Wooden Foundation

Support for walls and ceilings

A foundation supports walls, ceilings and other building pieces only when it sits directly beneath them, and the Wood Foundation is the wooden version of that piece in ARK: Survival Ascended. In ARK: Survival Evolved the same piece goes by Wooden Foundation. Part of its in-game text reads "This one is made from sturdy wood." The ARK Wiki ranks it as the second foundation a survivor can unlock, stronger than the Thatch Foundation but more expensive in resources, and points out that housing and storage structures of every kind call for a foundation.

Engram, recipe and weight

The engram unlocks at level 11 for 6 engram points. The foundation is crafted in the survivor's inventory, and each craft yields one piece and 9.3 XP; in ASE a craft takes 5 seconds. One foundation costs:

• 80 Wood (Fungal Wood also works)
• 20 Thatch
• 15 Fiber

Each foundation weighs 4 and stacks to 100, so a full stack weighs 400. Our records list it on 14 maps, among them The Island, Ragnarok and Fjordur, and count 60 loot crates that can contain it, for example Aberration Green, Astraeos Blue and Extinction Orbital Easy.

Placing a row of foundations

The piece can be set down on flat ground or on ground that is slightly uneven. Once the first one stands, further Wood Foundations snap into position next to it so they line up, given enough room and ground. A foundation also holds up to two ceilings outward along the x and y axes and one ceiling diagonally, although the ceilings at the far end cannot carry walls.

Damage and demolition

When a foundation is destroyed, every building piece that relies on it for support goes down with it, and if it was removed with the demolish option, those extra pieces refund no resources. It counts as a wooden structure and cannot be damaged by bare hands, stone weapons or ranged attacks that are not explosive. The ARK Wiki also lists aggressive creatures that cannot hurt it, such as the Raptor, Sabertooth, Direwolf, Titanoboa and Kaprosuchus.