Dodo

Livestock

Under the right conditions, Dodos can make surprisingly effective livestock for various domestic needs, landing them a role as a farm animal until you can find a mating pair of Ovis if you're so inclined to keep and care for them.

Egg Stock

Female Dodos, wild or tamed, possess a unique egg laying mechanic; having a random chance to lay an egg any time they poop rather than at specifically timed intervals like other creatures. While they can do so on their own, there are other factors that also influence egg production. Females require the presence of at least one male nearby to provide them with a mate-boost before they will begin to produce eggs at an acceptable rate. Following the addition of a male Dodo, an Oviraptor…

Meat Stock

Dodos provide an easy source of meat, and though their standard production can easily be outpaced by going hunting, the humble Dodo at home should not be overlooked, as with a little creativity, they can produce some amazing results. While adults are worth what would be considered a paltry sum of normal Raw Meat, younger Dodos are worth a very surprising amount of . Coupled with their easy hatching requirements, short breeding intervals, and swift maturation speed, a flock of Dodos…

Hide Stock

While not as useful as late-game gathering techniques, Dodos provide a vital source of the good stuff in early stages of gameplay, allowing newer players to better establish themselves with beds, armor, and other essentials. If you are in the later stages of gameplay and find yourself with a surplus of Dodos you need to cull, and happen to be low on Hide, unclaiming and killing the surplus with a Therizinosaur's bite attack will ensure a decent harvest of Hide afterwards. (Note:…

Snackrifice

If sufficiently super-bred and mutant-bred to the max official level of 450, Dodos make perhaps the easiest and most readily available, and least costly, nightly sacrifice for the use of taming Troodon. For the Troodon's safety, make sure your Dodo's Health and Damage stats are as abysmally low as possible, while trash stats like Food and Oxygen are the ones that have been heavily bred and mutated. Provided these requirements have been met, a level 150 wild Troodon can be tamed in…

Beast of Burden

While not capable of holding a great amount of Weight, Dodos make up for this by being able to hold onto a decent quantity of items in their inventory. They provide an excellent means of hanging on to any random items a survivor might want to keep early on in gameplay, and before storage boxes become available as a furnishing. Unlike their wooden storage counterparts however, Dodos can be picked up and moved if you feel you need to move your base location or adjust your build…

Tactical Warfare

While the notion of actually using a Dodo in a combat situation may at first seem laughable on the surface, they can actually fill many unique and surprising roles on the field of battle. Whether for the prospective raider, aspiring explorer, or staunch base defender; the Dodo can become a useful tool in anyone's creative arsenal.

Target Practice

While Target Dummies provide a more reliable and long-term method of testing DPS, a Dodo functions well as the poor man's substitute, provided you pump levels into their health stat. If accidentally killed, they still provide a reward in the form of meat and hide.

PVP Meat Shield

While you can't normally hold a Dodo and a firearm at the same time, you can if you were to select the weapon and then immediately pick up a Dodo. This will result in you holding a Dodo with a weapon equipped at the same time where you can freely shoot an enemy with your torso being protected by the Dodo (do note that you will be slowed down and not be able to see where you are aiming when looking down your iron sights while crouched due to the Dodo blocking your vision). Level…

Turret Tester

Most certainly a suicide mission, as many of the Dodo's warfare roles are, Dodos can be used at range with whistle commands to map out the radius of enemy turrets prior to the actual assault on the base, and maybe even discover blind spots leading to the walls where enemy builders got sloppy. Alternatively, by unclaiming an owned Dodo of your own, they can be used to test the range and line of sight of your own turrets.

Walking Bomb

C4 can be attached to a Dodo in large quantities and the Dodo can be set to wander, then air dropped into an enemy tribe's base. If the dodo is attacked by aggressively defending dinos, the C4 goes off and kills it, same with any player that attempts to melee the Dodo. If the dodo is shot and killed, you simply have to Detonate. If nobody stops the Dodo, you can detonate it at your leisure.

Defense Probe

Similar to testing turrets, Dodos can be used as a means of triggering enemy traps, on land or water, sacrificing themselves for your own safety. For marine defenses, they swim remarkably quickly on the water's surface, and can be used to test enemy aquatics safely from a distance, though with mixed results. Aside from detonating explosives, setting off tripwires, or triggering bear traps, when paired with a Direwolf to sniff them out, a Dodo can be used to lure buried enemies to…

Breach Alarm

Setting a Dodo on aggressive and placing it in your base makes for a good alarm; as any raiders or wild predators that make it into your base will have to kill it as a result, thus alarming you on your screen while on trips away from home. Be mindful, however, that their low torpidity and drag weight allows them to be easily knocked out or immobilized by players instead, effectively disabling the alarm. For best results and extra assurance, pair with the best living alarm: a…

Bioweapon

A Dodo is one of the only creatures that can catch swamp fever. You can catch other players off by planting the infected dodo inside another base. Try to use a gas mask or have a few simple antidotes on hand to not get infected yourself.

Indoor Guard

Likewise, Dodos and other small tames can wander the inside areas of your base, and in enough numbers set to aggressive can provide a small surprise and delay for any unwelcome intruders in an environment where it’s not quite as easy to simply mow them all down. As a bonus effect, this can double as an egg farm by compressing many dodos into a small area. If you've done the work to have them at your disposal, Troodon and their paralyzing bite works wonders alongside the Dodo for…

Distraction

While seemingly an unimportant task, any predator that is eating your little flock of Dodos is not eating you. Whistle them to attack your target, run away, and tame a new flock. Good tactic for new players just getting their bearings