Ark Survival Ascended forgoes the trope of having different varieties of metals, such as iron or steel, and favors simply to have you find ‘metal’. This metal, however, isn’t the most obvious thing to acquire.
In Ark Survival Ascended, lots of the raw resources you’ll come across must be harvested by whacking something over and over again with a tool. The same principle applies in harvesting metal, although it isn’t as obvious.
Metal can be obtained from rocks, in some more than others. You’ll need a pickaxe to do this, although a metal pickaxe will harvest much more from rocks. You’ll need to find the rocks with a golden, metallic hue, not the ordinary rocks that you’ll find out about in your travels.
Such rocks are located in caves, on mountains, and near rivers. You will typically find them in good bunches, so if you find a bundle of rocks with metal, you should harvest a pretty good score. Just be prepared and careful when harvesting metal, as the surrounding creatures may be pretty aggressive.
Related: How to find Ankylosaurus spawn locations in Ark Survival Ascended
To start off with, mining metal with a metal pickaxe will net you lots of metal. However, there is a much better way to do this.
Ankylosauruses are the number one dino for metal collection. Not only do their club-like tails make very light work of metal rocks, but they harvest a staggering amount, too. They will carry the collected metal, making transportation so much easier.
You’ll have to tame your chosen Anky, and you’ll want to boost its damage for the maximum effect. All you must do now is ride your Anky to the metal, and destroy those rocks! For easier and faster transportation of your chosen Anky, taming and using an Argentavis to carry your Anky around is super helpful. You’ll also avoid irritating terrain by taking to the skies.
Another fantastic method is using a mining drill. Although it is expensive and you’ll have to provide gasoline to keep it running, it is certainly a viable option for speedy and efficient metal collection. Just be careful of becoming overencumbered, something that’s very easy to do with this method.
Remember that you’ve now got to refine all of this metal into ingots, so make sure your base is up to the task!
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