How To Tame A Compy In ARK: Survival Evolved And Ascended

Taming a Compy (Compsognathus) in ARK requires a passive taming approach using raw prime meat, cooked lamb chops, or regular raw meat, accompanied by a ghillie suit or cactus broth to manage your concealment. Because of their tiny size, aggressive pack mentality, and low taming effectiveness with standard foods, survivors must isolate a single individual from its pack while feeding it progressively higher-tier meats.

Preparing Your Excursion for Compy Taming

Before you venture out to capture one of ARK's smallest dinosaurs, you need to understand that the Compsognathus is rarely found alone. They spawn in packs, and attacking one triggers an aggressive response from every member within range, scaling their damage output based on pack size. Proper preparation ensures you do not get overwhelmed by a swarm of these miniature carnivores while trying to feed them passively.

• Essential Gear and Materials: Ghillie Suit (complete set of 4 pieces to maximize insulation and minimize detection radius), Bug Repellant, Cactus Broth (if playing on Scorched Earth, Aberration, or Extinction), and a Spyglass to check levels and health pools.
• Taming Consumables: Raw Prime Meat (highest effectiveness), Cooked Lamb Chop, Raw Prime Fish Meat, or standard Raw Meat as a last resort.
• Prerequisite Knowledge: Understanding of the passive taming mechanic, proximity aggro ranges, and the unique pack-buff system that affects Compy damage and resistance.
• Estimated Duration Benchmarks: 10 to 20 minutes per tame depending on server multipliers, level of the Compy, and the food quality utilized.

Step-by-Step Compy Taming Procedure

Step 1: Isolate and Scout Your Target

Locate a Compy on the map using your spyglass. Compies typically inhabit the beaches, jungles, and inland forests of maps like The Island, The Center, and Ragnarok. Look for a high-level individual and check the surrounding area for other pack members.

1. Scan the immediate vicinity for aggressive predators such as Raptors, Rexes, or Sabertooths that might interrupt the taming process.
2. Use your spyglass to ensure no other Compies are within a 30-meter radius, as drawing agro from the pack will reset your taming progress and ruin your Ghillie effectiveness.
3. Wait for the target Compy to wander away from its packmates naturally, or use a large herbivore or tame to clear out the surrounding cluster safely.

Warning: Never attempt to tame a Compy while it is stacked with three or more pack members, as their pack buff grants them increased attack power and damage reduction that can easily kill a survivor wearing cloth or hide armor.

Step 2: Apply Concealment and Approach

Once your target is isolated, you must minimize your visibility. Compies have a specific detection threshold governed by your movement speed, posture, and environmental camouflage.

1. Equip your full set of Ghillie Armor and apply Bug Repellant directly to your survivor's hotbar and inventory. Consuming Cactus Broth further reduces your visibility range.
2. Crouch and slowly walk toward the isolated Compy. Avoid running, jumping, or making sudden turns, as these actions instantly alert the creature.
3. Position yourself directly behind or beside the Compy without touching its physical hitbox, which can trigger an accidental attack or cause it to scatter.

Step 3: Execute Passive Feeding

With the Compy calm and unaware of your presence, you are ready to feed it your highest-tier available meat from your last hotbar slot.

1. Place Raw Prime Meat, Cooked Lamb, or Raw Meat into slot zero (the furthest right slot) of your active item hotbar.
2. Press the use key when prompted by the on-screen UI to feed the Compy. The message indicating success will appear in the top left of your screen.
3. Retreat slightly into a crouched position and wait for the feeding cooldown timer to expire. Keep your spyglass trained on the Compy to monitor its taming affinity bar.

Pro-Tip: Compies require high-tier meats to progress efficiently. Using standard raw meat on high-level official servers can cause taming effectiveness to plummet, resulting in a significantly weaker creature upon completion.

Step 4: Protect and Complete the Tame

Maintain your stealth posture throughout the entire feeding cycle. Depending on the server rates, you may need to feed the Compy multiple times.

1. Watch out for environmental hazards like changing weather, wandering dilophosaurs, or aggressive insects that can break your stealth or damage the Compy.
2. If the Compy takes any damage from a third-party source during the taming process, its taming effectiveness will drop severely, and it may panic and run away.
3. Once the taming bar reaches one hundred percent, immediately access the radial menu to name your new companion and whistle it to follow or stay put.

Compy Taming Foods and Effectiveness Matrix

Common Taming Failures and Field Fixes

• Root Cause: The Compy attacks you the moment you get close despite wearing a full Ghillie suit.
  
  
  • Actionable Fix: Ensure your Ghillie suit durability is above zero and that you are crouching. Running or utilizing a flying mount that lands too close will instantly blow your cover. Apply Bug Repellant and consume Cactus Broth to shrink your detection radius further.
• Root Cause: Another dinosaur interrupts the taming process and kills your target.
  
  
  • Actionable Fix: Clear the surrounding territory using a high-level combat tame parked at a safe distance. Alternatively, build a small perimeter trap using doorways and foundations, lure the Compy inside, and tame it safely behind protective walls.
• Root Cause: Taming effectiveness drops to zero or the Compy's taming progress stalls out completely.
  
  
  • Actionable Fix: This occurs when the Compy takes damage or when too much time passes between feeding intervals. Always use prime-tier meats to speed up the process and minimize the window for error.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best food to tame a Compy in ARK?

Raw Prime Meat and Cooked Lamb Chops provide the highest taming effectiveness and speed. Using standard raw meat should be avoided unless you are taming a low-level individual on modified single-player rates.

Do I need a trap to tame a Compy?

A trap is not strictly required because Compies are small and easy to approach with a Ghillie suit. However, building a simple two-by-two stone pen can protect you from server interference and aggressive predators on high-difficulty servers.

Can you knock out a Compy to tame it?

No, Compies are exclusively passive tames. Attempting to tranquilize them with arrows or darts will either kill them outright due to their low health pool or fail to trigger the knockout mechanic entirely.

How do Compy pack buffs work after taming?

Once tamed, a group of Compies provides a scaling damage and resistance buff depending on the number of pack members present. Having a leader with multiple followers significantly increases their combat output in PvE and PvP scenarios.

Master the art of stealth and secure your own miniature pack of tactical hunters today by dropping into ARK with a full Ghillie suit and prime meat in hand.