Motorboat

A powered boat you can build on

The Motorboat is a water vehicle in ARK: Survival Evolved and an upgrade over the Wooden Raft, with more speed, size and health than the raft; it can also move in reverse, which the raft cannot. It runs on Gasoline. The in-game text: "A floating metal platform that you can pilot across the water, requires gasoline to power its motor. Can support the weight of structures and be built on."

Building a base on the water

Beds, containers and other structures can be placed straight onto the deck, but some pieces, walls for example, need foundations underneath. The wiki gives these limits:

• Structures: 135, which private servers and single player can raise with PerPlatformMaxStructuresMultiplier.
• Height: 8 walls above the deck and 80 walls below it.
• Size: 13x13, not counting the corners.
• Platform saddles: creatures wearing one, such as the Quetzal, Paracer and Brontosaurus, cannot stay on the boat. They slide off, except the Quetzal, which takes to the air as soon as it lands.

Hazards at sea

The Megalodon, the Megapiranha and other purely aquatic creatures leave the boat and everything on it alone. A Sarco will not attack the survivor who is actively driving, though passengers and tames on board are still targets. The Leedsichthys, otherwise passive, attacks any Motorboat it spots; the boat's speed and health generally let you outmaneuver it, but an Alpha Leedsichthys can keep up. Dropping Honey into the ocean ends the attack, and the wiki recommends always having Honey ready or an Emplacement set up underwater. And if a Baryonyx stuns the driver while the boat is moving forward, the boat keeps going forward with nobody at the controls.

Engram and recipe

The engram unlocks at level 57 for 45 engram points. The boat is built in a Fabricator, Tek Replicator or Exo-Mek; a craft takes 15 seconds and gives 93.75 XP:

• 1200 Metal Ingot (or Scrap Metal Ingot)
• 400 Polymer (or Organic Polymer, or Corrupted Nodule)
• 250 Wood (or Fungal Wood)
• 200 Hide
• 180 Fiber
• 150 Obsidian
• 60 Black Pearl

The item weighs 170 and does not stack. Our records list it on 12 maps and in 44 loot crate types, for example the Genesis Blue, Cyan and Red crates on Genesis Part 2.