How to tame a Desmodus in ARK: Survival Ascended at 100% effectiveness

How a Desmodus tame actually works

You cannot knock a Desmodus out. The wiki lists its taming as passive: it wants Blood Packs, and while you are held in the air it takes them from you. The taming effectiveness you finish with depends on what happens before that. The wiki notes that effectiveness starts lower than intended and rises when the Desmodus repeatedly grabs and drops a creature that has plenty of health and many Blood Packs, using a Moschops as its example. That is exactly the trick in Raconin’s video, and it is how he reaches 100 percent taming effectiveness.

It also means the tame is a logistics problem. You need a safe place to do it, enough Blood Packs, protection from the drop, and a tame that can take a beating. The rest of this guide is built around those four things.

Build the pillar trap

Raconin’s trap is a closed pillar box with a Dino Gate. It is large but cheap, and the foundations are only scaffolding.

1. Lay the footprint. Place foundations in a 3x4 area, edges only, with the middle open. A 3x4 ring uses exactly 10 foundations.
2. Add the gate. On one of the two short sides, place the Dino Gate and the matching gate in front of it.
3. Wall it in. Build a complete wall of pillars around the foundations.
4. Roof it. Place pillars across the top so the box is fully closed.
5. Make sure the pillars reach the ground. This is the key detail: the pillars must connect all the way down, because you are about to remove the foundations.
6. Remove the foundations. Destroy them. The finished trap is a pillar cage with no foundations under it.

Preparation: parachutes, Blood Packs and your bait tame

• Parachutes. The Desmodus grabs you and drops you from the air again and again. Without a parachute you take fall damage each time.
• Flak armour and Blood Packs. Make sure you bring enough Blood Packs to reach 100 percent effectiveness and then fill the taming bar.
• A bait tame. Raconin uses a Moschops that he levelled with lots of health beforehand, so it survives longer and effectiveness climbs faster. The wiki lists Moschops base health at 375 with +75 per level, a low base, which is why those health levels matter. It does not list the Desmodus among its carriers, so if you try a different creature, check that the Desmodus can actually pick it up.

Getting Blood Packs fast

Medical Stand (Lost Colony)

If you own the Lost Colony map, there is a quick method. The wiki says the Medical Stand is a Lost Colony structure, with a Create Bloodpacks mode that draws Blood Packs from attached creatures like a Blood Extraction Syringe, without durability loss. As Raconin says in the video, place a stand, connect a tame with a lot of health, and extract blood. The wiki adds one important warning: watch the creature’s health in this mode because it can potentially kill it.

The old syringe method

Raconin’s alternative is the Blood Extraction Syringe. In the video, he draws blood from himself repeatedly until he dies, respawns at his bed and repeats. We are reporting his method, not recommending it: do not use it on a server with hardcore or permadeath rules, and bring survival gear on PvP servers. The wiki also lists random supply crates as a source.

Other options the wiki mentions

• Attacking a Desmodus produces Blood Packs repeatedly, and a tamed one adds Blood Packs to its inventory with each attack.
• A Sanguine Elixir, made from 200 Blood Packs in a Desmodus saddle, gives 30 percent taming or imprinting progress once per creature.
• The wiki says a Tek Phase Pistol in healing mode can raise effectiveness to 100 percent without a bait creature. It does not give numbers, so treat it as an advanced alternative.

The tame, in order

1. Lure it into the trap. Bring the Desmodus into the pillar box.
2. Get grabbed once. Let it grab you one time. Have your Blood Packs in the inventory already, and put them in slot 0 so you can see how many are left.
3. Bring the bait in. Once the Desmodus is inside and you are safe, bring your Moschops in too. If you can walk your tame in, you can walk in yourself and position it.
4. Raise effectiveness. Let the Desmodus grab the Moschops over and over. Watch the taming effectiveness and wait until it shows 100 percent.
5. Swap back. Take the Moschops out, go back in yourself and let the Desmodus grab you again.
6. Feed on the prompt. Whenever the feeding prompt appears, feed it Blood Packs. Repeat until the taming bar is full.

The wiki confirms that grabbing is an in-air action that costs the Desmodus stamina, and that it holds on while you carry a lot of Blood Packs, draining them until they run out or the tame completes.

Why this trap is built the way it is

A Desmodus is a flyer, so a trap for it has to be closed on top as well as on every side. That is the reason for the roof of pillars. Pillars are used because they cover the structure cheaply and do not leave the gaps a normal wall would. The foundations are only scaffolding: they let you snap the pillars into place, and once every pillar reaches the ground the foundations are redundant, so you destroy them. The Dino Gate and its matching gate give you the one door that lets you and your bait tame walk in and out.

A realistic time and supply budget

• Prep first, tame second. Most of the time goes into the Blood Packs, not the tame itself. Collect more than you think you need.
• Bait tame ready. Level its health before you start; Raconin does this in advance.
• Two trips. Plan on two rounds in the trap: one for the bait stage and one for you being grabbed and fed.
• Mind the clock on servers. A long taming session in the open can attract wild creatures. If your map has dangerous predators, do it near your base.

Mistakes to avoid

• Skipping the parachute. Repeated drops are the biggest source of damage in this tame.
• Feeding before 100 percent. The point of the bait stage is to raise effectiveness first. Feeding early locks in a worse tame.
• A bait tame with low health. Level health, not damage, on the Moschops.
• Running low on Blood Packs. Count them in slot 0. The tame stalls if they run out and you are not at full bar.
• Using the Medical Stand blindly. The wiki warns it can kill the attached creature. Monitor health and stop early.
• Trap not fully closed. Check the pillars reach the ground and every gap above is covered before you lure.

Availability and a note on the wiki

The wiki lists the Desmodus on Fjordur, Astraeos and Lost Colony, and says it was added to Lost Colony in ASA update 77.5 and to Astraeos in 83.0. It also notes a later change in 78.0: the Desmodus mini-boss no longer stretches dinos and thralls when picked up. The wiki page does not cover the tame bar or feeding prompt in detail, so those parts of this guide come straight from the video rather than from a second source. If your server runs a different version, trust what you see on screen over any written guide.

For another creature where taming effectiveness is part of the plan, our Rock Elemental funnel guide covers regaining lost effectiveness with Algae Sushi. For how this trap compares with others, see taming traps compared.

Frequently asked questions