What is the Best Weapon to Farm Keratin in ARK?
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The quest for resources is central to survival in ARK: Survival Evolved, and keratin is a crucial material for crafting many essential items. But what’s the most effective way to gather this valuable resource? The answer isn’t a simple single tool, but rather a combination of tools and creatures, with the Sabertooth being a standout contender in the early to mid-game, and the Metal Hatchet being the preferred tool overall. The best approach is a two-pronged one: using efficient harvesting tools coupled with the right creatures to target.
Tools of the Trade: Choosing Your Harvesting Implement
While you might be tempted to use your trusty pickaxe for everything, ARK rewards a more nuanced approach. When it comes to keratin harvesting, a Metal Hatchet consistently outperforms the pickaxe. The hatchet’s harvesting bonus leans more towards organic resources like hide and keratin, while the pickaxe is better suited for mineral resources such as flint and metal.
The Versatile Metal Hatchet
The Metal Hatchet stands out as the go-to tool for keratin. It provides a higher yield compared to its stone counterpart, and is efficient at gathering the desired resource. When you’re targeting creatures known for dropping keratin, like Direwolves, Sabertooths, and Therizinosaurus, you’ll notice a significant difference in harvest rates using a Metal Hatchet. Its balance of speed, durability, and harvest yield makes it the best option for manual gathering of keratin.
The Mighty Sabertooth: A Living Harvesting Tool
While tools are essential, taming and utilizing the Sabertooth is a game-changer for keratin farming. These agile carnivores act like a living, breathing hatchet, and when used to harvest corpses, they yield impressive amounts of resources, including keratin. The amount of resources you get from using a Sabertooth is directly affected by its melee damage stat. A high melee damage Sabertooth will harvest far more material than a low melee damage one.
Strategic Creature Hunting: Where to Find Keratin
While the Sabertooth can turn any kill into a resource bonanza, some creatures naturally drop more keratin than others. Knowing which dinos to target will maximize your farming efforts.
Top Keratin Droppers
- Direwolves: A great early-game option found in snowy biomes.
- Sabertooths: Excellent all-around resource harvesters, both while living and when deceased.
- Therizinosaurus: Known for providing large quantities of keratin, but can be dangerous to hunt.
- Carbonemys: Though slower and not as plentiful as other options, these turtles sometimes drop keratin.
- Ankylosaurus: Contrary to popular belief, do drop keratin fairly frequently, but this is a secondary loot drop.
- Mammoths: These large creatures also yield keratin and can often be found in cold areas.
- Kentrosaurus: A good source of keratin, often found in the jungle and redwood biomes.
- Carnosaurus: Although somewhat dangerous, carnos are a good source of keratin if you are able to take them down safely.
The Case of Basilosaurus
On maps like Ragnarok, beached basilo carcasses offer a jackpot of resources, including large quantities of keratin, spoiled meat, and oil. While any harvesting tool will work, using a chainsaw on these massive corpses is the most efficient method.
Caves and Mountains: Chitin and Keratin
For a more challenging, but very rewarding experience, caves can be a great place to get chitin which is often found with keratin on creatures like scorpions and spiders. Using a Sabertooth in caves makes this a good way to farm both materials at the same time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Does the pickaxe get more keratin than the hatchet?
No. A hatchet is the preferred tool for harvesting keratin. A pickaxe is better for gathering flint and metal.
2. What tool yields the most keratin on a dead Basilosaurus?
A chainsaw is the most efficient tool to harvest a basilo carcass for keratin due to its high harvest rate.
3. Do all carnivores harvest keratin efficiently?
While carnivores can harvest keratin, the Sabertooth and Megatherium are the most efficient at doing so, due to their inherent harvesting bonuses.
4. Do Trikes drop keratin?
Trikes do drop a very small amount of keratin but are not an efficient source. Stegosaurus are not much better.
5. Is chitin the same as keratin?
No, chitin and keratin are different substances. Chitin forms the exoskeletons of insects and crustaceans, while keratin is the protein that makes up hair, nails, and horns. Both can be harvested from dead creatures.
6. How does melee damage affect keratin harvesting?
A higher melee damage stat on creatures like the Sabertooth will directly increase the amount of resources they harvest from a corpse, including keratin.
7. What are the best creatures to farm chitin and keratin from at the same time?
Scorpions, Araneo (spiders) and other creatures found in caves drop both chitin and keratin. Sabertooths and Megatheriums are good at harvesting from these creatures.
8. What do I do with spoiled meat found on beached Basilosaurus?
Spoiled meat is a key ingredient for crafting narcotics, which are used for taming creatures. So it is well worth collecting in combination with keratin and oil.
9. Does a bola work on a Sabertooth?
Yes, bolas can be used to immobilize a Sabertooth for taming or to trap it so you can safely kill it for resources.
10. Can an Ankylo be used for Keratin?
Yes, Ankylos can drop keratin, but are mainly used for metal and crystal harvesting.
11. What role does fortitude play in harvesting?
Fortitude reduces the effects of weather conditions such as hypothermia and hyperthermia, as well as torpor effects, but does not directly impact the quantity of resources you harvest.
12. What is the best cave to farm chitin in?
The Central Cave (also known as Chitin Cave) is popular for chitin farming, using a Sabertooth or a similar cave-worthy mount.
13. Can I harvest keratin by just punching a dino?
Yes, you can get a small amount of resources by punching a dead creature, but using a tool like the hatchet or a creature like a Sabertooth is far more effective.
14. Do Doedicurus drop keratin?
Yes, Doedicurus do drop keratin, but again like the Ankylosaurus, this is a secondary loot drop and therefore they are not efficient for farming keratin.
15. Is it efficient to farm keratin from Carbonemys?
Carbonemys do drop keratin, but the amount is quite low, making them a slow farm for this resource compared to other available options.
By utilizing the Metal Hatchet and leveraging the power of a tamed Sabertooth, you can become an efficient keratin farmer in ARK: Survival Evolved, ensuring that you have a reliable supply of this crucial resource for all your crafting needs.