The world ofARK: Survival Ascendedis a dangerous place. At any time, you could get mauled to death by a pack of Raptors, chased by Dilophosaurus, or dive too far in the ocean and find a Megalodon. Not every creature in the game is out to kill you, though.

If you’re traveling down the river, you might come across a familiar animal we can still see today: the adorable Otter. These aquatic mammals make great companions for the hostile world of ARK, and they aren’t just for show. Otters are as cute as they are useful, and you’ll want to have a few of them around.

Player character riding on a Tapejara and looking at their map which has several orange stars edited onto parts of it in ARK: Survival Ascended.

Where To Find Otters

Otters are asemi-rare spawn, and you have achance of finding themalongseveral of the large riversthat split up The Island, such as theriver running north to southon theright side of the map.

Due to theirsmall size, you’ll want tosearch for Otters from the ground, either on foot oron a smaller tame such as a Terror Birdor aRaptor, so you have abetter chance of spotting them.

Player character holding a Sabertooth Salmon corpse up to an Otter to feed it in a taming pen in ARK: Survival Ascended.

First person riding modecan come inhandy for spotting Otter, especially if they’re swimming in the water, since itgives you a more precise scope of vision.

How To Tame Otters

Otters areone of the few creaturesin ARK: Survival Ascendedthat are tamed passively, anddon’t need to be knocked outwith any tranquilizing ammo to be tamed.

Instead, you’ll need tomanually drag fish corpses over to them, andinteract with them to feedit to them.

Player character crouching down and looking at their tamed Otter which has the option to be picked up in ARK: Survival Ascended.

Thisincreases their Taming Barlike if they were unconscious, and it generally takesbetween one and five fish to tame one, depending onhow large the fish isandthe Otter’s level.

You candrop Honey on the groundon land toattract any nearby Ottersto it.

Player character looking into their inventory which shows their held items as well as stats such as cold and heat insulation in ARK: Survival Ascended.

Thebest way to tame them and keep them aliveis to do isbuilt a tiny taming penaround themwhile they’re sitting on land, such as atriangle made of fence foundations, three walls, and no doors.

Once they’re trapped, you cancraft additional fences and walls, thenbuild onto the enclosureto give yourself space to get in and actuallytame the Otter without it running away.

Player character looking into the inventory of their tamed Otter which is carry extra Raw Meat, armor, and tools in ARK: Survival Ascended.

Trapping an Otterin a taming pen alsoprotects them from carnivoresand gives you a chance to kill any fish nearby andstore the corpses in a convenient spot.

What Do Tamed Otters Do?

Besides being a cute companion and shoulder pet, Otters also have severalextremely useful purposesdesigned to aid you,especially in the early game:

Temperature Insulation From Otters

Otters providenatural temperature insulationfrom both thecold and the heatif they’re ridingon your shoulder, allowing you towear better armor in more dangerous climateswithout sacrificing safety if you don’t have high-tier, climate-specific armor.

They providemore cold insulation than heatinsulation, with around80 hypothermic insulationand35 hyperthermic insulationbeing gainedper percentinvestedin their Damage stat.

Harvesting Fish With Otters

Otters have the special ability toharvest Silica Pearlsfromregular fish corpsesalongsideharvesting an increased amount of fish. They can alsorarely find Black Pearlsfrom the same fish.

They can besent out into rivers and the oceanto attack any fish nearby, thenreturn to youwith their harvested goods.

Otters dohave an Oxygen stat, and arecapable of drowningif they run out of Oxygen underwater if they’reunable to swim up for air.

Otters caneasily die while huntingfishthanks to their low Healththough, especially if there’s Piranha around, so you’ll want toinvest in both their Damage and Health, as well as aguard for them, such asCarbonemys,Megalodon, orKaprosuchus.

Artifact Transport And Being A Secondary Inventory

While Ottersdon’t have a very high Weight stat, even when points are invested in it, theweight of anything in their inventoryis halvedwhile they’resitting on your shoulder.

You canuse them as an early game transportaidbefore you get creatures with a large weight capacity, such as aTriceratopsor anArgentavis.

Besides beinguseful for carrying extra items, Otters also have acompletely unique abilitythat no other creature in the game has: they cancarry multiple of a single Artifacttypewithout restriction.

With an Otter, you canwait inside cavesandgrab as many Artifacts as their Weight stat allows, and transport them all back home to save time or trade them to other players.