Base Stats (Wild Lv150)
| Stat | Base Value | Per Level (Wild) | Per Level (Tamed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 1500 | +300 | +5.4% |
| Stamina | 200 | +20 | +10% |
| Weight | 600 | +12 | +4% |
| Melee Damage | 100% (30 base) | +5% | +1.7% |
Taming Guide
| Food | Amount (Lv150, 1x) | Time | Effectiveness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exceptional Kibble | 12 | ~25min | +99% |
| Mejoberry | 120 | ~1h 30min | +75% |
| Berries | 250 | ~2h 30min | +55% |
Key Features
Okay so the platform saddle is honestly the main reason you tame this thing and I mean you can build a full base on the bronto's back, like 10 plus foundations with walls and generators and turrets and beds and storage, it's literally a complete mobile base you know, a whole house on a dinosaur and tbh that alone makes it worth the effort
And the tail sweep is just ridiculous ngl, massive AoE attack that clears entire forests of berries and thatch and small trees in a single swipe with 5x gathering efficiency, I've cleared whole swamps in seconds and the amount of narcoberries you get is kind of absurd. Also the HP is enormous too, highest base HP of any non-boss creature in the game so it can tank turret fire for extended periods, pretty much essential for PvP base defense and I've seen them eat hundreds of bullets without going down. The weight capacity is the highest for base weight in the game, with levels it carries over 2000 units easily, hands down the best bulk resource transport in ARK and stuff like that
Strategy Guide
For a mobile base build you just place foundations and walls and a roof on the platform saddle then add storage boxes and a forge and a bed, basically the ultimate nomadic base setup and honestly one of the coolest things you can do in the game, I've lived off a bronto platform for weeks and never needed a real base and when doing resource runs just walk your bronto through a swamp or forest and one tail sweep gives you 500 plus berries and 300 plus thatch easily, it's the best bulk harvesting in the game bar none and I literally stopped using trikes and stegos entirely after taming my first bronto, you get the idea
For PvP siege the bronto platform base with turrets becomes a mobile fortress you know, push into enemy territory and deploy turrets to establish a forward base. I've seen tribes roll up with bronto convoys and just demolish everything, it's honestly terrifying to watch and even worse to be on the receiving end
Taming Strategy
Honestly taming a bronto is less about skill and more about not being an idiot about it you know the bronto is so slow that you don't even need a fancy trap, I've found that a simple stone gateway setup works fine just 3 or 4 gateways in a line with gates on both ends, lead the bronto through and close the gates behind it and you're golden. The thing is so big it physically can't walk through a single gateway without the frame stopping it, so honestly a natural choke point like a canyon or between two big rocks does the job too, some people like building a full enclosure out of stone behemoth gateways but that's overkill IMO you're not trapping a giga here and I've tamed dozens of brontos this way without issues
For weapons you pretty much want a longneck rifle with shocking tranq darts if you can afford them, otherwise a crossbow with tranq arrows works totally fine, the bronto has a massive hitbox so you basically can't miss, aim for the body because the head hitbox is weirdly high up and easy to whiff when you're on foot
Bring like 60 darts or 100 arrows for a level 150 and you'll be good, and bring extra anyway because nothing's worse than running out mid-tame and having to scramble for more ammo while the torpor ticks down, been there and it sucks. Torpor management is kind of a non-issue with brontos honestly their torpor drops so slow you can basically go make a sandwich and come back, but if you're paranoid bring a few hundred narcotics or some bio toxin because ngl better safe than sorry
I usually dump 200 narcotics into its inventory right after it goes down and force feed them all at once then check back every 10 minutes or so, starve taming isn't really worth it with brontos either because the kibble already takes long enough that the passive hunger drain is negligible
Best Uses
In PvE the bronto is king of berry runs and that's pretty much what everyone uses it for, one tail swipe through a swamp and you've got more narcoberries than you'll ever need for the rest of your playthrough. IMO it's also the best thatch gatherer in the game which people seriously sleep on, if you're building a big stone base you want a bronto trust me. The weight capacity means you can do one massive run instead of five trips with a trike or stego and that alone saves so much time, it's not even close and I literally haven't touched a trike since getting my first bronto
For PvP the platform saddle is where things get really interesting, slap some turrets and a generator on that thing and you've got a mobile artillery platform.
I've seen tribes use bronto convoys to push into enemy territory and honestly it's terrifying to be on the receiving end, the bronto can tank so much turret ammo that the enemy will run out before you go down. That said in my experience they're kind of easy to pick off if you're not paying attention. A good player on a mana or a wyvern can harass you from angles the turrets can't cover. So basically PvE god tier harvester and pack mule, PvP niche but absolutely devastating when used right with a coordinated tribe
Comparison with Similar Creatures
The bronto gets compared to the paracer and the titanosaur a lot so let me break it down, the paracer is like the bronto's little brother it also has a platform saddle and it's way faster but it has way less HP and weight. The paracer platform fits maybe 3 foundations while the bronto fits 10 plus walls and a roof no problem
If you just want a mobile taming pen the paracer is fine but if you want an actual mobile base you can live on bronto is the only choice that makes sense, and I've tried both trust me on this one. The titanosaur is basically a bronto on steroids but it's a temporary tame that starves to death and honestly not worth the insane effort for most players, it can't be fed once tamed on official settings so it's basically a weekend rental and then you lose it, who wants to spend hours taming something that just dies on its own anyway
For pure berry gathering the therizino is faster and more maneuverable but carries way less and you have to actually walk to each bush, the bronto just swings its tail and deletes an entire screen full of foliage in one go and tbh the sheer efficiency is unmatched
The stego has better damage resistance and can impale things which is fun plus it's way easier to tame early game, but the bronto's AoE tail sweep is completely unmatched for covering huge areas in one swing so it's still the best bulk gatherer IMO when you need massive quantities fast, like filling a vault with narcoberries and etc
Breeding Tips
Breeding brontos is a serious commitment honestly the baby takes forever to raise and eats like an absolute unit, you'll want a ton of berries prepped before the egg hatches like seriously a full trough of mejoberries per baby minimum and probably more and I've had babies starve on me because I underestimated how much they eat. The incubation itself isn't too bad just a bunch of standing torches or air conditioners, bronto eggs aren't particularly temperature sensitive compared to something like a wyvern egg that'll die if you look at it wrong
For mutations you basically want to stack HP and melee, weight mutations are nice too if you're mainly using it as a hauler but stamina mutations are kind of a waste since you're not sprinting anywhere on a bronto anyway and oxygen mutations are obviously useless for a land dino
I've found that melee is the most noticeable mutation early on because it makes your tail swipe hit way harder for gathering runs, once you hit around 400% melee you can clear an entire forest in like two swipes and it's kind of ridiculous how fast the berries pile up, ngl it's almost too easy at that point. One thing people forget is that bronto babies are absolutely enormous and can get stuck on ceilings and doorframes super easily so raise them outside or in a big open pen with no roof. And imprinting is definitely worth it, a fully imprinted bronto with a few HP mutations is basically unkillable in PvE and I've seen them facetank alpha rexes without breaking a sweat
Pro Tips
First off put a bed on your platform saddle, I can't tell you how many times I've died somewhere stupid and respawned right back on my bronto instead of running across the entire map, it's the single most useful thing you can build on the platform and it takes like two seconds, do it before anything else seriously because you'll thank yourself later
Second brontos can harvest thatch from trees that are clipping through walls.
So if you park your bronto anywhere near your base make sure it's not close to your walls because an accidental tail sweep WILL demolish part of your base, I've learned this the hard way more than once and had to rebuild an entire section of my crafting room because I fat-fingered the attack button while turning around, it sucked so bad and I'm still bitter about it honestly. Third the bronto's knockback on the tail attack is actually really useful for crowd control, if you're getting swarmed by raptors or terror birds or whatever just swing the tail and everything gets sent flying
It doesn't do massive damage to small creatures but the knockback buys you time to either run away or reposition for a better fight. Fourth you can use the bronto as a mobile elevator, build a platform base with a hatchframe and a ladder going straight down and you've got a way to get up and down cliffs that would normally take minutes to navigate on foot
Not many people think of this but it's saved me so much time in places like the redwood cliffs and tbh I use it all the time now
And lastly IMO every tribe should have at least one bronto even if you don't use it daily. The combination of mobile base and bulk harvester and massive tank is something no other single creature in the game gives you. It's slow and it's definitely not flashy but honestly it's one of the most useful tames in the entire game and you'll miss it when you don't have one, I know I do every time I start a fresh playthrough
Common Mistakes
The biggest bronto mistake I see all the time is people building elaborate metal platform bases and then wondering why their bronto can't move, every structure on the platform adds weight and metal walls and turrets add a LOT. Test your build on single player first and keep it lean, a few essentials go a long way, you don't need a full metal box with twelve turrets just a bed and a smithy and a couple storage boxes and maybe two turrets is plenty for most situations
Another classic is people thinking the bronto is invincible because it has 1500 base HP. It's not. A wild Giga or a high-level alpha tribe with compound bows will delete your bronto in seconds if you're not paying attention
The massive hitbox is a double-edged sword because every shot lands, position your bronto with cover or keep it in a protected area when you're not actively using it, don't get cocky with this thing and I've lost brontos this exact way, it hurts every time
And don't get lazy with the tail sweep around your base, one accidental right click and you've just demolished half your crafting area. Always park the bronto facing away from structures and I mean away from EVERYTHING, trees clip through walls and a bronto tail will harvest that tree and the wall behind it in the same swing, it's a terrible way to discover your base has weak points and I've learned this lesson more times than I care to admit you get the idea