Pterodactyl

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Pterodactyl

Current (S1 / Classic)
Old (S2)

Tier info

Tier
15

Base XP	Max XP
1M	5M

Food chain status

Equivalent animals
//////

Previous upgrades	Next upgrades
/////	////

Prey	Predators
All animals below it from tier 14 to tier 6 ( to )	All animals above it from tier 16 to tier 17 ( to )

Terrain info

Biome	Places it can hide
Desert	All hiding spots, except for small hiding holes

Sustenance	Edible food
Energy	All types of food except //

Abilities
Passive	Special
Climbing on hills, rocks, and trees Survives on Energy instead of water Faster Movement on quicksand but not oasis quicksand Shorter burning time	"Dive Attack"

Release info
Release date
April 27, 2019

“

UPGRADED to Pterodactyl!
Fly and dive onto prey to pick it up!

”

The Pterodactyl is a tier 15 Desert animal in Mope.io, and is equivalent to the Dragon, T-Rex, Kraken, King Crab, Yeti, Snowman, Bigfoot, and Phoenix. It was introduced on April 27, 2019

Technical[]

The Pterodactyl upgrades from the Blackwidow Spider, Elephant, Cassowary, Blue Whale, or Mammoth at 1M XP.
Upon reaching 5M XP, it evolves into the Giant Scorpion, Dino Monster, Land Monster, Sea Monster, or Ice Monster.
When pressing W, the Pterodactyl will start to take off from the ground at a fast speed, and will begin to fly in the sky after a few seconds, greatly increasing its FOV while in flight. During this starting state it can be interrupted by stunning or damage. By pressing W again, it will sky-dive at a swift speed and pick up any animal it comes into contact with, and pressing W a third time will drop the animal (if the Pterodactyl picked up an Animal), or land otherwise after a few seconds. On impact with the ground, the injured animal will be stunned and have about one-fourth of its health taken away, or an eighth if they are an apex.
- If the Animal is a predator, Kraken, King Crab, or too low of a tier to eat, it will merely stun them and will not be picked up. The Pterodactyl can pick up all prey, and all Apex equivalents except for the Kraken and King Crab.
- If the Animal is stunned, sweating, on fire, or bleeding, they cannot be picked up.
- Holding an animal increases the rate of energy loss significantly until released.
- The Pterodactyl can fly-boost while flying without an animal, diving, and landing.
It runs on energy, rather than water. Energy is gained passively over time above a certain threshold, with healing stones, and eating animals and most food. It is lost by boosting (including fly-boosting), using its ability, being tailbit, sweating, gradually if the player's energy is below a threshold, and staying in a hiding hole or cave.
- Pears, oranges, melons, watermelons (both slices and whole), cacti, and mangos give more energy in comparison to other foods.
- Some low level foods such as brown mushrooms do not give energy.
Having low energy renders the player unable to fly. If the player is flying and runs low on energy, they will automatically land after a couple seconds. Any animal in the Pterodactyl's grasp will be dropped. Too low energy disables boosting, and if it runs out the player will take damage similarly to running out of water until they gain energy in one of the methods described above.
The Pterodactyl can passively climb hill, rocks and trees, is immune to ink, and moves fast in quicksand except for the layer surrounding oases. It catches on fire for a much shorter time than most animals.

Appearance[]

The Season 1 / Classic Pterodactyl is a mostly peach-colored creature with large, bony, folded orangish wings. It has a large crested head with bared eyes and a gray beak tipped in black. It has four short talons on each elbow joint of its wings. The Pterodactyl's tail is short yet thick. It has slender legs with four talons, which are seen only when the Pterodactyl's special ability is used.

In the special ability's startup, the Pterodactyl flaps its wings in and out, seeming larger during the starting state. Once it takes off into the air, its legs show in flight. While diving, its wings point outwards and its legs disappear. Finally, when the Pterodactyl lands, its wings spread outwards at a forwards angle. This animation is applied for the Pterodactyl's other skins too.

Purchasable skins[]

The skins listed below are or have been accessible to buy in the Shop. Older versions or non-purchasable skins may be seen in the article's infobox and/or asset gallery.

Skin	Cost	Picture
Golden Pterodactyl	From the Golden Skins Deal [3000 ]
Emerald Pterodactyl	From the Locked Skins Deal [5000 ]
Classic Pterodactyl	From the Mope.io Classic Skin Pack [5000 ]
Carnageodactyl	12000 alone; no longer purchasable

Strategy[]

As the Pterodactyl[]

The Pterodactyl is a fairly difficult animal to play effectively. Despite the high damage inflicted while dropping prey, it's not very good at following up the hit, and has large energy consumption for most actions.
The player needs to be strategic about their energy bar. Generally, it's best not to fly unless necessary, and the player should refrain from boosting while doing so as it will drain their bar very quickly.
- On mobile, because running is "sticky" and the player will keep on doing so even when not holding the run button anymore, boosting is sometimes difficult to stop which can lead to more water loss than the player desires.
One way the player can take advantage of their long flight by hanging around oceans waiting for Sharks or Orcas, and possibly Blue Whales to pass by in order to grab them. Most players are smart enough to dive or head toward a whirlpool at the first sight of a Pterodactyl, so this may be difficult. Once grabbed however, the player can drop them on land and block their path to the ocean to make quick work of them
- Holding them for as long as possible, especially when caught in deep water, is recommended to reduce their probability of making it to safety. Better yet, they'll run out of water mid-flight and begin to thirst to death, making it easier to kill them once landed.
Some foods will replenish much more energy than others: This is important to to keep in mind to effectively fill up the energy bar after a flight. Generally fruit gives more water than non-fruit.
- The player should prioritize mangos, pears, and oranges if possible. They grow readily in groups (less so for mangos), can be eaten in one hit, and give plentiful amounts of energy.
- Other energy rich food includes watermelon (risky due to the possibility of fire from the lava pool hitting the player, canceling their ability), melons, peppers, and cacti. Cacti is very rewarding specifically, but its possibility of harming or stunning the player makes it only an option if the player isn't being chased or on low health.
  - Slices of melon give as much water as a whole melon.
  - Aloe vera leaves can give a decent amount quantitatively, best for in a pinch with no other fruit nearby.
- To reduce energy consumption in flight, the player should try to fly into a lot of food in the startup phase. The Pterodactyl uses energy in two spaced out "drainages", so to have the most amount of energy to fly, the player should stagger eating food to match that. Bushes of fruit are best to fly in, although the player should avoid melon bushes as melons take a few hits to eat and the player will "bounce" off them and won't get as much water. They can somewhat counteract the issue by prematurely damaging the melons to eat in fewer bites.
  - The player should not use raspberry bushes. Despite being fruit, they give little to no energy.
Islands in the Ocean are a great way to get energy. The player can land at the center and immediately refill their energy with the amount of food. Since there is little room to move around; to leave, the player needs to use their ability and keep their cursor in the middle of the animal (or move in tight circles on the island) so the player doesn't veer off into the water and get interrupted by freezing damage.
- The player should be wary of Ocean apexes if they land on an island.
Komodo Dragons are the Pterodactyl's optimal prey. Their ability is weak offensively and they lack the ability to climb hills. Bison can be difficult due to their gores ability being able to launch the player and Blackwidow Spiders can quickly spin a web if the player tries to chase them.
The Pterodactyl accelerates in its dive, going faster and reducing its field of vision as it approaches the ground, and takes a couple seconds to actually "touch" the ground. With this in mind, the player needs to be mindful of their speed and fov size to line themselves up to be "on" the prey when they touch the ground—It's easy to just barely miss, especially with lag.
- If the player does miss, they should quickly land as close to the prey as possible, blocking their path.
- Boosting while diving will make the Pterodactyl dive faster.
The Pterodactyl is quite fast while it dives, and thanks to its extended field of vision in flight, it can catch animals by surprise. To accomplish this, the player needs to dive at an animal while they are far away (near the edge of the screen). This may also be done at closer ranges, but the player needs to stall out their dive by briefly facing another direction or circling the animal to ensure that they don't overshoot.
- This is usually the best way to kill Bison and Blackwidows.
Like with the Eagle, the player should drop animals in terrain or situations that would be disadvantageous to the animal, such as quicksand for animals slow in it. An effective strategy is to drop players against the corner or back wall of the map—they have no choice but to go through the player. The back wall of caves can act as a barrier also.
- By spamming W as soon as they pick the animal up, they will be thrown a lot further than normal and receive increased damage.^{[needs testing]}
- Dropping animals in lava will not work. They are invulnerable to lava while stunned as a balancing feature.
- Unlike other most other animals that are fast in quicksand, the Pterodactyl is slow in oases. For this reason, avoid dropping prey in oases, or the player risks being an easy kill.
The player should hold prey for the least, but strategic, amount of time possible so they have the energy to chase after them and promptly perform another dive should they get away.
Because the startup phase speed of the ability is faster than running, it can be used to catch up to a close low health prey and deal the last bite of damage to kill them.
- Be careful for cacti and nearby lava when flying. The ability is canceled if the player is damaged.
Always refill the energy bar after any flight, especially if there are other Pterodactyls on the server or many predators in the Desert. Danger often arrives abruptly.
If the player sees a threat, they should immediately take off into the skies. This is especially important with the Dino Monster, as it is the only animal that can somewhat keep up with the Pterodactyl besides other Pterodactyls and its charge is faster than the starting phase of the Pterodactyl's flight.
- When escaping, the player should fly over terrain their foe is slow in. Flying over the Ocean is the best choice, as only other Pterodactyls and Bird Monsters can give chase effectively. Boosting in flight is okay for this purpose.
Most Pterodactyls will actively try to kill other Pterodactyls and will swoop at them as soon as they see them. Alternatively, the player can challenge other Pterodactyls this way.
The Pterodactyl isn't very good for out of arena 1v1s. Its damage output, while not awful, is too inconsistent and it has no close-ranged offense. It is quickly shredded by T-REXs and even Dragons.
- In arena, the Pterodactyl is considered to be better at defending its tail than going for bites.
- The player should only really go for low health apexes or other Pterodactyls. They can use their ability to annoy others.
The Pterodactyl can't pick up Krakens or King Crabs; they get stunned instead, so the player shouldn't mess with them.

Against the Pterodactyl[]

The player should assume the Desert has at least one Pterodactyl. Unfortunately, due to the Pterodactyl's field of vision during flying, the first time they will likely see one is when they get grabbed. Once the Pterodactyl drops them, they should immediately bolt towards aloevera to heal or a hiding hole. Move quickly when escaping as the Pterodactyl's ability recharges fast.
If the player sees an overhead Pterodactyl or a Pterodactyl readying to fly, they should hide in a hiding hole or dive in water if possible. However, the Pterodactyl may hang around if the player enters too early. If this is the case, trick them to dive by pretending to exit the hiding hole: From then on the player can run away while the Pterodactyl wastes time landing.
Aloevera plants are a complete counter to Pterodactyls—the player is unable to die while under the invincibility effect.
Pterodactyls are slow in oasis quicksand. If the player is an animal that can move through quicksand, use it.
As a Blackwidow Spider, if there is a decent distance between the player and the Pterodactyl, they can rapidly charge their web ability to web the Pterodactyl for more time to escape. Additionally, they have a added advantage of being able to use small hiding holes.
As a Bison, the player can gore the Pterodactyl after being dropped to buy more time.
While difficult, it's possible to kill a Pterodactyl with the Komodo Dragon's sweat bites. Each bite will drain its energy. The player can bait the Pterodactyl into flying to use more energy, dodge their dives, and sweat bite them to drain it further. Once they are low, the player can tailbite them to death.
- Aloevera plants are optimal for this strategy.
- A better technique is to drag them into oasis quicksand where they are slow and there are more opportunities to tailbite them.
Ocean animals need to constantly look out for Pterodactyls, especially near the Desert, and dive to safety when one is seen. If the player has a low dive time, they should only dive if the Pterodactyls goes after them; otherwise, they can dive to a whirlpool.
Most apexes have no problem killing Pterodactyls once up close, although catching up to them can be annoying.
- As a Phoenix, a single fire tornado will prevent them from flying once it catches up. Shoot a fire tornado at the Pterodactyl and chase them to ensure the tornado tracks them.
- As a Dragon, the fireball will stop its ability. The extra damage with the fireball makes it usually superior.

Gallery[]

Assets[]

In-game[]

Miscellaneous[]

MOPE.IO Pterodactyl TheApexPredator LEAPS IN MOPE WORLD DesertUpdate TEASER 77

History[]

This section lists the update history of the Pterodactyl as it is recorded in the changelog, as well as leaks or reveals from social media. Certain changes that were not explicitly added to the changelog might be missing.

Update History
Update	Changes and notes
November 15, 2024	The Season 1 skin is added back as the default design, replacing the Season 2 skin . The Season 2 Pterodactyl can no longer be used in-game. Removed the Pterodactyl's special ability icon The Pterodactyl can now climb trees.
May 30, 2023	In the Wild Mope game mode, the Pterodactyl has these buffs: Its special ability can pick up animals from tier 1 to tier 15, and At 4 million XP, the Pterodactyl gains 75% more energy capacity, 15% more flight speed, and 20% greater field of vision.
February 1, 2022	The Season 2 Pterodactyl skin is added as the default design, replacing the Season 1 skin . The Season 1 Pterodactyl is moved over to the Classic Skins deal, which can be purchased from the Store. Players that equip the Classic Skins can still use the Season 1 Pterodactyl in-game.
October 14, 2021	Added new special ability icon for the Pterodactyl.
May 27, 2021	The Deal which contained the Carnageodactyl is removed from the Shop, making the Carnageodactyl no longer available for purchase in the Store. However, it can still be used in-game if the player bought it beforehand.
January 15, 2021	Bug fix: Pterodactyl landing on igloos.
December 31, 2020	The Carnageodactyl is moved into the 2020 Halloween Skins deal; to purchase it, the player must buy the whole deal.
November 4, 2020	Added the Carnageodactyl to the Store, as an individually purchasable skin.
March 12, 2020	Changes to the Pterodactyl's special ability "Dive Attack": Nerf: Animals dropped by the Pterodactyl's ability become immune to lava for 3 seconds, Nerf: Pterodactyl cannot pick up animals underneath trees with its ability, and Bug fix: Pterodactyl not being able to grab certain animals with its special ability "Dive Attack".
March 3, 2020	Bug fix: Golden Pterodactyl skin not appearing properly
December 23, 2019	Added two skins of the Pterodactyl to the Store: Golden Pterodactyl Emerald Pterodactyl
April 27, 2019	Added the Pterodactyl to Mope.io.

Trivia[]

The Aquamarine Pterodactyl, seen only in the game files. It was designed by Lapis

There is another Pterodactyl skin that exists in the game files, known unofficially as the "Aquamarine Pterodactyl". It was designed by Lapis. For whatever reason, the Aquamarine Pterodactyl has not been released.
Before the "Golden Age" update on December 23, 2019, the Pterodactyl used to be able to sit in hiding holes forever, as their energy would automatically regenerate. This was changed so that it will generate energy at a standstill, but not if it's in a hiding hole.
If a Pterodactyl does not eat food for a while, it will start to lose energy, regardless or not it is in a Hiding Hole. Because of the amount of food in the game, this behavior can typically only be seen if AFK for long enough.
It is the only Apex tier that is able to fly in the sky, with a special ability.
The Pterodactyl is the fourth extinct animal, the others being Mammoth, Sabertooth Tiger, T-REX.
The Emerald Pterodactyl is also known as the Peridot Pterodactyl.
If the Pterodactyl is poisoned in flight (can only happen if it bites a poisonous Animal that has been thrown into the air), its ability will not be canceled.
Previously, the Pterodactyl could climb trees on islands through a glitch; however, this feature was removed in the Summer Update.
- As a result, the Pterodactyl was one of the only animals that can climb a tree without pressing the S key, the others being the Phoenix, Land Monster, Black Dragon, King Dragon, and Dragon. It is the only Animal in the game formerly able to climb trees.

Glitches[]

Before Beta was closed, if the player reached Tier 15, the upgrade menu had 2+ Dragons, Phoenixes, T-rexes, Yetis, and Pterodactyls. This is because Golden Apexes were leaked accidentally, and the 3 Pterodactyls didn't have a skin.
The Pterodactyl used to be immune to poison, allowing it to easily use the Poison Lake. However, this was reportedly a glitch, which was patched circa September 2020.
If a Pterodactyl was picked up, dropped, and picked up immediately afterwards between at least two other Pterodactyls, the original Pterodactyl would be in a strange state of flight without actually using its ability(similar to how the Dragon can fly over everything). The Pterodactyl could not take damage, damage others, or consume food. This bug was known as the ghost glitch, and is a version of the infamous godmode glitch. It has been patched.
Landing on trees in islands would allow the Pterodactyl to automatically climb trees by touching their trunk. This had no cooldown, so it was possible to get on and off a tree constantly. This has been patched since the Summer Update.

The glitched energy bar

The Pterodactyl's energy bar displayed as a Water bar with a black bar with the "Version 3 UI" update on October 14, 2021. This was patched on October 21.