Crafting isn’t just a skill in the unforgiving world of Ark: Survival Evolved – it’s your lifeline. From the moment you wake up naked on that beach, your ability to create tools, shelter, and weapons will determine whether you thrive or become dino-chow. This guide will turn you from a crafting newbie into a resource-gathering, engram-unlocking, item-forging machine! We’ll break down the crafting system, reveal efficient resource techniques, and help you dominate the Ark like a true survivor.
Understanding the Crafting System: Your Building Blocks for Success
Think of the crafting system in Ark as your character’s development tree. As you level up and explore, you unlock the ability to make more complex and powerful items. Here’s a simple overview:
Unlock Engrams: The Recipes for Victory
As you earn experience, you’ll gain Engram Points (EP). Think of these as skill points you can invest in learning how to build specific items. What you choose to learn is entirely up to you and your play style. Are you a lone wolf focusing on self-sufficiency? Then prioritize engrams that help you automate tasks like farming or defense. Want to build a massive base that can withstand anything? Focus on structural engrams like stronger walls, reinforced doors, and automated turrets. Each choice will influence your overall progression.
Gather Resources: The Raw Materials of Survival
You can’t craft anything without materials! Resources in Ark are varied and interconnected, ranging from the basic (wood, stone, fiber, hide) to the advanced (metal, crystal, cementing paste, electronics, polymer). Your ability to identify, locate, and efficiently gather these resources will determine how quickly you progress.
Craft the Item: From Simple Inventory to Specialized Stations
Once you have the necessary resources and the engram unlocked, it’s time to get crafting! Many basic items can be crafted directly from your inventory. As you level up, you will be required to build crafting stations to produce more advanced items. This is where the game really opens up, and you will need to decide if you want to mass produce items or take on a smaller more survivalist approach.
Necessary Resources for Different Items: Know Your Materials
Knowing what resources are needed for specific items, and how to find the best methods of collecting them, is crucial to saving time and effort. Here’s a breakdown of some key categories and their material needs:
Tools and Weapons: Arming Yourself for the Challenges Ahead
Simple tools like the stone pickaxe and hatchet will need wood, stone, and flint. As you move up the technology tree to better weapons such as a longneck rifle, you’ll also need metal ingots, cementing paste, hide, and various other advanced resources.
Clothing and Armor: Protecting Yourself from the Elements (and Dinos)
Early-game clothing requires simple items such as fiber and hide. For better and more robust armor you’ll need materials like metal, chitin (from insects), and keratin. As you head into the harsher environments, you’ll need materials like fur, hide, metal, and a variety of other resources.
Structures: Building Your Empire (or Humble Abode)
When it comes to building a base, you will start with thatch, wood, and stone structures that can be constructed on the spot with the right materials. As you move forward, you can acquire the ability to build more resilient buildings made of metal, which require complex and late-game resource. Different areas of the map are better for different building materials. Some will be too hot or too cold to house thatch or wood, while others require the strength of metal to be secure from the local fauna.
Advanced Technology: Powering the Future
The top tier of technology is the future of Ark. To build these items, including electronics, firearms, and cryopods, requires a delicate balancing act. You’ll need electronics, oil, crystal, and electronics, which require specialized resources to harvest and can be dangerous to obtain. You will also need to unlock a chemistry bench and fabricator to even begin to craft these resources, requiring further effort and investment in your resource acquisition strategy.
Efficient Resource Gathering: Techniques for the Savvy Survivor
With time of the essence, your ability to harvest resources will help you keep ahead of the curve in Ark. Below are some sure-fire methods that the best players use to maximize their hauls:
Use the Right Tool:
This might seem obvious, but using the correct tools increases your efficiency in the long run. A hatchet can collect wood and thatch, and a pickaxe can collect flint and stone. That’s all well and good, but did you know which gets more of what? Experiment, research, and find out what tools are best for getting you the resources you need, quickly.
Tame Resource Gatherers: A Dino By Your Side
This is what most people strive for in Ark. Having the right dino by your side is integral to not wasting your time. A Trike is great for gathering berries, a Doedicurus can collect stone, and an Ankylosaurus is excellent for metal and flint, and a beaver is perfect for lumberjacking trees.
Craft Resource Carriers:
Having the right dino for the job means nothing if you don’t have the ability to haul your resources back home. Some dinos are naturally good at this, such as the Argy, and the Quetzal. However, early game you will want to build carts and pack animals that can help you get what you need back to your base.
Use the Environment:
Different resources are more abundant in certain environments. Fiber is most often in dense forests, but trees are more prominent in lowlands. Swamps are known for their high quantity of silica pearls and cementing paste. Find what works best for you and build near an abundance of the resources you most often need.
Become the Ultimate Crafter: Your Journey Starts Now
If you have made it this far, you have already survived longer than most Ark players. The crafting system in Ark: Survival Evolved can be difficult at first, but after unlocking the mechanics and mastering your own strategy you will become a great survivor. Experiment with different tools and techniques, and always seek new ways to build your wealth. Best of luck, survivor!
