever it has scary targets nearby with or without the aggro, it is configurable from the wheel menu.
This action does not consume Stamina and allows the Sinomacrops to recover it while in air.
Passive
Shoulder Pet
The Sinomacrops is a shoulder pet, meaning that it can be picked up and carried on the survivor's shoulder. From atop the survivor's shoulder, the Sinomacrops is able to attack creatures within range, and it cannot take damage unless the survivor dies or throws the Sinomacrops off their shoulder.
While it is on the survivor's shoulder, the weight that the Sinomacrops has in its inventory will weigh half as much to the survivor.
Disadvantage When Flying/Gliding
Whenever the survivor receives any kind of damage, their Sinomacrops will stop flying or gliding and the survivor will need to execute the action once again.
Weight Reduction
The Sinomacrops reduces the weight of ALL the objects inside its inventory by 50%.
Bug Killer
The Sinomacrops does x10 extra damage to insects (Except against Deathworm).
Helmets
The Sinomacrops can be equipped with helmets for extra damage resistance.
Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Sinomacrops.
The Sinomacrops is only aggressive towards survivors when they are wearing any amount of of Chitin Armor. They can be annoying to fight when several Sinomacrops are attacking at once, and while they have fairly low damage, their persistence means they can kill with enough time. There is minimal strategy when fighting a Sinomacrops- melee weapons such as the Sword, Pike, and Spear are effective, as well as any defensive creatures such as Dilophosaurs or Raptors.
Sinomacrops is tamed non-violently using Chitin and will only eat Chitin tamed as an adult and as a baby.
With Chitin in your hotbar slot 0, approach the creature (or simply go close enough to let it sense your presence and it approach you) and feed it. When you feed the Sinomacrops, it will fly off for a period of time, requiring you to follow it (and track it with the Taming Tracker HUD.) When there are hearts floating around the creature, it will fly back to you (or hop at you, if it is landed) and you can feed it again. Repeat the process, and eventually and it will be tamed.
Considerations when attempting to tame the creature:
Sprinting or jumping will spook it.
Sinomacrops must be outside when attempting to tame it. They are not tamable when considered indoors. This includes Tent, and any buildings within any build-able platform saddle or the Unassembled TEK Hover Skiff.
Sinomacrops can be trapped by having them land then walking them into a cage and closing it behind them.
Wearing Ghillie Armor is not recommended, since it appears to make it harder for the creature to find you during the taming process.
Wearing any amount of Chitin Armor will make them aggressive
Will require ground nearby in order to land, for example being airborne (such as using another Sinomacrops) or in water will deny the prompt. Make sure you are in a flat enough area where it is able to land and approach you, because if it fails to land correctly it will become spooked and fly away.
Sinomacrops can land on rafts and platform saddles making any flying over the ocean possible to tame.
Having another tamed creature nearby can scare away the Sinomacrops.
Using a Tek Helmet or Snow Owl can be helpful in locating a Sinomacrops in dense forest areas or at night.
Utility
Roles
Glider/Hover/Parachute: Sinomacrops can act as a living jetpack, similar to the Parachute and Glider Suit Skin. It will open its wings when directed to, allowing gliding across the map, and hovering and flying above it. The distance it can glide and duration it can fly for depends greatly on its Stamina. (Level up Stamina).
Backpack: Sinomacrops will reduce the weight of every item in its inventory by 50%, greatly increasing the amount a survivor can carry compared to other shoulder-mounts. (Level up Weight)
Holding R, , , will allow quick access to the Sinomacrops' Inventory and its scream without needing to throw it off the survivor's shoulder.
Scare Sign: Sinomacrops are great for scaring smaller creatures like Ichthyornis, Pegomastax, Troodon or Microraptor while on a survivor's back. The radial menu must be utilised to let it auto-scream as needed, but much like the Light Pets from Aberration, it can be toggled to scream with the "Clap!" emote.
Bug Zapper: Though its scare ability doesn't deal much damage to most creatures, it is usually lethal on activation when used against Meganeura, Leeches, and Titanomyrma; making the Sinomacrops an excellent means of pest control, and helping to reduce your overall annoyance when trudging through jungles and swamps.
Dismounter: Dismounting some larger tames, such as the Giganotosaurus, leaves you on a very high point, where, unless using elevated ground or a platform to provide a break in the fall, jumping to the ground consistently causes damage. The Sinomacrops provides a means of safely jumping off of these high saddles without taking fall damage, provided you remember to use its wings in the process.
Cave Explorer: The Sinomacrops is extremely helpful on cave exploration, and it is a decent replacement for Grappling Hooks and Parachutes. It is even more useful in caves where it is now allow to use grapplings and has dangerous cliffs or falls such as the Jumping Puzzle of the Underground World on The Center. (Level up Stamina and Weight)
Cave Combatant: The Sinomacrops does x10 its Melee Damage against insects and arachnids, this in combination with the equipable helmets and the flying ability makes it a good cave companion for killing most of the dangers inside. (Level up Health and Damage)
Scary Creatures
This is the list of creatures that can be scared by the Sinomacrops scream:
This is the list of creatures that can be scared if they don't have their natural immunity/shields active (Otherwise they will only lose their protection, counting as normal damage):
For information pertaining specifically to the real-world Sinomacrops, see the relevant Wikipedia article.
This is the second creature added as a result of the Lost Island Creature Poll.
The scientific name Sinomacrops bondei is one of the few scientific names used in ARK that is reflected in reality, the others being Kentrosaurus, Tropeognathus and Kairuku. Sino means "from China", Macro means "big", and Ops means "eyes"; while bondei, honors paleontologist Niels Bonde.
While using official settings, the Sinomacrops cannot fly or boost underwater speed on Genesis: Part 1, it can only glide and parachute.
It can enter into boss arenas, including the Tek Cave, but cannot fly while on a survivor's shoulder, and can only glide.
It is commonly compared with the Archaeopteryx as an upgraded version of it (The Sinomacrops is also called as the "Archa TLC" for all their similarities), being even similar in their particular Chitin diet.