Gaia Mod Guide (Gaia 2)

Gaia is an overhaul mod for ARK: Survival Evolved (Steam mod ID 2745607600), known to many players as Gaia 2. It is the latest release of the Gaia mods, rebuilt on top of the first version made by Prome. The team describes it as vanilla-balanced and counts more than 450 creatures, over 400 items and more than forty custom structures, among them a set of terminals named after the Greek gods. Our database holds 507 creature entries, 1,068 items and 56 crafting stations from the mod.

Before you start

• Load order: Gaia is not a core mod. It does not remap or overwrite anything, so it can sit first or last in the mod list.
• Gaia 1: do not run it next to the original Gaia 1 mod. This release replaces it.
• Maps: it runs on any map that uses the vanilla spawners. The team says it is balanced for both PvE and PvP, follows your server settings and pairs with most other mods.
• Stacking: the Workshop page lists it as fully stackable.
• Craft the Deity tools first: the Deity Pickaxe, Hatchet and Sickle unlock at level 1. Besides the usual stone, wood and fiber, they gather the custom Gaia resources you need to get the mod going, including the god Souls (Zeus Soul, Hera Soul and so on) used in many recipes.

The creature groups

The mod team's spreadsheet sorts the creatures into named groups. Most groups take familiar vanilla species and give them a theme, new looks and new abilities.

Taming

The mod gives no single taming food for every tier, so use the Gaia Spyglass (level 7). Switched on, it shows a creature's basic info: stats, level and taming food. A few creatures have a fixed food:

• Chrono creatures: Gaia TimeShards only, which drop from Savages.
• Bionic creatures: Bionic Kibble only. Bionic Eggs are the ingredient for it.
• Transcendent Dragon: only the Transcendent Tribute tames it.
• Infernal Metal: described as food for certain creatures.

Knockout tools

Gaia's tranquilizer ammo releases a gas cloud that adds torpor every second for five seconds. The values below are the default settings; the buff does not stack.

Other knockout and control tools: the Gaia Tranq Bola holds a target for 10 seconds and adds torpor; Copper, Iron and Zinc Poison Spears are pikes dipped in tranquilizer; the Poison Dagger deals heavy torpor; and the Guardian Spirit KO arrow knocks a creature out at once. The Gaia Dino Repellant makes every creature ignore you for one minute, which helps with aggressive tames, and the Gaia Landing Pistol forces your tamed flyers to land.

Creatures you do not knock out

• Tokens: each Ultimate Wyvern token (Mighty, Rapid and Toxic forms) summons a tamed baby. Other tokens summon a tamed Bacon SkyLord, Dreadful Dragon, EvaRima Argentavis, Fizz Bear, flying Gaia Manta (it cannot swim), Hindenberg, Infernal Saber, King Kai Rookoo, TBF Owl or Theta's Infernal Griffin.
• Wyvern Shrine (level 70): wild wyverns give Wyvern Scales, Souls and Wings, and Omega wyverns give Omega Wyvern DNA. Bring the parts to the shrine to make your own wyvern.
• DNA Splicer (level 100): combines Creature DNA with an egg and basic ingredients to create a creature at a random level. Our database lists recipes for 57 Divine, Dreadful, Heavenly and Demonic creatures.
• Elixirs: the Taming Elixir (level 45) tames anything it is force-fed to. The Summon Elixir (level 50) gives a random tamed creature from a pool of 90 Divine, Dreadful, Heavenly and Demonic creatures, and the Special Summon Elixir (level 70) picks from 92 Ghastly, Savage, Chrono, Decaying, Crystal and special creatures. A Water Summon Elixir does the same for Gaia's sea creatures.

Progression

The Gaia Statue and the terminals

Your first build is the Gaia Statue (level 1). It crafts the twelve god terminals, which are also level 1 engrams. Each terminal is themed on a deity: Zeus (air and weather), Hera (breeding), Poseidon (the sea), Demeter (harvest), Athena (wisdom and war), Ares (violence), Apollo (healing), Artemis (archery and taming), Hephaestus (the forge), Hermes (travel), Aphrodite (love) and Hades (the dead and riches). Each god also has a crop plot that never needs water or fertilizer and doubles the greenhouse effect.

• Hephaestus Terminal: forges the mod's metals. A Hephaestus Generator snapped to the terminal powers it, and the generator needs Hephaestus Crystals to start.
• Demeter Terminal: crafts Aura Mushroom Seeds from Stable Aura Fragments. It has its own Demeter Generator, which runs on Demeter Crystals.
• Crystals: both kinds need eggs that any Gaia Dodo crafts in its inventory.

The metal ladder

Gaia adds its own metals, each unlocking a step of tools, weapons and armor. The Crystal Pick (level 20) gathers Gaia metals from metal nodes.

Armor grows with each step. Copper doubles the durability and armor of Chitin. Iron flak adds 50% armor but suffers in heat, Bronze flak doubles armor but suffers in cold, and Titanium adds 500% to both armor and durability with protection from heat and cold.

Guardians, bosses and the end game

• Guardian Element (level 50): used to summon bosses and to craft the top items. Guardian armor (level 66) adds 1000% armor and durability over flak; the Guardian Sword (68) deals 250% more damage than a metal sword; and the Guardian Hunter Bow (80) deals double base damage but only fires Guardian arrows.
• Guardian parts: the Guardian creatures give Dragon Scales and Teeth, Jerboa Intestines, Mantis Vertebrae, Saber Fur, Stego Bone and Turtle Shell. Guardians and bosses also drop Essence of Void, which crafts the GemStones.
• GemStones (levels 80 to 100): Earth, Fire, Water and Aether imbue items with elemental powers. Wind gives a creature 50% more speed, and Resurrection brings a creature back when it dies.
• Bosses: Awful Bat, Fearful Yuty, Forsaken DodoRex, Furious Monkey, Infected Dodo, Kardraz the Fearless, Poisonous Lizard and Rotten Dragon, plus the Bionic Siren Head and Spider boss. Each is summoned with its own item and drops Gaia Leaves.
• Tree of Life (level 100): made with Gaia Leaves and Magic Water. Over time it produces every vanilla resource and some Gaia ones, and it gives nearby players a cleansing buff.

The Gaia Portal

The Gaia Portal (level 50) summons creatures: crafting a blueprint inside it opens a portal, and the creature arrives 30 seconds later. This is where the Forgotten creatures come from. The Anky, Beetle, Crab, DodoRex, pet Wyvern and Quetz evolve from T1 to T3 with Evolve items. The Evolution Wyvern becomes an Earth, Fire, Water or Wind Wyvern, and the Aether Wyvern combines the traits of all four. The Phoenix arrives untamed. The portal's own note warns against summoning vanilla bosses on maps they were not made for.

Bionics and Mechs

Killing a Bionic creature gives parts named after its species (Braiding, Core, Heart, Lens and Muscle). Refine them in the Bionic Altar into Machine Oil, Machine Paste, Bionic Element and other materials (15 minutes per craft), then use them to craft the Mech blueprints that dead Mech creatures drop. Unassembled Mech items then build a new Mech Rex, Stego, Quetz, Griffin and others. Seven ARK Bionic Banners let you show off a beaten Bionic boss.

Items and structures

• Farming: the Gaia Farm makes meat, hide, thatch, wood and fiber; the Poseidon Farm makes pearls, Angler Gel, Biotoxin and other ocean goods; the Gaia Feeder feeds every creature within a 50-foundation radius every 60 seconds with no food at all. The Gaia Tree Plot grows full-size trees from seeds with Gaia Nitro and water.
• Resource chains: the Divine Beaver Dam turns Wood into Divine Pearls, the Magic Well turns Divine Pearls into Magic Water and can water crops, the Bee Tree turns Rare Flowers into Dreaded Honey, the Ant Hill turns that honey into Ant Pheromone, and the Wolf Den trades Spoiled Meat for Dreaded Rabies. Attack the Ant Hill or Wolf Den and their residents fight back.
• Base: Gaia Vault (500 slots, level 80), Gaia Bookshelf (300 slots), a fridge that needs no power, the Gaia Oil Well (endless oil anywhere), the Gaia Spoiler (meat to spoiled meat, wood to charcoal) and the GaiaSpawner, which makes Gaia resources from one Divine Soul.
• Gaia DLC Crafter: crafts items from Aberration, Scorched Earth, Extinction and Genesis (marked AB, SE, EX and GE in game). Unlocks at level 50.
• Tools: the Gaia MultiTool (65) never breaks; the Gaia Grappling Hook and Gaia Bola can be reused; the Gaia Canteen holds ten times the water; the Gaia Glider lets you glide without using durability.
• Elixirs: about forty, from crafting speed (four times for 30 minutes) and XP boosts to the Adult Elixir (instant adult with perfect imprint), the Lust Elixir (a female can mate again at once) and the Max Elixir. Some, such as the GCM Elixir, can only be admin-spawned.
• Saddles: our database lists 112. Highlights: platform saddles for the Heavenly Paracer and Gaia Titan, a ten-seat Divine Diplodocus saddle, three-seat Dreadful Gallimimus and Heavenly Tapejara saddles, and Demonic Aura saddles with stronger buffs. The Gaia Wyvern, Griffin and Phoenix saddles also fit the vanilla creatures.

The Gaia DLC sheet

The spreadsheet has a separate sheet for two add-ons. Gaia Beacons lists supply crate spawn codes for The Island (crate levels 3 to 60), Scorched Earth (3 to 70) and Aberration (35 to 80), each in a normal and a Double version. Ultimate Wyverns repeats the 35 wyverns, the Wyvern Shrine, the wyvern parts, the 27 tokens and the Wyvern Saddle. We found no beacon crates in our database.

Server settings

To remove a Gaia engram, add a line like this to Game.ini, one line per engram:

OverrideNamedEngramEntries=(EngramClassName="EngramEntry_CopperArmorBoots_C",EngramHidden=True)

The spreadsheet's Engrams sheet lists 390 of these class names, grouped into armor, farming, loot, metals, potions, tools, weapons and ammo, structures and saddles. Several items also note that their defaults can be changed in your ini files: the Gaia Scarecrow is limited to one per tribe by default, and a Divine Pearls craft takes 10 minutes.

Tips

• Craft the Deity tools and the Gaia Statue on day one. The god Souls and the terminals are behind almost everything.
• Kill Savages before you go after Chrono creatures: TimeShards are their only taming food.
• Keep a Gaia Dodo for the generator eggs. The crystals that start the Hephaestus and Demeter generators need them.
• Use the Spyglass before every new tame to check its food.
• Save Gaia Leaves from boss fights for the Tree of Life.
• Do not stack several Gaia Scarecrows close together; the item warns it can cause desync and client lag.

Every creature, item and loot drop of the mod is listed on its mod page, with spawn commands.