Cannon

A heavy siege emplacement

The Cannon is an emplacement in ARK: Survival Evolved that fires Cannon Balls. The game's own description: "A powerful, heavy weapon of war, capable of demolishing heavily reinforced structures." Each shot deals more damage than one from a Ballista Turret or Catapult Turret, against creatures and buildings alike.

Handling it

• Aiming and firing cannot happen at the same moment, which makes moving targets hard to hit.
• After every shot the Cannon has to be reloaded by hand, a tough job for one survivor alone.
• On a platform saddle the creature can do the aiming. The wiki's example is a Quetzal whose rider aims while a partner fires, which helps somewhat against smaller targets.
• Firing while standing in front of the barrel is possible but likely to hurt the shooter.
• The heavy balls do not stack, and the wiki advises keeping a Storage Box or other container of ammunition next to the Cannon.

Against defenses and for taming

The Rocket Launcher hits harder, but Auto Turrets and Plant Species X cannot shoot down cannon projectiles. That lets the Cannon damage enemy buildings directly, without clearing those defenses first. It is also a taming tool for the Karkinos, Rock Elemental, Astrocetus and Titanosaur, with each shot applying more torpor than one from a Catapult Turret.

Crafting a Cannon

The engram unlocks at level 34 and costs 25 engram points. Crafting happens in a Smithy or an Argentavis Saddle and takes 5 seconds for 5.5 XP. The recipe:

• 950 Metal Ingot or Scrap Metal Ingot
• 300 Cementing Paste or Achatina Paste
• 200 Fiber
• 150 Hide
• 120 Thatch

It weighs 4 and has a stack size of 1. Our records list it on 12 maps, and 71 crate types can contain it, such as Aberration Blue and Aberration Surface Blue. The Cannon counts as a wooden structure: bare hands, stone weapons and ranged attacks without explosives do not harm it, and many aggressive creatures, for example the Raptor, Sabertooth and Direwolf, cannot damage it either.