Paleo Pines sets itself apart from other cozy farming games by letting you tame dinosaurs and put your army of prehistoric pals to work on your ranch. Every dinosaur species in Paleo Pines has unique skills that make it suited to certain types of tasks both on your ranch and out in the world. Some dinosaurs are great for exploring with enhanced sprint speeds and helpful Dreamstone detection, while others can make watering your crops much less of a hassle or let you clean up debris to make more space on your farm.
Not every skill is easy to understand though, and a few of them in particular are frustratingly cryptic (like the Tender skill). If you’re curious about what you’re newly-tamed dinosaur can do in Paleo Pines, then this is the guide for you.
What Are Dinosaur Skills in Paleo Pines?
Dinosaur skills are unique abilities that you can utilize once you increase a tamed dino’s bond level to Helper. They start out as a Friend, but by feeding them, keeping their pen clean, and taking them out into the world to explore their favorite biomes, they’ll eventually open up to the idea of hard labor. Some of them can unlock new areas for you, like the Styracosaurus’ ability to break boulders and grant you access to Dapplewood, while others will make farm work much faster.
There are 10 dinosaur skills in total in Paleo Pines, and most dinosaurs have a mixture of them. Keep your available arsenal of dinosaur skills in mind when deciding which dinosaurs are worth your hard-earned Dreamstones.
Clearer
Clearers can remove piles of debris from the ground on your farm. This is Lucky’s innate ability and you have to use it in the game’s tutorial, so you already know what this is. It doesn’t have a use outside of cleaning up small piles of trash on your ranch, so once the place is clean, this ability is useless.
Discoverer
Discoverer dinosaurs are some of the most useful companions in the game. If you take them with you into the Veridian Valley or any of the game’s other biomes, they will sparkle when a Dreamstone is nearby. If you’re not using our Dreamstone locations guide, these dinosaurs will make your life a lot easier and let you recruit more dinosaurs for your ranch.
Related: How to Turn Dinosaurs into Helpers in Paleo Pines
Harvester
The Harvester skill lets dinosaurs help you out on the farm by harvesting crops. It’s a situational skill since it’s only useful once every few days once your vegetables are fully grown, but a Harvester dinosaur will make the crop-collecting process much faster since you won’t have to do everything by hand.
Slasher
Dinosaurs with the Slasher skill can both clear space on your ranch and help you explore some hidden areas. They can cut down vines and tall plants. There are a few large vines blocking space on your ranch, but the real utility here is in places like Dapplewood that have plenty of plants to cut down.
Smasher
Smashers are also great because they can clean up your farm and open up new routes for you throughout the world. They can break large boulders and rocks, letting you create valuable square footage on your ranch and clear boulders that are blocking the paths to places like Dapplewood and the sandy corner of Veridian Valley.
Sprinter
If you want to get around faster, then the Sprinter skill is for you. It does exactly what it sounds like, letting a dinosaur run much faster than usual. Taking less stamina to get to your destination is a huge win in Paleo Pines, so be sure to have a Sprinter ready for those long-distance treks.
Stomper
The Stomper skill is another ability that lets dinosaurs clear space and unlock new paths. Instead of cutting vines or rocks, Stomper dinosaurs can destroy large logs. There are a few of these strewn about the ranch, and you can also find them in the wild in places like Dapplewood.
Related: All Paleo Pines Dinosaur Locations
Tender
The Tender skill lets dinosaurs plant seeds for you. Before you can use this skill, you need to get a quest from a special NPC named Avery in Pebble Plaza where you’ll receive your first seed pot. Avery shows up during Jurassos, the game’s second season. This quest will lead to a tutorial showing you how to assign dinos with the Tender skill to their own seed pot and show you how to make them plant things.
Tiller
Tiller dinosaurs are some of the most useful farm workers in all of Paleo Pines. They can till the soil on your ranch, which is the first step to planting crops. Saving your stamina is highly appreciated, so use these dinos whenever you can.
Waterer
Dinosaurs with the waterer skill also make farming a lot easier. Waterer dinosaurs can water your plants for you, spraying water over multiple tiles at once. This is a huge upgrade over the basic watering can that waters crops one at a time, and your stamina will be saved in the process.
