How to tame a Terror Bird in Ark: Survival Evolved

In the survival-crafter Ark: Survival Evolved, terror tends to be around every corner. The Terror Bird is this concept, personified: small, fast, and deadly to players. The good news is that, with some preparation, you can gain your own Terror Bird flock.

The two greatest threats of the Terror Birds are their speed and the fact that they tend to roam around in packs. Three or four Terror Birds can bring down a Rex, making these creatures a fantastic means of Tribe versus Tribe warfare.

Related: The 15 best Dinosaurs to tame in Ark: Survival Evolved

The Terror Bird, examined

Terror Birds spawn in packs of three to four creatures and typically hunt with the pack that they’ve spawned with. This, along with their speed, means that melee weaponry is not a fantastic means of combatting these creatures. Maintain ranged weapons, and stay off of the ground if at all possible. Much like the Therizinosaurus, grappling hooks can mitigate the entirety of their challenge.

The Terror Birds tend to spawn around, and within, the Redwoods of The Island. Occasionally, if the cell has been left active, they can roam far beyond their initial area, as most other predators ignore them.

Taming a Terror Bird

Terror Birds are active tames, compared to creatures such as the Arthropleura, but these lose torpidity quickly. Find a vantage point with a grappling hook and take down the low levels of the pack. Once a singular Terror Bird is left, drop it with tranqs and move in as fast as is safely possible.

Terror Bird spawn regions typically aren’t the safest of areas.

Regular kibble is the fastest taming food for Terror Birds, but raw mutton is the second best. Regardless, shove meat into its inventory and make sure you keep its torpidity high by remote using narcotics. Its high metabolism means it tends to be a quicker tame, but be prepared to micro it a bit more as a trade-off.

Using the Terror Bird tame

Terror Birds are one of the fastest ground-based mounts in Ark. They have wings, but cannot fly — instead, they can glide from higher terrain. It has a naturally low carry weight, which limits what the riders can bring on a mission, but the tame is well-suited for a tribe role in scouting.

Taming masses of Terror Birds can surmount the Dodo strategy with high damage creatures that are hard to hit in tribe versus tribe warfare. With its low carry weight, however, it isn’t advisable to ride these creatures into a pitched battle.