ARK: Survival Ascended has released a new DLC called Tides of Fortune, which adds a lot of new content to the game. One new thing you can do is to tame the Tidepup. This is a useful new creature that you can add to your team. However, the taming process itself can be a little bit complicated due to the specific requirements you need to fulfill. Still, it is nothing too hard, and you can likely tame the Tidepup quite early in your journey.
How To Find Tidepup in ARK: Survival Ascended
This new creature is not necessarily rare. However, it does only spawn in a very specific habitat. Firstly, it spawns only on Genesis-1 in the Ocean biomes.
Go to the islands you see in this area, and explore the coast. You will likely spot one or two Tidepups on the beaches. On occasion, they are known to wander inwards from the coast as well. However, this is generally rare, so you should stick to the coastal areas until you find one.
How To Tame Tidepup in ARK: Survival Ascended
This small creature is quite distinctive, and once you have spotted it, make the following preparations.
- Clear the surrounding area of any hostile creatures. You do not want these to attack you or your future pet.
- Secondly, and more importantly, you will need a tamed creature of your own. This can be any creature in the game.
- Thirdly, a Medican Stand. This is an optional but quite useful tool to have for this process.
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The Tidepup will release a healing effect in its area whenever your tamed creature’s health goes below 10%. You have two ways of making this happen:
- You either go near a hostile creature, which will attack your tamed creature and drop its health below 10%. This method is dangerous and inconsistent, as you might be unable to stop the attack in time.
- Alternatively, the safer approach is to use the Medical Stand. It can drain the blood of your creature, thus safely lowering its health to an acceptable amount.
Once the health is low enough, the Tidepup will start its healing effect and immediately fall asleep. Take this time to feed it something (you can feed it anything ranging from different types of meat to Kibble). Once it wakes up, repeat the cycle, and it should get tamed within two or three attempts.
Note: There is a 20-30 second cooldown before the Tidepup can start its healing effect again.
How To Evolve the Tidepup in ARK: Survival Ascended
This pet does not grow over time. Instead, its progress depends on how much health it heals. So, if you want to immediately mature it, then use the Medical Stand in the same way you used to tame it.
The system tracks the amount of health your Tidepup has healed, and updates its evolution progress accordingly. This formula goes as follows:
1,000 health healed = 2.5% evolution progress
This means that to reach 100%, the Tidepup needs to heal 40,000 health, which is no small amount. This is best done by playing the game and letting the Tidepup automatically heal you over time, instead of actively trying to evolve it in one sitting.
What Does the Tidepup Do in ARK: Survival Ascended?
While the Tidepup is small, you can carry it on your shoulder. In this form, it can lower your oxygen consumption, heal you if you take damage, and dispel negative status effects affecting you. You can also let it mature into its adult form, in which case you can ride it while it creates a healing zone.
The recipe for a Tidepup Saddle is:
- 50x Fiber
- 80x Hide
- 20x Wood
- 10x Metal Ingot
- 5x Cementing Paste
Without this saddle, you cannot mount this pet, even if you have tamed it.
How To Breed Tidepup in ARK: Survival Ascended
You can breed Tidepups, but only underwater. This is because they lay aquatic eggs. So, if you try to get them to breed above ground, then the laid eggs will immediately despawn. Once you have a male and female Tidepup, you can let them breed like any other tamed creature.
