Black Pearl

A key ingredient for Tek gear

In ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended, Black Pearl goes into Tek tier recipes, and the ARK Wiki calls it a key component of them. The in-game text describes it as "A rare resource from the bottom of the sea..." Each pearl weighs 2 and a stack holds 200, so a full stack weighs 400.

Where the pearls come from

• Corpses: the wiki lists dead Ammonite, Alpha Mosasaur, Trilobite, Tusoteuthis, Alpha Tusoteuthis, Deathworm and Eurypterid. An Alpha Mosasaur gives 100 pearls and an Alpha Tusoteuthis 75, while a Eurypterid gives only a few. Our drop records also name the Aberrant Trilobite, Alpha Deathworm and Phoenix.
• Phoenix: a tamed one rarely poops a Black Pearl in place of the Silica Pearls it normally produces.
• Fishing and Otters: a catch with a Fishing Rod can rarely bring one up as loot, and Otters can rarely pull pearls from fish corpses.
• Gacha: depending on the Gacha, it can produce them; on Extinction the wiki calls a Gacha fed with Stone and other resources the best way to get them.
• Loot: 108 crate types can contain Black Pearls, such as the Aberration Red and Aberration Surface Yellow crates.

Map-specific spots

• Ragnarok and Crystal Isles: black clams yield 5 to 20 pearls, scaled by the server's harvest amount setting. On Crystal Isles they sit in the water bubbles of the Eldritch Isle; the small ones can be harvested by hand or with an Anglerfish, the large ones only by a Dunkleosteus.
• Aberration: black clams along the rivers of Graves of the Lost also give 5 to 20, though radiation and threats such as the Nameless and Rock Drake can make the trip dangerous.
• Scorched Earth: in the desert, both Deathworms and Alpha Deathworms drop them.
• Genesis: Part 2: in the Space biome, pearl asteroids carry light blue pearls that yield large amounts and seem to respawn quickly, and dead Carniflora in the Corrupted Gardens can be harvested too.
• Extinction: large corrupted carnivores in the north, such as the Corrupted Rex and Corrupted Giganotosaurus, have a small chance to drop 1 to 7, and an Orbital Supply Drop on Hard or Legendary difficulty can contain them.

Tames that help with the hunt

An Ichthyosaurus or Manta takes no knockback and gains no torpidity from Eurypterids, though Eurypterids drain a tame's stamina fast. A Beelzebufo deals extra damage to them and gathers pearls at a higher rate. A Megalodon with a Megalodon Tek Saddle can kill a Tusoteuthis with its element pulses and then harvest more pearls from it than a Mosasaur would.

What Black Pearls go into

Our records count 44 recipes in ASA and 56 in ASE. Examples include the Tek Chestpiece and Tek Gauntlets (55 each), the Rock Drake Tek Saddle (185), the Clockface (120), the Linked Storage Box (60) and the Broth of Enlightenment (1). The ASE list also has the Cloning Chamber (200), and the ASA list the Large Tek Teleporter (150).