Giganotosaurus (Ark Survival Evolved)

The **Giganotosaurus** (jai-GA-nuh-tuh-saw-ruhs), meaning "Giant Southern lizard", is one of the Dinosaurs in *ARK: Survival Evolved* and is the most powerful theropod in the game.

### Appearance

Being the largest theropod dinosaur in ARK, Giganotosaurus can easily be identified from afar, mostly due to its sheer size, which is about three times that of a Rex, or roughly the same size as a Brontosaurus. Its mouth also hangs open, which keeps its large array of teeth exposed at all times. Unlike the other theropods, Giganotosaurus have little to no armor on its very large body, save for the spikes on its head and the ridge down its spine. The R-variant of the Giga features markings along its back and on top of its head. The Giganotosaurus is currently the sixth largest land creature in the game, with the largest being the  King Titan, the second being  Rockwell, the third and fourth being the  Ice Titan and  Forest Titan, and the fifth being the  Titanosaur. It is the largest carnivorous land dinosaur however.

## Basic info

### Dossier

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.

### Behavior

Giganotosaurs will 'casually' stroll about the Island, slaughtering anything in their path. This can lead them to wander just about anywhere on the Island. Their lack of natural predators - or any form of threat to them - allows for their safe voyages across the Island. With no natural predator, the Giganotosaurus is considered the apex predator of the Island with its strength and size. One could argue that it is the driver of evolution on the maps they can be found on. Those that are strong enough to take one down or tame one are guaranteed to thrive nearly unchallenged. Those that can’t manage it end up with significant resources lost at best, and ripped to shreds while possibly even losing everything at worst. The Giganotosaurus is an aggressive creature. Due to its rage mechanic, it will become enraged when being attacked, which makes its attacks deal more damage. It also regains stamina faster when enraged. If it builds up too much rage, it may even eat its own rider, right off the saddle! Its rage mechanic is not a health-percentage-based trigger; it only occurs if enough damage occurs quickly enough. It will also trigger even if the server is set to the friendliest possible PvE and no friendly-fire settings, in which normally it is not possible to hurt anything not wild. Due to its large stride, allowing it to walk over most obstacles, and naturally high movement speed, the Giganotosaurus can outrun just about anything on the island. Combined with its very large aggro range, this means it is a fast and dangerous predator. On Mobile, just like Tyrannosaurus, they will completely ignore mounted animals and don't wander. If there's no prey in the vicinity, they will stand in one place forever.

### Tek Giganotosaurus (variant)

The Tek Giganotosaurus is an unused creature that was added to the game with the release of the Genesis Part 1 DLC, and serves as a template for its mission variants. It is a unique alternate of the original Giganotosaurus, purely made of Tek. It does not spawn in the wild, but is functional though the game may not load it when resuming from a save file. This variant cannot be uploaded nor cloned.

## Taming

For general info about domesticating a wild creature see Taming.

### KO Strategy

By far, the simplest way to tame Giganotosaurus is to build a room out of  Metal Dinosaur Gateway (no gates needed), leaving one side open, and put a  Large Bear Trap in the middle. Do not use the snap points, as this will make the room too small to place the fourth wall and allow the Giganotosaurus to escape. Instead, leave a small gap between each gateway. You then lure the Giganotosaurus in so that it'll get stuck in the bear trap, then fill in the remaining wall with another Metal Dinosaur Gateway. The Giga will be unable to escape the enclosure, and you can shoot at it until it's down (If you leave a diplodocus in the trap, it might buy you a few extra seconds to close the gate without the Giga escaping.) Make sure the trap is rendered at all times or the Giganotosaurus might escape. The second strategy is very simple but requires an extra player or two. On a single-player map, have the host get a little higher than the Giga and shoot it with Tranq arrows or darts. At the same time, the other player(s) keep sacrificing themselves to distract the Giga. Since the other player(s) can respawn at the host, it's easy for them to keep killing themselves. (Just make sure everybody is OK with it) Another strategy (which is much harder) is to use a  Quetzal with a platform saddle and a shooting platform built on it and to simply follow the Giga around and shoot it with tranq arrows until it falls down. This method is very time-consuming and difficult due to the tendency of wild dinos to pick a direction and sprint flat out away from you when they realize they are being tranquilized. Couple this with the surprising speed of a wild Giga, and you're in for a long chase. The addition of  Griffins gives you another option—no need to dismount but remember they don't have as much stamina. Don't over-focus and wind up coming to a forced landing right in front of your Giga. Another strategy a player can utilize is using any type of flyer (preferably fast) with enough stamina to keep it in the air and flying for 1 and a half minutes. To tame the Giganotosaurus, the player should have at the very least 1 Metal Behemoth Gateway along with a Metal Behemoth Gate. Then the player can have at least 3-4 Metal Dinosaur Gateways and place the Gateways down so that it looks like a semi-circle. The straight line would be the behemoth gate, and the curved areas would be the Gateways. After the gates have been placed, put some Large Bear Traps (use as many as you want!) in the semi-circle. Then kite the Giganotosaurus into the trap (makes sure the Behemoth Gate is open). Once the Giganotosaurus is halted by the Large Bear Traps, quickly close the gate and then tranquilize the Giganotosaurus to your heart's desire. When it comes to knocking out a Giga, there is one major argument to consider; should you use a Longneck Rifle or Crossbow? This largely depends on the quality of your weaponry and the number of resources at your disposal. If using engram-grade weaponry (or if the weapon damage of your best crossbow and longneck rifle are similar), the crossbow is more efficient in terms of narcotics spent on ammunition per tame in comparison to using a longneck rifle with Tranquilizer Darts. If using Shocking Tranquilizer Darts, you will still be spending slightly more narcotics (about 7% more) on top of the Bio Toxin needed. This makes the crossbow the most resource-efficient method. You will also not need to worry about the crossbow's higher Health:Torpidity damage ratio, given the gargantuan base Health of a wild Giga. However, when using Shocking Tranquilizer Darts, a longneck rifle will knock out the Giga **much** faster than a crossbow (as long as you keep shooting and don't miss). TLDR: if resources are your main concern, use a crossbow. If you just want to knock out the Giga as fast as possible, use a longneck rifle with shocking darts. Once knocked out, it's rather simple to keep the beast down for the duration of the tame. Simply let its torpor get low (not too low) and then spam a few hundred narcotics into it. It is highly recommended to learn how narcotic works before taming a Giga. For quick reference, 100 narcotics restore 4000 torpor, so base your math on that if needed. Due to the incredibly high amount of torpor Gigas have, though, you will usually be able to feed it enough or almost enough narcotics to last the entire tame in one shot. This allows for the player(s) to simply set a timer to come back when it's ready to feed or when it will need more narcotics since no land animal or dinosaur will attack a wild Giga. However, it can be hit by collateral damage from feuding non-apex creatures nearby, so be cautious of this.

## Combat

This section describes how to fight against the Giganotosaurus.

### General

The Giganotosaurus is one of the few creatures capable of taking down a Guardian such as the Broodmother by itself and as such much caution is needed when facing one. A wild or tamed Giganotosaurus is extremely dangerous simply because of its massive damage and health. This makes it one of the most deadly creatures on the island (if not the most deadly); even a low level wild Giganotosaurus can (and will) be a very serious threat. Whatever creature you fight it with, be aware of its  Gnashed ability. Avoid it if you don't want to get devoured in one or two bites. Having a tamed Giganotosaurus can be a representation of skill and progression. It is therefore not a good idea to head-on attack a tamed Giga even if you can certainly take it on, which might result in retaliation from the tamer. If you are willing to invest time in taking great care of a tamed giga from a baby to an adult that is imprinted by you, then you would have one of the strongest tames in the game.

### Strategy

Nine times out of ten, it is best to avoid combat with a Giga at all costs due to their devastating attacks and high health pool. Conventional weapons can damage Gigas, but do very little against their huge health, and are thus not advised. Using a Lightning Wyvern or a Poison Wyvern, a rider can position the wyvern above the Giga and attack it from above using breath attacks. A player can also use a  Managarmr and constantly shoot it with ice breath, and jump out of harm's way when the pursuing Giga gets too close.

**Super-Bred Giga**

While taking a wild-tamed or low-level bred Giga into battle against a wild one is most often suicide, if you have managed to tame and breed multiple high-leveled Gigas together, combining their stats, and imprinting the offspring; a fully imprinted Giga with most of its base stats near 50, all level points spent in melee damage, is a force to be reckoned with. While high-armored saddles are more effective, even if it is equipped with a standard quality saddle, such a tame is capable of outright destroying even the hardiest of wild Gigas in merely ten or so bites, provided its imprinted survivor is riding on the saddle, at the cost of only 25-50% of its health (dependent on saddle quality and tame's melee damage). While a super-bred Giga is without a doubt the most effective means of killing wild Gigas (even Titanosaurs), it is by all means the hardest to acquire; requiring hours of gameplay and more than a bit of luck to find and tame high-leveled wild Gigas to start the breeding process, but if it can be done, it is definitely worth the effort for such a powerful addition to any tribe's arsenal. Until then, the other method's laid out below are more viable. On top of terms of difficulty in acquiring a high level-giga, it is even more difficult and time consuming in stacking mutations for the giganotosaurus when breeding them. It will be worth the effort when your giganotosaurus has so many mutations on its melee attack that it is killing everything, including the biggest creatures, in several bites. With all of the effort put into taming and breeding, the end result would be a giganotosaurus with your personalized color mutations.

**Griffin**

Griffins may make it possible to kill a Giga, as a rider can use weapons while flying. Make certain to have multiple spare assault rifles, fabricated sniper rifles, and rocket launchers; with the Giga's massive health pool, some may break during your hunt. You will also need a huge stockpile of ammo. You will probably need to level the Griffin for weight, unless the Giga is far enough away from anything important that you have enough time to run back to base and rearm. Remember that although you control steering with the A and D keys while using weapons on a Griffin, your pitch still follows where you're looking; if you're looking sideways and down at the Giga and suddenly decide to sprint forward, you won't go straight to the Giga, but you will go down where it can get you if it's faster than you are. Stay high. Remember to stop, gain some distance and replenish your Griffin's stamina periodically; a forced landing right in front of the Giga is not ideal. Another thing many people know is that Griffins have a dive bomb and diving swipe, it is also possible to dive swipe the giga multiple times to kill it but it is a bit risky.

**Phoenix**

The  Phoenix has a fireball attack (right click) that can allow you to attack a Giga from overhead without it getting angry in response, unless you get too close. The DoT deals up to 100 damage per second for 10 seconds. This means it would take at least 80 fireballs and 800 seconds to kill it. While it's a slow process, it's fairly reliable and safe since the Phoenix does not have to land to regain stamina. Keep in mind that the Phoenix will not get kill credit unless a different source of damage from the Phoenix kills it.

**Turret**

Another possibility is to build a raft with a massive broadside of  Minigun Turrets, fully stocked with ammo, and a generator; lure the Giga into the water and let the turrets shred it. If the turrets fail to kill the Giga before running out of ammunition you should at least be able to get clear, as Gigas are slow swimmers; try to lure it further into the water and hope that either it drowns, or aquatic predators can finish it off.

**PvP**

If fighting against tamed Gigas in PvP, they are not near as much of a threat. While still a terrifying foe, Gigas lose 63k health and 80% melee when tamed, dropping them to a much more manageable 17k base health and making low level Gigas do less damage than a high melee rex. This means that a group of solid rexes can take on an enemy tamed Giga (bonus if the Gigas are Mate boosted). Auto turrets can also shred a tamed Giga fairly quickly if you have enough of them. If attacking tamed Gigas, using 2-3 rpgs to enrage it and cause it to attack any other enemy dinos near it is a good strategy. If you do not have access to explosives, dinos that reflect damage such as the  Kentrosaurus are very effective at fending off a ridden Giga; due to changes in the rage mechanics, raw damage is factored as opposed to mitigated damage. This can cause a Giga to enrage by biting a herd of Kentros, no matter how good of a saddle it has. Even if the Giga is unridden, the sheer amount of reflected damage from Kentros can kill an attacking tamed Giga.

**Titanosaur**

The only non boss creature that can kill a wild Giganotosaurus head-on is the  Titanosaur. Wild Gigas avoid attacking them, with good reason. A few stomp attacks made by a Titano is enough to kill the strongest Giga. However, the odds of anyone just so happening to have a Titanosaur on hand to spare for this battle of behemoths are slim, so it is generally best to avoid the dangerous predator at all costs. As of the new Extinction update, the new  Titans can also kill them pretty fast.

**Quetzal**

It also possible to kill a giga with a  Quetzal levelled in health and melee damage by attacking it from above. Another thing is that when you dismount a quetz you stay in the saddle,this means you can pull out a weapon and shoot the giga.

**Grappling Hook**

It's possible to kill a Giga with just a  Grappling Hook and a short-range weapon like a  Sword. Shoot the Grappling Hook at the back of the Giga, close to his tail and reel-in. When you are close to his body you can hit it with your Sword without a lot to risk getting hit by the Giga. Make sure to have good Armor to withstand occasional hits. Giga does "tactical retreat" by fleeing, breaking the Grappling Hook and run away from player on its tail if it can't hit the player for too long. It certainly will come back and attack again so don't get trolled.

**The Ocean**

One of the most common and effective methods for killing a wild Giganotosaurus is by drowning. You just lure the Giga out to the ocean using a Ptera. Once it is a good deal away from the mainland, go above its mid section and bite it until water is up to the Giga's eyes. At this point, get the Giga out of render distance as fast as you can. Once it is out of render distance, the Giga will enter stasis were it cannot move but will still lose oxygen and die by suffocation. This version is a bit risky but can score a fast kill. The other version is lure your Giga of choice to the ocean but then get on a raft; get out to deep sea and make the Giga swim. With this method, it is safer if you manage the wild Leedsichthys but much slower to kill as you cannot drown the Giga but must let ocean predators do the work. Wild Mantas and Megalodons will start attacking the Giga but keep shooting at the Giga to keep it from fleeing to the shore. Tamed dinos are not recommended as if the Giga hits them, it could easily kill them. You cannot just leave with this one as the ocean predators will not attack the Giga when in stasis. With this method, you could lure the Giga to land when it is low on health and kill it for a lot of XP. These methods are the best methods for solo players without a Wyvern.

**Allosaurus**

This is by far one of the cheapest and easiest method to kill the Giganotosaurus, you simply just brought 2 Allosaurus, apply bleed to Giga once and than go behind its tail, as Giga has terrible turning, it appears not to attack you once you get behind its tail, and its turning will get even slower once Allo is applied bleed on it, you can simply just tailride it while inflict bleed every once in a while, though you have to watch your Allo's stamina, if the stamina is low, don't attack after you inflict the bleed on Giga, just keep tailriding and wait till Stamina regenerate to certain amount, then you can start attacking while Giga is under bleeding status effect, repeat this until it dies.

**Rexes**

Couple of Rexes with 30k health, 1600% melee and saddle armor of 95 can be used to kill a level 150 wild Giga. To ensure victory, make sure the Rexes are mate boosted and there are not obstacles the Giga can use to its advantage. 3-4 Rexes can be used it multiple Gigas need to be fought at once though it is highly recommended that they are fought singularly and not at the same time.

**Gate** On Mobile (not sure if it works on pc) you can cause the giga to aggro on to a metal Dino gate frame and then shoot it with guns or anything you want.

**Spinosaurus**

Spinos are effective for killing gigas because they can swim and they have a water buff. Also if you are near water, you can get the buff, lead the giga down there (unless it’s already down there) and use the buff to kill it. Make sure that the spinos are leveled in stamina, damage, health and possibly speed.

### Weaponry

A large amount of Auto Turrets can pose a major threat to the Giganotosaurus, as they can deal a lot of damage quickly. The Mini-gun and Rocket turrets can be very effective against a Giga. At one point they could be mounted on the Quetzal, but they are no longer able to be, leaving a raft as the only mobile option for bringing turrets to a Giga. Fortunately, Gigas are slow swimmers. 4-6 Plant Species X can effectively push back a Giganotosaurus, but they do not do very much damage. They are ideal for keeping it at bay while another source of damage is applied or even Torpor to begin the taming process. Be careful as to not let one come from the side. It makes it take a little longer for all the plants to target and could potentially stop a plant from shooting due to line-of-sight.

### Dangers

The Giganotosaurus can, and will, instantly kill all but the hardiest of dinos. This, coupled with its health reserves, heavy bleeding, and its rage mechanic make it the most dangerous dino in the game. The Giganotosaurus's torpor will drain faster than it will rise, this makes it hard to solo tame. The Giganotosaurus can attack according to this discussion up to 8-12 foundations high and 8-10 foundations beyond a wall. On Extinction, the corrupted giganotosaurus may now seem less threatening without the relatively high health, and bleeding, but it all gets exchanged for high damage. A horde of corrupted giganotosaurus in the Forbidden Zone with high damage and mate boost can easily kill the hardiest dinos except the titans.

### Weakness

The Giganotosaurus is very vulnerable in the water. Its low stamina and slow swim speed can cause it to drown very quickly. However, its massive size will keep it out of most water. A wild Giga can easily be lured into deep water and drowned. This is likely to happen on Whitesky Peak as if the Giga falls from a cliff into the ocean, the floating ice may block its way back to the surface and soon drown to death. Another effective way of killing a Giganotosaurus is to use  Lightning and  Poison Wyverns, it will make easy work of any Giga you will encounter if you hover above it and pound it with breath attacks for a while. Make sure you watch your positioning as the wyvern's hitbox is massive when flying in place and you may unexpectedly get bit a few times. It's also critical to watch your stamina and to fly somewhere safe to refill stamina when needed. As mentioned in the General section, Gigas are vulnerable to flying units with ranged attacks, such as Wyverns and the Phoenix. Poison Wyverns double as an extra threat to the rider of a tamed Giga while Lighting Wyverns deal some of the highest possible DPS in a relatively safe fashion to wild Gigas. They are highly vulnerable from behind since their turning radius is very wide. A  Mek can easily get behind or out of reach of a giga's bite. A Giganotosaurus attacks may have a large aoe, but it has a blind spot where its tail begins and its hip ends and the spot is big enough for a player to grapple onto with a grappling hook and kill it from there with a high damage melee weapon. Because a player is on it, the giga will constantly turn to try to bite you off, but it can't. If you are riding on a Stegosaurus with a high-quality saddle while holding a high-quality chainsaw and having a high melee stat, you can quickly kill a wild Giga since the AI tends to go over its target before it starts biting.

## Rage Heart (Rage Mode)

### Basic Information

When the Giganotosaurus enters rage mode, its eyes glow bright yellow — an ominous sign to warn enemies and allies alike of its boosted damage and resistance modifiers. In this state it is a force to be reckoned with, even rivaling the power of other menacing giants like the Dragon and even the DodoRex. If it is tamed it will throw its rider off and attack everything around it, including allied creatures or the player. This effect will last for 20 seconds, which is more than enough time for a catastrophic amount of destruction to occur. Before it becomes enraged, a heart is shown below its stat bars. The player should be cautious as more of the heart begins to glow. Once the heart is filled, the Giganotosaurus will enter its rage mode.

### Cause

Gigas gain rage by taking large amounts of damage in a short time. This includes, but is not limited to, C4, rockets, and reflected damage from the likes of Kentrosaurus. A stomp from a Gamma King Titan (~13,000 damage against mate-boosted Gigas) is enough to auto-enrage them. Flame damage, however, will *not* make a Giganotosaurus enter rage mode. This can make using a Flamethrower, Fire Wyverns, or a Phoenix all viable options for burning down a Giga. Both wild and tamed Gigas gain rage and the more rage they have, increasing damage they deal (estimated at 100% damage increase when at the peak of rage.) In the past, Gigas used to gain rage from fall damage. However this mechanic has been removed. At the same time, changes were made to make rage buildup factor in raw damage as opposed to mitigated damage. This is to prevent high saddle quality from causing a Giga to not enrage since damage was minimal enough to prevent the mechanic from coming into effect.

### Formula

Roughly 45% of a Giga's max life of inflicted unmitigated damage will instantly enrage a Giga. For example, on a Giga with 17,000 health, between 7,175 (42.2%) and 7,404 (43.5%) instant unmitigated damage is needed to enrage it. A Giga with 29,310.2 health requires between 12,936 (44.13%) and 13,526.65 (46.15%) unmitigated damage to become enraged. Mate boost, imprint, and imprint stat buff all provide resistance for your rage meter. Yutyrannus' buff, mate boost, and imprinting all help deal extra damage to enrage an enemy Giga. Almost all bleed attacks (with the exception of the  Deinonychus) are, however, unable to increase the meter.

## Utility

Even though the Giganotosaurus is a big pain in the backside to tame and fight, the Giganotosaurus is a formidable dinosaur once tamed. Note that for all roles it's advised to level melee damage; the Giga gains miniscule boosts in all stats so it's best to utilize what the Giga does best at: mass destruction.

### Roles

* **Tank**: With inherently high HP and base damage, Giganotosaurus is long lasting. Just as long as you watch its Rage, you will last with it. The Giga is not made to soak Turrets, but it is capable of tanking a small amount of them if it is imprinted and equipped with a decent saddle.
* **Siege Engine**: As one of the few tameable land-based Dino capable of destroying Stone structures, it is logical to employ this beast upon your enemies. So long as it is kept calm, The Giganotosaurus can level months of work in mere minutes.
* **Meat farmer**: The Giga is very arguably the best meat farmer in the game thanks its ability to kill almost everything with ease and high damage meaning it harvests far more meat than most creatures. Walking around slaughtering every wild dino around your base will allow you to fill your troughs and fridges in minutes.
* **Guardian**: The Giga is a fantastic guardian against natural threats since it easily handles nearly everything that gets in its proximity. If you're likely to come under heavy attack by rival Survivors, however, it may be best to have your Giga guard one of the approaches to your base, some distance from the actual structures; that way, if the enemy induces a rage mode (assuming it's being ridden,) only they are punished if the rider can escape fast enough or even charge into the opposition to bring the Giga their way.
* **Taming Support Hunter**: Very few creatures gather Raw Prime Meat and get it where it's needed faster. Just remember not to step on your tame, and consider putting your Giga on passive so it doesn't step on or accidentally eat the tame while trying to kill something else.
* **Rock Elemental Defence**: The Giga is a great defence against a  Rock Elemental. The Giga negates the rock Elemental’s 90% damage reduction, making it an effective way to combat them. This strategy could be used as a defense on both PvE and PvP game modes. You could Use the Giga to defend your base against wild or tamed rock elementals. This method is much more effective than attempting to destroy the rock Elementals with explosives as it is a much safer option and is much less costly. Somehow it can bleed the Rock Elemental.
* **Alpha Hunting**: Considering the strength of a Giganotosaurus, it is no surprise that it can quite easily handle alpha Raptors and alpha Carnos in most cases regardless of the level of your Giganotosaurus and the alpha. However, a common question is whether the Giganotosaurus will fare well against an alpha Rex. In most all cases, a Giganotosaurus will defeat an alpha Rex so long as the alpha Rex level does not greatly exceed that of the Giganotosaurus. If in a fight with a high-level alpha Rex, regardless of your Giganotosaurus level, there is a chance of the Giganotosaurus raging. Should the Giganotosaurus rage, it is best to run as quickly as possible, but even if rage is induced, the Giganotosaurus will most likely proceed to win the fight. A Giganotosaurus with good melee and even just base health of 17,000 can win against most alpha Rexs.
* **Titan Killer:** A horde of imprinted Gigas can take on the  Forest Titan and even the  Frost Titan thanks to their large health pool and insane damage output. If your Giga army is small (less than 8) then it's heavily advised to bring additional firepower. Neither of these titans can cause a Giga to auto-enrage. As a rider, make sure you are on something that can dodge their attacks such as a  Managarmr.
	+ Turning on damage multipliers in a server can make a Giganotosaurus deal 3x as much damage to titans.
* **Battle Mount:** The Giga is the mount with the highest damage output of all tameable creatures (except from the Titans) and therefore is a great weapon especially in PvP. If a player puts all of a Giga's level-up points into melee, the Giga can do astronomical damage, dwarfing the damage of a rex.
* **Orbital Supply Drop Defender**: Because its damage is one of the highest, a single Giga can guard relatively easy supply drops. It could be problematic since it can damage the supply drop with its own attacks in a PvP server but it won't on a PvE server. On the hard and legendary orbital supply drops, it is recommended to have several players on Gigas to block various routes where corrupted creatures move in to damage the orbital supply drop. A few players closer to the drop should be on velonasaurs to ground the flyers.
* **Fish Meat Collector**; Due to its large size, it can stand in fairly deep water while still being able to walk. Using this you can easily kill groups of  Coelacanths and  Piranhas.
* **Transport:**; While not recommended due to low stamina levels and high stamina consumption, in a situation of guarding transports, nothing is better then a Giga. Being able to quickly kill off aggressive wildlife, players(depends on the players), and even destroy road blocks up to stone tier, it’s perfect for supporting a long trip. It can even carry some of your items if you wish.

### Collectibles

*note: the giga can harvest fungal wood from only the red capped trees in the bog biome in genesis (tested in single player with a level 348 tek giga)*Template:Gathering efficiency

## Summary

The Giganotosaurus (Or Giga) is an extremely dangerous creature from the game Ark: Survival Evolved, the Giga is one of the strongest dinosaurs in the game, being able to kill other powerful dinosaurs with ease.

## Notes

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

* The dossier was revealed on 08/08/15
* It was set for release on Nov. 3rd, 2015, it was then delayed until Nov. 5th, 2015
* Besides Alpha Predators and the DodoRex, it's one of the only six land-based creatures able to destroy stone structures. The other creatures are the Titanosaur, Rock Elemental, Therizinosaur, Arthropluera, and Chalicotherium.
* Until the Dunkleosteus' release in Patch 238.0, it was the only tameable dino that could demolish stone structures.
* The *Giganotosaurus* is capable of a roar ability. This makes it the fifth creature with the ability to roar, behind the Tyrannosaurus,Allosaurus,Baryonyx, Spino, Ravager and Direwolf. Unlike some of the others, its roar has no purpose other than feeling ferocious, and does not have any cooldown.
* The *Giganotosaurus* swims extremely slowly. This combined with its low stamina means it can drown very quickly if attempting to cross a large and deep body of water, its large HP will not save it. Fortunately it is tall enough that most of the time it can simply wade through.
* Note that on level 1, a *Giganotosaurus* is actually a lot more powerful than even an Alpha T-Rex. The Giga gains little stats aside from melee damage as levels progress while the Alpha Rex gains both health and melee at normal rates.
* *Gigas* can have trouble with rocks, making areas like snow a pain to travel with them on following. It is much easier to have a friend trail behind and break rocks for you or just simply ride it.
* Helena has written down both tick and cross signs next to the collar icon in Giganotosaurus Dossier, meaning it is probably not a good idea to tame one unless someone can handle its sheer power and make explicit use of it.
* The Giga eats constantly while sprinting, and in fact its Food stat will decrease more quickly than it can eat even with its inventory full. The rider needs to ensure that it keeps meat in its inventory when on the move, and in addition to recharging stamina, sometimes make longer stops to eat and recover the Food stat.
* It was supposed to have a tek tier helmet that would allow it to shoot lasers however it has yet to come out.
* The Giganotosaurus is one of the four creatures with the Gnashed effect, with the others being the Allosaurus, the Ravager (Wild only) and the Deinonychus. This could tie in to how the real-life Giga is related to Allosaurus.
* Corrupted Giganotosaurus don't have the Gashed ability.
* Giganotosaurus (including variants) seems to have a bug with its enrage feature; while it will get increased damage as its rage increases, the moment it actually enrages, it loses the bonus damage while its rage mode is active. With this in mind, it's advised to try to supply immediate burst damage to activate rage mode, which in turn, will make dealing with it a lesser hassle.
* Despite the fact that Allosaurus will not aggro on a Spinosaurus they do aggro on tamed gigas, and since Allosaurs deal a lot of damage in a short amount of time it could send your giga into rage mode.
* It is not advised to attack Kentrosaurus with Giganotosaurus, due to the high damage and damage recoil of the Kentrosaurus the Giganotosaurus has a high chance of being enraged .
* Interestingly, fully imprinted Giganotosaurus's health is par with Corrupted Giganotosaurus.
* Based on the distance between a survivor to a mission post in Genesis, a Giga in between the two makes a distance of about 45 meters long and 12 meters tall or about 148 feet long and 39 feet tall.
* For some reason, Gigas can actually harvest fungal wood from the red topped trees in the bog biome of the Genesis Simulation.
* The size and design of the Giga might be based on the European Sci-fi show Primeval, the Giga depicted was considerably larger than any real world Gigas, plus the Primeval Giga has horns above its eyes similar to Arks Giga. An oversized giganotosaurus is also present in the video game Dino Crisis as an antagonist and where he killed and probably devoured a t-rex.
* While the *Giganotosaurus* is the largest and strongest tamable *permanent* creature within Ark being created to cull the New Legion and other tribes, its status in ARK is very different from it's real counterparts however, *Giganotosaurus* was slightly longer and taller but lighter that a t-rex. The bite force of *Giganotosaurus* was also significantly weaker than *Tyrannosaurus*, as the teeth of *Giganotosaurus* were extremely sharp, indicating they were designed to grip/tear flesh, while the teeth of *Tyrannosaurus* were more blunt and built for crushing bone.
	+ The Giganotosaurus' terrible stamina is actually a real fact as its speed in real life is quite fast, however only for short burst, and its build is specialized in hunting prey much bigger than itself. If its prey is smaller than itself, it resorts to ambush tactics.
* Its scientific name comes from modern Latin, from Greek gigantas ‘giant’ + nótios ‘southern’ + sauros ‘lizard.’.
	+ The Greek "gigantas" is pronounced with the soft-G (as in "giant"), unlike the Latin "gigas", which is pronounced with the hard-G (as in "grape"), and as such, the correct pronunciation of Giganotosaurus would actually be to pronounce the G as if it was a J (i.e. Jiga-notosaurus).
* Despite its similar shape to a Rex the Giganotosaurus isn't closely related, being closer to the Allosaurus than to the coelurosaurian Tyrannosaurus.
* the Giganotosaurus is however related to the upcoming Carcharodontosaurus.
* The Giga should NEVER be used in an alpha hunt mission on genesis. The Brute creatures will cause the giga to rage after just a few hits even on easier brutes such as the raptor. No matter the gigas melee do not attempt this, if you really want to, use other creatures as meat shield while gigas attack from behind, they can be used to take out minions however.
* The real-life Giganotosaurus is thought by some to have been a pack hunter, as it would have helped when hunting large sauropods, a trait that is similar to how a horde of Ark giganotosaurus can easily take down the Titanosaur, Forest and Ice Titan.
* The highest melee stat off of a perfect level 150 Giganotosaurus or a level 225 tamed Giganotosaurus would be at or above 235%.
	+ Each mutation on the melee stat increases by 10%.
	+ The giga can't be requested to the closest bed in ark mobile
* Though R-Giganotosaurus are very rare spawns in the Genesis 2 map, they tend to spawn near the base of mountains, away from competing apex predators (the exception being Spinosaurus), and near more docile herbivores that it feeds on. You will usually find one lone specimen at a time.
* Instead of Metal, Dust, Electronics and Oil, Tek Giga drops Hide, Meat and Prime meat.
* The Giganotosaurus (and other creatures not normally allowed) can be teleported into boss arenas on Non-Dedicated servers through a bug. The host player initiates a boss fight, and a second player (or more, if available) must be mounted on the creature they want to teleport to the arena and outside the 'bubble' formed around the terminal/obelisk. Due to the host tether instantly teleporting players when the host enters a different loading zone (ie, a cave or boss arena) it teleports players into the arena regardless of whether or not the creature would normally be allowed. This works with any creature on any map as long as you are not teleporting a water-only creature into a land boss arena. You can even teleport Titanosaurs or Titans with this bug to use in boss fights to extreme effectiveness.
* Gigas in trailers never actually use their roar sound and instea use either rex's or lost island northwest ambient roar, it might be the coincidence, as in Yutyrannus trailer, Rex uses Giga's old roar sound effect.

## Lore

If you want to experience the story ingame, you probably shouldn't continue reading on this section.

* The Giganotosaurus is too heavy to be teleported to Boss Arenas, despite what Mei Yin's Explorer Note #26 says; detailing how she brought a Giganotosaurus named 獸王 ("Beast King")/ Demon King with her to fight against the  Megapithecus.
* In lore, the Giganotosaurus may have been a creature that was added to the Island ARK during the events of the lore as Mei-Yin and Nerva have never seen it before and they didn't know its behavior until they fought at the blue obelisk.
	+ When applying lore from later ARKs, the Giganotosaurus appeared just when the New Legion was starting to become a powerful force on the Island. The Island ARK may have used the Giganotosaurus just like how Scorched Earth and Aberration used wyverns and reapers respectively: preventing survivors from gaining too much power to a point they are controlling their ARK. Specifically, the Giganotosaurus appeared to curb the power and ambitions of the New Legion, which it did. In the long run, Nerva notes that fighting Mei-Yin who had a giga and the red obelisk's dragon was enough to weaken the tribe's authority on the lesser tribes.
	+ Helena may have wrote her dossier about the Giganotosaurus during the in-lore events as the behaviors she mentioned are those that various survivors saw when witnessing it.
		- Its rage mechanic of increasing its bite power as it takes damage was described by Mei Yin during its first appearance in her explorer notes and possibly discussed when they marched to the blue obelisk.
		- The dossier text when it mentioned that some factions want to tame it for its overwhelming size and power despite the dangerous risks refers to how Mei Yin took desperate measures to tame one in an effort to resist the New Legion in future battles.
		- When domesticated, Helena mentioned it having a rage reaction that can make it turn on its own allies, a characteristic of the dinosaur every lore survivor except Rockwell witnessed at the blue obelisk battle.