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I'm kinda new to Ark, and exploring the (awkward) menus I've discovered that it's possible to force a tamed animal/dinosaur to poop. Why?

Is there any actual advantage for doing this? Or is this just an easy way to collect poop for the composter?

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    @Wrigglenite why you keep adding the game name in title? It's already tagged, and I don't think it's a vague question
    – pinckerman
    Aug 30, 2021 at 13:52
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    Usually, we prefer having the game name in the question because that makes it easier to see when not on the site. Like if you google a question and Arqade pops up, the title is there, but not the tag. So it helps with that.
    – Fredy31 ♦
    Aug 30, 2021 at 17:05
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    @Fredy31 I understand that, but this is a very unusual case. I mean, in how many games can you tame and control bowel movements of a dinosaur? It's quite obvious to me.
    – pinckerman
    Aug 30, 2021 at 17:21
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    Related, I found this on Meta.
    – pinckerman
    Aug 30, 2021 at 17:28
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    @user253751 actually it's the best thing when a curious decontextualized question appears there
    – pinckerman
    Aug 31, 2021 at 10:39

2 Answers 2

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There are two use-cases I found for the making your dino poop:

1. Fertilization of Crops

As @DisplayNameNotFound describes in their answer, poop can be used to fertilize your crops. The larger the poop, the longer it fertilizes.

You can feed your dino and then ride it in circles to make it poop faster.

2. Preparation for Escape

When riding on a dino, it needs to stop to poop. This doesn't take long, but when chased by a raptor or something, this can cost you some precious seconds.

If you wait too long, the dino will poop by itself - and running (e.g. from an enemy) consumes the most energy. Therefore, whenever I'm exploring and I see my dino ready to poop, I trigger the command myself.

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  • Nice one! If nobody finds out another good reason to force our dinos to poop I'll accept your answer.
    – pinckerman
    Aug 30, 2021 at 19:42
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Fecal matter from your dinosaurs is useful.

Taming time varies from food to food; it takes nearly nine hours to tame a max level T. Rex using raw meat, but just under 2 with kibble. Fecal matter is useful for, indirectly, making this kibble, by using the feces as fertilizer. Acquiring the poo can be useful for taming.

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    Ok, this is useful. But my question was a bit different, is there any other advantage to force the dinos to poop? I mean, they poop on their own eventually.
    – pinckerman
    Aug 30, 2021 at 10:37
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    @pinckerman Efficiency? They poop on their own eventually, but you might be away, they might do it during a time you want to be doing something else, etc.. So you force them poop because you are currently invested in the task of.. collecting poop! It allows for better management of "tasks", if you task out your gameplay.. I believe there are people who do that. You might also be able to collect more poop/h this way, but I'm not sure of that.
    – Fanatique
    Aug 30, 2021 at 11:54
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    So efficiency and nothing else. It makes sense, but I'm a bit disappointed.
    – pinckerman
    Aug 30, 2021 at 12:07
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    @pinckerman the poop despawns fairly quickly if you just leave it lying around, IIRC. So letting them poop naturally means you might either find one or two poops only in a stable of many dinos, or spend several minutes just standing in the stable waiting for enough poop to make fertilizer with.
    – Syndic
    Aug 31, 2021 at 9:33
  • @Syndic I don't know that problem after taming a Phiomia, that thing poops a lot
    – pinckerman
    Aug 31, 2021 at 14:20

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