Tek Turret

Automatic defense on Tek power

In ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended, the Tek Turret is a base defense that aims and fires on its own; the ARK Wiki describes it as an upgraded Auto Turret. The in-game text: "Requires Tek Generator power. Consumes Element Shards while firing. Has a variety of smart-targeting configuration options." Because it picks targets without any guidance, it can guard a base against raids while the tribe is offline. It ignores incoming explosives, though, like Rocket Propelled Grenades, Grenades or Tek Grenades.

Range and target settings

• Low: 20 meters, about 6 foundations
• Medium: 53 meters, about 14 foundations
• High: 81 meters, about 20 foundations

Six targeting modes run from all targets, wild creatures included, to only players, only wild creatures or only tamed creatures, with two mixed modes for players plus mounted or tamed creatures. None of them fires at your own tribe and its alliances. As long as it has line of sight, it can also shoot above and below itself, which helps against flyers. An optional alarm warns intruding players 4 or 2 seconds ahead so they can leave; the default is no warning, and since the alarm needs time to reset, an intruder who hides inside the range gets shot straight away.

Creature lists and level filters

Unlike other turrets, the Tek Turret can work from a creature list. In exclusion mode the listed creatures are never shot; in inclusion mode they are its only targets. A level filter can narrow things in a similar way, for example to targets from level 50 to 100. The wiki adds that since patch 231.4 turrets deal 2.2x damage to all dinos, with no separate multiplier for flyers.

Getting and crafting one

The turret is unlocked through a Tekgram, a boss reward; the wiki names the Broodmother on alpha difficulty as the fight that grants it. It is crafted in a Tek Replicator or an Exo-Mek from:

• 100 Electronics
• 100 Metal Ingot or Scrap Metal Ingot
• 50 Cementing Paste or Achatina Paste
• 50 Polymer, Organic Polymer, or Corrupted Nodule
• 3 Element or Red Element

Crafting takes 5 seconds and gives 116 XP, and the turret weighs 4. Loot can hold one too: 22 crate types, among them Astraeos Orbital Hard and Astraeos Orbital Legendary on Astraeos and Genesis Blue on Genesis Part 2. Our records list it on 14 maps.

Placement limits

The wiki records that since patch 242.0 it can no longer be built on the platform saddles of the Brontosaurus, Quetzal, Paracer, Plesiosaur or Mosasaurus, and turrets already there stop firing; unless a server option lifts this, it is allowed only on rafts and on bases that do not move. A cap of 100 turrets also applies within a 10000 UE-unit radius (about 33.3 foundations), counting Tek Turrets, Auto Turrets, Heavy Auto Turrets and Plant Species X together. Server settings can raise that limit.