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The best dinosaurs to tame early

Oct 18, 2026

Your first hours on a new character decide how smooth the rest of the run feels. The right early tames feed you, carry your loot and get you into the air. Here are the creatures we pick first on the Hotdoggamers cluster, with taming times worked out for our rates.

Why our rates make early taming easy

We run 4x taming speed, 3x harvesting, a 150 max wild level and a 450 tame level cap. In practice, a fully levelled wild creature that takes ages on official servers takes minutes here. All times below are for a level 150 creature, the highest you will meet in the wild. Lower levels are faster. Check any creature on our taming calculator, which already uses our rates.

What makes a good first tame

  • Easy to find and easy to knock out. You should not need a full kit to get it.
  • Cheap food. Berries and raw meat beat kibble when you are just starting.
  • Useful right away. It gathers, carries or flies.
  • Hard to lose. A tame that dies in the first hour is wasted effort.

The top five

1. Parasaur

The classic first mount. It is calm, it carries a good amount of weight, and it warns you when something dangerous is near. It is a knockout tame, but on our rates it needs very little torpor.

  • Food: Mejoberries or plain berries.
  • Time at level 150: about 8 minutes with either one, at close to 100% taming effectiveness.
  • Tip: a few narcoberries keep it asleep. You will not need a pile of narcotics.

2. Moschops

The safest tame in the game. It is passive, so there is no fighting and no knockout. Hand-feed it and wait. It gathers fiber, berries and wood, and it makes an easy base helper.

  • Food: raw mutton or raw prime meat.
  • Time at level 150: roughly 10 to 13 minutes.
  • Tip: stay close and keep feeding it. Passive tames are checked while you are near.

3. Raptor

Fast, strong for its size and available early. It is a good fighter and a decent escort while you build up.

  • Food: raw prime meat is the best choice, raw meat works too.
  • Time at level 150: about 4 minutes with raw prime meat (about 11 minutes with plain raw meat).
  • Tip: trap it in a stone enclosure first. It cannot escape and you can take your time.

4. Pteranodon

Your first flyer. It lets you scout, reach high resources and cross the map quickly. On our cluster it also works with the solo farm plugin, so you can drop a farming dino off wherever you need it (see the join page).

  • Food: raw prime meat, or raw meat.
  • Time at level 150: about 12 minutes with raw prime meat, about 32 minutes with plain raw meat.
  • Tip: its torpor wears off faster than most. Bring narcotics or narcoberries and top up during the tame.

5. Triceratops

A tough berry gatherer with a charge attack that harvests bushes quickly. It also makes a fair early defender.

  • Food: mejoberries or berries.
  • Time at level 150: about 24 minutes. Build a funnel enclosure and bring plenty of berries.
  • Tip: it has plenty of torpor, so it can sleep for a long time. You only need a few knockouts.

Honorable mentions

  • Iguanodon: turns berries into seeds. Takes about 15 minutes at level 150.
  • Carbonemys: a tanky chitin farmer that can swim. About 24 minutes at level 150.
  • Lystrosaurus: a small passive tame whose petting gives nearby tames a small experience boost.

Common mistakes

  • Taming the highest level first. Levels matter, but a calm level 100 Parasaur beats a dead level 150 one.
  • Forgetting food and narcotics. Fill your hotbar before you walk up to the creature.
  • Taming in the open. Use a stone pen. Predators love sleeping targets.
  • Wandering off during passive tames. If you leave, the tame stalls.

Knockout or passive?

A knockout tame means you put the creature to sleep with tranquilizer arrows, darts or narcoberries, then feed it while it is unconscious. You must keep its torpor up until the tame is done. A passive tame means you simply feed the creature while it stays awake, with no fighting. Passive tames are slower to set up, but they are safer.

Raising babies on our cluster

Breeding is generous here. Baby maturation is 5x and imprinting is 100% after a single cuddle about 2.5 hours after birth, so there is no need to be online all day. Hatch it, give it one cuddle at the right time and your baby is fully imprinted.

FAQ

Do I need kibble early on? No. Berries and raw meat are enough for everything in this guide.

Can I tame the same creature in a different map? Yes. Tames travel between maps through transmitters and obelisks, and all maps are linked by crosschat, so you can ask for help from anywhere.

How do I know how much food I need? Open the taming calculator, choose the creature and its level, and it uses our rates automatically.

See you in game.