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Some creatures inArk: Survival Ascendedaren’t exactly cut out for fighting, especially against creatures like Mammoths, T. Rexes, and Carnotaurus. Instead, they’re more so meant to be pets, provide some amazing utility, or both in the case of the Dung Beetle. This Feces-loving bug turns its favorite food into Fertilizer, every crop’s favorite thing.
Growing crops is pretty important in the game, since many of the recipes for buffing foods, Kibble types, and useful consumables need at least one crop. If you want to grow them fast, you’ll want plenty of Fertilizer, and if you want to convert Feces into it for free, you’ll want some Dung Beetles at your base.
Where To Find Dung Beetles
Dung Beetles areexclusively found in caveson The Island, and you’re able to find them infour of the nine land-based cavesand inone of the underwater caves:
Lower South Caveis one of theeasier caves to get a Dung Beetlefrom as it’snot very densely populatedwith hostile creatures.
How To Tame Dung Beetles
Alone, Dung Beetles are pretty easy to tame. Theyaren’t aggressive unless you attack themfirst, and, like theArthroplueraandOtters, they’retamed passively.
Theproblem with trying to tame oneis that they’re locatedin areas full of aggressive creatureslike Araneo and Onyx in large numbers.
You’ll need to make sure you’ve gotgood weapons and armor, as well as astrong tame, tomake sure you don’t diebefore you can tame one.
Yourbest bet for keeping Dung Beetles aliveis toaggro one or a group of hostile creatures, thenlead them awayfrom where the Dung Beetle is before killing them.
Dung Beetles will acceptany type of Feces or Spoiled Meat as a taming food, so it’seasy to get a large supply of foodfor them, especially if you already have aPhioma Feces farmor lots of Spoiled Meat.
If you spot a Dung Beetle,kill anything around them, then try toisolate the Dung Beetle in a safe areawith Wooden Spikes or Fence Foundation and walls, thenfeed them the taming foodfrom therightmost slot in your hot bar.
There isn’t a difference between low and high-level Dung Beetles outside of them potentially having ahigher Weight Stat, so you don’t have to search out max-level ones.
SinceDung Beetles are normally passive, youdon’t need any Bug Repellant for themunless you want to use it to help avoid other creatures.Keep it safe and keep feeding itFeces or Spoiled Meat, and itwon’t take long to tame one.
Due to their size, Dung Beetles can becarried in your hand while you’re riding a tame, or they can bepicked up by most flyers, such as Argentavis, andcreatures like the Kaprosuchusor Mammoth.
Dung Beetle Uses
Dung Beetles make great pets at your base, but they’ve also got anextremely handy function: theyconvert any Feces into Fertilizerand asmall amount of Oilfor free.
1 Fertilizer and 1 Oil
2 Fertilizer and 2 Oil
3 Fertilizer and 3 Oil
Massive Animal Feces
16 Fertilizer and 7 Oil
IfFeces is placed into their inventory, they’llautomatically begin convertingit as long as youhave Wandering enabled, and eachconversion takes 15 minutes.
Dung Beetles canconvert multiple tiersof Fecesinto Fertilizer and Oilat the same time, such as two Small Feces and two Large Feces, making seven Fertilizer and seven Oilin one conversion cycle.
Whenset to Wandering, Dung Beetles will alsoautomatically pick up any dropped Feceswithin afive foundation radius around its location, and itdoesn’t need to be near other creaturesto do it.
Dung Beetlesonly need Health and Weight leveled upto make sure theyavoid encumbering themselves, and toensure they can take a bit of damageif they’re attacked.
