Plant Species X

A turret that grows in a crop plot

Plant Species X is a defensive plant in ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended. It is grown in a Large Crop Plot and, once mature, works as a turret. The game sums it up as "Grown plant turret. Fires slowing projectiles." Our records place it on The Island, Scorched Earth and The Center.

Where the seeds come from

The natural plant grows in swamp and redwood biomes, according to the ARK Wiki, and a Plant Species X Seed can be collected in several ways:

• by killing one of those natural plants, or by gathering an immature one;
• from the red, stick-like bushes on mountain tops, as a rare drop;
• from the red cattails along swamp shores, where seeds are very rare;
• from a crop at the foot of flowering vines in the redwoods, which drops them commonly, and every time when you use a sickle.

An Ankylosaurus can also harvest these bushes and pick up the seeds.

Growing it to maturity

Like any plot crop it uses water and fertilizer while growing, though a mature plant needs far less of both. Growth follows in-game time, and the wiki estimates about 15 in-game days in total: roughly 1 minute as a seed, around 7 days from seedling to midling, about 5 from midling to growthling and 1–2 more to fruitling. When growing it indoors, check the plot's water regularly.

Range, targeting and firing

Its controls work the same way as those of an Auto Turret. Its shots are glowing green spores that behave much like Dilophosaur spit, slowing and blinding whatever they hit, and it fires them rapidly. It can also shoot down explosive projectiles, and with line of sight it aims both upward and downward, which helps against flyers. Every shot costs 150 units of fertilizer, the plant stops firing when its plot has no water, and when damaged it regains 3 health every second.

• Range: Low covers 16 meters (about 5.3 foundations), Medium 33 meters (about 11) and High 67 meters (about 22.3).
• Targeting: seven modes are available, among them All Targets, Only Survivors, Only Tamed Creatures, Only Wild and Only Survivors in an Enemy Tribe. None of them attack your own tribe's players or tames, but All Targets also shoots newborn creatures the moment they hatch.

A creature that is already angry at a player or another creature and then gets hit by the plant stays focused on that target until it loses interest, then starts moving toward the plant, mostly without success because of its knockback and rapid fire; even the largest creatures can fall to it. The wiki's exception is the Titanosaur, against which the plant is close to useless. As an item it weighs 4 and has a stack size of 1.