Glow Stick

A light you throw or carry

The Glow Stick is a source of light in ARK: Survival Evolved that can be held or thrown. It first appeared with Aberration; Valguero, Crystal Isles, Genesis: Part 2, Lost Island and Fjordur have it as well. The ARK Wiki gives its description as: "Glow Sticks generate light in a radius around them. Throw it and it will stick immediately to the location they first impact."

Two ways to use it

• Carried: wield it and press the alternate attack to light it. Holding the right mouse button attaches it to yourself. Opening the inventory, pressing the alternate attack again or switching to another item uses up the stick and the light goes out.
• Thrown: the primary attack throws it. It sticks to the first object it touches and lights the area for 12 minutes. Almost any surface works, including players, wild and tamed creatures, trees and rocks; if that tree or rock gets harvested, the stick stays floating in place until its time is up.

Once a Glow Stick has been placed in the world, it cannot be picked up again.

Tagging creatures

Since the sticks cling to animals, they are useful for marking creatures that are hard to keep track of, such as the fast Procoptodon or invisible Shadowmanes and Rock Drakes, so they can be found again if they wander off. Against players in PvP they are less effective, because opening the inventory or attacking removes them; the wiki suggests Spears for tagging players instead.

Dyes, crafting and loot

Glow Sticks can be dyed. Their base colour is red, and a white dye makes the lit area easier to see. Adding an undyed stick to a stack of dyed ones colours it with no extra dye needed.

The engram unlocks at level 10 for 4 engram points. One craft gives 5 sticks and 1 XP, from 1 Green Gem (or Fragmented Green Gem) and 2 Crystal (or Primal Crystal). A stick weighs 0.5 and they stack to 20, so a full stack weighs 10. Plenty of loot carries them too: 252 crate types can contain them, among them the Aberration Blue, Green and Purple crates.