Guides
Dino Overhaul X 2 (DOX 2) Mod For ARK: Survival Ascended
Get to Know Dino Overhaul X 2
ARK: Survival Ascended has many mods that change and add things to this impressive world. However, DOX 2 is one of the mods that makes the most changes to the game’s mechanics. This mod comes to us thanks to equillizer04 on CurseForge, who has been working on it for years since it was available in ARK: SE. In general terms, DOX2 makes the experience in ARK more “difficult”, affecting how you tame dinos, breeding, and even statistics. Now, let’s take a closer look at what this mod brings to us.
Attributes
Creatures can acquire attributes that give them advantages or disadvantages. These attributes are divided into two types: permanent and temporary. Thanks to them, you can gain adjustments to the creature’s stats or they may display some effect they are currently under.
Permanent traits can be acquired by your creature through meeting certain conditions or by having them before you capture them in their wild form. The permanent attributes that creatures have in their wild state are half the listed values and will have a (W) next to the trait name. These traits affect your dino’s base stats by increasing or decreasing certain characteristics. Additionally, they are cumulative, so if you manage to acquire the same trait twice, the bonuses will stack.
- Some of the permanent traits are as follows:
- Tough: +10% DR / -10% MS
- Balanced: +5% MS / +5% DMG
- Runner: +10% MS / -10 DMG
- Brawler: +10% DMG / +5% DR
- Fragile: -15% DR
- Weak: -15% DMG
To gain permanent attributes, your dinos will need to fight against other creatures of similar or larger size. During this process, they will gain temporary attributes that will affect your creature positively or negatively. These traits can last between 10-20 seconds, and some are cumulative. Some of the temporary traits they can acquire are:
- Fractured
- Bleeding
- Stunned
- Vulnerable
- Panicked
- Courage
- Steadfast
- Quick
- Agile
Within this mod, your creatures will have the ability to evolve. This evolution is reflected in the type of attributes, name, and all the characteristics your creature has. To achieve the evolution of your creatures, they will need to acquire 3 non-(W) permanent attributes along with a unique attribute. There is a very rare chance that some wild creatures will have unique attributes before being tamed. Some of the unique traits your creature can acquire are:
- Tough:+15% DR / -5% MS
- Balanced: +10% MS / +10% DMG
- Runner: +15% MS / -5 DMG
- Juggernaut: +15% DMG / +15% DR (the rarest of the four)
After reaching the “Unique” level, your creatures can acquire the Prime level. Upon reaching the Prime level, they will receive 1 random attribute from the following:
- Tough:+15% DR
- Balanced: +5% MS / +15 DMG
- Runner: +10% MS
- Juggernaut: +20% DMG / +15% DR
To have your creature reach the “Prime” level, you’ll need to engage in battles and defeat creatures that are Prime level or higher in their wild state. Additionally, you can have creatures that are “Alpha Prime Unique”. The difference is that you will need to tame an Alpha creature and then increase its stats to raise it to Prime level.
Your creatures can have up to 14 permanent attributes; up to 3 from their wild form (W), 6 standard ones that they can gain through battle, 2 unique (1 that they may have in their wild form and another that you can work towards), 1 “Primal”, 1 Mega, and 1 corrupted.
You can increase standard attributes by feeding “Genetic Strings” to your dinos, which will give them a random attribute. These attributes can also be negative, so be careful. “Corrupted Genetic Strings” will help you increase or decrease the percentage of traits your dino already has. These will give you +/- 25% in Damage, Damage Reduction, or speed.
Taming
Taming within the DOX 2 mod has been changed for both herbivores and carnivores. Moving away from taming by torpor and food, now you’ll find two ways to tame the creature you want. You can tame passively or through fertilized eggs. To tame dinos that fall under the “alpha” category, you must be level 50. Otherwise, you will not be able to tame them successfully! Another point to consider is that if you want to tame a high-level creature, you will need to be at least half the level of the creature; otherwise, it will be impossible.
The process for taming dinos is as follows:
- Carefully approach the creature until a green star appears above its head; at that moment, you must have the food equipped and feed it.
- If it wasn’t tamed, you will have 10 seconds to move away and avoid being attacked.
- Repeat until you successfully tame it.
Herbivores
The way to tame any Herbivore Dino is by passively feeding them and staying close to them. You must perform this exercise carefully, as it doesn’t always work on the first try, and they can react aggressively. Even though they are herbivores, their attacks can cause significant damage.
Carnivores
To tame carnivorous creatures, you will need fertilized eggs from a creature that is at the same level as the carnivore you want to tame. If you try to do it with eggs from smaller creatures, it will be much more difficult and time-consuming as they can enter a 300-second period where they will not accept any food again.
Breeding
Now that you’ve managed to obtain your creatures and want to start breeding them, there’s something very important you need to know: in this mod, females have a limited number of breedings, which varies according to the size of the creature:
- Small: 15 – 45 times.
- Medium: 10 – 30 times.
- Large: 3 – 9 times.
Once the female in question reaches her maximum number of breedings, she will have the word “sterile” next to her name. Along with this new title, she will receive a 15% damage reduction boost.
Another important point is that breeding groups have a maximum of 5 members, including both males and females. This means that if you place more than 5 dinos together to breed, only 5 will succeed, and the rest will do nothing. To prevent groups from interfering with each other, you will need to separate them by at least 25 meters. You should also know that baby creatures do not acquire permanent traits until they are fully grown. This applies to offspring from your tamed dinos or wild dinos.
Conclusion
Dino Overhaul X 2 is a mod that rebalances each and every creature, adding not only improvements but also new mechanics for acquiring them. This greatly increases the difficulty for both PvE and PvP servers. Dive into this new way of experiencing ARK, where they strive to maintain the vanilla essence of the game while giving it a twist in every possible aspect, such as taming, fighting, defending, and advancing in the game. Gather your friends and take on this unparalleled adventure on your own ARK: Survival Ascended server.
