Red Gem

A crafting gem from Aberration

Red Gem is a resource that first appeared with Aberration and is now also found on Valguero, Crystal Isles, Fjordur, Lost Island, Genesis: Part 1 and Genesis: Part 2. It exists in both ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended, and the game describes it as follows: "This strange Gem has many unique properties that make it ideal for crafting." A single gem weighs 0.5 and a stack holds 100, so a full stack weighs 50.

Where Red Gem is mined

On Aberration the main source is the red and purple crystal formations in The Spine. Roll Rat diggings and Earthquake Debris occasionally hold a few, but taking a Roll Rat's debris turns the animal hostile. The ARK Wiki notes that purple crystals only give Red Gem inside Element Chambers. For the other maps it names these spots:

• Valguero: The Unknown, the map's radiation zone.
• Crystal Isles: the Eldritch Isles.
• Fjordur: deep in The Throat of Flames by the Magmasaur nests, with smaller amounts in the Beiygjaheimr cave.

Extinction players can substitute Red Crystalized Sap for it.

Farming strategy

A first small batch is enough for a Gas Collector, which opens up the Hazard Suit Armor needed to work in the radioactive zone. Following a Roll Rat until it drops gems is one slow way to get that batch. Alternatives the wiki mentions are the Lamprey Charge status effect or, with Genesis: Part 2, the Federation Exo Armor, though the creatures in those areas are dangerous.

For bulk farming the wiki favours a Metal Pick crafted from a high-quality blueprint out of the Surface beacons, with a Mindwipe Tonic used to move every point into Crafting Skill while crafting and then into Melee Damage. Protected by a Hazard Suit Armor or a full Tek Armor set, and with a Rock Drake and a charge pet along, a player can take more than 20,000 gems within an hour at official rates from the huge veins outside the radioactive cave. Unload the drake into a Vault, and lead any Reaper Queen off a cliff rather than fight it. The wiki does not recommend the Aberrant Ankylosaurus for this; it says the creature lacks radiation immunity, although in ASA it does have it.

What Red Gem goes into

Our ASE records list 6 recipes: the Tek Railgun (120), Rock Drake Saddle (85), Charge Lantern (80), Gas Collector (20), Tek Phase Pistol (15) and Element (10). For ASA the only recorded recipe is Element (Chunk), which takes 10. Loot adds a little more: 55 crate types can contain the gem, including the Aberration Red and Aberration Yellow crates and their bonus versions.