Improvised Explosive Device
Place two of these near each other to create an explosive trap.
Details
- Category
- Weapon
- Games
- ASE + ASA
- Expansion
- Base
- Recipe
- 6 ingredients
- Loot crates
- 77 crates
- Item ID
- 46
Engram
How you unlock it
- Required level
- 44
- Engram points
- 30
Learn these first
Maps
Found on 14 maps
Video guides: search YouTube for Improvised Explosive Device guides
How to craft Improvised Explosive Device
Improvised Explosive Device is crafted from 6 ingredients. The engram unlocks at level 44, costs 30 engram points, takes 5 seconds, gives 19.05 XP.
SmithyRaw materials
If you craft every ingredient yourself
50Flint
50Charcoal
25Stone
20MetalCrafted along the way: Gunpowder ×50, Sparkpowder ×50, Metal Ingot ×10.
How to get Improvised Explosive Device
Improvised Explosive Device is found in 77 loot crates.
Loot crates
77 crates
- Aberration BlueAberration and Valguero · ASA
- Aberration Blue BonusAberration and Valguero · ASA
- Aberration PurpleAberration and Valguero · ASA / ASE
- Aberration Purple BonusAberration and Valguero · ASA / ASE
- Aberration RedAberration, Valguero, and Crystal Isles · ASE
- Aberration Red BonusAberration, Valguero, and Crystal Isles · ASE
- Aberration Surface BlueAberration · ASA
- Aberration Surface Blue BonusAberration · ASA
- Aberration Surface PurpleAberration · ASA
- Aberration Surface Purple BonusAberration · ASA
- Aberration YellowAberration, Valguero, and Crystal Isles · ASE
- Aberration Yellow BonusAberration, Valguero, and Crystal Isles · ASE
Show all 77 crates
- Astraeos Desert PurpleAstraeos · ASA
- Astraeos Desert Purple BonusAstraeos · ASA
- Astraeos PurpleAstraeos · ASA
- Astraeos Purple BonusAstraeos · ASA
- Astral T-RexThe Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, Lost Colony, The Center, Astraeos, Ragnarok, and Valguero · ASA
- Fjordur YellowFjordur · ASE
- Fjordur Yellow BonusFjordur · ASE
- Island Cave RedThe Island, The Center, Astraeos, Ragnarok, and Valguero · ASA
- Island Cave YellowThe Island, Astraeos, Ragnarok, and Valguero · ASA
- Island PurpleThe Island, The Center, and Ragnarok · ASA
- Island Purple BonusThe Island, The Center, and Ragnarok · ASA
- Island Swamp Cave RedThe Island, Ragnarok, Valguero, Lost Island, and Fjordur · ASE
- Island YellowThe Island, The Center, Ragnarok, and Crystal Isles · ASE
- Island Yellow BonusThe Island, The Center, Ragnarok, and Crystal Isles · ASE
- Lost Colony City BlueLost Colony · ASA
- Lost Colony City YellowLost Colony · ASA
- Lost Island YellowLost Island · ASE
- Lost Island Yellow BonusLost Island · ASE
- Mission 'Bulbdog Fetch' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Bulbdog Fetch' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Bulbdog Fetch' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Circuit Chase' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Circuit Chase' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Circuit Chase' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Downriver Run' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Downriver Run' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Downriver Run' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Ferox Cull' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Ferox Cull' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Ferox Cull' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Maewing Poach' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Maewing Poach' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Maewing Poach' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Paracer Roundup' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Paracer Roundup' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Paracer Roundup' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Shadowmane Prowl' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Shadowmane Prowl' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Shadowmane Prowl' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Slide and Glide' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Slide and Glide' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Slide and Glide' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Slipstream Sweep' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Slipstream Sweep' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Slipstream Sweep' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Starwing Strike' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Starwing Strike' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Starwing Strike' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Team Downriver Run' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Team Downriver Run' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Team Downriver Run' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Velonasaur Stalk' EasyGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Velonasaur Stalk' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Velonasaur Stalk' MediumGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Ragnarok Cave RedRagnarok · ASA
- Ragnarok Cave YellowRagnarok · ASA
- Scorched Buried WhiteThe Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, Lost Colony, The Center, Astraeos, Ragnarok, and Valguero · ASA
- Scorched Cave RedScorched Earth, Aberration, Astraeos, and Ragnarok · ASA
- Scorched PurpleScorched Earth, Ragnarok, and Valguero · ASA
- Scorched Purple BonusScorched Earth, Ragnarok, and Valguero · ASA
- Scorched YellowScorched Earth, Ragnarok, Valguero, Crystal Isles, and Lost Island · ASE
- Scorched Yellow BonusScorched Earth, Ragnarok, Valguero, Crystal Isles, and Lost Island · ASE
- The Center Cave YellowThe Center · ASA
- Valguero YellowValguero · ASE
- Valguero Yellow BonusValguero · ASE
Improvised Explosive Device — Detailed Guide
A tripwire trap built from two charges
The Improvised Explosive Device, or IED, is a placed explosive in ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended. The in-game description: "Place two of these near each other to create an explosive trap." Where a 
Grenade is thrown, IEDs are set down as a pair, and the pair goes off when someone crosses its tripwire.
Who can set it off
The tripwire makes no exception for its owner: the creator and tribe members trigger it like anyone else. They can, however, unwire a paired device through the radial menu, and an unwired device can be picked up and placed again. The ARK Wiki also notes that placing IEDs on stone, metal or Tek structures is close to impossible at the moment.
Unlocking and crafting
The engram unlocks at level 44 for 30 engram points, and our records list the Grenade as its prerequisite. IEDs are crafted in a 
Smithy, and the wiki infobox also names the 
Argentavis Saddle. Each one takes 5 seconds, gives 19.05 XP and needs:
- 50
Gunpowder - 35
Fiber - 10
Crystal or 
Primal Crystal - 10
Metal Ingot or 
Scrap Metal Ingot - 5
Hide - 1
Wood or 
Fungal Wood
Weight, loot and other uses
An IED weighs 0.5 and stacks to 10, so a full stack weighs 5. Our records count 77 loot crates that can contain it, among them the Aberration Blue and Aberration Purple crates found on Aberration and Valguero, and list it on 14 maps. In ASA, our data counts 1 recipe that uses it: the 
BattleRig RearEnd-Mod: Mines, which takes 20 IEDs.
In the game files the device goes by C4 Tripwire and Trip Wire C4. The wiki suggests using IEDs as traps to lure players or hostile creatures into, placed around the outside of enemy bases near the doors or in thick forest where they are hard to see.