ARK 2 Crafting Guide: Essential Recipes, Resource Locations, and Progression Path

honestly crafting in ARK 2 is one of those systems that I kind of love because it takes you from literally punching trees for thatch to fabricating advanced rifles and TEK armor and you know the progression path which engrams to unlock and when is pretty much the difference between smooth advancement and wasted engram points on gear you'll never use and I've made that mistake so many times when I first tried playing so this guide basically maps the optimal crafting progression from level 1 to endgame imo and I mean it really matters when you're sitting there with zero points left and you still need a saddle for your mount and stuff like that

Engram Points: Spend Wisely

ngl engram points are super limited and you earn them with each level but you'll never ever have enough to unlock everything so the key principle is basically only unlock what you need right now and in the next 5 levels and don't unlock the Raptor Saddle at level 18 if you don't plan to tame a Raptor until level 25 because I've literally wasted so many points on saddles for dinos I couldn't even ride yet and it kind of sucks honestly the essential early engrams for levels 1 through 15 include Stone Pick and Stone Hatchet and Spear and Campfire and Thatch Foundations and Walls and Doorframes and Doors plus a Storage Box and Sleeping Bag and Bola and Narcotic and Wooden Club and Mortar and Pestle and Bow with Stone Arrows and Tranquilizer Arrows and that's pretty much the starter kit you need to survive and craft all the basic stuff etc imo

The Crafting Progression Path

Tier 1 is Primitive for levels 1 to 15 and you're working with stone tools and thatch structures and basic weapons like the spear and bow with campfire cooking and honestly the focus here should be taming a Parasaur and a Raptor because that's what carried me through my first run and also gathering narcoberries and spoiled meat to craft narcotics for tranquilizer arrows is super important and I remember dying like 5 times to a raptor pack before I got this right and all that

But then Tier 2 is Wood from levels 15 to 30 and you get wood structures and the crossbow and metal tools like the pick and hatchet and pike plus the Pteranodon saddle and you really want to start metal smelting with a Refining Forge around this time and the crossbow is a huge upgrade over the regular bow because it fires tranquilizer arrows with double torpor making taming way faster and I honestly love that upgrade and never skip it

So Tier 3 is Stone and Early Metal from levels 30 to 50 with stone structures and the longneck rifle and tranquilizer darts along with Ankylosaurus and Doedicurus saddles and the longneck rifle with darts is pretty much the preferred taming weapon from this point forward and I mean once you try darts you'll never go back to arrows again

Also Tier 4 is Industrial from levels 50 to 70 and this is where you get the Industrial Forge and Industrial Cooker and Chemistry Bench plus the pump-action shotgun and fabricated sniper rifle and flak armor and honestly the Industrial Forge smelts metal like 20 times faster than the Refining Forge and it's insane how much of a difference that makes when you're crafting hundreds of ingots and I kind of love the industrial era and all that industrial stuff

Then Tier 5 is TEK at level 70 plus and you get the TEK Replicator and TEK armor pieces and TEK weapons and TEK structures but you need to defeat bosses for TEK engrams and Element and tbh that's where the real endgame grind starts and I'm not 100% sure I'll ever unlock everything at this tier and stuff like that and honestly getting Element is kind of a pain too

Resource Location Guide

Crafting Skill Optimization

so putting points into Crafting Skill increases the quality of items you craft and you get higher damage and armor and durability on blueprint crafted items and at 100 percent Crafting Skill a blueprint crafts at its listed stats but each additional point grants a chance for a stat bonus and at level 100 with max crafting skill you can produce gear 30 to 50 percent better than base blueprints which honestly matters most for saddles giving better armor and weapons getting more damage and actual armor getting more protection and in my experience dedicating one tribe member to be the crafter with max crafting skill is pretty much mandatory if you want top tier gear and I mean that's how my tribe does it and it works awesome or whatever