Renewable resources

Overview

ARK: Survival Evolved contains a number of renewable resources scattered around the map that players can harvest. Sometimes these resources can be harvested by hand, such as Silica Pearls, plants and so on; sometimes these resources require the use of a tool, such as harvesting stone from large rocks using a pick.

Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between terrain and a renewable resource. For example, not all large rocks can be harvested for stone or flint, and not all vegetation are plants or trees.

For simplicity, Creatures are not considered a renewable resource for the purposes of this article, however the harvesting of resources from their carcasses does follow the same mechanics.

Yields

Usually hand-harvested renewable resources can be harvested with greater efficiency and yields through the use of a tool or tame. The exception to this are resources that are gathered directly from the ground, like small stones, twigs, or pieces of thatch. Tools cannot be used to gather these, and if this is attempted, the player is warned to use an empty hand to gather the resource. (you can use whip to gather resources on the ground such as stones, twigs, pieces of thatch and that is much more efficient than pick up by hand one resource at a time)

Regardless of the method, the yield is proportional to the Melee Damage statistic, and for tools, the quality of the tool as well (see the tool links for more information). However, the maximum yield for each resource node is capped. However, the cap is still modified by Gather Multipliers, for example the Chainsaw yields far more from a single tree than the most ascendant of axes swung with the most godlike Melee Damage.

Harvesting Mechanics

Each time a resource node is harvested, a random number is used to determine the yields, and this is increased by Melee Damage, and the Tool type and Quality. If the number is high enough, then rare resources, which have a greater 'resource cost', can also be harvested. If the calculated yield exceeds the resources remaining in the node, it is capped at the remainder amount and the node disappears, having been fully harvested.

However, the cap is also affected by the same factors, but at a lesser degree, enabling ever-greater yields from the same node when revisited with better tools or melee damage, even when earlier harvesting attempts with lower melee or quality were still 'one-shotting' the node.

Harvesting Tools

• Stone Hatchet / Metal Hatchet
• Stone Pick / Metal Pick
• Metal Sickle
• Whip (Scorched Earth)
• Chainsaw (Scorched Earth)
• Mining Drill (Genesis: Part 1)

Respawning

On official servers, renewable resources respawn after several hours if all the conditions are met. Most importantly, they do not respawn if a player is too close, and unlike creature respawning, they aren't affected by the presence of tames.

Renewable resources also do not respawn after harvesting if they are too near to a blocking structure. For this purpose, blocking structures include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• a foundation
• the intersection of ceiling and a pillar
• the intersection of a fence foundation and a wall

Objects that can be freeplaced on the terrain do not interfere with respawning, such as Wooden Signs, Standing Torches, Large Storage Boxes, Stone Dinosaur Gateways and so on.

Plants and trees can also be forcibly respawned in an area by the use of Re-Fertilizer.

Types of Renewable Resources

All of these are heavily dependent on the map being played, and installed DLCs. This may not be a comprehensive list, especially as new map regions and DLCs have without fail added to this list.

• Ground litter - including small stones, twigs and pieces of thatch
• Rocks, including flint rocks, stone rocks, metal rocks, oil rocks, obsidian rocks, sulfur rocks, and sand rocks
• Crystal outcrops, both large and small
• Raw Salt (Scorched Earth) columns
• Trees
• Plants
• Silica Pearl and Black Pearl shells
• Rare Flower patches, in a wide variety of forms
• Anthills
• Creatures
• Supply Crates
• Destroyable Urban Objects such as tables, benches and lampposts

Notes

• In custom games, the distances affecting the blocking of renewable resource respawning can be altered through the Game.ini options: ResourceNoReplenishRadiusPlayers=<value> and ResourceNoReplenishRadiusStructures=<value> (see Console for more infos).

If you are playing single player and log out before resources respawn there is a bug that causes them to not respawn for a very long time.