Longneck Rifle

One accurate shot, then a long reload

The Longneck Rifle, often just called the Longneck, is a single-shot gun in ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended. The game's description: "This simple single-shot rifle is highly accurate, but has a long reload time." The ARK Wiki credits it with the highest damage per shot among guns outside the Tek tier. It works well at medium to long range, and a Scope Attachment stretches that reach further, while its slow fire rate and reload hold it back up close.

Ammo it can fire

• Simple Rifle Ammo for regular shots
• Tranquilizer Darts and Shocking Tranquilizer Darts, which according to the wiki make it one of the top taming tools
• Pheromone Darts, useful for pulling creatures together into a group

With any dart loaded it cannot use attachments. It also cannot be fired underwater, which leaves it ineffective for fighting or taming creatures there.

Damage, sway and durability

Base damage is 280, but creatures other than humans take only 70% of gun damage, so a shot deals 196 to them. A scoped Longneck sways: crouching reduces the sway slightly and lying prone reduces it a lot, though it never goes away completely. Without a scope there is no sway at all. Each shot uses 1 durability, and with 70 durability that gives 70 uses.

Crafting and repairs

The engram needs level 35 and 18 engram points, and our records list the Flare Gun as its prerequisite. It is made in a Smithy, or in a Tek Replicator, Exo-Mek, Castoroides Saddle, Argentavis Saddle or Thorny Dragon Saddle, from:

• 95 Metal Ingot (or Scrap Metal Ingot)
• 25 Hide
• 20 Wood (or Fungal Wood)

A craft takes 10 seconds and gives 82.5 XP. Repairs cost half the recipe: 47.5 Metal Ingot, 12.5 Hide and 10 Wood. The rifle weighs 15. The ARK Wiki names the Fabricated Sniper Rifle as the gun that supersedes it. Loot is another source, with 333 crate types that can contain a Longneck, among them Aberration Blue and the Aberration Dungeon Blue and Red crates; our records list it on 9 maps.