Charcoal

What burning wood leaves behind

Charcoal is the by-product of burning wood in ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended. "Created by burning wood." It is not an engram; any fire that runs on Wood or Fungal Wood produces it, and it feeds into gunpowder, grenades, dyes and fertilizer.

Ways to make it

• Burning fuel: a Refining Forge, Cooking Pot, Campfire, Stone Fireplace, Wall Torch or Standing Torch gives one charcoal for each piece of wood once that piece has burned out. So 100 Wood becomes 100 Charcoal, though nothing shows up until the second piece of fuel is in use.
• Industrial Forge: the fastest option, producing one Charcoal per second, in line with the 1 second craft from 1 Wood on our records.
• Burnt Trees: some maps let you gather it directly. On The Center that means the Lava Biome, Half-Burnt Island and Scorched Island; on Ragnarok the Volcano Plains; on Valguero The Great Trench.

Recipes that call for it

Our records list 14 recipes in each game. The largest single costs are the Extinguisher Grenade at 14 and the Smoke Grenade at 10. The colorings, from Black Coloring and Blue Coloring through to White Coloring and Yellow Coloring, need 2 each, and Bonemeal Fertilizer takes 3. The ASE list also includes Gunpowder (1) and the Poison Grenade (14), and the ASA list also includes the Reinforced Ship Cannonball (4) and the Template Hammer (1).

Weight and loot

A piece weighs 0.25, so a full stack of 100 weighs 25. Loot is a minor source: 9 crate types can contain it, such as Fishing Items (Net), Fishing Items (Pole) and the Island White crate.