TEK Foundation
A foundation is required to build structures in an area. This one is made from sturdy composite Tek materials.
Details
- Category
- Structure
- Games
- ASE + ASA
- Expansion
- Base
- Recipe
- 4 ingredients
- Loot crates
- 20 crates
- Item ID
- 439
Engram
How you unlock it
- Required level
- None
- Engram points
- 0
- How to unlock
- Tekgram (Boss Reward)
Maps
Found on 14 maps
Video guides: search YouTube for TEK Foundation guides
How to craft Tek Foundation
Tek Foundation is crafted from 4 ingredients. The engram unlocks by tekgram (boss reward), costs 0 engram points, takes 90 seconds, gives 50 XP.
Raw materials
If you craft every ingredient yourself
720Stone
360Chitin/Keratin
200Metal
90ObsidianCrafted along the way: Metal Ingot ×100, Cementing Paste ×90, Polymer ×45.
How to get Tek Foundation
Tek Foundation is found in 20 loot crates.
Loot crates
20 crates
- Genesis BlueGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Genesis CyanGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Genesis GreenGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Genesis OrangeGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Genesis PurpleGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Genesis RedGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Genesis WhiteGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Genesis YellowGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Bulbdog Fetch' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Circuit Chase' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Downriver Run' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Ferox Cull' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
Show all 20 crates
- Mission 'Maewing Poach' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Paracer Roundup' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Shadowmane Prowl' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Slide and Glide' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Slipstream Sweep' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Starwing Strike' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Team Downriver Run' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
- Mission 'Velonasaur Stalk' HardGenesis Part 2 · ASE
TEK Foundation — Detailed Guide
The last foundation to unlock
The TEK Foundation, spelled Tek Foundation in ARK: Survival Evolved, is the fifth and final foundation players can unlock, and ARK: Survival Ascended has it too. The ARK Wiki says any housing or storage structure requires a foundation, and the in-game text reads: "A foundation is required to build structures in an area. This one is made from sturdy composite Tek materials."
Getting the Tekgram and crafting
The recipe is unlocked as a Tekgram, a boss reward. According to the ARK Wiki, defeating the 
Broodmother Lysrix or the 
Crystal Wyvern Queen on easy difficulty gives it. It is crafted in a 
Tek Replicator, and the wiki also lists the 
Exo-Mek. One takes 90 seconds (1.5 minutes), gives 50 XP and costs:
- 100
Metal Ingot (or 
Scrap Metal Ingot) - 45
Polymer (
Organic Polymer or 
Corrupted Nodule also work) - 20
Crystal (or 
Primal Crystal) - 1
Element (or 
Red Element)
Placement and support
It can be set on flat or slightly uneven ground, and further TEK Foundations snap along the first one wherever there is room and ground for them. Walls, ceilings and similar pieces count as supported only when the foundation sits directly beneath them. From a foundation, ceilings can extend up to two in any direction along the x and y axes and one diagonally, though the outermost ceilings will not carry walls. If the foundation is destroyed, every piece resting on it goes too, and demolishing it on purpose gives no refund for those extra pieces. Its decay timer is longer than a metal foundation's.
What can damage it
It counts as a Tek structure. The wiki names the only sources of damage: explosives, the 
Tek Rifle and Tek Saddles, Titans and bosses, Corrupted and Enraged Creatures, the 
Arthropluera, the 
Titanosaur and the 
DodoRex.
Weight and loot
A foundation weighs 4 and they stack to 100, so a full stack weighs 400. Our records list it on 14 maps, among them The Island and Astraeos, and 20 crate types can contain it, such as the Genesis Cyan and Genesis Purple crates on Genesis Part 2.