The mod design returned to its original goal, to increase immersion in PVE. Surviving is hard and gritty. You should feel like "there is always a bigger fish" out there. Taming will be reworked so that eggs have to be stolen or curious babies passively tamed. Strategic and thoughtful survival will be rewarded. Exploration will be key to discovering necessary resources to move up the food chain.

All dinosaurs (non-fantasy or mythical) have been remapped with increased targeting range. At the most basic level, dinos now react to everything, including one another, and you! Herbivores team up and may run long before you reach them, while carnivores will sniff you out much further away. Territorial animals will challenge you, including aggressive herbivores, such as trikes and stegos. Carnivores also target one another, fighting each other for hunting ground rights. Try not to get caught in the middle!

Dinosaur corpses are now a highly valued resource, not only for you as a survivor, but for competing carnivores who will sniff out the kill and challenge you (and each other) for it. You now harvest more semi-realistic amounts of meat and hide from animals as they increase in size, reaching upwards of hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds of meat from the island's largest animals. Harvesting a massive beast now takes time, patience, and maybe some stimulants!

Your rate of healing has been dramatically slowed. No more Wolverine survivors with insta-healing powers! All of your starting stats have been cut in half, except speed! This should encourage more diverse and strategic spreading of points gained at Level Ups. You may actually want to invest in Crafting Speed for more than just increasing custom recipes. There is no Stamina Recovery when Dehydrated or Starving and Stamina recovers more slowly now, increasing the need for stimulants! Fortunately, starvation and dehydration do not kill as quickly, but still a very real threat!

To counterbalance the increased aggression from the Ark's natives, you will start the game with a 60 second protective buff that prevents wild dinos from targeting you. This buff activates whenever you spawn in, so even in the event of you respawning, it will reactivate. However, if you attack a wild dino or steal an egg within those 60 seconds, the buff will fail. Beware! Use those 60 seconds wisely to run for cover!

Finally, male survivors are no longer incredibly ugly. Their facial texture maps have been smoothed out to help distinguish them from yettis. They're still a far cry from anything pretty, but at least they aren't painful to look at now.

All dinos available at the moment have to be tamed via egg stealing or curious babies.

For egg stealing, you need to find a wild nest and grab a fertilized egg from under the nose of protective parents. Depending on the size of the egg, the egg must be hatched using one of three different hatcheries available. For Tiny and Small Eggs, the Ember Nest must be used (Unlocks at Level 5); for Medium and Large Eggs, the Mud Nest must be used (Unlocks at Level 25); for Gargantuan and Colossal eggs, the Living Nest must be used (Unlocks at Level 45).

For curious babies, these mammal babies are wandering the wilderness, searching for adventure. Lure them in by feeding them passively without startling them or alerting their watchful parents. While they generally will tolerate your presence, they will flee at the sight of any other creatures, including your domesticated one. A certain tier of kibble is required to tame them, with a tooltip popping up when close enough to a baby, informing you of what kibble tier you need. You may use kibble from a higher tier, if available, to speed up taming.

Once you tame a baby animal, you will notice that they all start at Level 1, although this can be adjusted via server configuration options. You will need to start from the beginning with them! Fortunately, your dino can currently receive up to 225 additional levels from experience. Imprinting and mutations are incredibly valuable now!

Once you have killed a dino, you can walk up to it and harvest it by hitting it with a tool of your choice. This will yield meat and sinew (a new resource that can take the place of fiber in recipes). However, in order to collect hide, pelt, etc. you will need to activate the action wheel on the corpse by holding E. This will bring up your skinning options, including gathering hide, pelt, or plucking feathers. You need to have a hatchet on you in order to collect common skin types and a metal hatchet to collect advanced skin types.

Your crafting skill is critical in the amount of resources you collect and the time required. Improve your crafting skill to get more quickly!

You no longer learn individual saddle engrams (e.g. Para saddles or Trike saddles). Instead, at Level 10, you unlock an engram called the Saddle Kit and a Basic Saddle. Using the Saddle Kit, you can construct six tiered generic saddles, with each tier unlocking every 10 levels (e.g. Simple at Level 20, Regular at Level 30, etc.) These saddles are used in the construction of all animal saddles now, reducing the micromanagement of having to learn a dozen different engrams (then taking a mindwipe brew to gain those engram points back after building it).

However, building these saddles, in addition to their base materials, require Activated Implants of six different tiers. These are crafted from deactivated implants found on fallen survivors scattered across the Ark or in supply drops. Reactivation is relatively straightforward, though not necessarily easy. Each tier requires a DNA passcode to unlock with each subsequent level requiring more advanced lifeforms and DNA. These DNA samples fall as Tributes (e.g. Argentavis Talons) from notable animals.

• Tier 1 (Zeta) Implants require: Human Blood (Bloodpack)
  
• Tier 2 (Epsilon) Implants require: Human Blood (Bloodpack)
  
• Tier 3 (Delta) Implants require one of the following: Megalania Toxin, Titanoboa Venom, Baryonyx Heavy Claw, Thylacoleo Hook-Claw, Sarcosuchus Skin, Scorpion Pincher, or Argentavis Talon.
  
• Tier 4 (Gamma) Implants require one of the following: Megalodon Tooth, Basilosaurus Blubber, Therizino Claws, Allosaurus Brain, Sauropod Vertebra, Tyrannosaurus Arm, or Yutyrannus Lungs.
  
• Tier 5 (Beta) Implants require one of the following: Spinosaurus Sail, Tusoseuthis Tentacle, Gigantosaurus Heart, Alpha Raptor Claw, or Alpha Carnotaurus Arm.
  
• Tier 6 (Alpha) Implants require one of the following: Alpha Megalodon Fin, Alpha Tyrannosaur Tooth, Alpha Leedsichthys Blubber, Alpha Mosasaur Tooth, or Alpha Tusoteuthis Eye.

Some food items have been changed in order to make the choice between eating one thing over another more meaningful.

Berries now provide different benefits and have updated description to match their boons.

• Amarberries provide some food (0.25) and a significant amount of hydration (1.0)
  
• Azulberries provide some food (0.25), considerable hydration (2.0), but more interestingly, infuse your bloodstream with greater capacity for carrying oxygen. However, ingesting too many too quickly can quickly lead to a loss of consciousness.
  
• Mejoberries are both juicy and nutritious, providing equal parts food and water (1.0)
  
• Narcoberries provide some food (0.25) but are primarily known for their narcotic effects, capable of inducing a coma-like sleep. Yet, curiously, they are also known for their healing properties (0.25 health).
  
• Stimberries provide significant energy (3) and food (0.25), at the cost of dehydration (-1.0 water). They also are effective at combating any kind of torpor-like effects (-10 torpor).
  
• Tintoberries provide significant nutrition (1.0 food) and some hydration (0.25 water).

Meat has been reworked somewhat. They now drop in 1 pound increments, which is 10x higher than in vanilla. However, meat is also 10x as effective in beating back starvation. There is no longer any need to scarf down dozens of tiny bite-size pieces of trike steak.

Cook meat sates hunger twice as much as cooked fish meat. However, fish meat can not only be eaten raw with no health consequences, but raw and cooked fish increases health twice as much as standard meat. Who needs a doctor when you have fish sticks?

A new food resource has also been added, Salmon Roe. There is a 50% chance of Salmon dropping with Roe which can be eaten raw, used in custom recipes, or allowed to desiccate (spoil) into raw salt, making it useful for maps absent of or with rare salt deposits.

Advanced food items now benefit task-specific activities, giving small boons to those who strategically pick their food based on their activities. Descriptions have been added to items as reminders. This should encourage diverse diets, but does not penalize a player for not wanting to invest time or thought in varying their food. There are no deficiencies or debuffs associated with this system. Each advanced food item now comes with a cooldown before it can be eaten again.

• Citronal- 30 water / 10 food / 5 stamina
  
  • Granted Buff: Well Hydrated (+Reduced Water Consumption for 30 seconds)
    
  • Ideal for hot temperatures when water is scarce.
• Longrass- 20 food / 20 water / 15 stamina
  
  • Granted Buff: Mineral Enriched (+Increases XP gain by 5% for 30 seconds)
    
  • Ideal for use when recovering from injuries that do not need immediate attention when high-quality meat is not readily available.
• Prime Meats- Varies based on type (raw provides half food and negative health except fish)
  
  • Prime Meat - 60 food / 15 stamina / x 2 Health Regeneration Rate
    
  • Prime Fish Meat - 30 food / 30 stamina / x 3 Health Regeneration Rate / can be eaten raw without any negative health impacts and while swimming
    
  • Lamb Chops - 60 food / 30 stamina / x 2 Health Regeneration Rate
    
  • Granted Buff: Protein Enriched (+Increases Health Regeneration Rate for 30 seconds)
    
  • Ideal for use when recovering from injuries that do not need immediate attention.
• Rockarrot- 10 food / 30 stamina
  
  • Granted Buff: Vitamin Enriched (+Double Stamina Regeneration for 30 seconds)
    
  • Ideal for use during stamina intense activities, such as mining and harvesting.
    
  • Can be eaten while swimming.
• Savoroot- 50 food
  
  • Granted Buff: Fiber Enriched (+Reduced food drain and slow digestion over 30 seconds)
    
  • Ideal for use when you want to carry less, but have a significant source of food on hand that does not spoil as quickly as other veggies. Also valuable for herbivores, particularly babies, for food storage overnight.

Hiding behind stone walls only provides limited protection now. Allosaurus, Anklyo, Bronto, Carno, Chalico, Diplo, Dire Bear, Doedicurus, Giganotosaurus, Mammoth, Megalosaurus, Paracer, Rex, Spino, Stego, Therizino, Titanosaur, Trike, Rhino, and Yutry all damage stone structures now! Beware!

Many items now have static meshes, including berries, crops, meats, narcotics, stimulants, and armor. No more leather boxes of meat and berries!

-Feathers: Birds now drop feathers, instead of hide. These will eventually be required to craft some items, like arrows.
-Quill Leather: Feathered dinos now drop quill leather, instead of hide, in addition to feathers. Quill leather can be used in place of hide for any recipe.
-Venom: Some venomous or poisonous animals now drop venom, which can be used to craft narcotics now in place of raw meat.

-If you would prefer to take a non-violent route, you may farm kairuku/hesperornis eggs and allow them to spoil into organic polymer.

-Now harvested from Turtles, Doedicurus, and Ankylosaurus.

-All alpha versions of dinos now move at standard speed for their species and do not team up with carnivores outside of their species class. No more alpha raptors being followed and helped by carnos!