Ark Harpoon Launcher

When the harpoon launcher first came out for Ark Survival Evolved it was a major disappointment.  There was no advantage to using it underwater over the crossbow, other than a cool animation, and it was garbage above the surface of the water.  Today, the use of the harpoon gun is without question a massive benefit when using the net launcher.  The net launcher shoots out and takes down small and great creatures with ease.  It is like a bola that works on an elephant.  I wonder if this makes taming a little too easy.  The regular bola helped a lot, and still is great before your character has enough levels to craft one.  The net launcher entangles a dino for one minute, then it will break free.  You have 30 seconds before that creature can be subdued again.  

Don’t bother with the harpoon launcher for underwater fighting with spear bolts or taming with tranq spear bolts.  The spear bolts and tranq spear bolts, just don’t do as good a job compared to arrows from a higher level crossbow for the expense of the bolts.  

Ark Harpoon Launcher

You could, and still can use a chain bola, but they take a massive amount of resources and are a huge problem to move around.  The different bear traps are also useful, but take a little bit of pre-planning to use.  They are still the only option to stop a Rex, giga or other giant creature.