How to Tame a Basilisk in ARK

 

    The Basilisk is one of ARK's non-standard tames — it is never knocked out with tranquilizers. Per ark.wiki.gg, its domestication table lists Taming Method as Passive and Torpor Immune as Yes, and the taming section states plainly that "the Basilisk is tamed non-violently, rather than through the use of tranquilizers." Instead you feed it fertilized eggs while it's near you and not burrowed. This guide covers exactly how that egg-feeding method works, which eggs count, how many you need per level, and what the tamed Basilisk's saddle and base stats look like — every figure sourced from the wiki's Basilisk page, with anything it doesn't spell out flagged as undocumented rather than guessed.

 

Why the Basilisk Doesn't Get Knocked Out

 

    The wiki's own weaponry advice reinforces the non-KO approach: "Because it can't be knocked down, it is highly discouraged to utilize Torpor-inducing ammo and weapons." Instead, "the player must use fertilized Rock Drake Eggs on Aberration or fertilized Magmasaur Eggs on Genesis: Part 1." Drop the egg on the ground at or near the Basilisk while it is not burrowed; it "will 'attack' the egg when it is nearby one of them and eat it, gaining taming progress." The ancestry of the fertilized egg — the levels of its parents — "will not affect the taming speed." If it burrows before you're done, "the rate at which the Basilisk returns to being feedable is very low," so the wiki advises retreating to a safe location to wait out the next feeding window rather than forcing it.

 

Which Fertilized Eggs to Use, and How to Get It to Eat Them

 

 

    The domestication table lists the Basilisk's preferred food as four eggs: Fertilized Rock Drake Egg, Fertilized Magmasaur Egg, Fertilized Wyvern Egg, and Fertilized Voidwyrm Egg. The Rock Drake Egg comes from Aberration and the Magmasaur Egg from Genesis: Part 1, per the taming instructions above. Basilisks "will also eat Fertilized Voidwyrm Eggs, allowing taming on Genesis: Part 2 without having to upload Magmasaur or Rock Drake Eggs." Which map the Fertilized Wyvern Egg is meant to be sourced from isn't stated on the captured page, so that's left undocumented rather than assumed.

 

    The egg has to come from your own inventory, not a mount's: dropping it from a mount's inventory means "the Basilisk will still eat the egg when it is not aggravated, but no taming progress will be made." Since no flying mounts exist on these maps, the wiki suggests luring the Basilisk with a swift mount like a Raptor, or riding a mount it won't aggro on — Rock Drake, Rex, or Magmasaur — kiting it in a circle without hitting it and dismounting to drop eggs the moment it looks away. A third method uses a Karkinos holding a passive wild dino (a Parasaur is named) as bait while you drop eggs from your own inventory. Each burrow mid-tame costs effectiveness — the wiki flags this itself as unconfirmed: "the Basilisk loses about 7-8% taming effectiveness every time it burrows (Needs further testing)" — so the most reliable fix is a taming pen built from pillars and foundations, since "the Basilisk can't burrow through foundations so you will never lose taming effectiveness."

 

Eggs Needed by Level (1 to 150)

 

 

    The wiki's preferred-food table gives an identical egg count, feeding interval, and total feeding time for all four eggs at each captured level: Level 1 — 4 eggs, fed every 11:40, total 0:35:01. Level 30 — 5 eggs, every 10:56, total 0:43:46. Level 60 — 6 eggs, every 10:30, total 0:52:31. Level 90 — 7 eggs, every 10:12, total 1:01:16. Level 120 — 8 eggs, every 10:00, total 1:10:01. Level 150 — 10 eggs, every 09:43, total 1:27:31. Doing the arithmetic: from Level 1 to Level 150 the egg count rises from 4 to 10 (+6 eggs, 2.5× the Level 1 count), while total feeding time stretches from 0:35:01 to 1:27:31 — 52 minutes 30 seconds longer. The wiki caveats these as optimal-case numbers: "always bring extra supplies!" Levels between the six captured breakpoints aren't given on the page and aren't interpolated here. Once tamed, the Basilisk switches to "a standard carnivore diet of Meat, as well as both fertilized and unfertilized Eggs."

 

Traps, Saddle Level, and Base Stats

 

 

    Beyond the pillar-and-foundation pen above, the wiki also lists Dinosaur Gates or Walls paired with Fence Foundations, left with "a corner gap small enough for the player to escape, but not for the Basilisk to escape," as a working containment option. The Basilisk Saddle unlocks at Level 85, per the infobox. Base stats at Level 1, from the ARK: Survival Ascended stat table: Health 2750 (+550/level), Stamina 650 (+65/level), Food 2500 (+250/level), Weight 800 (+16/level), Melee Damage 44/96 (+2.2 / +4.8 per level), Torpidity 175 (+10.5/level), Movement Speed 100% base. The taming-bonus percentage columns next to these in the source table were garbled in the scrape used for this article, so they're left undocumented rather than guessed at. In combat, Bite "deals 44 damage" and "applies Torpor x3 of the damage dealt over 10 seconds," while Shoot Poison fires a projectile for 96 direct damage plus an 80-damage explosion and a gas cloud dealing 10 damage every 0.4 seconds — damage that "ignores armor, but can be mitigated with a Gas Mask or Tek Helmet."

 

Drop eggs from your own inventory, never a mount's, or you'll feed it for nothing. Wait until it's near full health before you start — a heavily damaged Basilisk "will refuse to eat." Build the pillar-and-foundation pen if you can; it's the one method the wiki says never costs taming effectiveness to a burrow. And bring more eggs than the table above says you need — the wiki calls those numbers optimal-case only.

 

Running your own ARK server

 

    A Basilisk tame can eat an entire play session between building a foundation pen, farming fertilized eggs, and waiting out a burrow-effectiveness reset — all far less stressful on a private, always-on server than racing a shared host's restart timer. Your pen stays standing, your egg stockpile stays put, and nobody else's tame wanders into your trap mid-feed. It also makes the multi-mount luring strategies above easier to coordinate with a tribe on your own schedule.

 

Conclusion

 

    Taming a Basilisk in ARK comes down to what the wiki documents: it's a passive, torpor-immune tame fed fertilized Rock Drake, Magmasaur, Wyvern, or Voidwyrm eggs from your own inventory while it isn't burrowed, needing 4 eggs at Level 1 up to 10 at Level 150, with a saddle unlocking at Level 85. Where the source page doesn't give a number — the Wyvern Egg's source map, exact taming-bonus percentages, intermediate levels — this guide says so instead of filling the gap.

 

    Ready to build that pillar pen without a host's restart wiping your progress? Spin up your own ARK server and get taming. Use promo code WELCOME for your first month free.