How to Tame a Carnotaurus in ARK

 

    The Carnotaurus — pronounced kahrn-uh-TAWR-us, meaning "Carnivorus Bull," usually shortened to Carno — is one of ARK's earlier mid-tier predators, and taming one is a knockout (KO) job, not a passive feed. ark.wiki.gg's own dossier calls it a creature that "falls between a medium and large predator" and lives "primarily on flat, clear ground, where it can capitalize on its speed." This guide covers what the wiki documents — the KO method, preferred foods, per-level torpidity math, and base stats — and flags anywhere the source doesn't give a clean number instead of guessing one.

 

What the Carnotaurus Is, and Why It's Dangerous

 

    The wiki's summary calls it "a medium-sized and stubby armed carnivorous dinosaur, known for its fast running speed as well as its ability to make targets Bleed," first added in ARK: Survival Evolved's early release. Species: Carnotaurus pressor, Late Cretaceous, Carnivore diet, Aggressive temperament. The Helena Walker dossier adds its horns "seem to be used more for fighting rivals than actual hunting" but "can still eviscerate larger prey," calling it the Island's "cheetah" against the Rex's "lion."

 

    Combat abilities, both usable every 0.67 seconds by rider or AI: Bite deals 35 damage with 30% armor penetration; Headbutt also deals 35 damage and "inflicts Bleed to the target, reducing 5% of its total Health over 10 seconds," with knockback that can send victims off a cliff, per the Behavior section. Head hits carry a x1.5 damage multiplier (on ARK: Survival Ascended, this also applies to the player's own melee attacks). Wild Carnos "seem to prioritize other dinosaurs over humans" and can appear "in groups of 3 following a wild Yutyrannus."

 

The Knockout (KO) Taming Method

 

 

    Taming Method is listed plainly as Knockout; Torpor Immune is No. The wiki's own strategy text: "Be careful when confronting a Carno. They are powerful and will gang up on you. Often, the best method would be using a Scorpion and/or Tranquilizer Arrows." It gives a specific trap, quoted directly: a "wall three wide and three tall on fence foundations with two doorways stacked on top of eachother with no doors to shoot through" — aggro the Carno toward it, then "run through the doorway to get it stuck and proceed to KO it." A second method: if it's already attacking another dino, "follow them (make sure they don't die)" and tranq it while it feeds. On Scorched Earth, a low-level Carno can be tamed "with boomerangs" from higher ground or a thatch/wooden trap.

 

    On immobilizers, the wiki lists Chain Bola, Large Bear Trap, Plant Species Y Trap, and Net Projectile — versus its separate Dangers text, which says the Carno "cannot be immobilized by a bola" (the plain Bola, not the Chain Bola on that list).

 

Best Food, and What Taming Actually Costs You

 

 

    The wiki lists two "Preferred Kibble" entries — Regular Kibble and Kibble (Ankylo Egg) — and two "Preferred Food" entries — Raw Mutton and Raw Prime Meat — without ranking either pair, so both are reported here rather than a single "best" pick. Regular Kibble's recipe: 1× Cooked Meat Jerky, 1× Medium Egg, 5× Fiber, 2× Longrass, 2× Savoroot, 1× Water.

 

    For a Level 1 Carno, the food table gives Regular Kibble a quantity of 2 (0:04:48), Raw Mutton 3 (0:06:46), Raw Prime Meat 4 (0:09:01). Three further numeric columns sit between quantity and time with no header label in the source — undocumented here rather than guessed at.

 

    The page also prints a raw "KO" figure of six unlabeled numbers per level, with no weapon names attached in the extracted text. As given: Level 1 — 35, 15, 4, 3, 2, 1; Level 150 — 348, 142, 39, 23, 16, 8 (the wiki also tables Levels 30, 60, 90, and 120 the same unlabeled way). Rather than guess which ammo each slot represents, this guide reports the numbers, not a weapon mapping.

 

    What is labeled cleanly is torpidity-depletion rate and time-to-deplete: Level 1 drains at 0.3/s (00:19:26 total); Level 150 at 1.04/s (00:56:00 total) — Levels 30/60/90/120 step between at 0.5/s, 0.66/s, 0.79/s, 0.92/s. Arithmetic: torpidity drains 3.47× faster at Level 150 (1.04 ÷ 0.3 ≈ 3.47), yet the window is longer, not shorter — 56:00 vs. 19:26, +36:34 — because a higher-level Carno starts with a far bigger torpidity pool to burn through.

 

Base Stats, Saddle Level, and Where to Find One

 

 

    The base-stats table (grouped for Carnotaurus, Aberrant, and Corrupted together) lists at wild base: Health 420 (+84/level), Stamina 300 (+30/level), Oxygen 150 (+15/level), Food 2000 (+200/level), Weight 300 (+6/level), Melee Damage 35 (+1.75/level), Torpidity 350 (+21/level). Movement: Walking 425 u/s wild, Sprinting 892.5 u/s wild, tamed sprint 1190 (1291.15 with taming bonus); swimming wild base is 300, tamed figures left as "?" in the source. A second copy of this table attaches a "-4%" Health taming-bonus figure not clearly matched to Carnotaurus versus its variants — left undocumented rather than assigned to one.

 

    The Carno Saddle unlocks at Level 46. Also labeled: Drag Weight 250, kill XP 72 (separate from the infobox's "basexp" of 18 — unreconciled in the source, so both are reported rather than merged), Special Loot Chance 30%, Feces Size Medium, Rider Weaponry No, Radiation Immune No.

 

    Habitat spans The Island, The Center, Scorched Earth, Ragnarok, Extinction, Valguero, Genesis: Part 1, Crystal Isles, Genesis: Part 2, Lost Island, Fjordur, Midgard, Asgard, Vanaheim, and Aberration, per the wiki's map list for Carnotaurus and its Aberrant/Corrupted/R- variants. A "Common / Rare / Untameable / Cave" rarity key appears at the end of that list but isn't matched to individual maps in the extracted text, so no rarity is assigned to any single map. Named variants beyond the base creature: Aberrant, Alpha, Astral, Corrupted, Eerie Alpha Carno, Eerie Carno, Lightning, Revenant, R-Carnotaurus, Skeletal, and VR Carnotaurus — 11 total — plus three cosmetic skins.

 

Bring a friend or a Scorpion, load Tranquilizer Arrows, and box the Carno in with the wiki's fence-and-doorway trap before you open fire — losing containment mid-tame is how a Level 150 attempt turns into a chase. Stock Regular Kibble or Raw Mutton for the feed, and check the color first: a red-glowing Carno is an Alpha, a tougher fight entirely.

 

Running your own ARK server

 

    Building a fence trap, farming Regular Kibble, and sitting through a 56-minute torpidity window on a Level 150 Carno all go smoother on a dedicated, always-on world than on a host's session that could end mid-tame. A private ARK server keeps your trap standing and your stockpiled Raw Mutton right where you left it, with no griefing risk while you're mid-tranq — and lets a tribe coordinate a hunt on its own schedule.

 

Conclusion

 

    Taming a Carnotaurus comes down to what ark.wiki.gg documents: a knockout tame, trapped behind a stone fence or, on Scorched Earth, boomerangs from higher ground; fed Regular Kibble, Kibble (Ankylo Egg), Raw Mutton, or Raw Prime Meat once under; rideable once you've built a Level 46 saddle. The torpidity math shows depletion rate more than tripling from Level 1 to 150 (0.3/s to 1.04/s) even as the drain window grows longer. What the source doesn't cleanly label — the food table's middle columns, unlabeled KO counts, and map-by-map rarity — is flagged above, not guessed.

 

    Ready to tame your own Carno without losing progress to a random server restart? Spin up your own ARK server and get taming. Use promo code WELCOME for your first month free.