Element

Element is a primary ingredient for equipment in the Tek Tier.

Bosses
It is gathered from the inventory of bosses (except Rockwell and the Overseer) after killing them. The amount depends on the difficulty of the bosses. The harvesting method will not multiply the amount. Make sure to grab it quick, because once you are teleported out of the arena, you can't retrieve it anymore. Another way of getting Element is by finding and defending the Element Nodes in the Extinction DLC, which spawn around the Wasteland. The most efficient way of farming element is by harvesting element shards in the ARK: Genesis DLC/Crystal Isles DLC and then turning it in to element. In Genesis: Part 2 small quantities of element can be looted from Supply Crates.

Amount per Boss
Note that and the do not leave Element on death, regardless of difficulty. Read the below section on how to obtain it in the respective DLC section.

Crafting
Element is used to craft Tek Tier armor and items. It also functions as a fuel for Tek structures and ammunition for Tek weapons.

It is also used to create s which are needed to power some Tek structures.

Element can also be used to craft small amounts of Element Dust (at an 80% loss).

Aberration
On Aberration map, the boss (Rockwell) does not drop any Element. But, it can be crafted by using charge nodes, which are naturally found on the map. Crafting Element requires Aberration-specific resources like, , and. Producing Element will 'overcharge' the Charge Node for 5 minutes, disabling all functions. Even after this time, the Node must fully restore all 5000 charge before being considered 'active'. Until 'active', the Charge Node cannot be used to charge the Batteries, provide charge light or craft Element.

Including the time it takes to recharge the 8 charge batteries required for the Element on top of the time it takes for the node to recharge itself to 5000, charge nodes can produce 3 Element every 43 minutes. Be wary not to have more than 9 batteries within a charge ode when forging Element, as fully charging 10 batteries will fully deplete the charge node and render it inactive until recharged.

Extinction
can be unlocked at Level 58, and can be crafted using 1000. Once crafted, there will be a 2 minute spoil timer before the turns into regular Element.

Alternatively, these can be rarely harvested from a completely defended Element Node.

Genesis
One Element can be bought from HLN-A for 2,000 Hexagon.

Element Shards can also be rarely mined from the green-marked stones found in the lunar biome.

Red crystal formations in the volcanic biome can be mined for significant amounts of Element shards.

Notes/Trivia

 * In-game
 * Element was first revealed in ARK Digest 22.
 * Element cannot be transferred between official servers or clusters.
 * With the introduction of Extinction DLC, it is possible to "transfer" Element across server in the form of its dust variant. However, the survivor on the server the dust is being transferred from must have learned from the said DLC to make full use of it.
 * Throughout the ARKs from Aberration to Genesis: Part 2, any form of Element tends to be commonly found in the most dangerous locations in the game:
 * Aberration: The Surface and Element Region
 * Extinction: The Wastelands
 * Genesis Part 1: Volcano and Lunar Biome
 * Genesis Part 2: Anywhere but Eden

Explorer Note Lore

 * Edmund Rockwell proclaimed the name of the Elements as "Edmundium".
 * in Genesis: Part 1, a buff known as Empowered apparently sometimes occurs in Gauntlet missions, The message occupying it is ‘THE EDMUNDIUM SURGES’ pointing to Rockwell’s name for Element.
 * Liquid element seems to corrupt creatures and survivors as Rockwell was corrupted by it.
 * Based on Rockwell note #29 and according to Homo Deus Helena/The One Who Waits, Element seems to have a mind of its own.
 * In Helena's Extinction note #24, Element seems to be able to see through dreams and act accordingly because Helena saw a vision in the prism of a purple figure clawing at a molten heart and the same purple figure suddenly marched towards her. This is turned a reality when a horde of Titans are marching to where Helena and the survivors were just after Helena experienced the dream.
 * In the Extinction DLC some creatures have been corrupted by raw element and robbed of their mentality, moving as a single cluster with no regards to its natural instinct and temperament.
 * In Helena's/The One Who Waits explorer note #16, she describes Element luring its victims into twisting them with promises of warmth, needs, and desires until they can't get out of the pit of madness that is so deep even the strongest and smartest are stuck.
 * In Extinction, explorer notes state that the Titans are massive concentrations of element and help element to expand by creating more titans to make more space for even more element to grow.
 * In HLN-A Genesis: Part 1 Story Explorer Note #20, inventors that used Element never predicted the chemical changed in a corruptible way. She also noted the Element levels are increasing inside the Genesis Simulation, this is possibly due to the Corrupted Master Controller’s influence on the simulation.
 * The Element that is the stable version where gems and other elements contain its energy in its solid form.
 * Rockwell notes that liquid Element is Element at its most purest, yet most unstable form when it is separated from its impurities that keeps the metal's stability.
 * Element is a chemical that has properties that make it better than any known real-life material.
 * In the One Who Waits Explorer Note #14, she noted it was harder and can take much higher temperatures than tungsten, more flexible than copper, and can make unprecedented levels of electricity and radiation that are far higher than any known realistic chemical. Its properties made it rapidly go through discovery, impact, invention, and production.
 * In Rockwell Scorched Earth Explorer Note #26, Rockwell noted that Element has abnormally strong metallic bonds and high melting point since he noted a normal forge can't melt it
 * In HLN-A Genesis: Part 1 Tidbit Note #64, HLN-A talks about a 19th century novel "The Coming Race" and its culture of focus: the Vril-ya. The Vril-ya had a society that relied on Vril, an all-permeating fluid they mind-control. HLN-A thinks the Vril sounds like characteristics of liquid Element.
 * At the Genesis: Part 1 ending cutscene, Element and its corruption followed HLN-A and the survivor outside the simulation, something that is impossible since it was only in the simulation, But possible due to the boarding Rockwell.
 * The origins of Element are unknown, even to Helena who is a Homo Deus.
 * In Santiago Note #6, Santiago explains that Element wasn't common during his time in the early 22nd century, only in small amounts. Because they were initially found in small amounts, he notes a single tiny vein of Element can turn towns into cities in mere days. He also noted that Element mines were needed to extract the chemical from the ground when he said that the city in Extinction must have been on top of an undiscovered vein. This implies that Element was found in minuscule amounts deep underground in its solid state, being unable to corrupt organisms and enter the lower crust.
 * In the One Who Waits Note #15, she has wondered if Element came from meteorites or from the ground. Referring to Diana Extinction Note #18, she notes Element infected the lower layers of Earth's crust, as if Element came from the sky and began to rooting itself deeper into the planet.  Where Element came from is unknown.
 * In Genesis: Part 2 Santiago Note #4, Santiago's higher up, Uma, described Element being proof of a higher power and that source is somewhere out there in the known universe.
 * In-lore, Element was a major factor in making Earth a dangerous wasteland in the first place in the ARK universe.
 * In Diana Note #18, a histogram shows that Element's concentration is the 3rd highest on the Corrupted Earth, ahead of Iron and Aluminum, two common metals found today. The potentially heavy concentration and mass of Element being added to the entire surface and deep crust of Earth could potentially explain why the planet's rotation around its axis has drastically slowed to a point that it has stopped.
 * The periodic table symbol of Element, or Edmundium, is Ex.
 * In Santiago Note #7, technology that runs on Element emits a minuscule amount of the said substance back into the atmosphere, planting itself in the soil. Even thousands of years can't make Element grow to dangerously high levels. He even notes that a century of warfare with Tek weaponry is the only thing responsible for creating a massive Element spike.
 * This is later confirmed by HLN-A who says that the United Republics of Earth and the Terran Federation (two TEK powered Waring nations that Diana and Santiago belong to respectively) both vied for supremacy over each other.
 * In Santiago Note #8, Santiago noted that from several of his spy missions, he noticed that Element was being applied for civilian use. How both civilian and military use of Element tie in together is unknown.
 * In HLN-A Genesis: Part 1 Tidbit Note #51, people, of all backgrounds, were using Element before Earth collapsed. She also says that Element is the main reason Earth in the ARK universe is a complete mess.
 * An image of what looks like a massive figure of either a giant human or titan is shown in the tidbit note. Given that the century long war between the URE and Federation took a heavy toll on Earth and its resources, people will resort to eating anything once food supplies run dry. This leads to mutations by Element in humans that turn them into giants like Rockwell.
 * The idea comes from reading several of the holo banners in Sanctuary that mention "an emergency ration" where violation of the ration results in punishment. But when those emergency rations ran out, people resorted to consuming Element as food once the natural food supply was mostly wiped out due to the war.
 * In HLNA Genesis: Part 1 Explorer Notes, HLN-A describes Element as an endlessly strong and adaptive substance.
 * Throughout Extinction, all the in-game titans except the King Titan are examples of this since they all adapted to the environments of the Proto-ARKs by having abilities that utilize the weather.
 * Based on all of the explorer notes of Extinction, the Element hive mind and its minions seems to follow this order of hierarchy of control:
 * Element Hive Mind (Element in general) - controls Element's activities
 * Element Hive Mind Pillars (King Titan and Rockwell) - sends the commands of Element to its minions; considered the nerve tract of Element hierarchy.
 * Titans and Corrupted Creatures - execute the orders from the Element hive mind.
 * Corrupt Element is the antagonist of the entire story as it mobilizes its pawns to thwart the combined effort of the URE's ARK Project and the Terran Federation's Colony Ship.
 * Corrupt Element requires a hive mind pillar to help carry out and order its will onto those it has infected.
 * Trying to sabotage the ARKs, Element utilized the Titans and its hive mind pillar, the King Titan, to increase Element levels on Earth to prevent the ARKs from falling down, thus causing the ARKs to begin destroying themselves.
 * In trying to hijack the Colony Ship, Element encouraged Edmund Rockwell, its other hive mind pillar, and his minions in the form of Corrupted Survivors to corrupt as many other normal survivor and organism files on the ship.