Base Stats (Wild Lv150)
| Stat | Base Value | Per Level (Wild) | Per Level (Tamed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 1,700 | +340 | +5.4% |
| Stamina | 550 | +55 | +10% |
| Weight | 800 | +16 | +4% |
| Melee Damage | N/A (0 dmg) | - | - |
Taming Guide
| Food | Amount (Lv150, 1x) | Time | Effectiveness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Kibble | 29 | ~29min | 99.9% |
| Crops (any) | 133 | ~1h 20min | 91% |
| Mejoberry | 266 | ~1h 35min | 78% |
Special Abilities
Ok so the Diplodocus is the weirdest creature in ARK and I don't say that lightly. here's the thing — it literally cannot deal damage at all. zero. none. nada. I've tested this and trust me it's kind of hilarious watching this giant thing try to fight a dodo and fail. its "attack" is a nuzzle that pushes enemies back and that's it. pure knockback, no damage numbers pop up ever.
but the real reason anyone tames a Diplodocus is the saddle. this thing has an eleven seater saddle — yep, one driver plus ten passengers. it's the closest thing ARK has to a school bus. each passenger can use ranged weapons while riding, which means ten people with fabricated sniper rifles sitting on a giant HP sponge cruising through enemy territory. actually kind of busted in PVP. nobody expects the diplo bus.
also the Diplodocus is surprisingly fast for a sauropod, way faster than a Bronto, and it has solid stamina so it can actually get places without needing a nap every 30 seconds. one hidden thing people miss: the Diplodocus saddle blocks dismounts, so passengers can't be picked off by Pteranodons or yanked by raptors. that alone makes it more useful than most tribes realize.
Taming Strategy
Taming a Diplodocus is a passive tame, which means you don't knock it out — you just walk up and feed it. sounds easy but there's a catch: this thing is friendly to a fault and will wander directly into predator territory while you're trying to tame it. I've lost three high level Diplos this way and each time I just sat there staring at my screen for 30 seconds.
the key is to clear the area first. kill everything within about a 200 meter radius — sabertooths, terror birds, raptors, anything aggressive. the Diplo won't run from them and you can't tranq predators while also trying to passive feed. Regular Kibble is the move if you have it: 29 kibble for a Lv150 on 1x, and the tame takes about 29 minutes. pretty fast for a creature this size. if you don't have kibble, crops work fine — about 133 vegetables for a Lv150 — but it takes over an hour. I'd recommend taming a low level one first with mejoberries if you're just starting out. way cheaper and the saddle level is only 32 so you can get rolling early.
So here's a trick that saved me so much frustration with Diplodocus taming: build a small pen with stone gateways and lure the Diplo inside before you start feeding it. you can do this because Diplos naturally follow you when you get close — they literally walk up to you trying to be friends and nuzzle you. kind of adorable, honestly.
once it's inside, close the gate and feed it through the wall. you need to be within like 2 meters to trigger the feed prompt, but you can do it through doorframes and gateways. means you're safe from the environment and the Diplo can't wander off mid tame. also bring extra food. seriously. the Diplodocus eats a LOT during the tame and if you run out of kibble halfway through, the effectiveness tanks hard and you lose bonus levels. at that point you might as well have tamed a trike.
one last thing — don't accidentally punch it while trying to feed. I've done this. the feed button and the punch button are way too close on console. punching a Diplo resets the tame progress and makes it run away, and then you have to chase it across half the map. yeah, I know.
Best Uses
The Diplodocus is a transport bus first and everything else second. if you're not using it to move your entire tribe around the map you're kind of missing the point. with ten passenger seats plus the driver you can move eleven people at once — the entire tribe for most servers. no other creature can do this, period.
for PVP it's a low key siege vehicle. load up ten tribe members with rocket launchers and longnecks, park the Diplo outside an enemy base, and have everyone fire from the saddle. the Diplo tanks turret fire because its health pool is massive — a Lv150 wild tame with some levels in HP can hit 20k easily. with a good saddle that's a lot of bullets the enemy has to chew through while your passengers are blasting their walls.
it's also great for boss tribute farming runs. load up the team, ride to the artifact cave entrance, do the cave, come back out, and your ride is right there waiting. nobody gets left behind, nobody gets picked off by random wild dinos on the walk back. way more efficient than everyone bringing separate mounts.
for PVE the Diplodocus makes resource transport runs actually tolerable. take it to a metal mountain with an Ankylo escorted by an Argy and use the Diplo as the overland carrier between the mining spot and your base forge. it carries an absurd amount with that 800 base weight, and if you level weight you can easily push past 2k carry capacity. more than enough for an hour of metal farming.
the Diplo is also a fantastic berry gatherer. even though it can't deal damage, its nuzzle attack has a surprisingly wide AOE that harvests berries and thatch. the weight capacity means you can fill it with thousands of narcoberries in one trip. it's one of the best early game berry gatherers that nobody talks about.
and one niche use I discovered by accident: the Diplodocus is amazing for taming other passive creatures. you can sit on it and predators ignore you. most aggressive dinos won't aggro on a mounted Diplo unless you get right in their face. so you can ride up to a passive tame target and feed it without getting interrupted by a random raptor pack. it's like a mobile safe zone. yeah, that's a thing.
Here's a niche trick that I've used more times than I want to admit the Diplodocus can push tamed creatures around with its nuzzle and this includes unconscious dinos so if you're taming something big like a Rex or a Spino and it falls unconscious in a terrible spot like halfway in a river or wedged between two rocks you can use a Diplo to push it onto flat ground before the tame starts this has saved me from losing tames to drowning more times than I can count and honestly it's the only reason I keep a Diplo parked at my taming outpost. The knockback also works on baby dinos so during breeding events when you have 20 baby Rexes wandering around you can use the Diplo to gently herd them into a pen without hurting them which is way better than whistling and hoping they walk in the right direction.
Diplodocus vs Brontosaurus
So people always compare the Diplodocus to the Brontosaurus because they're both giant sauropods, but they serve completely different roles. if you're choosing between them, here's the breakdown. the Diplo is faster, has a passenger saddle, and is way easier to tame (passive versus knockout). the saddle unlocks at level 32 versus the Bronto saddle at level 82 — that's an insane gap. the Bronto has higher base HP, does actual damage, and gets a platform saddle which is huge for base building. but the Bronto is painfully slow to the point where crossing the map feels like a loading screen. the Diplo can actually get places in a reasonable amount of time.
for transport the Diplo wins hands down. the Bronto is a mobile base and the Diplo is a mobile bus. they're not really competitors.
Breeding Tips
Breeding Diplodocus is actually not bad at all compared to most large dinos. the eggs incubate at 26 to 29 Celsius, easily achieved with standing torches or a basic air conditioner setup. incubation time is about 5 hours on official settings. baby phase for Diplo is about 9 hours 15 minutes, and total maturation is around 3 days 20 hours — same as most medium-large creatures. breeding interval is 18 to 48 hours, standard stuff.
the best stat to mutate is health. the Diplo's entire value proposition is being a giant damage sponge with zero offensive capability. a 40 point HP mutation on a Diplo is way more impactful than on most creatures because you're stacking it on an already massive base stat. if you push HP into the 30 to 40k range with imprinting, you can tank obelisk boss attacks for surprisingly long. makes the Diplo a viable off-tank in boss fights if you're creative with passenger weapon loadouts. not even kidding.
Pro Tips
First tip — never under any circumstances try to fight anything with a Diplodocus. I know I've said this like five times but I'm not exaggerating. it literally cannot kill a dodo. I've watched a Lv150 wild Diplo get slowly pecked to death by a level 5 Ichthyornis because it couldn't fight back and just kept nuzzling the bird for 20 minutes. saddest thing I've ever seen in ARK.
second tip — the Diplo saddle protects passengers from dismounts. microraptors and Purlovias cannot knock passengers off the saddle, which is absolutely huge in PVP and in the redwoods where those stunlock monsters live. this alone makes the Diplo the safest group transport in the game, bar none.
third tip — use the Diplo as a taming companion for anything that requires a trap. build your trap, have the Diplo parked nearby as a mobile supply station loaded with narcotics, tranq darts, and extra kibble. because it's passive and has massive HP, nothing short of a Giga is going to threaten it while you're focused on the tame.
fourth tip — level movement speed on your Diplo. a 150% movement speed Diplo outruns most mid-tier predators and can actually escape bad situations. that's the one thing a Bronto can never do. it makes the transport bus role actually viable instead of being a slow moving target. it's that simple.