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Establishing a farm helps survivors or tribes become self-sufficient. Crops can be used to feed survivors and majority of tamed herbivore creatures that in return produce eggs or feces. There are plenty of 'farm animals' or creatures like dinos. Farming is a bit labour intensive but it has long term payouts. At current max capacity berry bushes can hold up to 300 berries at one.

Farm Animals[]

During their time spent on the Arks, most Human Survivor learned that coexistence has benefits. Domesticating or Taming dinos helps in many ways: carrying heavy loads of resources like wood or metal, gathering food, protection from other dangerous creatures. Each creature can be effectively utilized and not every one of them needs to be a fighter or heavy lifter.

After taming these creatures, you can place them in a confined area either in fenced off land, or a structure that acts like a barn or stable to protect them from wandering away or being attacked.

Equus[]

The Equus Equus is the horse in Ark and has a weight reduction bonus carrying certain materials such as Stone, Sand and Cactus. With an Equus Saddle Equus Saddle and a Lasso Lasso, a player riding the Equus can use the Lasso to catch and pull a small or medium size creature quickly away to be fed and tamed; additionally Equus can be good for rescuing another player who may have fallen into a deep pit. They are easy to tame by riding on their backs then passively feeding Rockarrots. The saddle offers as a toolkit that works like a mobile Mortar and Pestle.

Parasaur[]

Parasaur Parasaur are among other creatures the player will most likely encounter early in the game. They are known for their skittish nature of running from anything that they consider dangerous. Their cowardly nature has good reasons to explain this spontaneous behaviour, due to their ability to sense dangerous creatures from a distance. The Survivor can implement this instinct by setting the tame Parasaur into a Turret-mode to see where the nearby danger or intruder is. The Parasaur will signal its owner who may then prepare their defences.

They can also act as a Makeshift Baby Alarm, take note that false alarms will occur such as a wandering Oviraptor orDiplodocus Diplodocus pushing around any tames.

Eggs, Meat and Fertilizer[]

Dodo and the Terror Bird

  • Dodo Dodo and Terror Bird Terror Bird are the chickens of Ark. Both lay eggs, are easy to breed and has good resources including: Meat or in Primitive Plus Fresh Poultry (Primitive Plus) Fresh Poultry (Primitive Plus), and Feathers (Primitive Plus) Feathers (Primitive Plus). The only true problem lies in taming the Terror Bird. The Dodo can easily be Wooden Club persuaded with Berries Berries however the Terror Bird can kill you which makes them dangerous to tame.
Oviraptor
  • If there were ever foxes in Ark, the Oviraptor Oviraptor would come as close to the personality of one. Not only can it assist the Survivor with stealing eggs from other dinos, it can help encourage local tame dinos to lay eggs more often. Let it roam near a Dodo pen and the dodos will be encouraged by their new neighbour to lay eggs more often.
Phiomia
  • Phiomia Phiomia are beneficial for their resources such as: Hide, Meat or in Primitive+ Fresh Bacon (Primitive Plus) Fresh Bacon (Primitive Plus) and since it poops often (especially when forcefed Stimberry Stimberries) and larger amounts than the dodo it will be very helpful for fertilizer production. however really any creature can be used for Mass Meat Production.


Sheep[]

The sheep, Ovis Ovis are picky eaters and prefer Sweet Vegetable Cake Sweet Vegetable Cake or Lettuce (Primitive Plus) Lettuce (Primitive Plus) over anything else, when it comes to taming. The taming expense is worth its weight in Wool Wool and Raw Mutton Raw Mutton. By using Scissors Scissors, the farmer can cut wool from the Ovis and use it as a resource to make Fur Armor Fur Armor in the Smithy Smithy, as well gain mutton when harvesting the corpse with a Chainsaw.

Apiary[]

Raising Giant Bee Bees is profitable. If the Survivor is confident enough, they can attempt to tame a Giant Queen Bee and transport her Bee Hive Bee Hive back to their farm. As long as the player stores Rare Flower Rare Flowers in the Bee Hive, the honey bees will continue to produce:

and in Primitive Plus mode

Honey has several uses. It can be used to tame:

By throwing honey off the Wooden Raft during the attack, it can calm the great Leedsichthys Leedsichthys of the sea. It can also be used for Fish Bait or an ingredient in recipes like the Sweet Vegetable Cake and custom recipes. It is used to make extraordinary kibble, the highest tier of kibble. In any case the Giant Bee Honey is a sweet snack for survivors.

Organic Polymer[]

Organic Polymer Organic Polymer is an essential alternative resource for avoiding unwanted trips to gather Obsidian Obsidian. It can craft and maintain Ghillie Armor Ghillie Armor among other items crafted with Polymer Polymer

The Following Creatures drop/produce Organic Polymer

Note that Karkinos cannot be bred however it can be worth it to kill them in the wild as they drop the most of the five. as with Achatina they do not directly drop it but rather produce and preserve it overtime along with Achatina Paste Achatina Paste

As for breeding and slaughtering Mantis produce more than the Kairuku however they also take longer to mature and hatch compared to the Kairuku's shorter reproduction rate

Use Creatures such as a Direbear Direbear or Moschops Moschops with points invested into Polymer.

Rotten Meat, Vultures and Bugs[]

Vultures

It doesn't take long to have Feeding Trough Feeding Troughs full of Spoiled Meat Spoiled Meat. If the Survivor doesn't need the extra resource to craft Narcotics, then domesticating Vulture Vultures can help keep the Feeding Troughs clean from wasted meat. When it comes to farming, the Vulture doesn't have many uses other than it's Vulture Egg (Scorched Earth) Eggs and it's ability that causes Raw Meat Raw Meat to spoil quickly within it's inventory.

Bugs[]

Bugs are also useful to keep Feeding Troughs clean from spoiled meat, however a couple of them have great fundamental abilities when it comes to a survivor's farm life.

Dung Beetle

The Dung Beetle Dung Beetle is more resourceful than any of them. As long as the player leaves them to wander in a safe place they can convert Feces (in their inventory) into Fertilizer Fertilizer and Oil Oil. They produce fertilizer much more efficiently than standard Compost Bins, making the latter effectively obsolete. A few tamed Dung Beetles can support a decent sized greenhouse.

Mantis the Farm Hand

If brave enough the survivor can attempt to tame this large, extremely aggressive creature; the Mantis Mantis. The Mantis has the capability to hold tools and weapons. Give it a good Metal Pick Metal Pick, that is then influenced by the Mantis' Melee Damage and it can mine large amounts of resources from rocks, including metal. Both resourceful and deadly, this is an insect that any farmer would want protecting their gardens.

Gardening[]

Gardens have an important role helping players survive during their struggle in the Ark. Not only do players gain Berries nourishments to support themselves or their dinos, but they can also grow territorial plants that will assist in defending the survivor's Home Shelter. Truly a successful garden is very beneficial therefore this article will cover all aspects of gardening in ARK: Survival Evolved, including both standard gameplay and Primitive Plus Primitive Plus gameplay.

Preparation[]

Four things are needed to grow crops:

Starting a garden even a small one, the player will have to gather resources not only to craft a Crop Plot Crop Plot to grow a plant in, just as well the needed resources to grow the plants. In ARK: Survival Evolved pick seeds from the wild vegetation, plant them in plots that you placed, water them and nurture them with fertilizer. Tend to your crops and they will grow to produce delicious and rare Crops, which can also be used to cook a plethora of recipes including useful dino food called Kibble Kibble that helps shorten the taming process! Explore to find the rare plant Seeds that also have powerful properties!

Gathering Resources[]

Just as it was in beginning a new game in Ark and gathering berries to survive, you probably found 'berry seeds' mixed in your or your Brontosaurus dino's inventory. The chances of finding every plant seed just from local berry bushes and foliage near forests and beaches differs. There are some crops (in standard mode) alone that grows and produces the seed and fruit in specific places in Ark:

Citronal, Longrass, Rockarrots and Savoroot

You can find Citronal Citronal, Longrass Longrass, Rockarrot Rockarrots and Savoroot Savoroot as well as the seeds from the plants in the warm climate mountains on The Island The Island and The Center The Center. You will be able to easily distinguish the difference from the common bushes.

-note: need info on Scorched Earth Scorched Earth-

This doesn't apply to Ragnarok Ragnarok, the Rockarrots and Savoroots grow separately in the HighLands. To make your search easier there are a couple of old ruins in the highlands not far from the shore, that has both crops growing which may suggest that the former survivors that lived there originally had grown the crops in their own garden.

Plant Species X, Y and Z

Plant Species are the "territorial plants", mentioned before. However, the seeds are found separately depending on the Ark maps:

Also referred to as 'Spitter Plant', it is known for its aggressive reaction to spit poisonous projectiles at any creature that comes near its territory. However does not harm its owner or anything associated with their tribe nor ownership.

    • The Plant Species X is found growing passively on the land by The Island's swamps, yet can be found from almost any bush in Ragnarok Ragnarok and The Center The Center.
  • Plant Species Y (Scorched Earth) Plant Species Y (Scorched Earth)

While it doesn't grow in the wilderness, once the seed is planted and grown by the Survivor it will appear with a pinkish conical shape with small tentacle stems. It produces a fruit that has tentacles attached. If the player buries the fruit it will react as a trap toward enemies. Once the enemy steps on it, the tentacles will whip out of the ground to grab and constrict the trespasser tightly for a certain amount of time before dying.

    • The seeds are only found in the purple flower foliage that grows on the ground in Scorched Earth Scorched Earth and Ragnarok Ragnarok. You can confirm that is the plant, if you gain Silk Silk with the other resources. However the seed is rare and has a low chance of being harvested.
  • Plant Species Z (Aberration) Plant Species Z (Aberration)
    • Is only found in the wilderness of the Aberration Aberration Ark and can only be grown there.

Primitive+ Plants

The majority of the seeds can be found in any berry bush and foliage. There are places in Ragnarok that produces both the fruit and seeds:

  • Grapes (Primitive Plus) Grapes (Primitive Plus)
    • Can be found from Grapevines growing in the vineyard ruins on an island near Green Obelisk.

The Best Seed Gatherers[]

Seeds can be obtained in two different ways, either by hand or using a dino. While any herbivore that the player can ride can harvest a good amount, the:

are very proficient creatures for berry and seed collecting. The Iguanodon even has the ability to convert stacks of berries into seeds.

Crop Plot[]

There are several different crop plots, keep in mind that not every plant can grow in the same plot. Primitive Plus crops only grows in the Large Crop Plot Large Crop Plot while standard Berries Berries and other Crops can grow from small to large. Note that Plants do not grow faster nor yield more fruits in different crop plots.

Small crop plots are best suited for berries. Medium crop plots are best suited for vegetables. Large crop plots are best suited for Plant Species X/Y/Z.

Three crop pots

Comparison of different crop plots

To plant a seed to an empty plot, open the plot's Inventory screen, and place the desired item from your inventory into the plot's storage. The seed will be consumed within seconds -provided water and fertilizer or feces are available- and will put your plot into the "Seeded" growth stage.

Different Crop Plots

Crop Plot Supported Seeds
Small Crop Plot Small Crop Plot Amarberry Seed Amarberry Seed, Azulberry Seed Azulberry Seed, Mejoberry Seed Mejoberry Seed, Narcoberry Seed Narcoberry Seed, Stimberry Seed Stimberry Seed, Tintoberry Seed Tintoberry Seed
Medium Crop Plot Medium Crop Plot Amarberry Seed Amarberry Seed, Azulberry Seed Azulberry Seed, Mejoberry Seed Mejoberry Seed, Narcoberry Seed Narcoberry Seed, Stimberry Seed Stimberry Seed, Tintoberry Seed Tintoberry Seed

Citronal Seed Citronal Seed, Longrass Seed Longrass Seed, Rockarrot Seed Rockarrot Seed, Savoroot Seed Savoroot Seed

On Primitive Plus

Barley Seed Barley Seed, Cabbage Seed Cabbage Seed, Camellia (Tea) Seed Camellia (Tea) Seed, Cashew Tree Cashew Tree, Coffee Seed Coffee Seed, Grape Seed Grape Seed, Rice Seed Rice Seed, Sorghum Seed Sorghum Seed, Soybean Seed Soybean Seed, Spinach Seed Spinach Seed, Sugarcane Seed Sugarcane Seed, Tobacco Seed Tobacco Seed, Tomato Seed Tomato Seed, Wheat Seed Wheat Seed

Large Crop Plot Large Crop Plot Amarberry Seed Amarberry Seed, Azulberry Seed Azulberry Seed, Mejoberry Seed Mejoberry Seed, Narcoberry Seed Narcoberry Seed, Stimberry Seed Stimberry Seed, Tintoberry Seed Tintoberry Seed

Citronal Seed Citronal Seed, Longrass Seed Longrass Seed, Rockarrot Seed Rockarrot Seed, Savoroot Seed Savoroot Seed

Plant Species X Seed Plant Species X Seed, Plant Species Y Seed Plant Species Y Seed, Plant Species Z Seed Plant Species Z Seed

On Primitive Plus

Barley Seed Barley Seed, Cabbage Seed Cabbage Seed, Camellia (Tea) Seed Camellia (Tea) Seed, Cashew Tree Cashew Tree, Coffee Seed Coffee Seed, Grape Seed Grape Seed, Rice Seed Rice Seed, Sorghum Seed Sorghum Seed, Soybean Seed Soybean Seed, Spinach Seed Spinach Seed, Sugarcane Seed Sugarcane Seed, Tobacco Seed Tobacco Seed, Tomato Seed Tomato Seed, Wheat Seed Wheat Seed

Planting[]

After the crop plot is placed and the seed is planted, it will need both water and fertilizer to get the Seeds Seeds to grow. The survivor can bring both water to the crop plot manually by means of using Water Jar water containers, wait for a natural rainfall or then fertilize the garden using their own Human Feces human feces. Both jobs themselves are tedious. There are better methods and resources of growing crops effectively.

Fertilizer[]

Using feces at first as a fertilizer might be good to get the garden started, but taking the time to either wait or deliver the product to the garden bed is not a lifestyle for the typical survivor. You can shorten the time and increase the fertilizer effects by four methods:

Bonemeal

Compost Bin

  • One way of acquiring good quality fertilizer is by placing: 50 × Thatch Thatch + 3 × Feces Feces = 1 × Fertilizer Fertilizer.

Dung Beetle

  • Dung Beetle Dung Beetles are also a good source of fertilizer once tamed. Put some feces in their inventory and wait about 15 minutes: Two Small Animal Feces will produce (1) Fertilizer, (1) Medium Animal Feces will produce (2) Fertilizer, (1) Large Animal Feces will produce (3) Fertilizer, and (1) Massive Animal Feces Massive Animal Feces will produce (16) Fertilizer and (14) Oil.

Toilet

  • The Toilet Toilet in Ark functions as an easy way to get Fertilizer Fertilizer. It is unlocked at Level 32, and requires a connection to irrigation pipes for it to work. Players can manually poop while sitting on the toilet, and upon pooping will give the player one Fertilizer Fertilizer and a temporary 33% experience buff that lasts 120 seconds.

See the list below to compare the Units of 'Effective Fertilizer'

Types of Fertilizer
Fertilizer type Fertilizer units Fertilizes for Fertilizes full* plant for
Human Feces Human Feces 1,000 10m 3h 5m
Small Animal Feces Small Animal Feces 3,500 35m 10h 48m
Medium Animal Feces Medium Animal Feces 7,500 1h 15m 23h 8m
Unicorn Residue (Mobile) Unicorn Residue (ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile) 7,500 1h 15m 23h 8m
Large Animal Feces Large Animal Feces 15,000 2h 30m 1d 22h 15m
Massive Animal Feces Massive Animal Feces 35,000 5h 50m 4d 11h 55m
Snow Owl Pellet (Extinction) Snow Owl Pellet (Extinction) 50,000 8h 20m 6d 10h 10m
Fertilizer Fertilizer 54,000 9h 6d 22h 30m
Bonemeal Fertilizer (Primitive Plus) Bonemeal Fertilizer (Primitive Plus) 90,000 15h 11d 13h 30m

* When a plant has its maximum of fruits, it needs less fertilizer. As the fruits spoil after some time, leaving the plant in a non-full state for some time, these numbers are rather theoretical maximums.

To add feces or fertilizer to your plot, open the plot's Inventory screen, and place the desired item in the plot's storage. Once growing, your crop will slowly consume the first provided piece of compost, draining its value by one point per second (shown by a brown bar under the item). You can view your crop's total 'Fertilizer' value at anytime by viewing the plot's HUD. When the fertilizer reaches 0, the crop will degrade slowly and finally vanish (the crops will stay harvest-able, as long as they do not spoil).

A growing or fruit-producing plant needs approximately 100 units of fertilizer per minute (~1.67/s). Once the plant is full of fruits (for berries the limit per bush is 300, other plants can hold up to 150 fruits), the consumption is lowered to approximately 4.8/min (~0.081/s). As a rule of thumb, you should leave each of your plants with 144,000 fertilizer (a bit less than 3 Fertilizer), to keep it fertilized for 24 hours.

Irrigation[]

Irrigation will save time of having to continuously fill Waterskin water containers and waiting for the next rain storm to happen. Depending if the gameplay mode the player is PvE or PvP, establishing a good network especially hidden is very important in PvP; so that your base may avoid being discovered by enemies. This section will cover the basics and advancements of building a good water system.

Pipes[]

To fill by irrigation, the player will need to have a working Stone Irrigation Pipe - Tap Tap near the plot. The Stone Irrigation Pipe - Tap Tap will only be considered working if properly connected to an Stone Irrigation Pipe - Intake Intake Pipe, or a Water Reservoir Water Reservoir with water already inside, if pipes are connected to a water source correctly they will change in color from the normal stone/metal color to blue. This will indicate that water is flowing through the pipe. You will know the Tap is working correctly when your plot's HUD says "Irrigated" in the Water stats.

To fill by rain or snow, the crop box must have unobstructed access to the sky or have a water tap connected to a Water Reservoir Water Reservoir that is outside where rain water can be collected. Nonetheless, even in places where it rains often, for example The Center The Center, relying solely on rain or snow to provide water is unreliable and not advised.

Small Plots can hold a maximum of 200 units of Water. Medium Plots can hold 400 units. Large Plots can hold 600 units.

Hidden Pipes[]

One easy way of hide pipes is to position a Stone Irrigation Pipe - Vertical Stone Irrigation Pipe - Vertical by using any preferred structure, in this example a Stone Pillar Stone Pillar. Position the pipe how low you want it. Then break the floor foundation and place as many Stone Irrigation Pipe - Intersection Stone Irrigation Pipe - Intersections as needed for future connections (remember to replace the Stone Foundation Stone Foundations as you go to the next section).

Advance Pipe Concealment

You can hide irrigation pipes by clipping them onto the ground/slope. It requires:

First place the Stone Irrigation Pipe - Vertical Stone Irrigation Pipe - Vertical, then clip a Stone Irrigation Pipe - Inclined Stone Irrigation Pipe - Inclined downward (it will most likely look halfway in the ground). Go into the crawling position with another Stone Irrigation Pipe - Inclined Stone Irrigation Pipe - Inclined look straight down to the expected end of the Vertical Pipe, and switch to Oribit Camera. You should be able to look under the ground. There you try to adjust your character to position the pipe. Once you have the 2nd Inclined Pipe placed completely under the ground, then destroy the pipes sticking out of the ground. When you use the Stone Irrigation Pipe - Flexible Stone Irrigation Pipe - Flexible, it will barely show in the ground. You may have to do this several times as needed to completely hide your pipe connections.

Growth/Harvesting[]

Stimberry growth

Stimberry Stimberry growth stages

As your crop develops, it will enter different stages of growth. The approximate time your plant takes to grow is dependent on the availability of water and compost. Anytime one or the other is missing, the growth rate grinds to a halt.

Crops grow slowly taking quite a few day/night cycles before they are harvest-able

  1. Seeded (0-1 Minutes)
  2. Seedling (1 Minute - ~7 In-Game Days; sometimes even a real-life day)
  3. Midling (~5 In-Game Days)
  4. Growthling (~1 to 2 In-Game Day to get to Fruitling)
  5. Fruitling (Final Stage)

When permanently fertilized, it takes about 1 real-life day to grow from Seeded to Fruitling. If the crop plot is enclosed by Greenhouse structures, crops grow significantly faster than usual.

Once your crop enters the "Fruitling" stage, your crop will begin to yield food, and occasionally new seeds. To harvest, remove the crops from the plot's Inventory screen. As with all containers, overfull plots will need to have items removed down to less than the maximum inventory size before new items can be added.

Gardening (Mobile)[]

This section is currently under construction.

Greenhouse[]

Greenhouse1

A greenhouse

Disambig Main article: Greenhouse Structures Greenhouse Structures

Greenhouses give special bonuses to farming that can be seen on a crop box's HUD in dark green. The Greenhouse Effect improves crop growth speed and reduces the amount of fertilizer used. The maximum of the Greenhouse Effect is 300%.

Notes[]

  • You can place (1) Massive Animal Feces Massive Animal Feces and (50) Thatch Thatch into the Compost Bin Compost Bin to get a Fertilizer Fertilizer. However if the player has a tamed dung beetle it is far better to place it in it's inventory as it will yield 16 Fertilizer.
  • Snow Owl Pellet Snow Owl Pellet is also an easy way to fertilize your plants. They don't need any time to be changed into fertilizer, and they give almost the same amount of nitrogen to the plants as fertilizer itself does.

Video Guide[]

A full video guide to farming in under 5 minutes.
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