How do I craft a mortar and pestle in ARK: Survival Evolved for advanced recipes?

Crafting a mortar and pestle in ARK: Survival Evolved is a crucial step in advancing your survival and crafting capabilities. The mortar and pestle is a key tool for creating advanced recipes, such as narcotics, gunpowder, and other essential items that are vital for taming dinosaurs, crafting ammunition, and progressing through the game. HereÔÇÖs a detailed guide on how to craft and use the mortar and pestle effectively.

To craft a mortar and pestle, you first need to unlock its engram. The mortar and pestle engram becomes available at level 5 and costs 9 engram points to unlock. Once unlocked, you can craft it using the following resources: 65 stone, 35 fiber, and 5 hide. These materials are relatively easy to gather early in the game. Stone can be collected by hitting rocks with a pickaxe or by hand, fiber is obtained by harvesting bushes, and hide is acquired by killing small animals like dodos or dilophosaurs.

Once you have the required materials, open your inventory and navigate to the crafting tab. Locate the mortar and pestle in the list of available items and craft it. The mortar and pestle is a stationary item, meaning it must be placed on the ground or on a structure like a table or foundation. Once placed, you can interact with it to access its crafting interface.

The mortar and pestle is primarily used to craft advanced recipes that require combining multiple resources. For example, to craft narcotics, you need to combine spoiled meat and narcoberries in the mortar and pestle. Narcotics are essential for taming dinosaurs, as they are used to make tranquilizer arrows and darts, and to keep dinosaurs unconscious during the taming process. Another important recipe is gunpowder, which is made by combining charcoal and sparkpowder. Gunpowder is a key ingredient for crafting ammunition and explosives, making it vital for both PvE and PvP scenarios.

When using the mortar and pestle, itÔÇÖs important to manage your resources efficiently. Spoiled meat, for example, is a byproduct of raw meat spoiling over time. To maximize your spoiled meat production, you can split stacks of raw meat into smaller stacks in your inventory. This causes each stack to spoil individually, increasing the rate at which you obtain spoiled meat. Similarly, narcoberries can be gathered in large quantities by using a berry-gathering dinosaur like a trike or a brontosaurus.

One common mistake players make is not having enough storage space near their mortar and pestle. Since the mortar and pestle has limited inventory space, itÔÇÖs important to have storage boxes or containers nearby to hold excess resources. This allows you to craft large quantities of items without constantly running back and forth to gather more materials.

For advanced players, optimizing the use of the mortar and pestle can involve setting up dedicated crafting stations. For example, you can create a taming station with multiple mortar and pestles to mass-produce narcotics and other taming supplies. This is especially useful for tribes that are taming large numbers of dinosaurs or preparing for boss fights. Additionally, using industrial grinders or chemistry benches later in the game can automate some of the crafting processes, but the mortar and pestle remains a reliable tool for early to mid-game progression.

In terms of tribe considerations, the mortar and pestle is a shared resource that can be used by multiple players. In a tribe, itÔÇÖs a good idea to designate specific players to manage resource gathering and crafting to ensure a steady supply of essential items. Solo players, on the other hand, will need to balance their time between gathering resources, crafting, and other survival tasks.

In summary, the mortar and pestle is a fundamental tool in ARK: Survival Evolved that unlocks advanced crafting capabilities. By efficiently gathering and managing resources, setting up dedicated crafting stations, and avoiding common mistakes, you can maximize the utility of the mortar and pestle and significantly enhance your survival and progression in the game. Whether youÔÇÖre playing solo or as part of a tribe, mastering the use of the mortar and pestle is key to thriving in the dangerous world of ARK.