In Ark: Survival Evolved, it’s vital that you have the best possible gear on your character and tames at all times. Whether it’s a Pickax or a Saddle, not having the correct stats at your time of need will be your downfall. While there are plenty of base Blueprints for players to craft, all of them are classified as Primitive, and while that’s fine initially, you’ll have to get more if you’re looking to keep up with the creatures you’re taming, the people around you, and the Bosses you’ll face. This guide details how you can increase the stats on your crafted items in Ark: Survival Evolved.
All item tiers in Ark: Survival Evolved
Blueprints are obtained in many different ways in Ark: Survival Evolved, and they’re the lifeblood of a player looking to excel. Blueprints can be gathered from Loot Crates, Supply Drops, Alpha creatures, and Bosses. You can also get them from completing content like OSDs, which are often the best options for higher-tier Tek gear.
Blueprints outclass crafted items in many ways. Apart from some Blueprints like Fishing Rods, you can craft multiple of that same item, you’ll never have to mourn the loss of that item to death, and you’ll be able to improve their base stats. Like all gear in Ark: Survival Evolved, Blueprints come at different rarities, and often the higher the rarity, the higher the cost. The rarities are also color-coded and are listed as follows:
- Primitive – Grey/White
- Ramshackle – Green
- Apprentice – Dark Blue
- Journeyman – Purple
- Mastercraft – Yellow
- Ascendant – Cyan
Ascendant items are theoretically the most powerful of all the statted items. However, there are cases where Mastercraft and even Journeyman gear has outperformed Ascendant gear because the cost to craft an Ascendant item may be much higher for something with similar or close stats, or the stats were just flat-out better.
Related: How to tame a Giganotosarus in Ark: Survival Evolved
How to increase the stats on your crafted items in Ark: Survival Evolved
While the Blueprint will always state what the weapon you’re crafting will come out as at a base-level craft, there are methods and means to bypass this. Doing so will allow you to gain extra stats that you can in several different ways and in different situations.
Using a Mind-Wipe and placing all your levels into Crafting Skill
The oldest method available and the only one players can use on Offical Servers. The Mind-Wipe Tonic, crafted in the Cooking Pot or Industrial Cooker, cleanses all stats that you’ve leveled on your character. By doing this, you can place up to 190 points into Crafting Skill. Of course, the more points you have in your Crafting Skill, the greater the boost you’ll give to your crafted items.
Crafting an item once you’ve leveled your Crafting Skill will give that item a percentage boosted amount, and its stats will increase. For example, for weapons, armor, and tools, Damage and Durability will be boosted, and for Saddles, the Armor will increase.
The maximum amount that you can gain as a Crafted Skill Bonus is 94.5%; however, the percentage of your boost is completely random. This means it may take several crafts to get anything high-enough to be valuable.
Using mods to increase your item stats
Ark: Survival Evolved’s modding community is wild and useful. From building mods to adding in character models from other popular games, there’s nothing modders can’t do. One of the more valuable mods you can obtain for your private server, and even on PvP and PvE servers, is the Upgrade Station.
The Upgrade Station allows your character to upgrade their crafted items using materials. There’s a chance it may fail, and the resources will be lost.
