Zip-Line Anchor

Two shots make a line

The Zip-Line Anchor is Crossbow ammunition in ARK: Survival Evolved that the ARK Wiki treats as a mobility tool. It came with Aberration, and our records list it on 6 maps: Fjordur, Lost Island, Crystal Isles, Valguero, Genesis Part 2 and Aberration itself. The in-game text sums up the idea: "Apply onto a Crossbow to fire Zip-Line anchor points. Use two anchor points to complete a Zip-Line, which you can then grab onto."

Setting up a zip-line

Start by putting an anchor in a Crossbow and shooting it at a nearby surface. Right after that, shoot a second anchor at a point higher or lower than the first, and the line forms between the two. While you aim that second shot, a dot shows whether the connection will work: green means it can be made, red means it cannot.

Anchors may sit under water, yet nobody can get on a line there. If one end of a line is below the surface, you are dropped from it the moment you reach the water, and a Zip-Line Motor Attachment does not prevent that.

Riding the line

To slide down, stand at the top end and press E. Going up takes a Zip-Line Motor Attachment. On the line your view stays locked forward and weapons cannot be used, unless the motor attachment is fitted. Jumping lets go of the line and pushes you upward, which means a line can end near the top of a cliff or structure and the jump still lands you on top. With the motor, near-vertical lines also work for climbing high enough to use the Glider Suit.

The wiki notes that a Ravager can climb onto zip-lines unless they are too steep, going up or down. The Gigantopithecus can climb them as well, but it cannot jump across to another nearby line; it has to be on land to jump onto one.

Crafting and carrying

The engram unlocks at level 31 for 8 engram points. Each craft takes 1 second, gives one anchor and 0.05 XP, and uses:

• 2 Stone Arrow
• 15 Metal Ingot (the wiki also accepts Scrap Metal Ingot)
• 8 Fungal Wood
• 100 Fiber

The wiki lists the Smithy, the Tek Replicator and the Exo-Mek as places to craft it, along with the Argentavis, Castoroides and Thorny Dragon saddles. An anchor weighs 0.05 and stacks to 100, so a full stack weighs 5. Our records count 54 crate types that can contain anchors, for example the Aberration Blue, Green and Purple crates, and the wiki adds that some can turn up in the loot bags a Seeker drops.