Mantis

or

cheat SpawnDino “Blueprint’/Game/ScorchedEarth/Dinos/Mantis/Mantis_Character_BP.Mantis_Character_BP’” 500 0 0 35

Variant Mantis (Gauntlet)

cheat summon Mantis_Character_BP_Gauntlet_C

or

cheat SpawnDino “Blueprint’/Game/Genesis/Dinos/MissionVariants/Gauntlet/Bog/Mantis_Character_BP_Gauntlet.Mantis_Character_BP_Gauntlet’” 500 0 0 35

Variant Mantis (SummonedD)

cheat summon Mantis_Character_BP_Summoned_C

or

cheat SpawnDino “Blueprint’/Game/Genesis2/Dinos/Summoner/SummonedDinos/Mantis_Character_BP_Summoned.Mantis_Character_BP_Summoned’” 500 0 0 35

Variant Mantis (Gauntlet2)

cheat summon Mantis_Character_BP_STA_C

or

cheat SpawnDino “Blueprint’/Game/Genesis2/Missions/ModularMission/Gauntlet2/STA/Dinos/Mantis_Character_BP_STA.Mantis_Character_BP_STA’” 500 0 0 35

Variant VR Mantis (Gauntlet2)

cheat summon Mantis_Character_BP_TameSTA_C

or

cheat SpawnDino “Blueprint’/Game/Genesis2/Missions/ModularMission/Gauntlet2/STA/Endless/Tames/Mantis_Character_BP_TameSTA.Mantis_Character_BP_TameSTA’” 500 0 0 35

Variant VR Mantis (Maze)

cheat summon Mantis_Character_BP_CorrMaze_C

or

cheat SpawnDino “Blueprint’/Game/Genesis2/Missions/ModularMission/Maze/CorruptedZone/Dinos/Mantis_Character_BP_CorrMaze.Mantis_Character_BP_CorrMaze’” 500 0 0 35

Common
Rare
Untameable Cave

The Mantis is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved. It was added in the Scorched Earth DLC on September 1, 2016, and included with the Ragnarok expansion on June 12, 2017, also included in Genesis Part 2 on June 3rd, 2021.

Basic Info

Dossier

This section is intended to be an exact copy of what the survivor Helena Walker, the author of the dossiers, has written. There may be some discrepancies between this text and the in-game creature.

Empusa discipulus

Time

Holocene

Diet

Carnivore

Temperament

Aggressive

Wild

The existence of a creature such as Empusa discipulus is both fascinating and frightening. Not only is Empusa the only recorded insect to have developed an opposable digit, allowing it to grip objects and use tools, but it possesses a level of intelligence that is unrivalled among non-human species. I have even found clear patterns in the sounds Empusa makes when communicating with its own kind, as though it is actually using some kind of dialect. I would love to study these interactions in depth, but observing Empusa up close is extremely dangerous. Its size, intelligence and ability to pounce on its prey from a great distance mean that one could be quickly swarmed and killed upon detection. Caution is recommended.

Domesticated

Though a dangerous task, successfully taming Empusa can prove highly beneficial. Its unique claws allow it to wield melee weapons like spears or pikes in battle, and use tools while harvesting resources. This makes it deadly as a mount or footsoldier and highly efficient as a gatherer.

Behavior

Highly aggressive, it attacks any medium-size or smaller creature that enters its range.

Appearance

It looks just like an average Mantis but much larger and deadlier. It usually comes from a light green to a brown or a yellowish color.

Color Scheme and Regions

This section displays the Mantis’s natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Mantis. The colored squares shown underneath each region’s description are the colors that the Mantis will randomly spawn with to provide an overall range of its natural color scheme. Hover your cursor over a color to display its name and ID.

This information can be used to alter the Mantis’s regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Mantis’s “body” magenta.

Drops

Base Stats and Growth

Attribute	Level Increase	Taming Bonus
Wild	Additive	Multiplicative
	275	+55	+2.7%	0.07
	150	+15	+10%
	150	+15	+10%
	900	+90	+10%
	220	+4.4	+8%
	+0.85 / +3	+1.7%	7%	17.6%
	100%	+1%	67%
	350	+21	class=”gray”	0.5

• For a comparison of the stats of all creatures, see Base Creature Statistics.
• For an explanation of exactly how the levelup calculation works, see Creature Stats Calculation.

Movement [u/s]	Base Speed	Sprinting Speed
Wild	Tamed1	Tamed2	Wild	Tamed1	Tamed2
Walking	200	?	?	650	500	835	5
Swimming	175	?	?	?	?	?	?

• 1These are the base speeds of the creature at 100% Movement Speed.
• 2These are the speeds of the creature tamed and non-imprinted.
• For a comparison of the speeds of all creatures, see Base Creature Speeds.

Wild Stats Level-up

Type in values of a wild creature to see on which stats it’s emphasized. Green values on a high-level creature are very good for breeding. If you have already tamed your creature you can try to recover the breeding stats with an external tool.[1]

The stat-calculator does not work in the mobile-view, see here for alternatives: Apps

Note that after the creature is tamed it gets bonuses on some stats depending on the taming effectiveness. This makes it hard to retrieve the levels on a tamed creature, so this tool is only for wild ones, but gives a first impression, how well the stats are distributed.

Combat

General

Mantis spawn in packs of around 2-3 individuals within caves and desert dunes. Due to their pounce attack they have a fairly large aggression range. Once one Mantis spots prey, the others usually follow. They will attempt to rapidly close the distance with an initial pounce before delivering an onslaught of rapid slashing attacks.

Strategy

Avoid close combat unless you have a strong enough mount, or good gear. Due to the fact they spawn in packs they may often be mate-boosted, increasing the power of their fast and deadly attacks. If you don’t think you can stand a close-up fight, range attacks with fire arrows or other powerful projectiles should do the trick easily.

Weaponry

One might consider using a Bow or a Boomerang to keep the mantises at bay and possibly knock it out for running away, or even building a trap around it to tame later. A Rock Elemental would be a great bodyguard in case there are too many to fight.

Dangers

BEWARE of Pounce at Mid Range: with Mantis often spawning in groups of 2-3, taking three hits of this powerful attack can deal tremendous damage. Mantis are powerful melee attackers when wild, avoid close-quarters combat unless with good gear or a sufficient mount.

Weakness

Its main weakness is bug repellant because it will enable you to attack the Mantis without being noticed if you’re careful. Fire Arrows from a crossbow deal massive damage sometimes killing high levels (100+) with a single arrow from a primitive crossbow. However it is not an instant kill. It will take a few seconds but when attacking from a range there is very little to fear when using fire arrows.

Taming

Taming Strategy

The Mantis is a passive tame, so avoid knockout methods.

To feed it, place a Deathworm Horn or Woolly Rhino Horn in the last slot of your hotbar, then when approached press “use” (default E) to feed it. You cannot feed them all the horns required for taming at one time, you must wait a few minutes after each feeding to give it the next one, and repeat until the taming meter is filled.

The Mantis is normally aggressive, so Bug Repellant is needed in order to get close enough to feed it. A set of Ghillie Armor is also useful, but not required. The Mantis becomes aggressive if you are too close. The taming progress will become halted until it loses interest in whatever it was fighting, or even decrease if it’s aggressive for too long.

A good trap to tame the Mantis is a single foundation (Stone, Adobe, or Metal) with 4 walls on the first level, and 3 walls on the second level.[2] Lastly add two ramps to the last opening on the second level. Part of the Mantis will stick outside of the trap and you can feed it. You will not need any Bug Repellant or Ghillie Armor with this method.

Note: On the Ragnarok map, you can get the horns from the Deathworms in the desert or from the Iceworm Males in the Frozen Dungeon, where they provide a plentiful supply. However, given the high level of this dungeon, it might be safer to go to the desert.

Preferred Food

Deathworm Horn
Note that the values are for optimal cases, always bring extra supplies!
For a level-dependent count of resources needed, try an external taming calculator.

Utility

Roles

• Utility Gatherer: The Mantis can equip a pick or hatchet, or even a sickle, allowing it to gather resources using these tools rather effectively when one does not have specialized mounts for such. Due to its ability to equip tools the Mantis can be used as a mobile light source by equipping it with a torch.
• Soldier/Shock Trooper: The ability for the Mantis to wield melee weapons, including the sword, allows it to be a fearsome combatant, but this also allows them to change up their tactics entirely by using a club, inflicting torpor damage against opponents as needed. Better weapons from better blueprints can massively increase the effectiveness of the mount’s attacks, making this one of the only mounts where the quality of items other than the saddle is of great consequence.
• Taming Mount: Using simply primitive clubs, a high-level Mantis with average melee damage can knock out a mid-level scorpion (or even another Mantis) with a pounce and a few standard bash attacks. With higher end clubs and higher melee, the increased torpor could allow for Mantis to be used on more difficult tames.

With high quality clubs and mutation stacking it can tame even high level rexes and brontos. A decent saddle is not necessary but strongly recommended.

• Turkey Killer: While wielding a Sword, Pike or similar weapon, The Mantis ignores the damage reduction of the Super Turkey, making them perfect for mass turkey slaughter during the Turkey Trial event.
• Boss DPS: A highly mutated mantis can be (mainly on boosted unofficial servers) a great DPS in boss fights, possibly outperforming any other dino that can enter boss arenas in terms of both DPH and DPS. Spamming the jump (right click) attack can do massive damage to anything in its path. It can be particularly useful against the Dragon as it is so small that when below it, theDragon will not be able to do damage to it (beware of its minions). You have to, however, pay close attention to positioning of the boss and other tames/players not to get killed. You can also use aKarkinos for its grab ability and use two mate-boostedMantis either whistling them to attack or having someone ride them, sadly, this disables the jump (right click) attack, which can seriously throttle the damage output. Mutate mainly for melee, level melee. Use a high qualitySword orPike (Sword is recommended).

Collectibles

Resource	Efficiency
	★★★★★
	★★★★★
	★★★★★
	★★★★
	★★★★☆
	★★★★☆
	★★★★☆
	★★★★☆
	★★★★☆
	★★★★☆
	★★★★☆
	★★★★☆
	★★★☆☆
	★★★☆☆
	★★★☆☆
	★★★☆☆
	★★★☆☆
	★★★☆☆
	★★☆☆☆
	★★☆☆☆
	★★☆☆☆
	★★☆☆☆

Even though it looks like the Mantis is holding two tools/weapons, only a single one may be equipped at any time (the doubling is only visual).

Spotlight

Bugs

• When you leap with a tamed Mantis then move far enough away to unload the Mantis, it will constantly generate a wind effect that is triggered from leaping; the audio will endlessly loop until you make the Mantis leap again, which will stop the looping sound effect. This doesn’t fix it permanently, however, as it reoccurs every time the mantis gets unloaded and loaded again. To fix this, either log out and back in, or put the mantis into a cryopod. This bug seems to only occur in single player.
• When the saddle absorbs damage, the tool/weapon the mantis is holding will have its durability consumed, as if it were a piece of armor.

Notes/Trivia

For information pertaining specifically to the real-world Mantis, see the relevant Wikipedia article.

• The Mantis are one of if not the most intelligent creature in Ark even to the point of creating strategies that’s only rivaled by Troodon and theKing Titan and is only for certain outmatched byHuman,Overseer,Rockwell andNoglin.
  • This is shown as according to the Mysterious Mystery Dossier, it’s very intelligent, with four tick-marks for intelligence. The only other creature with four ticks is Troodon.
  • Also similar to Troodon, the taming icon has a tick and an x, implying that it must be tamed in a unique way, as Troodon and Titanosaur are.
  • This is also backed up as Dahkeya, in one of his explorer notes, reports that a group of Mantis destroyed a water pipe outside of town; knowing it would draw humans to come out to fix it, so the Mantis could hunt and feed. This shows extreme intelligence on the behalf of Ark’s Mantis that perhaps even the Troodon doesn’t have.
  • Finally It also has a picture of the Crafting icon with two ticks, meaning that it can hold tools in its hands and the only other creatures shown to have enough intelligence to use tools is Humans.
• Like Karkinos and to a lesser extent Pulminoscorpius, a tamed Mantis prefers spoiled meat over raw and gains more Food and Health from it.
• You need to be at least level 40 to feed a Mantis.
• It’s confirmed that the creature’s alternate attack has increased harvesting capabilities.
• The dossier states that the Mantis may have their own language. Although this may seem far-fetched, many animals seem to have their own system of “language”. Prairie Dogs have distinctly different warning calls for different predators; and Orcas from different parts of the world seem to have different “dialects”, even “accents” in their calls and songs.
• There exist fossils of multiple giant species of praying mantis of the order “Titanoptera” (the most well-known member being the Gigatitan), living in the Triassic period. However, this insect was much smaller than ARK’s Mantis.
• Another species of praying mantis, “Santanmantis”, was thought to have lived in the Jurassic period. However, much like the Titanoptera, the Santanmantis was smaller than ARK’s Mantis.
  • Despite both the Titanoptera and Santanmantis being smaller than the Mantis found in Ark both were giant insects when compared to the modern Praying Mantis.
  • Another thing both Titanoptera and Santanmantis pre date the Holocene period where the Ark’s Mantis comes from according to Helena’s notes.
• Mantis do not produce Feces.
• Despite having wings it is not capable of flight.
• Even if you one shot kill a Mantis with your large creatures(such as Giganotosaurus or Wyvern), the nearby Mantis will still becoming aggressive and attack your mount.
• Prior to 316.18, Mantis couldn’t be bred and would lay unfertilized eggs.
• While in the Dossier it is shown to have small hands at the second joint in their arm, and this is supposed to be how it holds items, it does not match the in game model.
• While a Mantis can wield a Lance, it does lower damage than without wielding one.
• While Helena’s notes say that the Mantis in ARK are from the Holocene however fossil records show many difference species of mantis dating back much farther than that.
  • Even some species of mantis pre-date the Holocene period because Helena’s notes say the mantis Ark is from the Holocene period. This could possibly imply that in the Ark universe a fossil of a large species mantis from Holocene could have been discovered in the Ark universe.
• The Mantis can be knocked out however if they can’t be tamed if they are knocked out.

Changelog

Patch	Changes
246.0 Scorched Earth Expansion Release	Mantis is added to the game.
246.6	Can no longer equip invalid saddles.
256.2	Fixed inability to drag and equip weapons onto Mantis with the newly introduced inventory UI.
261.0	Mantis now receive the
295.106	Fix for weapons not equipping properly.
316.18 TLC 3	Mantis are now breedable.
318.9	Fixed a bug which caused Mantis that was grown from the baby stage to be larger than tamed ones.
319.14	Fixed an issue where the baby mantis could float in the air.
329.5 Genesis: Part 2 Expansion Release	Mantis is added to Genesis: Part 2.
330.8	Mantis will now accept
331.7	Adjusted Mantis Feeding to prevent it from starving when fed
678.20	Fixed a bug where Mantis was not able to harvest with tools.