If you’ve spent hours grinding for crystal, obsidian, or polymer in ARK, you know how quickly that busywork kills the fun of exploring and building. That’s where learning how 2 tame a gotcha ark changes your entire gameplay loop. Gotchas are one of the most underrated utility creatures in the game, spitting out rare resources and even custom loot if you feed them the right treats. I’ve tamed over 20 gotchas across maps from Genesis Part 2 to Fjordur, so I’ve got all the mistakes and wins narrowed down to a simple process that won’t waste your rare resources or get your best tames killed.
Pre-Tame Preparation: What You Need Before You Hunt a Gotcha
You don’t just wander into gotcha spawn zones with a handful of kibble and expect to walk away with a tame. These creatures are territorial, hit hard, and their spawn areas are usually packed with other dangerous mobs like rexes or wyverns depending on the map. Pick the right gotcha level first — higher level gotchas produce higher quality resources and have more health, so aim for at least level 100 on default settings. Skip anything below level 50 unless you’re just testing the taming process for the first time.
You’ll also need a trap, because gotchas move faster than you think, and their ranged spit attack can knock you off your mount in one hit. Here’s a full list of supplies you should gather before you head out:
- 20+ exceptional kibble (or 60+ raw prime meat if you’re on a budget)
- A stone or metal 2x2 trap with a ramp, no ceiling needed
- A fast flying mount like a pteranodon or argentavis to scout spawns
- 10+ healing brews for your mount if you run into aggressive creatures mid-trap
- A full set of flak armor to protect you from stray gotcha spit attacks
Never try to tame a gotcha out in the open — they will run away when their health drops low, and you’ll lose all the progress you made knocking them out, plus you risk getting swarmed by other predators that hear the commotion. I made this mistake on my first gotcha hunt, and lost a full set of flak armor and my favorite argentavis to a pack of raptors that showed up mid-tame.
How 2 Tame a Gotcha Ark: Step-by-Step Taming Process
Start by scouting gotcha spawn zones — on Genesis Part 2, they spawn in the Eden zone near river edges, and on Fjordur you can find them in the Asgard biome. Once you spot a gotcha at the level you want, aggro it by shooting it once with a tranq arrow from a distance, then lead it straight into your pre-built trap. Once it’s inside, block the ramp entrance with a dino gate or large rock so it can’t escape.
Now you need to knock it out, but go slow. Gotchas have very low torpor compared to other large creatures, so if you shoot too many tranq arrows at once, you’ll kill it before it passes out. If you have access to a longneck rifle with tranq darts, use those — they deal less damage per torpor hit, so you’re far less likely to accidentally kill the gotcha.
Once it’s unconscious, open its inventory and put your taming food in there, then keep an eye on its torpor level. You don’t need to put narcoberries or narcotics in its inventory most of the time, because their torpor drops really slowly. If you’re taming a high level one with raw prime meat, keep a stack of narcotics on hand just in case. Once the taming bar fills up, you’ve got your own gotcha! Don’t move it right away, give it a minute to wake up fully, otherwise it might glitch through the trap and run off. I learned that the hard way when my first level 140 gotcha despawned because I tried to pick it up with my argentavis 2 seconds after the taming bar filled.
Post-Tame Care: Get the Most Out of Your New Gotcha
A tamed gotcha is only useful if you set it up correctly, so don’t just leave it wandering around your base. First, assign it to a dedicated pen or raised platform, away from other aggressive tames that might attack it by mistake. The most important thing to do right after taming is to set its wandering mode to on — gotchas only produce resources when they are wandering, they won’t make anything if they’re set to follow or stay in one spot.
Next, feed it “treats” to make it produce the resources you want. If you give it element dust, it will produce element shards and even full element over time. If you give it stone, it will produce crystal, obsidian, and flint. If you give it organic polymer, it will produce regular polymer that doesn’t spoil. Don’t give it more than 100 of a treat at a time, because it will consume them all at once and you won’t get more resources than if you gave it smaller batches.
If this is your first time learning how 2 tame a gotcha ark, you might be surprised by how much resource output you get from even a mid-level one. You can put a feeding trough next to it with raw meat so it doesn’t starve while it’s wandering, so you don’t have to manually feed it every day. One thing to note: gotchas don’t produce loot when you’re not in render distance, so if you want to farm a lot of resources, build your gotcha pen near your main base so it’s always loaded when you’re online.
Common Gotcha Taming Mistakes to Avoid
Even if you follow all the steps, it’s easy to mess up your first few gotcha tames, so here are the mistakes I see new players make all the time. First, using the wrong taming food: a lot of new players use regular raw meat, which cuts taming effectiveness by 60% and makes the taming process take 3 times longer. You’re better off spending an extra hour farming prime meat than wasting time taming a low effectiveness gotcha that will produce low quality resources.
Second, building a trap that’s too small. Gotchas are larger than they look, so if your trap is 1x1, they won’t fit inside, and they’ll just knock your trap apart before you can trap them. Third, trying to take a gotcha into PvP fights: yeah, they hit hard, but they’re slow, and their spit attack has a long cooldown, so they’re basically useless in fights. You’re better off keeping them at your base for farming.
Never leave your gotcha unprotected near the edge of your base — rival PvP players will target them first because they’re easy to kill and they usually have tons of rare resources in their inventory. If you’re playing on a PvP server, build your gotcha pen inside your main base walls, with multiple layers of protection so no one can sneak in and steal your resources. You can even hide it behind a false wall if you’re extra worried about raids.
Taming a gotcha doesn’t have to be a frustrating, resource-wasting process if you follow the steps we laid out. Once you learn how 2 tame a gotcha ark the right way, you’ll never have to spend hours farming crystal or polymer by hand again. I still have my first tamed gotcha on my main PvE server, and it’s produced enough element for me to build 3 tek bases over the last year, so it’s well worth the small effort you put in to tame one. If you’re still nervous about your first tame, start with a low level one to practice the process, then move up to higher levels once you’re comfortable with the trap and taming rhythm.