As of now, there are no options equivalent to Narcotic Darts.

You can use Narcotic Traps.... takes practice and care to set them up correctly and in a way that ensures the correct Dino sets them off (when not in a taming pit).

I'm hoping a lower Damage:Torpor ratio option is added in the future.

why kinda dinos you talking? i cant think of anything that you cant tame with tranq arrows without a little practice

nope, try to tame 140-150 Sabres, Direbears, Gallimus, Terrorbird. There Torpor is in most cases much higher then their Health. :/

Originally posted by Garvony:

why kinda dinos you talking? i cant think of anything that you cant tame with tranq arrows without a little practice

Garvony, downing Dire Bears, Gallimimus, Kairuku, and maybe a few others I missed can be stressful due to them having much less health to torpor ratio.

The Following Is assuming PERFECT level-up in Health, which is IMPOSSIBLE!

Lets look at the Kairuku's Torpor to Health ratio.

Level 1 Kairuku: 300:95 or 3.158:1
Level 120 with all levels in HP Kairuku: 2442:2356 or 1.036:1
On average only 30%, sometimes less, of levels goes to HP which gives you a measly 773.3 hp for a 3.158:1 ratio, which is same as a level 1.

Base Torpor = 300 | Increase Per Level in Wild = 18
Base Health = 95 | Increase Per Level in Wild = 19

Now let us look at the torpor to damage ratio on some weapons and fists.

Fists: Torpor:Damage | 1.75:1
Club: Torpor:Damage | 3.75:1
Slingshot: Torpor:Damage | 1.5:1
Bow: Torpor:Damage | 4.5:1
Crossbow: Torpor:Damage | 4.5:1

You can see that it is very very hard to knock one out without killing it. Especially since they take extra damage from everything except fists or club. It is super easy to kill a Kairuku by accident, due to taking increased damage from projectiles.

If using the club, or fists, missing the Kairuku allows it to immediatly recover some torpor.

I reccommend bow for kairuku, and shooting them in the belly/back to avoid headshots which may kill it. Remember to count the seconds from your first shot, and only shoot enough times to down it.

Now look at Gallimimus... Torpor:Health ratio

Level 1 Gallimimus: 420:150 or 2.8:1
Level 120 Gallimimus: 3454.5:3720 or 0.928:1
30% HP levels: 1221 HP or 2.829:1

Base Torpor = 420 | Increase Per Level in Wild = 25.2
Base Health = 150 | Increase Per Level in Wild = 30

Not as bad as Kairuku, so much more doable but very unforgiving if you miss or scew up. Again, I reccomend bow for these, and count your shots carefully as every time it is able to recover torpor it recovers a LOT (-12.721 Torpor a Second!)

Dire Bear Torpor:Health ratios

Level 1 Dire Bear: 1000:400 or 2.5:1
Level 120 Dire Bear: 8140:9920 or 0.821:1
30% HP levels at 120: 3256 HP or 2.5:1

Base Torpor = 1000 | Increase Per Level in Wild = 60
Base Health = 400 | Increase Per Level in Wild = 80

Slightly better than Gallimimus, and too boot harder to down since its trying to rip your face off, and can not be Bola'd. Need to be very careful not to miss as the torpor recovery rate is -2.865 torpor/second.

Let's compair ALL of these to say... a Bronto?

Just the level 1 and average of 30% levels into HP to show the low-ball ratios.. Bronto

Level 1 Bronto: 2000:2300 or 0.87:1
30% HP levels at 120: 18722 HP or 0.867:1

Base Torpor = 2000| Increase Per Level in Wild = 120
Base Health = 2300 | Increase Per Level in Wild = 460

Clearly, Bronto has a no worry case, due to having such a low amount of torpor to hp ratio.

Like the Bronto, most of Ark's animals have very low ratios, but a couple of them are much much higher, which means accidental deaths happen more often. This is why they introduced Darts.

Darts are an 8.5:1 ratio for Torpor to Damage. Prim+ needs to implement something to that scale, or at least close to it.

yea. The Metal hammer comes close to that Ratio i think 5-6 : 1 ratio. but do we need to stay in front of a lvl 150 Direbear with a Hammer ? *cough*

Originally posted by Gerlinger:

yea. The Metal hammer comes close to that Ratio i think 5-6 : 1 ratio. but do we need to stay in front of a lvl 150 Direbear with a Hammer ? *cough*

The hammer is a bad idea, just because of that added danger in my opinion. If the hammer stays, then it needs to be on Par with the Electric Prod which is a 266:1.... or at least 50:1, I mean c'mon...

At least with the Hammer it scales with melee damage % increase from levels. I'm not sure what the base damage is of the Hammer, so I can not do the math.

heres how i have dealt with low health to torpor ratio dinos. if you can establish a taming pen, get one of each gender. They will be mate boosted and makes it far easier to knockout without worrying about the health. If you build your pen to have tow "cells" near each other you dont even have to worry about the secodn one harming you while you deal with the first after knockout.

ah ok thats sound quiet nice. i will give it a try. so if im looking to tame a high level bear i should take my previous owned with me in hope , that the one i will tame is the other gender?

Originally posted by Gerlinger:

ah ok thats sound quiet nice. i will give it a try. so if im looking to tame a high level bear i should take my previous owned with me in hope , that the one i will tame is the other gender?

No, you would need to find two wild ones, one of each gender.

This will reduce the amount of damage you do to them, which in turn will also reduce the torpor you do, because torpor is directly linked to damage done.

The ONLY benefit from this, is you are doing smaller chunks of damage, which in turn lowers the probability of exceding the health pool, but it also requires more shots/materials.

Instead, I would put those materials to better use and make some Narcotic traps.... which do zero damage, and lots of torpor. Never knock out with traps, only start with traps! Otherwise the dino will not be tameable.

ah ok thnx ill try that with the trap.
thnx m8.. but anyway the Primitiv+ needs something like frog poison dart + blowpipe or something like that,, becouse even today there are some folks using this method and im sure that some used this method Thousands of Years before :P

Make good use of the magnifying glass.

We usually tranq arrow until they look "fairly bloody", then check with the magnifying glass their exact health and torpor. /Most/ animals will recover health faster than their torpor drops (200 torpor per arrow) so although you may have to pause to allow health to regen, we've not come across an animal or dino yet that you can't knock out like this.

This usually requires a taming pen, so for larger dinos will require an Argent or a Quetz to ferry the wild animal.

You could also train a tank pet like a turtle or whatever to use as a distraction for the metal hammer. Also for anyone who didn't know, a fully pulled back tranq arrow will do more topor damage than one not fully pulled back

Originally posted by solidap:

You could also train a tank pet like a turtle or whatever to use as a distraction for the metal hammer. Also for anyone who didn't know, a fully pulled back tranq arrow will do more topor damage than one not fully pulled back

Having another dino 'tank' for you increases the risk of killing the target, since you normally draw aggro by doing damage. (you do not want to be doing damage unless it increases torpor from it) The only exception to this, would be using a Scorpion. Using a Scorpion in conjunction with your regular taming method, however scorpion torpor done is over 10 seconds, and it does not Stack like narcotic torpor from narc arrows/darts. So if the scorpion hits the target 3 times in 3 seconds in 1 second intervals, you just did 300% damage for only like 120% of the torpor...... having someone with you on the scorpion timing the hits, is best.


Now,
In the case of not wanting to waste arrows, yes charging is best. In the case of not wanting to kill your target by accident due to over-kill, Do NOT charge the bow.

The torpor done is directly correlated to the damage done. Charging the bow, increases damage, which in turn increases torpor per shot. It does NOT make it any more/less efficient when looking at hp:torpor ratio. It is only more effecient when looking at Arrow:torpor ratio.

With this in mind, if you can afford to use more arrows, charge your bow shots as little as possible towards the end of the Knock Out. Use high charge shots, to the Head if applicable, at the begining of a KO attempt.

TL:DR, it is not always best to use max charge on bow/slingshot.