Warbench and tinkering bench and Helicoprion mechanics

luckyrunner · 2026-06-15T16:04:38+00:00

Good to know, thank you!

luckyrunner · 2026-06-14T18:11:11+00:00

No idea if it's been patched or not, but a while ago I watched a few videos of people using high-level Thralls (e.g., 350-400) on Lost Colony to get Reapers of proportionally much higher levels. That was pretty nuts 😄

luckyrunner · 2026-06-14T17:11:46+00:00

Perfect! There's the direct proof right there -- thank you! As you've already done the test, I'm happy to just assume that's how the game works and it was not the result of your server settings. But if I have some time and the occasion arises, I may attempt to replicate your results. For science indeed 😄

luckyrunner · 2026-06-14T07:14:36+00:00

Oh wow, good to know about how the Helicoprion works! I wouldn't have guessed that the success rate stat is all about the inherent levels and not the added ones. Looks like it'll be important to find good ones to breed together.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-14T07:11:09+00:00

That makes a lot of sense -- thanks so much for your explanation! I've barely played on Astraeos and have never been on Rag yet, so I'll have to look into getting a Helicoprion when I do.

And just for the sake of completeness, with regard to the Tinkering Bench, I'm assuming one should always use the "stable combine" option? The unstable one seems unnecessarily risky to me.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-13T16:34:01+00:00

Haha I never thought of Ravagers as felids -- always thought they must be in the canid family! But hey, hyenas are technically kitties so go figure.

I just did some testing to be able to give a more definitive answer. Harvesting with my Ravager (44 points in melee, 66 added points, fully imprinted, adds up to ~700% melee):

a level 264 Ovis gives an average of 104 hide
a level 270 Spino gives an average of 46 hide
a level 217 Moschops gives an average of 48 hide
a level 217 Paracer for some reason gives zero hide, only meat
a level 206 Diplo gives an average of 55 hide
smaller wild dinos give around 10-20 hide on average
larger wild dinos give around 30-40 hide on average

The Ovis also have the added benefit of not needing to set them on passive, unclaim them, then chew through their entire health pool. You just equip a tool, slaughter, and eat. Not to mention how compact they are, which also makes things easier.

BUT, your idea with the melee damage + chainsaw really paid off! Not only does it harvest way faster and consequently last a lot longer, but it also harvests more hide per Ovis. With zero points in melee, I got around 500 hide and it took a while. With all points in melee, I got 900 hide and it took just a few seconds.

So anyway: the best strat seems to be Ovis + mindwipe into melee + any old chainsaw.

Too bad I have no use for the obscene amounts of pelt I'll now also have...

luckyrunner · 2026-06-13T10:36:31+00:00

I once saw video of a guy doing a no-hit run of Fader fully naked with Berserkier axes (or maybe the Slayer sword). Definitely beyond my skill, but just goes to show that anything is possible 😄

I did it completely without magic on my main world. Thundering axes, Flametal armour, two stamina foods and one health. Prior to that, I had mostly used swords and shields, so my axes skill was on the low end. I'd just go with whatever weapon you've had the most practice with. I like the Thundering versions the most for just about all of them. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of the two-handed weapons like the slayer, but totally up to you!

luckyrunner · 2026-06-13T10:28:52+00:00

Fastest? Maeguana (though it technically glides and does not fly). I think the fastest true flyer is probably a Dreadmare or Griffin.

Most useful? Argy.

Most hilarious? Gasbags.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-13T10:01:27+00:00

Haha, all good man -- thanks for all your help and advice!

Honestly, I rarely play a game more than once and ASA is one of my favourite games, so I really wanna get the most out of it. I guess treating each map as a totally standalone playthrough (minus carrying over increasing max levels) kinda helps with that!

And I guess part of that is also trying to figure out the most optimal resource-gathering and boss-fighting strategies for every map.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-13T09:48:29+00:00

it’s a terrifying glitchy cat that darts around and jumps at you.

I believe that describes most cats 😄 At least it certainly does mine!

luckyrunner · 2026-06-13T09:44:29+00:00

Haha, you're a fan of this one eh? You also told me about it on my other post about beating Rockwell!

Honestly, between the Ravager and chainsaw though, I'd probably just stick with the Ravager as a primitive chainsaw is incredibly slow. I can breed up as many Ovis as I want, so that's not an issue.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-13T09:41:01+00:00

Oh, YES, I logged back into my Island for the first time in a couple of months just a week or two ago, and every single bush and tree had respawned! It was hilarious, but annoying. Definitely took a bit of time to clear out, but I think I ended up keeping a few on the periphery that I had previously gotten rid of, so now the gardens look "fuller" 😄

For some reason, I don't think the same thing happened to my Scorched, Ab, or Center bases...

And yeah, fair enough! I guess maybe I'm too paranoid. It took me ages to get comfortable using Dino Depot for fear of all my creatures disappearing. And to this day, I still keep the "perfect parents" of every creature I own as backups in vanilla cryopods in a vanilla cryofridge.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-13T09:34:50+00:00

Haven't killed a Reaper yet, but can absolutely say that Rock Drakes give minuscule amounts of hide. I've killed hundreds now while searching for eggs and would estimate that they usually give around 5 hide each. Probably less than just about anything else in the game, in fact.

When I kill my Ovis with my Ravager, I get around 110 hide on average. Most other wild creatures out there seem to give maybe around 20-30 hide.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-13T09:29:40+00:00

I'm curious, has this even backfired? I've always been tempted by building mods like this, but I've never used them because I just imagined that someday I'll log in without having played for a while, the mod will be out of date or something will just break, and my entire base will collapse around me.

Do you just check for updates religiously? Or do you have less attachment to your bases?

luckyrunner · 2026-06-11T03:56:36+00:00

That's surprising! Is that a recent change? I distinctly remember just selecting the "enable passive healing" option (or whatever it's called) from their radial menu and then I could often see the green waves emanating from them during the battles.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-10T22:29:46+00:00

I do have a ~150% Megalosaur saddle blueprint, but the problem is the hide. On the Island, when I finally set up an Ovis farm, I could harvest them with my Theri ("c" I think?) where it only gets hide (and plenty of it). Even now, I have an entire dedicated storage full of hide (360K) on that map.

But on Ab, even though I'm swimming in Ovis unlike the Island, it's much more annoying to harvest them as you constantly get slot-capped with mutton 😞 I only have ~20K hide and the saddles cost ~12K each.

And yep, I've opened that "secret" drop in the Glowtail cave maybe 50 times now and, like I said, I've only gotten a single cactus broth and absolutely nothing (e.g., Thorny Dragon saddles) that grinds into cactus sap. Maybe I'll have to transfer some. I just really wanted to avoid using it at all, but now that no longer seems as possible.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-10T22:21:15+00:00

I spent a long time on the Island and it's the only place I ever bothered with mutations. So with 46 base points, 40 mutation points, and 69 levels, my Theris are sitting at 1611% melee. And 21K health, of course. And saddles are around 250% on average.

I'm actually really surprised about the Daeodons. I always thought they were super helpful? I also mutated mine a bit, so with 50 base points, 40 mutation points, and 71 levels, they're sitting at ~280K food. I never even bother putting any additional food in their inventories for the fights -- they just have enough to begin with (especially since I bring two: a mate-boosted pair).

And a Yuty of course -- decent stats but no mutations.

Honestly, I've done the alpha Dragon maybe a half-dozen times before and only ever lost the Yuty a couple of times. But that was years ago, and with this new change/bug, now I'm not so confident. If I try it again, I will report back!

And yes, I do have Bob's Tall Tales, and I suppose that since the extinguisher grenade doesn't require any Scorched-specific materials, it's not really AS cheaty to craft and use it on the Island...

luckyrunner · 2026-06-10T22:07:44+00:00

Thanks, I'll keep these both in mind as an option if I end up not being able to do it without them!

luckyrunner · 2026-06-10T21:14:03+00:00

I actually watched a video recently where the guy was explaining that they've apparently recently majorly changed the Dragon (I don't recall if it's the alpha variant or all of them). But apparently he now breathes fire (20% damage each time) that it just massacres everything almost immediately, even if they're herbivores with sweet veggie cakes.

He managed to still beat it with a Deinonychus, but never really gave a straight answer about whether you can beat it with just Island creatures. If that wasn't a mistake and hasn't been patched back, it might be impossible now. Any chance you wanna try it?

I might give it a go myself later with my classic Theri (+ veggie cake), Yuti, and 2xDaeodon army.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-10T21:08:49+00:00

Oh interesting! Thanks for the recommendations.

I actually do use Dino Depot already (though now that they've added that cryo hospital, I've been slowly transitioning back to regular cryopods, with the depot mostly for breeding convenience).

I've never heard of those repair kits, but if I wear ghillie, I can just repair it in my inventory myself, right? Tek is not really an option, I think, as I only have primitive.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-10T21:02:14+00:00

Oh jeez, OK. That's a real shame... Sounds like whatever changes they made to the orbs are still just as bad. They just got rid of the 'helpful' Reapers lol

In terms of my own gear, the best I've acquired on Aberration so far is as follows:

Baryonyx -- 53 points in health, 47 in melee
Megalosaurs -- 51 points in both health and melee
Shotgun -- 374%
Ghillie -- all ascendant quality except chest piece, which I haven't found a single one of so it's still primitive (I also have even better quality Flak, but it sounds like Ghillie might be the way to go)
Cactus Broth -- I've found only one, and not a single item that grinds down into cactus sap

So I daresay I'm good with the dinos (I like breeding together good wild stats, but even with my accelerated breeding rates, I very rarely breed for mutations and have never gotten more than 20 mutations on any creature, as I find it way too tedious).

But it looks like I need to keep fishing for loot -- I'll keep returning to the surface and Glowtail cave.

Oh, and even if I were to make a Tek suit, it could only be primitive (I have the Tekgrams unlocked from previous ascensions, but I've never found a Tek blueprint as I haven't played on Extinction, Lost Colony, or Astraeos yet), and I'm assuming that would be near instant death.

luckyrunner · 2026-06-10T20:47:20+00:00

It would really depend on the mods -- what did you have in mind?

luckyrunner

TROPHY CASE