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
Tapejara imperator
Time
Cretaceous
Diet
Carnivore
Temperament
Skittish
Wild
Tapejara imperator is a marvel to watch in the wild. It has astonishing agility compared to the Island's other flyers thanks in large part to the rudder-like fin that extends from its snout to the back of its skull.
Initially, I'd thought the fin was simply composed of keratin, but closer inspection has led me to believe that it is actually some kind of sensory organ. Not only does it decrease Tapejara's turning radius even at high speeds, but it apparently provides Tapejara with extra information to help it fly through the air with unparalleled grace. I've even seen Tapejara hover and strafe side-to-side in the air without moving forward at all. It's quite remarkable. The creature also makes effective use of razor-sharp claws to latch onto surfaces such as the trunks of tall trees, holding its position indefinitely.
Domesticated
Warlike tribes appear to consider Tapejara the equivalent of a versatile rotor aircraft, capable of rapid positional changes and aggressive agility.
When domesticated the Tapejara is typically outfitted with a unique triple-rider saddle, enabling two passengers to wield handheld weaponry while the pilot takes the reins. When the Tapejara is latched onto a surface, both the passengers and pilot are able to make full use of their weapons together!
Evidently what this skittering creature lacks in distance-stamina, constitution, and weight carrying capacity, it makes up for in maneuverability and combat versatility.
Found living around cliffs, tall redwood forests, and other largely vertical environments, Tapejara passively flies across the landscape, rarely venturing too far from the ground. Much like Pteranodon, Tapejara will occasionally land on the ground for short periods of time before taking off again. Tapejara will flee at any sign of danger, even if one is simply approached by a player without attacking it.
Appearance
As a mid-sized pterosaur, Tapejara looks somewhat similar to a Pteranodon, and as a result is sometimes mistaken as one from a distance. However, there are several differences between the two, most notably that Tapejara is much larger than Pteranodon, with skin flaps directly connecting the wings to the feet, giving the wings an odd, stubby appearance even though they are in fact very large. Another notable feature of Tapejara is a large, somewhat crest-like sensory organ on top of its head, which allows Tapejara to finely maintain balance and literally fly circles around other, more cumbersome flyers.
Color Scheme and Regions
Region 0:Body
Natural colors:
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Region 1:Wing and Sail Markings
Natural colors:
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Region 2:Unused
This region does not show on the body.
Region 3:Wings and Sail
Natural colors:
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Region 4:Back, Beak and Sail Spines
Natural colors:
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Region 5:Sail and Throat
Natural colors:
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This section displays the Tapejara's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Tapejara. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Tapejara 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 Tapejara's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Tapejara's "body" magenta.
Region 0: Body
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Region 1: Wing and Sail Markings
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Region 2 is not used for this Creature.
Region 3: Wings and Sail
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Region 4: Back, Beak and Sail Spines
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Region 5: Sail and Throat
13
14
20
22
24
26
27
33
34
35
This section displays the Tapejara's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Tapejara. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Tapejara 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 Tapejara's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Tapejara's "main body" magenta.
Region 0: Main body
0
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Region 1: Spots
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Region 2: Wings
10
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Region 3: Wing gradient
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Region 4: Body stripes
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Region 5: Wing veins
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Variants
X-Tapejara
X-Tapejara is a tameable X variant of the Tapejara found in the Bog Biome on Genesis: Part 1. It is identical to the normal Tapejara except for a patterned appearance. It has 5% × Melee Damage increase at the exchange of 3% × Health reduction. On official servers its level cap is 500.
Like all X-Creatures on Genesis: Part 1, wild X-Tapejara additionally have a 250% damage increase and a 60% damage reduction from players and tamed creatures.
VR Tapejara
VR Tapejara is the VR variant of Tapejara found during some missions in Genesis: Part 2. It is identical to the normal variant in every way except for its digitized appearance. It is not tameable.
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]
Tapejara
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.
For general info about domesticating a wild creature see Taming.
KO Strategy
Ice wyvern strategy: This is mostly for those pesky tapejara that tend to fly so high they never come down. Get an Ice Wyvern, have it set to follow and a Longneck Rifle with some shocking tranq darts. Use the ice wyvern's ice breath to slow it down mid-air then hop off your Wyvern really quick. You can stand on it without worrying about falling off. (remember to have it set to follow or else it may try to land) and unload a dart into the tapejara. Rinse and repeat. Be wary of the possibility that the ice breath might kill it.
Tapejara are skittish, and run away when you approach them or attack them. Using a Bola to keep them down while you shoot tranquilizers into them is a very effective method. To effectively hit it with the bola without the risk of it fleeing, equip yourself with Ghillie Armor, so you can sneak up on them to around 5 meters.
It may be impossible to knock out a high-level tapejara within the time of a single Bola. If it breaks out of the first Bola and a second Bola isn't in place, it'll flee and be very hard to catch. Another approach is to have pillars, ceilings, and walls in your shortcut hotbar; once the tapejara is hit with a Bola, instead of tranquilizing it, use the Bola time to quickly build a "trap" around it by placing a pillar on one side, ceilings above it, another pillar down from the other ceiling, then walls hanging from the ceilings all around. This may take some practice to position the trap parts correctly so the tapejara doesn't glitch out of it, but if it works, you can tranquilize the tapejara at your leisure, and already have some minimal protection around it once it's unconscious to protect it during taming. Demolish the trap when you're done.
Be careful not to scare it in the air because once they get to a certain height they take a considerable amount of time to land again.
Another, much easier alternative is to use the above method however on a pteranodon while consuming Rare Flower. This applies the same effect as the Pachyrhinosaurus strategy, however is much easier and less clunky. You should then be easily able to lure it into a suitable cage and knock it out without the trouble of it running away or getting eaten by wild predators, assuming you have enough flowers that is.
To add to the above method, using a Pteranodon while consuming a couple rare flowers, you can kite the tapejara. Once there's a bit of distance between you, you can hop off the Pteranodon and throw a Bola at it. This is an easy method as the Bola is very easy to hit with the tapejara coming directly at you. Once Bola'd, tranq until out. A high level tapejara can take more than one round of Bola + tranq shots, so just rinse and repeat.
Another method is to obtain a Mantis and equip it with a club. The Mantis' lunge attack can make quick work of the Tapejara's Torpor without having to get close enough to scare it initially. However, if the Mantis' melee damage is too high, then you may run the risk of killing the Tapejara, so use caution.
Using a small, fast mount that allows you to hold weapons, such as Raptors, direwolves and Terror Birds, you can sprint up to it with Bola in hand and trap it before it can fly away, just be sure to have the Bola already swinging before sprinting at it.
Torpidity-depletion: 1.04 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 01:12:01
Note that the values are for optimal cases, always bring extra supplies!
For a level-dependent count of resources needed, try an external taming calculator.
This section describes how to fight against the Tapejara.
General
Tapejara is completely passive and will often flee before a player has an opportunity to get close.
But with one or more riders the tapejara is a serious threat. they can latch on to walls and shoot you down, have a saddle to reduce damage, can pick you up, and can have a tek saddle to shoot plasma bullets. With a rider, the danger is similar to that of a tropeognathus but with a ability to hit harder as the tek saddle can shoot at a faster rate. A tapejara can fly at almost the same speed as a raptor and has no turn radius so overall while wild ones can be fought head on, its best to avoid a tamed tapejara with a rider.
Strategy
For a Wild Tapejara, either chase it down on a pteranodon, or bola it to the ground below. Use of rare flower to avoid escaping is recommended.
Weaponry
Generally a bola to bring it down and some tranquilizer rounds will do the trick if you're trying to tame one. In combat, simply immobilize it, or keep pace and inflict enough damage.
Dangers
Wild Tapejara pose no real threat. However, when tamed the creature becomes a large, mobile, powerful adversary. With a fairly large AoE with its attack, a tamed one doesn't have to get too close to kill you.
Weakness
No specific weakness other than the fact it can be ensnared using a Bola. However, in a PVP setting, Tapejara cannot attack when mounted on a cliff, and its stamina regenerates fairly slowly. Tire out an enemy tapejara and you'll easily be able to kill it, minding the riders on its back, of course.
Utility
Flying
To rise and lower the Tapejara when airborne in an elevator-styled fashion use X and C or . Useful for quickly maneuvering around enemies.
Roar or taunt while on the ground by pressing C or .
Xbox has no way to do a proper elevator-climb; the closest one you can do is to look straight up or down and press the left-stick back or forward, respectively. PS4 Can descend with the R directional button but also must look at the ground while pressing the L Directional button towards your body to ascend.
Simply fly next to any vertical surface and press Spacebar to latch on.
One can latch onto a vertical surface 'upside-down' (with the Tapejara's face facing the ground) by backing up into the surface while pressing the land-button (Space, , , ). This is useful for shooting at ground targets near shear cliffs while lacking passengers, as the default mounted/landed view for the rider of a clinging Tapejara is only in one direction; towards the Tapejara's face. This feature was revealed by Jeremy Stieglitz via twitter on September 19, 2016.[2]
Roles
Multi-passenger Transport: The Tapejara is capable of carrying a rider and two passengers on its saddle (not including the ability for other flyers to carry people in their talons).
Warbird: The front and rear passengers are able to fire their weapons at enemies. Its extreme maneuverability and ability to cling to walls makes it especially versatile in combat. Works well in combat itself, as the Tapejara's attack has a downwards, and fairly large AoE. This allows you to circle enemies while attacking them at a safe range.
Taming Mount: The Tapejara's ability to strafe, fly backwards, and have tribemates shooting from the saddle is useful in taming a variety of airborne creatures. Can be used both on fleeing creatures such as other Tapejaras and Quetzals, as well as aggressive creatures like Argentavis and possibly even Wyverns.
Construction Tool: The Tapejara's ability to hover or move in any direction by small increments (use C to descend and X to ascend) makes it very useful when constructing buildings, especially tall ones. Place building parts in your hotbar, fly into position, place a piece, then move to place the next. For instance, dropping many pillars or ladders from a high point can be done by placing one, pressing C to drop a bit, placing the next, and so on. If the tapejara's movements are too big, weighing it down can make it even easier to position yourself precisely.
Wyvern Egg Stealer: While its carry weight starts off relatively low, the supreme maneuverability and ability to latch vertical and ceiling surfaces to regain stamina allows it to be highly effective in raiding Wyvern nests. Given the Wyverns large turn radius, a skilled Tapejara flyer can dodge attacks with fair ease. Leveling Weight, Health, and Stamina can make it a star player in egg theft, if not as a carrier then as a decoy when with other Tribe members.
Taxi: By enabling the public seating option of the Tapejara, even survivors outside of a tribe can mount the passenger seats, allowing for public transportation without needing a platform saddle.
Travel: The Tapejara is a Fast flyer, while not being as fast as The Pteranodon, but it's still Faster than The Argentavis, Griffin without gliding and Pelagornis.
Transport: The Tapejara has more weight than the Pteranodon and the Lymantria making it probably one of the best Transport Mounts
Tek Beast: The Tapejara Has a Tek Saddle which can shoot and gives a lot of Armor. It was also the first Flyer with a Tek Saddle, the others being the Astrocetus and Astrodelphis.
Carry-able Creatures
The Tapejara is capable of carrying the following creatures:
Despite being a carnivore in the game, Tapejara and its relatives are sometimes thought to have been frugivores in real life.[4]
Despite being so large, Tapejara can be ensnared using a Bola, or else it will be too difficult to tame.
You can't hold weapons while flying the Tapejara. However, passengers in the front seat or the back seat can hold weapons, or if your Tapejara is latched onto something. Because of this, the Tapejara is very useful for early taming hard creatures such as the Quetzalcoatlus, Griffins, and possibly even a low-level Giganotosaurus (not tested yet).
The Tapejara , Astrodelphis, Astrocetus are the only flyers to have a Tek Saddle, well the Tapejara is available on other maps while the Astrocetus is only available on Genesis: Part 1 and the Astrodelphis on Genesis: Part 2.
It is one of the three flying creatures currently capable of flying backwards as well as strafing left and right, the others being the Griffin and Tropeognathus
The dossier claims that the Tapejara can be equipped with a dual rider saddle, when ingame the saddle can hold three players. This is allegedly because the two rider saddle 'looked stupid' according to the Devs.[citation needed]
It might be a bug, but Tapejara on Scorched Earth won't lose stamina when hanging onto a vertical surface during a sandstorm. This allows you to ride out the storm in relative safety.
If you kill something while the Tapejara is latched onto a wall, the game says that the Tapejara killed it, not you.
The name "Tapejara Imperator" translates into "Emperor Old Being"
Tapejara's species name, imperator, is shared in real life with Tupandactylus, a pterosaur closely related to Tapejara that was originally classified as a species of said genus. Most reconstructions of Tapejara, including ARK's, are actually based on Tupandactylus
Tapejara's relative Tupandactylus is becoming well-known thanks to Primal Carnage Extinction.
Press X to cancel landing after pressing space to land with the Tapejara. Unlike other flyers, pointing up and pressing forward will not cancel the landing
When whistled to follow, entering the two additional spots of the saddle will allow Tapejara to restore energy.
A frustrating glitch is when you try to latch on a tree but the Tapejara does a 180* turn and falls off.
The tropeognathus is a reskin of a Tapejara. They both have the same sound, walk/fly/bite animation, both can fly in all directions, and both can shoot. But the abilities of the dinos are different, The tropeo is faster with the jetpack boost and can grind items and the tapejara can stick on walls and have 3 riders.
Made all flyers, excluding the Quetzal and Wyvern, to become grounded and unable to fly when C4 Charge is attached to them. To disable this, use the server command,?ForceFlyerExplosives=true
Yes
Region 0:
Region 1:
Region 3:
Region 4:
Region 5:
Region 0:
Region 1:
Region 2:
Region 3:
Region 4:
Region 5:
X-Tapejara is a tameable X variant of the Tapejara found in the Bog Biome on Genesis: Part 1. It is identical to the normal Tapejara except for a patterned appearance. It has 5% × 
Melee Damage increase at the exchange of 3% × 
Health reduction. On official servers its level cap is 500.
Health
Stamina
Oxygen
Food
Weight
Melee Damage
Movement Speed
Torpidity
Tapejara Saddle and 
Tapejara Tek Saddle has 1 rider seat and 2 passengers seats.
Ice Wyvern, have it set to follow and a 
Longneck Rifle with some shocking tranq darts. Use the ice wyvern's ice breath to slow it down mid-air then hop off your 
Bola to keep them down while you shoot tranquilizers into them is a very effective method. To effectively hit it with the bola without the risk of it fleeing, equip yourself with 
Ghillie Armor, so you can sneak up on them to around 5 meters.
Rare Flower. This applies the same effect as the 
Pachyrhinosaurus strategy, however is much easier and less clunky. You should then be easily able to lure it into a suitable cage and knock it out without the trouble of it running away or getting eaten by wild predators, assuming you have enough flowers that is.
Pteranodon while consuming a couple rare flowers, you can kite the tapejara. Once there's a bit of distance between you, you can hop off the 
Mantis and equip it with a 
club. The 
Torpor without having to get close enough to scare it initially. However, if the 
Raptors, 
direwolves and 
Terror Birds, you can sprint up to it with 
Level 1
Superior Kibble
Raw Mutton
Cooked Lamb Chop
Raw Prime Meat
Cooked Prime Meat
Raw Prime Fish Meat
Raw Meat
Cooked Prime Fish Meat
Cooked Meat
Raw Fish Meat
Cooked Fish Meat
× 19; 
× 5; 
× 3; 
× 3; 
× 2
Superior Kibble:
2 × 
Citronal, 1 × 
Prime Meat Jerky, 1 × 
Large Egg, 5 × 
Fiber, 2 × 
Rare Mushroom, 1 × 
Sap, 1 × 
Water
. Useful for quickly maneuvering around enemies.
, 
, 
). This is useful for shooting at ground targets near shear cliffs while lacking passengers, as the default mounted/landed view for the rider of a clinging Tapejara is only in one direction; towards the Tapejara's face. This feature was revealed by Jeremy Stieglitz via twitter on September 19, 2016.[2]
Argentavis, 
Griffin without gliding and 
Pelagornis.
Lymantria making it probably one of the best Transport Mounts
Astrocetus and Astrodelphis.
Archaeopteryx
Bulbdog
Bunny Dodo
Compy
Dilophosaur
Diplocaulus
Enforcer
Glowtail
Human
Jerboa
Kairuku
Lystrosaurus
Megalania
Mesopithecus
Otter
Pegomastax
Shinehorn
Titanomyrma
Troodon
Ferox, when small, can be picked by the Tapejara.
ARK: Survival Evolved Changes
Quetzal and 
C4 Charge is attached to them. To disable this, use the server command,?ForceFlyerExplosives=true
Titanosaur, 
Rock Elemental, and 
Karkinos
