Common             Rare   Untameable   Cave

The Oviraptor (o-vih-RAP-tor) is a Dinosaur in ARK: Survival Evolved.

This section is intended to be an exact copy of what the survivor Helena Walker, the author of the dossiers, has written. There may be some discrepancies between this text and the in-game creature.

Oviraptor philodator

Late Cretaceous

Carnivore

Skittish

Oviraptor philodator is a small-to-medium sized carnivore, common in the jungles and beaches of the Island. Despite being a carnivore, Oviraptor's main source of food is eggs, which it steals from nests. Unlike any other creature, Oviraptor seems to be able to surreptitiously steal these eggs, usually without attracting the attention of an irate mother. In an incredible feat of natural selection, Oviraptor seems to emit a chemical pheromone that affects many creatures as an aphrodisiac. Mated creatures are much more likely to…“create” new eggs while Oviraptor is around, which allows the Oviraptor to go about its business unperturbed.

Too small to fight or ride, Oviraptor is still one of the more commonly tamed creatures on the Island. Its pheromone ensures an increased stream of eggs from nearby mated wild creatures, for breeding, eating, or cooking kibble. Oviraptor will autonomously do the dirty work of stealing eggs from other tribes or wild dinos on your behalf, without attracting unwanted attention. They also make quite adorable sounds, so many children simply like to keep them around as rather strange companions.

Very common throughout the island, Oviraptor spends its days prancing around gleefully. Similarly to the Mesopithecus, the creature flees at a rather quick pace if one gets too close or if attacked.

The Oviraptor is a small theropod that can often be spotted by survivors wandering across the island in search of its favorite food, eggs. It sports a crest on its head, presumably to attract mates, and a beak meant for cracking eggshells open to reach the nutritious contents within.

This section displays the Oviraptor's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Oviraptor. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Oviraptor will randomly spawn with to provide an overall range of its natural color scheme. Hover your cursor over a color to display its name and ID.

This information can be used to alter the Oviraptor's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Oviraptor's "body" magenta.

Region 3 is not usedfor this Creature.

Type in values of a wild creature to see on which stats it's emphasized. Green values on a high-level creature are very good for breeding. If you have already tamed your creature you can try to recover the breeding stats with an external tool.[1]

The stat-calculator does not work in the mobile-view, see here for alternatives: Apps

Note that after the creature is tamed it gets bonuses on some stats depending on the taming effectiveness. This makes it hard to retrieve the levels on a tamed creature, so this tool is only for wild ones, but gives a first impression, how well the stats are distributed.

The Oviraptor, once tamed, eats meat and will also eat the occasional dodo egg provided in a feeding trough.

Note that the values are for optimal cases, always bring extra supplies! For a level-dependent count of resources needed, try an external taming calculator.

Similarly to the Titanoboa, the Oviraptor is tamed by feeding it eggs. However, you can tame it with both standard and fertilized eggs. Once tamed, it will eat raw meat like any other carnivore.

Heavier eggs are preferred for taming.

The Oviraptor will eat the first egg in its inventory unless there's a  Giganotosaurus,  Quetzal,  Bronto,  Spino,  Rex, or  Carno Egg.

Oviraptors are small, quick, and fragile. Their small size and high speed make them difficult to hit once attacked, so try to get it into a corner before you start firing on it. At lower levels, a  Wooden Club may be preferable, and a  Bow could potentially kill one in a single shot.

The best way to tame one is to  Bola it first, then either tranq or slingshot it down.

Alternatively, it can be picked up by an  Argentavis or  Pteranodon and moved somewhere safe or shot at by another player.

A tamed  Pulmonoscorpius will be able to trap the Oviraptor by standing above it allowing you to easily knock it out.

If you have a tamed  Equus and a  Lasso, you can use the Lasso to hold the Oviraptor captive and allow another player to knock it out.

This section describes how to fight against the Oviraptor.

The Oviraptor is easily killed by both ranged and melee attacks, the only problem being its speed and timidness. It will run at the first sign of contact and is very fast, so cornering the animal or using a bola to immobilize it is mandatory.

Being a very fast and very small target, the best way to tame an Oviraptor is to use a  Bola to trap it before it flees. If you have a flying mount, it is a good idea to construct a fenced in-area, then pick up the oviraptor and drop it inside for a safe, secure tame. Even a  Pteranodon can pick up an Oviraptor with ease.

Use a bola to keep it in place, then use torpor-applying tools to knock it out. Beware of its health while you do this, as it may die in the process.

The Oviraptor is not hostile or dangerous at all, but make sure not to run into more dangerous dinos while attempting to tame an Oviraptor.

Anything that can slow or prevent its movement.

An egg icon will appear over tamed dinos, indicating that the Oviraptor is decreasing the time between unfertilized eggs.

Once tamed, setting the Oviraptor on wander will increase the production speed of unfertilized eggs in nearby tamed, mate-boosted creatures, indicated by an egg icon above all affected animals. This effect will also increase the feces laying rate on all dinos nearby (including mammals).

The radius of the speed boost for egg laying is slightly smaller than that of a feeding trough.

Contrary to a popular myth, the Oviraptor does not increase the chance for twins, triplets or mutations.

Encumbering the Oviraptor while it is wandering will still generate this effect, and is useful for effectively locking the oviraptor in place to prevent it from wandering out of the pen. Simply move it in to position, fill its inventory with heavy materials and then set it to wander.

The Oviraptor can also be used to steal eggs from wild or enemy creatures. Whistling 'attack my target' on an egg will cause the Oviraptor to pick it up and bring it back to you. Remember to be wary of the egg's weight and the fact that using this action may cause the egg's parents to become aggressive.

The Oviraptor will not collect tamed dino eggs, just increase the speed that they are produced. Remember to check every few hours for newly produced eggs, which can be made into valuable kibble for taming.

For information pertaining specifically to the real-world Oviraptor, see the relevant Wikipedia article.