Tek Railgun

A long gun from the Tek tier

Built for single, heavy shots, the Tek Railgun is a long-range Tek weapon in ARK: Survival Evolved and the upgraded form of the Fabricated Sniper Rifle. It arrived with Aberration; the wiki also lists it on Genesis: Part 1, Genesis: Part 2 and Extinction, and our records include Valguero, Crystal Isles, Lost Island and Fjordur. The wiki gives its description as: "Shoots explosive plasma bolts, with an infrared zoomable scope. Equipping requires learning this Tekgram."

How it fires

• Ammunition: it draws on Element, and each piece gives 2 shots. It never needs reloading.
• Cooldown: it overheats after every shot and has to cool before the next. It cannot fire underwater, unlike the Tek Rifle.
• Scope: a built-in lens zooms with the scroll wheel and highlights living creatures by their heat signature.
• X-ray: a toggle reveals creatures through walls in a purple tint, using up 3% of the loaded Element's durability.
• Piercing: a single shot can pierce 5 metal behemoth gates in a row and kill a player on the far side.

Shots disappear after 10000 units, roughly 33 foundations. Because of the long cooldown the wiki advises against using it as an all-round weapon or against swarms; it suits single targets with a lot of health.

Unlocking and crafting the railgun

Defeating the Alpha Rockwell or the Desert Titan unlocks the Tekgram, and the gun cannot be equipped without it. A Tek Replicator or Exo-Mek crafts it in 15 seconds for 180 XP:

• 525 Congealed Gas Ball
• 450 Polymer, Organic Polymer or Corrupted Nodule
• 120 Metal Ingot, or Scrap Metal Ingot
• 120 Red Gem, or Red Crystalized Sap
• 55 Black Pearl
• 20 Element, or Red Element

Durability and loot

The railgun has 80 durability and weighs 10. It loses 1 point every 20 shots, plus 4 more each time a shot passes through a mineable resource such as a small tree. 44 crate types can contain it, including the Desert Titan and Dragon Hoard rewards and the Extinction Orbital Hard and Extinction Orbital Legendary crates. The wiki also names a Genesis mission, "Home is Where the Pouch is", as a possible reward source.