Complete Dreadmare Guide: Ark Survival Ascended

With the release of the Fantastic Tames: Dreadmare DLC pack, a new beast has risen — fierce, night-bound, and brimming with raw power. The Dreadmare is no ordinary mount. With its glowing red eyes, bat-like wings, and ember-fueled body, it stalks the darkness like a living nightmare. This Dreadmare guide will walk you through everything you need to know, from its behavior and combat potential to exact taming instructions and key utility roles.

Whispers tell of a creature born from nightmare and shadow—a winged phantom that haunts the skies when the sun falls below the horizon. Continue reading this complete Dreadmare guide to learn of their behavior, powers, and the forbidden rite required to claim one as your own.

Quick Glance Info: Dreadmare

Behavior of the Dreadmare

Dreadmares are highly aggressive near carcasses, reacting violently to nearby players or tames in the vicinity of fresh kills. Their glowing, lava-lit appearance — including burning hoof prints and a constant internal ember glow — makes them unmissable during the night. These creatures only spawn after sundown on select maps, including:

• Scorched Earth
• The Center
• Extinction
• Ragnarok

Due to their nocturnal behavior and aggressive tendencies, encountering a wild Dreadmare should be treated with caution. They are airborne predators, circling their target and unleashing devastating attacks before swooping in for the kill.

Details About the Dreadmare

First up in this Dreadmare guide, let’s discuss the basic details to know: available variations, colors (and regions), temperment, and drops. The Dreadmare was released with the second paid DLC for Fantastic Tames on October 30, 2024 for Ark Survival Ascended.

While there are currently no variants of the Dreadmare, it does utilize all 6 color regions, those regions being listed in order below:

1. Region 0: Main parts of the body, including the chest, neck, sides of face/nose, legs, and wing membranes
2. Region 1: All feathers
3. Region 2: All scale details
4. Region 3: Feather tips (mostly the mane, but other parts of the feather tips as well)
5. Region 4: Belly
6. Region 5: Most of the back and shoulders

The main drop given from a Dreadmare is the Altar, which allows you to tame it.

Abilities, Utility & Combat of the Dreadmare

The Dreadmare is not just a mount — it’s a mobile war machine. From ranged dark wind attacks to utility-based creature storage, it offers a unique blend of offense and functionality. Below is a breakdown of dreadmare abilities:

Active Ability: Flying

Similar to the Rhyniognatha, the Dreadmare can strafe, reverse, and turn in all directions, providing true 360-degree air control. This gives it a major edge in aerial battles or escape scenarios. These give it vertical movement control for hovering, diving, or tactical positioning mid-air — perfect for navigating cliffs or outmaneuvering grounded threats.

Active Ability: Bite (Standard Melee Attack)

The Dreadmare’s standard melee attack is a bite. While basic in nature, it has a cooldown of just 1.16 seconds, allowing for quick follow-ups in close quarters. This ability is often used in combination with its other offensive options for pressure and cleanup.

Active Ability: Wind Blade

Wind Blade launches a projectile wave of slicing wind and applies the Health Drinker debuff, which siphons healing effects for 5 seconds. This ability fires on a 1.5-second cooldown, making it ideal for mid-range combat or softening targets before engaging in melee.

Active Ability: Dark Wind

One of the Dreadmare’s most strategic tools, Dark Wind is a powerful attack that provides a higher damage output plus it inflicts the Dark Wind debuff. This debuff removes mate boosts and disables enemy special abilities for 30 seconds. With a 60-second cooldown, it’s best used to turn the tide in tough fights or PvP raids.

Active Ability: Terror Shield

Terror Shield acts as a defensive counter. When activated, it blocks the next incoming hit and reflects 35% of the damage back at the attacker. With a 25-second cooldown, it allows the Dreadmare to shrug off powerful opening blows or delay death in critical situations.

Active Ability: Aura of Hate

This is a devastating area-of-effect ability that surrounds the Dreadmare in a damaging aura. It deals 20 damage per second to all nearby enemies while absorbing all healing from affected targets, applying the Health Drinker debuff as well. It lasts for a set duration and has a 120-second cooldown. This ability is excellent for crowd control and punishing clustered enemy groups.

Active Ability: Black Hole (Landed Only)

A standout utility feature, Black Hole allows the Dreadmare to store one allied creature inside it like a portable cryopod. It can only be used while landed, and obeys drag weight limits relative to the Dreadmare’s Weight stat. Stored creatures do receive Cryo Sickness (if active on your server) upon release, and the ability has a 4-second cooldown. This makes it ideal for tactical evacuations or covert storage. Be aware that, similar to attempting to cryopod a creature, you cannot use this ability on a recently injured creature.

Passive Ability: Glide

When gliding downward, the Dreadmare gains acceleration, allowing it to maintain momentum even while shifting directions. This makes it excellent for hit-and-run tactics or rapid descents. Fantastic for traveling across the map as well, as this makes it one of the fastest mounts in the game currently.

How to Tame the Dreadmare

Taming a Dreadmare isn’t about knocking it out or feeding it passively — it’s a ritual of blood, persistence, and timing. Follow this step-by-step breakdown to master taming Dreadmare creatures.

Note: You must own the Fantastic Tames: Dreadmare DLC to interact or tame the Dreadmare.

Step 1: Hunt the Wild & Gather Altars

Locate and kill a wild Dreadmare (female) or Dreadstallion (male). These only appear at night and leave behind an altar upon death (if killed by you or your tames).

They can be tricky to kill as they tend to fly around and target creatures with their Wind Blade or Dark Wind abilities. I recommend using a flying mount to kill the Dreadmare, but it’s possible with other solutions such as auto turrets, Velonasaur (pins will ground the Dreadmare, making it an easy target), or simply using long range weapons like rifles.

Remember the level and traits of the beast that comes from the altar will be the same as the one you kill, so choose wisely. Aim for the highest level you can possibly kill, as you’ll need to kill it several times during the coming process.

Altars cannot be transferred between servers.

Step 2: Prepare & Begin the Ritual

This next step is important before placing the altar as it will request specific items from you. There is also a limited amount of altars that can be placed within a certain range, so keep that in mind.

There are several choices when it comes to using items on the altar. You can either:

• Provide the correct tribute to summon the Dreadmare/Dreadstallion. These items are usually apex or alpha trophies. If you already have a stash, have it close by as you’ll only have a limited amount of time to provide the altar with the item.
• Let the timer expire, triggering a forced summon with both the dread creature and the tribute-source creature attacking.

Failing to meet the tribute timer will drain the altar’s durability (varied depending on server settings). On Wolfe’s Den Ark servers, it takes about 1/5th durability.

Step 3: Repeat the Fight

Defeat the summoned Dreadmare (and any additional creature, if triggered). Each successful kill increases the taming progress. The number of battles required is determined by the creature’s level and server settings (such as taming and difficulty levels).

Step 4: Final Interaction

Once taming is complete, interact with the altar. It will be destroyed, and a tamed Dreadmare will appear with added levels based on your taming effectiveness.

There is no saddle for the Dreadmare, so you can immediately mount up and ride away!

Once you’ve tamed your first Dreadmare, it becomes significantly easier to defeat and tame more, similar how the Quetz taming process goes.

Is Taming the Dreadmare Worth the Risk?

In both PvE and PvP settings, the Dreadmare provides huge benefits to large and small tribes alike. While taming the Dreadmare can be risky, the benefit to owning an one vastly outweighs the risk. This fantastic tame provides beneficial utilities on top of great combat skills.

Fun Facts about the Dreadmare

• Wild Dreadmares only appear at night, similar to how Phoenixes spawn during heatwaves.
• On maps like Extinction, where visual night is obscured, their spawn behavior still follows internal nighttime cycles.
• The Dreadmare’s appearance traits — including glowing ember eyes, batlike wings, and infernal horns — remain consistent post-taming.
• Though it reappears after altar taming, it retains the personality traits and aggression patterns of its wild form.
• You ride the Dreadmare bareback — no saddle blueprint exists.

The Dreadmare isn’t just another tame — it’s a challenge, a statement, and a powerhouse all in one. Whether you’re battling enemies, transporting allies, or dominating the skies, mastering this creature is a badge of honor. Use this dreadmare guide to take full advantage of its strengths and claim your own infernal steed.

Join Wolfe’s Den Servers

No friends or friendly servers to play on? No problem! The Rogue Wolfe hosts 3 public PvE servers in a map rotation that allows for various types of gameplay, including achievement hunting. Check out the Ark server settings and buckle up to join the community in Wolfe’s Den Tavern & Inn on Discord!