ARK Survival Ascended Xiphactinus Trap Guide | The Center

There are plenty of aquatic creatures roaming the oceans of ARK Survival Ascended's The Center map, and one of the most useful as an underwater fighter is the Xiphactinus. Unfortunately, taming one can be a very difficult and often dangerous process due to the creature's high aggression and pack-animal nature.

Thankfully, you don't have to risk getting chomped to pieces trying to figure it out on your own. Below, we will show you how to build and use an effective trap for easily catching your own Xiphactinus in ARK Survival Ascended The Center.

ARK Survival Ascended Xiphactinus Trap Guide | The Center

The Xiphactinus is a large fish-type creature found in the waters of almost every ARK of ASA (not Evolved, unfortunately), but its numbers are far higher on The Center than on any map we've seen so far. As such, you should try getting your hands on one as an aquatic tame for its speed, powerful bite attacks, and ability to grab and hold onto prey in the water.

Now, when it comes to trapping it, we'll be using a small square-shaped structure that requires you to lead the Xiphactinus into it, and then close or place the door behind it. As you'll see from the image above, the build is fairly simple as all you need is three stone gateways, three reinforced gates, and a metal billboard placed at the back of the square structure, leaving a small gap between the top of the gateway and the top of the billboard.

It's important that you build this in shallow water and as close to the land as possible, ideally on a sloped surface to avoid the Xiphactinus escaping. Once placed, the strategy is to lure the Xiphactinus into the trap opening (opposite the billboard), then swim above the billboard to escape, and circle back around to close the last gate behind the Xiphactinus.

Once it's trapped inside, you can begin the process of taming it, which requires the KO method. So get out your tranquilizer arrows or harpoons and begin pelting it inside the trap until the Xiphactinus is knocked out, and then you can go ahead and feed it the desired taming food (in this case, any kind of meat—white or red) until its tame bar fills up and the Xiphactinus is yours.

Now, during the process of luring a wild Xiphactinus into the trap, you need to be aware of a few things, the first being its aggression. The Xiphactinus is extremely aggressive with a wide aggro range, meaning that the moment you aggro it, it will chase you, and if you're not close enough to your trap, it will catch you and begin flailing around as it grips you and stops your movement.

So ideally, you'll want to use a fast mount such as an Ichthyosaurus when you aggro the Xiphactinus, then swim back to the trap using it, and you still fit through the exit of the trap. The second thing, however, is the Xiphactinus's pack behavior, as it will usually swim in groups, and due to its aggression, once one aggroes, they all do.

So you'll want to try and peel one off, either by aggroing when other wild dinos are nearby to distract the loose ones and draw away the one you want, or kill the other Xiphactinuses and leave the one you want alone to trap.

But that's all you'll need to know when it comes to luring in and trapping the Xiphactinus to tame, and now armed with the knowledge of building and using the trap as well as luring tips, you're all set to get your own Xiphactinus in ASA The Center. Finally, we want to shout out YouTuber NOOBLETS for their detailed breakdown of building and using this trap, for a more in-depth look, be sure to check out their video above.