How to tame Yi Ling in ARK Survival Ascended Aberration

ARK Survival Ascended's Aberration map has introduced Yi Ling, a community-voted creature that's certainly worth taming. Originally known as "Yi Qi" (meaning "strange wings" in Chinese), this is one of Aberration's adaptive fliers that can also climb up walls. Pair this ease of traversal with deadly quill-spraying attacks, and you have a highly versatile tame in Yi Ling.

If you're wondering where to find this creature or how you can tame it, you've come to the right place.

Common Yi Ling locations in ARK Survival Ascended Aberration

To find a Yi Ling in ARK Survival Ascended Aberration, you can go to the open area at the center of the Mushroom Forest. Specifically, we have found lat ~38, long ~29 to be an area where two or three of these creatures tend to spawn during daytime. They will generally be clinging to cliff edges rather than flying, so look near cliff faces.

Yi Ling is not easy to find (Image via Studio Wildcard)

Yi Ling is still new, so this is one of many possible common spawn locations for it. After we check more areas, we'll update this guide with more efficient hunting locations later.

What's the console command to spawn Yi Ling in ARK Survival Ascended?

Once you enable Console Commands on your server or session, Yi Ling can be spawned with its DinoID, YiLing_Character_BP_C. Paste the following on your console to spawn a Yi Ling of level 150 with a random color/gender anywhere:

summon YiLing_Character_BP_C

You can also try this cheat if you want to spawn a tamed Yi Ling in ARK Survival Ascended:

cheat SDF Yiling 1 150 0

How to tame Yi Ling in ARK Survival Ascended

Yi Ling can be KOd and tamed with a very specific technique (Image via Studio Wildcard)

Yi Ling follows the regular KO-taming strategy in ARK Survival Ascended, but there are a couple of extra steps you have to learn to tame it. The first thing you have to do is tank up. You require a high-level character with a lot of points invested in Health, as you need to intentionally get hit by Yi Ling's deadly projectile attacks.

The creature's primary form of damage is throwing out barbed quills rapidly. These stack up and do incremental damage based on the stacks you have been inflicted with. However, with the only Yi Ling taming method we know, you have to get hit by this for some time.

Here's what you require to tame the Yi Ling in ARK Survival Ascended:

Aberration-exclusive Plant Species Z: Have at least a dozen at hand just in case
Some sort of Shield to help endure quill hits
Narcotics (or preferably Biotoxin)
Prime Meat (amount depends on target Yi Ling level)

Baiting a Yi Ling is not necessary, as this creature is extremely aggressive. Once you spot one, pull its aggro to an open area where it gains elevation on you. Even though you can throw Bolas at it, don't do that. Subsequently, follow these steps:

Let the quill attacks hit you and keep a Plant Species Z ready at your hotbar.
At around 30-40 stacks, if the Yi Ling is circling you, it will initiate a melee dive-bomb attack.
Keep an eye out for this dive-bomb, as this is your only opening.
Once it starts diving towards you, throw a Plant Species Z at its head.
Successful hit will knock it out, at which point you can feed it Biotoxin (or Narcotics) for Torpor damage
Repeat this process as necessary until the Yi Ling's Torpidity is full
Once the creature is knocked out, access its inventory and feed it Prime Meat proportionate to its level.

Throwing the Plant bomb is half the battle (Image via Studio Wildcard)

That's it. You have now tamed ARK Survival Ascened Aberration's exclusive new creature.

All Yi Ling Special Abilities and controls in ARK Survival Ascended

Yi Ling in ARK Survival Ascened brings a unique playstyle: filling up your targets with quill stacks and then moving in to deliver a massive melee hit. First and foremost, you have to learn to glide in order to cast any of your special moves.

Gliding on the creature takes some practice to get good (Image via Studio Wildcard)

To begin gliding, you have to basically double-jump: get in the air (Spacebar) and press jump (Spacebar) again to enter glide mode. Note that you're not a flying tame in Ark Survival Ascended, so gliding works a bit differently. You can also press Spacebar next to any surface to latch on to it and stay still.

Here are Yi Ling's abilities, its default keybinds, and what it does.

Melee attack (Mouse 1) is a standard peck with low range.
Fire Feather (Mouse 2) fires your quills. You can only do this when gliding or when latched on to some sort of wall.
Toggle Aim Mode (C) changes your camera between two presets to help you aim your quill projectiles.
Dash (C + Spacebar) will launch you up in the air when gliding. This is one of your only ways to gain elevation.
Rupture (Left Ctrl + Mouse 1) is your dive bomb move. Read along for more explanation on how it works.

How does Yi Ling's Rupture work in ARK?

When you inflict quills on to a target, a yellow bar will start filling up the creature's head. Once this bar is full, you can cast your Rupture (dive bomb) move on it by pressing Left Ctrl + Mouse 1 with the target in your crosshair. This will deal damage and additional effects based on the type of quills you shot it with.

You can change the quill type of your projectile by moving different types of materials into your Yi Ling's inventory:

Poison Feathers: Nameless Venom (deals Poison DOT)
Sedate Feathers: Narcoberry (deals Torpidity damage)
Volatile Feathers: Concealed Gas Balls (deals Fire damage)
Slime Feathers: Sap (slows down target)

Once you have any of these materials in the Yi Ling inventory, you can press R to open a wheel to select the desired quill, or press Left Ctrl + Mouse 2 to switch to the next "Feather Type."

Check out our other guides on the game:

Edited by Rachel Syiemlieh