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
Torgos arcam
Time
Early Pleistocene
Diet
Carrion-Feeder
Temperament
Docile
Wild
Torgos arcam appears to be a relative of Torgos tracheliotos and Torgos negevensis – commonly called lappet-faced vultures – which are native to the sands of the Sahara, Sahel, and Negev deserts. Like them, it is a carrion bird that feeds on the decaying corpses of other animals, and is only aggressive when defending its meal. As such, survivors should take note when they see groups of Torgos arcam circling above. It means that a wounded creature or a bloody battle may be somewhere below.
Domesticated
Despite its impressive wingspan, Torgos arcam is not suitable as a pack animal, and is surprisingly light. Some survivors have even been known to keep a tame Torgos arcam perched on their shoulder.
Interestingly, Torgos arcam is capable of storing raw meat in a separate stomach where it will decay at a slower rate. Tribes could, in theory, utilize this feature to preserve meat for recipes.
Vultures are carrion-eaters, thus you can mostly see them waiting for dead carcasses in the desert. They will get defensive of anything they're eating, so they will attack any tames and players that wander too close.
Appearance
Trogos Arcam resembles many modern age vultures found in our world such as lappet-faced and griffon vultures, with a stooped neck and sharp tipped beak for tearing open carcasses. Being much smaller than its Miocene relative Argentavis , Trogos Arcam cannot be ridden, but can perch on a survivor's shoulder.
Color Scheme and Regions
Region 0:Body
Natural colors:
13
14
20
22
33
34
35
41
Region 1:Head Highlights
Natural colors:
14
19
20
21
22
28
29
30
31
Region 2:Unused
This region does not show on the body.
Region 3:Unused
This region does not show on the body.
Region 4:Skin
Natural colors:
21
32
33
35
37
38
39
Region 5:Feather Tips
Natural colors:
13
14
20
21
22
32
33
34
35
37
39
41
This section displays the Vulture's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Vulture. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Vulture 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 Vulture's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Vulture's "body" 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]
Vulture
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.
Can be used every 0.5s by both a rider and the AI.
Passive
Shoulder Pet
The Vulture is a shoulder pet, meaning that it can be picked up by the player on their shoulder, allowing the Vulture to attack from there if within range. It cannot take damage unless the player dies or it is thrown off the shoulder.
While on your shoulder, the weight that the Vulture has in its inventory will weigh half as much to the player.
Focus on Rider
The Vulture focuses on attacking mounts' riders.
Meat Preserver
The Vulture's inventory increases the spoil timer of any kind of Meat by x15. However, the player can only put Spoiled Meat directly into its inventory, other kinds of meat needs to be harvested by the Vulture or being on a victim's inventory in order save the meat inside its inventory.
Carrion Diet
The Vulture recovers 10 Health for each piece of Spoiled Meat that it consumes.
Combat
General
They will essentially become Territorial and attack you when there is a corpse in the vicinity.
Strategy
As they will attack the rider and not the tame, it is often best to fight them with a Pike as most tames have a hard time hitting them.
Weaponry
Ranged weapons like bows can be used while they are chasing after you, but when they come close, shooting them is less effective. Spears or a pike can be helpful as well.
Dangers
They will attack when a corpse is in the vicinity. They will target you even on your mount and will swarm when more vultures are present. This can become very annoying if trying to tame close to where Vultures are found.
Weakness
They are fairly slow when flying and a player can run away even at base speed.
Taming
The Vulture is unable to be tamed through the standard Knock-out methods, and must be tamed non-violently, but this can be difficult as they become aggressive at the presence of a corpse.
To feed it, place Raw or Spoiled Meat on the last slot of your hotbar, then approach and press use (default E) to feed it. You cannot feed them all the meat required for taming at one time, you must wait for it to be hungry again to feed it more, until its taming meter is filled. The Vulture will fly off every once in a while and can easily be lost if one is not paying attention or become aggressive because wild creatures near by decided to battle and there is now a corpse around.
Tips:
A set of Ghillie Armor and some Cactus Broth may help during taming, as this will also reduce the chance of roaming predators catching sight of you and attacking.
Nearby wild predators may try to attack the Vulture while you are feeding it. If the Vulture enters combat while being tamed, the taming progress will stall or reset.
If you are attacked by another creature, the vulture won't react until you kill the offending creature, at which point it will attack due to you being near a corpse. However, it will not attack if you are near an unconscious creature, so if you are taming a Vulture and attacked by another creature, you can tranquilize the attacker instead of killing it, thus not upsetting the Vulture.
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.
Utility
Roles
Bodyguard: A Vulture perched on your shoulder can attack enemies that are close enough to the player, providing extra protection from attackers. (Level Melee Damage)
Meat Harvester: While the Vulture is perched on your shoulder, it automatically harvests meat when you stand in front of a corpse. Unlike other creatures, having the meat in the Vulture's inventory quadruples the normal spoil time (in addition to the normal tame increase). Because Vultures' inventories will not accept transfers any item except Spoiled Meat, any fresh meat you want them to carry must be harvested directly by them. You can also whistle it to attack the corpse. The Vulture behavior must be set to anything but Passive as it will then ignore the corpses.
Living Missile: The Vulture, thankfully a passive tame, can be outright dangerous creature. Tamed Vultures will not initiate combat with living targets even if set to Aggressive or whistled to "Attack my Target," but these beaked terrors become fierce combatants when an ally is attacked. They are capable of harassing enemy flyers in mid-air dog fights or being released on the ground to run down a fleeing foe. (Level Melee Damage and Health)
Swarmers: A swarm of Vultures can be one of the most devastating things in the game. A pack of just 6-8 can make very light work of Iceworm and can easily kill Araneo, Pulmonoscorpius and everything else you find in the caves (Note: these creatures can spawn at level 200 and above), making them great for artifact gathering. (Level Melee Damage and Health)
Pet: Vultures may seem an ugly and undesirable pet to many, but they are as loyal and affectionate as any shoulder-mounted pet, and they can be the perfect spooky accessory to a macabre aesthetic outfit.
For information pertaining specifically to the real-world Vulture, see the relevant Wikipedia article.
It is as good as a Hyaenodon with a Hyaenodon Meatpack and Preserving Salt, without the need to bother with handling the Preserving Salt or manage the Hyaenodon not being a mountable or shoulder mounted tame. The only better way to preserve spoiling meat would be a Fenrir with Preserving Salt which is more management.
The Vulture is capable of doing melee damage while on your shoulder even while you are riding another mount.
The Vulture is one of if not the most accurate recreation of its real life counterpart as things like the Dung Beetle, Mantis and Thorny Dragon are very exaggerated in size. The only other competition it has for an accurate modern animal would be the leech, if compared to the Giant Amazon Leech.
While it is apparent that the Vulture is too small to ride, Helena decided to add a saddle with a x in her notes to let people know it can't be ridden.
Vultures can be knocked out like other passive tames. However, if they are knocked out they cannot be tamed.