For quite some time, the most feared opening dinosaur in the arena was the dreaded Stegodeus. But these days, ever since patch 1.4, there’s a new sheriff in town. And let me tell you, Utarinex makes Indoraptor look tame.

Here’s the overview. Special props to our wonderful artist OrangeHeart for creating this wonderful infographic!

I know what you’re thinking… this little cute dinosaur? Doesn’t look so bad… But you’ll have to trust me. With a one-two-three punch of Distracting Rampage, Instant Charge, and Impact and Run, the bugger will take down some serious tank health, and then return for more.

With base damage of 1420 at level 26 and speed of 126, that one-two-three punch will net this monster 6,390 damage by turn 3 (which feels more like turn 2 because you were probably stunned on turn two). It’s enough to drive a Stegodeus mad.

So what’s a dinosaur hunter to do? Let’s take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of this beast and figure it out together.

Move List

Distracting Rampage Deal 2x damage. Target’s damage is reduced 50% for 2 turns. Cooldown: 2 turn Impact and Run Deal 1.5x damage. Automatic Swap. Cooldown: 1 turn Delay: 1 turn Instant Charge Act first. Deal 1x damage. 75% chance to stun 1 turn. Cooldown: 2 turn Delay: 1 turn Strike

The frustrating part about Utarinex is the fact that it gets you on both side. For most speedy buggers, the basic strategy is to slow them down and then smack them for a ton of damage. But now that Instant Charge was changed to only have a 1 turn delay (so it can be used on turn two), it leaves most slowing dinosaurs and tanks in a rough position.

Where normally Superiority Strike helps you to cleanse a distraction and slow down the opponent for one turn, you’ll likely spend that turn stunned and lose priority. And if you instead opt to slow down Utarinex with a longer slowing move like Thagomizer or Slowing Impact, you’ll have to do so at 50% damage because of that initial distracting rampage.

Quite the conundrum.

And by the time the distraction wears off, that bugger can get a free swap in, recharge all those tasty cooldowns, and be ready to enter the battle again when the next dinosaur is lost.

But the real problem is you want to think about this thing like a raptor, when it’s really a distracting stunner that acts like a tank.

Strategy

So how do you beat something like this?

For one, bleeding it to death. That 126 speed is very deliberate. Bleeders like Spinotahsuchus and Suchotator are your friend in this match because things like lethal wound will do damage even when you’re stunned. And since Utarinex can’t cleanse and doesn’t possess superiority strike, it’s stuck deciding if it wants to take two ticks of damage or if it wants to get lost.

Second, Utarinex gets beat when it can’t stun or distract you because you’re immune — especially when (again) you’re faster. So Monomimus really annoys the heck out of it. Plus, Monomimus can distract it first, lessening the damage received on both Instant Charge and Distracting Rampage.

Indominus Rex is another good counter for the same reason. The Utarinex owner has to decide what the heck to do if you cloak and Defense Shattering Rampage because a swap might cost them a dinosaur.

As for other speedy monsters that can beat Utarinex 1v1, you can rely on Diloracheirus to do the dirty work and take down Utarinex. The distracting impact from Dilorach is going to save your bacon on the turn 2 stun, and then you get to return a stunning rampage volley right back, stopping any impact and run from occurring.

Absent these counters, you may have to rely on speed to clean up Utarinex after your tank takes the first three hits. Remember, because Utarinex can’t slow you down, being faster than it means you’ll only lose priority on the Instant Charge. Now, there’s not a lot that is faster and can take a hit, but any of the raptor class will clean up nicely if the Utarinex owner tries to bring that bugger out for a second round. Tanycolagreus will take a nice-sized chomp. Even Velociraptor or any of the raptor pack.

Finally, Indoraptor can be a tricky counter. Because you can absolutely count on distracting rampage happening first, it’s dangerous to try to beat Utarinex by using Evasive Stance. You’re counting on 2 of 3 dodges in most cases to still have enough health to win. I didn’t run the numbers on this matchup but I’d bet it’s closer to 50/50 than anything else.

In Conclusion

By the time you face Utarinex, hopefully you’ve already unlocked a unique or two. It’s quite a difficult dino to get, requiring a lot of Dracorex and a lot of Sinoceratops DNA, but it may rear it’s ugly head in lower arena. What’s funny is I tend to see teams in upper-tier arena take Indominus Rex off their squad, and suddenly more people are using Utarinex due to having 1 fewer good counter for it.

All in all, this bugger is sneaky. And it can really lay a hurting on tanks like Stegodeus and Tragodistis. Distract it, out-speed it, stun it back, or throw out your immune dinosaurs and you’ll live to fight another day.

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