Heavy Auto Turret

Automatic defense with heavier firepower

Once it has power and ammunition, the Heavy Auto Turret picks out and shoots targets within its range by itself in ARK: Survival Evolved. It runs on electricity, and its description says: "Provides increased firepower, but consumes FOUR bullets while firing." The ARK Wiki rates it 4 times stronger than the regular Auto Turret. It fires Advanced Rifle Ammo, and since nobody has to guide it, the wiki calls it invaluable against raids while a tribe is offline.

Crafting the turret

The engram unlocks at level 100 for 100 engram points, with the Assault Rifle listed as its prerequisite in our data. Crafting happens in a Fabricator or a Tek Replicator, takes 5 seconds and gives 70 XP. An existing Auto Turret is part of the recipe:

• 1 Auto Turret
• 400 Metal Ingot or Scrap Metal Ingot
• 200 Electronics
• 150 Cementing Paste or Achatina Paste
• 50 Polymer, Organic Polymer or Corrupted Nodule

The finished turret weighs 16 and does not stack.

Range, targets and ammo

• Range: low covers 6 foundations, medium 14 and high 20.
• Targets: five modes run from all targets (players, tamed and wild creatures) through survivors and mounted creatures, players or tamed creatures, and survivors only, to wild creatures only. Every mode ignores your own tribe and alliances, and every mode includes grenades and RPGs.
• Ammo: 58 slots hold 5800 rounds.
• Alarm: a 4 second or 2 second warning gives intruders time to leave; no warning is the default.

The wiki adds that it can fire at the Magmasaur's searing spit, and that it can aim above and below itself as long as it has line of sight, which makes it a good defense against flyers. Since patch 231.4, turrets deal 2.2x damage against all dinos.

Placement limits and toughness

Since patch 242.0, placing it on Paracer, Plesiosaur, Quetzal, Brontosaurus or Mosasaurus platform saddles has been blocked unless a server option allows it; otherwise rafts and bases that do not move are the permitted spots. A cap of 100 turrets also applies within a radius of about 33.3 foundations, and Plant Species X, Tek Turrets, Auto Turrets and Heavy Auto Turrets all count toward it; turrets over the limit stop firing until the count drops again. Blasts from the Tek Rifle and the Rex Tek Saddle do not damage it, and neither do catapult boulders, but ballista bolts do.