Base Stats (Wild Lv150)
| Stat | Base Value | Per Level (Wild) | Per Level (Tamed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 365 | +73 | +5.4% |
| Stamina | 400 | +40 | +10% |
| Weight | 400 | +8 | +4% |
| Melee Damage | 100% (36 base) | +5% | +1.7% |
Taming Guide
| Food | Amount (Lv150, 1x) | Time | Effectiveness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superior Kibble | 15 | ~45min | +99% |
| Raw Mutton | 30 | ~1h | +88% |
| Raw Prime Meat | 38 | ~1h 15min | +80% |
Special Abilities
ok so the Argentavis has some abilities that honestly make it one of the most useful tames in the whole game hands down first big one is weight reduction 50% on metal stone wood crystal obsidian polymer oil hide chitin keratin fiber thatch flint basically every resource you actually farm on a regular basis and I mean when you combine that with the already high base weight you can haul thousands of ingots in one trip which I've done so many times and it literally never gets old and then the smithy saddle is a mobile crafting station you can make metal tools weapons even repair your flak armor mid-flight honestly I've crafted so many tranq darts while flying home that it's not even funny it saves so much downtime it's kind of busted tbh and then the health regen from eating corpses is another huge one it regenerates health and stamina fast enough that you can clear an area and heal to full between fights just by munching bodies you get the idea oh and it can also pick up medium-sized creatures with its claws and grab players with its beak so yeah this bird literally does everything and I love it ngl
Taming Strategy
Argentavis are pretty straightforward to knock out but you gotta be careful about one thing they're almost never alone honestly I've died to this more times than I'd like to admit you see three of them flying together and think you can handle it and next thing you know you're getting absolutely shredded by the buddies you didn't tranq and losing all your stuff which is just the worst feeling in this game ugh so clear the area first or pull a single one with a longneck shot I learned this the hard way obviously and I'm not exaggerating when I say I've lost full flak kits to this exact mistake like four or five separate times and each time I told myself never again and then did it again anyway because that's ARK for you
But anyway they're slow in the air honestly kinda sluggish I mean you can literally outrun one on foot if you zigzag but the real move is building a simple trap four stone gateways in a line with gaps just big enough for you to slip through but too small for the Argy put gates on both ends leave one open aggro the Argy through it and close the door behind it now you can tranq it at your leisure from outside the trap shotgun works great at close range if its torpor drops but I've found that a crossbow is safer for keeping distance that's how I do it and it works every time basically you could also use a simple stone box trap which is what I used when I first started and I still use that design sometimes tbh
And then aim for the head obviously but if you're using darts you can pretty much land body shots and still knock it out fine just watch the torpor Argy torpor drains faster than you'd expect for a creature this size I'm not sure why maybe it's just one of those ARK things that doesn't make any sense who knows you know what I mean but yeah have at least 200 narcotics on you more if you're using mutton instead of kibble since the tame takes longer oh and bring a sleeping bag or two mountain tames can go sideways real fast with sabertooths and scorpions wandering in trust me on that one some of my worst ARK moments were on mountain tames hands down and I still have nightmares about that one time a scorpion knocked me out right as the Argy woke up wild
Best Uses
The Argentavis is basically your daily driver in ARK 2 it's not the fastest flyer not the strongest fighter but it's the one you'll use the most and here's why I literally use my Argy for everything everyday and I've got like four of them with different stat builds because one is never enough if you actually play this game seriously and I'm not even kidding I spend more time on my Argies than on any other tame
For resource runs nothing beats the Argy plus Anky combo I do this all the time carry an Ankylosaurus to a metal mountain harvest with the Anky load everything onto the Argy and fly home with the 50% weight reduction on metal and the Argy's already high weight capacity you can bring back thousands of metal ingots in one trip same setup works for crystal obsidian stone you name it whatever resource you're hurting for the smithy saddle means you can even craft ingots and repair your gear mid-flight on the way back it's honestly kind of broken and I love it tbh this is literally the main way I've built every base I've ever made in ARK
In PvE a high-level imprinted Argy can handle most wild threats alpha raptors carnos even lower-level rexes are soloable if you use hit-and-run and the health regen from eating corpses is honestly kind of busted you can clear an entire spawn area and heal to full between fights just by munching the bodies and stuff like that I've soloed alpha rexes with my imprinted Argy before and walked away with full health it's that good
But in PvP it's more of a support mount can't outrun a wyvern or a Ptera obviously but the weight capacity makes it great for supply runs and the carry ability lets you snatch enemy players off their mounts if you get the drop on them it's surprisingly effective if you know what you're doing and honestly I've pulled off some crazy plays with the grab ability that I still think about sometimes
Argy vs Pteranodon - Which One Do You Need?
New players ask this all the time short answer you need both Ptera is your early-game scout and quick-transport flyer Argy is your mid-to-late game workhorse Ptera is faster has the barrel roll for burst speed and tames in like 15 minutes but it's made of paper low health low weight can't fight anything meaningful the Argy takes longer to tame and needs a higher-level saddle but once you have one you'll wonder how you lived without it I remember my first Argy tame it literally changed the whole game for me like night and day difference and I suddenly went from struggling to thriving in like a single afternoon
If you can only pick one for some reason go Argy it does everything the Ptera does except be fast and it does a whole lot more that the Ptera can't touch imo it's not even close tbh and I've probably tamed like 50 Pteras and maybe 20 Argies over the years and I'd trade all the Pteras for one good Argy any day of the week no question
Breeding Tips
Breeding Argies is worth it the imprinted stat boost is noticeable especially on weight and melee egg incubation takes about 3 hours at 12-13.5C baby phase is roughly 9 hours and full maturation is just under 2 days not too bad compared to bigger carnivores I've bred dozens of these things and it's honestly not that painful you just kinda let it run in the background while you do other stuff and before you know it you've got a whole flock going
For mutations IMO health and melee are your go-to a high-health Argy is nearly unkillable in PvE once you factor in the corpse-eating regen weight mutations are also solid if you're mainly using it for farming stamina mutations can be nice for cross-map flights but with the Argy's already massive stamina pool you don't really need them just don't waste mutations on oxygen they're flyers they never touch water unless you mess up and trust me I've messed up plenty so learn from my mistakes and save yourself the heartbreak of a 20-mutation line that goes into oxygen
Pro Tips
First off level weight and melee pretty much equally a pure weight Argy is a sitting duck if something attacks you mid-flight and a pure melee Argy can't carry enough to make farming worth the trip I usually go 60% weight 40% melee on my main farming Argy and flip those numbers for my combat bird it's what's worked for me anyway and I've tried a bunch of different splits over the years and this is where I landed after way too much experimentation but your mileage may vary depending on what you're doing most
Second the smithy saddle is a game-changer that a lot of people forget about repairing your flak armor and crafting new tranq darts while flying back to base saves you so much downtime you can even craft metal structures mid-air if you brought the mats honestly I forget to use it sometimes and then kick myself later because it would've saved me like 20 minutes of running around and crafting at base when I could've been doing it on the way home
Third if you're getting chased by wild wyverns or other fast threats don't try to outfly them in a straight line dive toward dense forest or rock formations where the Argy's tighter turning radius gives you an edge wyverns have a huge turn circle and can lose you in terrain I've survived so many wyvern encounters this way it's kind of my go-to panic move and it works way more often than you'd think honestly it's saved my bird more times than I can count
And honestly just tame multiple Argies one for farming one for combat one as a backup in case your main dies they're not hard to tame once you have a trap set up and the kibble ready a stable of 3-4 Argies with different stat distributions covers pretty much every situation you'll run into or whatever random ARK nonsense the game throws at you and you won't regret having spares when things inevitably go wrong because they always do in this game eventually