Dinosaur

The **Dinosaur** class is one of the most powerful Factions in the history of the game. Although other factions have come up with some impressive builds, other than the Human, no other terrestrial builds have yet topped the Reptile faction's greatest achievements. There was much variety in the abilities and combat strategies that these builds employed. Because the Dinosaur faction remained dominant for an immense period of time, they have experimented with almost every strategy, and have created many builds.

The dinosaurs were so overpowered and dominant that during the Cretaceous, an evolutionary arms race began. Dinosaurs became much stronger and more OP than ever before, so the devs had to step in. All dinosaurs (with the notable exception of the birds) were banned in the K-T balance patch.

*NOTE*: It's important to realize that this tier list is simply how each dinosaur stacks up against every other dinosaur across the Mesozoic expansion. This is *not* a measure of how viable each dinosaur is in its native time period and metagame (otherwise, the roster would be concentrated in the upper tiers). For example, *Spinosaurus aegyptiacus* is easily A tier in the Late Cretaceous meta, but compared to dinosaurs from other time periods and regions of the map, it falls into D tier on this tier list.

## F Tier Dinosaurs

### Dryosaurus and Camptosaurus

These two herbivorous builds are very similar to each other with a unique stat spread. Dinosaurs are known for their immense strength. But neither of these builds boast any sort of offensive capabilities. Instead, they have a modest but below-average defensive spread, decent mobility, and above-average Intelligence for a Dinosaur. These two builds took advantage of how powerful the other herbivore builds were, by sticking by the bulkier ones and relying on them to defend the herd. They also took advantage that they were faster than other herbivores, even though their mobility was lower than most predator builds. Their higher Intelligence granted them a more advanced perception, letting them function as the herd lookouts. But nonetheless, these builds were helpless on their own and were easy targets for predator mains if they were ever caught undefended. Their lack of self-sufficiency places them in F tier.

However, these players eventually realized the faults of their build. They started specking into either extra armor on their heads, or spikes on their thumbs, giving them much better options for dealing with aggressive players. Eventually, these became the Pachycephalosaurus and Iguanodon builds, which are some of the most well-known dinosaurs. The Pachycephalosaurus was famous for its name, and the Iguanadon was one of the first discovered by dataminers.

## D Tier Dinosaurs

In D tier, there are two carnivore builds.

### Coelophysis

The first is the Coelophysis. Coelophysis was one of the first Dinosaur builds that the devs introduced. And like all the early Dinosaurs, it really was nowhere near the power level of the ones that would be added to the game later in the Jurassic and Cretaceous expansion. The only reason it became such a popular and dominant build was because it starved and dehydrated more slowly than its non-Dinosaur rivals. This isn't to say that it didn't struggle to succeed - it absolutely did and often had to fight to find food. It essentially dominated the early Dinosaur meta by default.

### Spinosaurus

Also in D tier, there is the Spinosaurus. The Spinosaurus is a unique build that specced heavily into fishing abilities and aquatic adaptations, including the rare ability of Electroreception, which helped to catch fish players, even when they are in stealth mode. This is great for that specific application, but Spinosaurus mains weren't actually fully aquatic. They could stay are underwater for extremly long periods of time, but they were river animals and got affected hard when the rivers dried up, which meant they would have to scavenge or hunt. If they evolved into a fully aquatic build, they could have survived the mass extinction at the end of the early late Cretaceous. Overall, they're D-tier.

### Hadrosaurs

Last in D tier, there are the Hadrosaurs. Their main game plan is quite simplistic - seeing predators coming and running away. This is similar to the Dryosaurus and Camptosaurus playstyle. But instead of relying on the more powerful herbivores to defend them, they had the Health required to shrug off a hit or two and had the mobility required to escape, assuming they saw the attack coming. Overall, this build was easy to play, but if they could not escape, they had decent defense, which meant they could shrug off hits. They could tail whip ram and could rear up like sauropods. All in all, there's a reason why players consider Hadrosaurs more forgettable among Dinosaur builds. One example was the Parasaurolophus build, which spent their evolution points on instruments that were used for mating but could also ram and headbutt.

## C Tier Dinosaurs

In C tier, there are two of the most famous Jurassic builds.

### Stegosaurus

The first is the Stegosaurus. This build base stats clearly stated that this build was extreme on many fronts. It had one of the lowest Intelligence levels of any Dinosaur, and it also didn't exactly have much in terms of Mobility either. However, it had incredible combat stats and powerful abilities to back it up, most notably its backplates and Thagomizer. Their backplates significantly reduce the chance of an attacker scoring a critical hit against them, since it's much harder to bite down on a stegosaurus's weak point when there are plates in the way. Their backplates can also be flushed with blood to grant a large Intimidation buff, which works great against predator and herbivore mains alike. The Thagomizer is one of the most unique weapons of any Dinosaur build. The Thagomizer has one of the highest critical hit chances of any weapon in the game, often dealing enough damage to one-shot most players. Because it's a tail spike, this attack has a lot of reach, making approaching a defending Stegosaurus player extremely difficult. However, the strategy was by no means perfect. Their low Mobility made fleeing from battle impossible, so if an enemy did not suffer its defenses, stegosaurus mains would be out of options. And since their tails weren't long enough to cover an attack from the front, that was often their downfall. Thankfully their base game plan was relatively simple, so their low Intelligence didn't hinder them too much.

### Allosaurus

Also in C tier, there is every Stegosaurus main's arch-enemy, Allosaurus. The Allosaurus build was unique in that it actually invested very little into the Bite attack, only having the bite strength of a Lion. Instead, Allosaurus dealt damage by using its head like a human battleaxe, swinging its open jaw down onto an enemy player. This dealt heavy damage, but it was nowhere near the devastating power of some of the top-tier Dinosaur combat moves. It had the highest top speed of any build during its time, but it had relatively low Stamina, meaning it could only sprint for a short time, also similar to Lions today. While one on one, Allosaurus tended to get bodied by the stronger herbivore players of its time. In packs, they could take down just about anything. Overall a solid mid-tier whose strategies got expanded upon and refined by the later Dinosaur builds.

## B Tier Dinosaurs

In B Tier, there are a few builds which did the exact opposite of what Allosaurus did, in that they put a ton of evolution points into a single combat tactic.

### Therizinosaurus

First, the build which specced into the claws skill tree, granting it the longest claws to ever exist in the game, Therizinosaurus. Therizinosaurus were excellent in 1v1 combat because their claws give them incredible reach and damage, perfect for slicing at the heads of carnivore mains that were trying to bite them. Their Slash attack was the strongest the game had ever seen. It could be used to deal heavy direct damage, inflicting the Bleed status effect, and could be used more rapidly than Bite. In fact, they put so many points into the Claws skill tree that they had none left over for teeth or mobility and were forced to change play styles from the Carnivore to the Herbivore, making them the only Theropod build that opted not to be a predator. This actually worked out really well for them, because they no longer had to compete with the other predator mains for XP, and were also taller than most herbivore players typically seen in the forest biomes. Although they were lacking in Intelligence and Mobility and also couldn't actually gain any experience from the enemies that they defeated with their claws, all in all, they had a surprisingly effective strategy. Not a perfect defense as they were definitely still vulnerable to coordinated assault, but definitely an above-average build.

### Tyrannosaurus

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Allosaurus and Therizinosaurus, both of which had either weak or non-existent bite damage, there is the carnivore build that put all of its evolution points into maxing out the [Bite] attack, the Tyrannosaurus rex. Perhaps the most iconic dinosaur, *T. rex* had one of the most powerful bite attacks in the history of the game, able to take out almost any player it was able to bite in a single hit. This also gives it the ability to crush bone, letting it access the XP-rich marrow inside, similar to what hyenas do in today's meta. It had binocular vision, enabling it to judge the distance between it and other players to time its attacks. Tyrannosaurus was a hybrid between a predator and scavenger build. It didn't always succeed in taking down the heavily armored herbivores of the Cretaceous expansion, but it could certainly defeat them if the T-Rex players worked in a group. As a scavenger, its massive size gave it the ability to steal kills from other carnivore players, who had no hope of surviving its devastating bite if they got in its way. Despite the small size of its arms, they were pretty powerful and easily capable of holding their targets, and it always had the option to fall back on scavenging, so it was definitely a solid high tier.

### Triceratops

The last B-tier Dinosaur in the Triceratops. In terms of defense in a single direction, no build has ever come close to Triceratops. Their horns can deal massive damage in a single swing, even to giant carnivore builds like Tyrannosaurus. Looking at its stats, it's pretty clear that going head to head with this build would end badly. Its main drawback was its low Intelligence. This build was close to a modern-day Opossum in terms of Intelligence, and these are some of the least intelligent members of the Mammal faction. Triceratops do not possess the herd behavior, as they were mostly solitary due to their low Intelligence stat. Because of that, they were highly vulnerable from being attacked from behind or from multiple angles at once. Triceratops' low Intelligence also meant that it was easily tricked into walking into ambushes set by carnivore mains, which almost always meant a game over for the Triceratops. As powerful as this build is, it only caps out in B tier.

## A Tier Dinosaurs

In A tier, there are the Dinosaur builds created by players who were a bit smarter in terms of how they invested their evolution points.

### Dromaeosaurs

First, there are the Dromaeosaurs, the group of Dinosaurs that includes builds like Velociraptor, Deinonychus, and Utahraptor. These players made an interesting choice to forego the Gigantism ability that made Dinosaurs so dominant in the first place and try their hand at an evasive Rushdown playstyle. Sacrificing both their Health and Defense stats to buff their Mobility and Power as best they could. Most notably, they specced into buffing a single claw on each foot which had two important functions, the first being that it could deal massive slash and stab type damage, and the second being that it gave them the ability to hook on to players that they were targeting using Pounce attack. Overall, This build had much higher damage than normal for a build that size, and it could easily take down players in a much higher weight, especially if they attacked in a group, which they often did. They could easily weave in and out of their opponent's attack range, letting them bait out and doge attacks. The one main drawback to this build was that if it ever got careless, it could easily take lethal damage in a single hit. But overall, this faction was one of the most successful at the time and easily A tier.

### Carcharodontosaurus

Also in A Tier, there is the Carcharodontosaurus, a build very similar to Tyrannosaurus in terms of appearance, but with a slightly different plan of attack. Instead of investing purely into bite force and maxing out base damage,

Carcharodontosaurus spent its evolution points speccing into advanced serrated teeth. This gave their bite attack an increased chance to cost the Heavy Bleed status effect, which would drain the targets Health and Stamina over time. This was more cost-effective than pure bite force and let them retain enough evolution points to spec into claws, giving them a well-rounded combat style that could still cause lethal damage from a single bite. This strategy is similar to the ones seen employed by the Komodo Dragon player base of today's meta. Carcharodontosaurus was also one of the tankier carnivore builds. It could shrug off a hit or two, even from the builds that would normally devastate anything that they landed a hit on. This made them extremely good at PvP against the other carnivore builds at the time, making them an easy high tier.

### Ankylosaurus

The next build in A tier is the Ankylosaurus. Ankylosaurus is arguably the best tank build to ever exist in the game. This build essentially took the Stegosaurus' strategy and cranked it up to the most extreme it could. Instead of backplates for Intimidation, the Ankylosaur players specced into armor. And instead of tail spikes, they opted for a club. Their armor was so impenetrable that it made attacks from even the strongest carnivore mains pretty laughable. While their club didn't have a high critical hit chance as the tail spikes did, it did do massive damage that could shatter bone, capable of crippling any player unfortunate enough to take a direct hit from it. Ankylosaurus was near invincible except that it had one glaring flaw. Despite all of its Defense and Power, it had one fatal flaw. Knocking it over would mean it would get the Weak Belly debuff, which would drop all its stats apart from Intelligence to zero. For that reason, it is not able to be granted a spot into S Tier.

### Troodon

Last in A tier, there is the Troodon, or Stenonychosaurus. The Troodon build was the only Dinosaur build whose core strategy was based around the Intelligence stat. Troodon was the only one to specifically tailor its build around having its brain be its best weapon. Troodon had to sacrifice a lot to get this. High Intelligence requires a lot of calories to maintain. So getting the kills required to sustain both a large size and a large brain was impossible, meaning that they had to give up Gigantism as a trait. So instead of powerful dagger-like claws, Troodon opted for smaller but opposable claws that could be used to pick up objects. This severely cut its potential in combat but gave it a lot of options in terms of manipulating its environment to, for example, set up traps to catch players that would otherwise be able to evade them. It's very possible that if non-avian Dinosaurs weren't banned in a meteor strike balance patch, Troodon players would have eventually leveled up their Intelligence enough to become top tiers similar to humans. But even though it was starting to gain the power to dominate its environment, it still had no way to combat the other top tiers aside from just running away, so it definitely wasn't S tier. One last thing to note is that since data miners named Troodon after a single tooth, it is now properly referred to as Stenonychosaurus, a name seen in older game guides.

## S Tier Dinosaurs

### Sauropods

In S tier, there is the most overpowered Dinosaur faction of all, the Sauropods. Sauropods had every tool they needed to counter all other Dinosaur builds.

They had the maximum Health stat possible for a terrestrial build, and because they used the herd strategy, frequently, this meant that if a sauropod player was caught off guard and was under attack by several carnivore players, it could usually tank enough hits that its teammates would have time to rescue it. Of all the Dinosaurs, Sauropods also had the largest attack range. Their whip-like tails may not have had the same damage per hit the Stegosaurus or Ankylosaurus did, but they were still plenty powerful, able to knock down enemies while out of reach of a counter-attack. And if they did get too close, a sauropod's Stomp attack was literally the most devastating move in the game, knocking the target down and dealing lethal damage. Lastly, their extreme height gave them a massive advantage for avoiding stealth attacks, as they could see much further than other players. In terms of land superiority, Sauropods truly were the most overpowered Dinosaurs of all time.