In ARK: Survival Evolved, dung is a particularly valuable resource. Whether produced by dinosaurs or survivors, you will learn here why feces are so precious.
Dung – the stinking, brown mass around which flies happily circle. For most, it will likely be flushed down the toilet as quickly as possible – never to return.
In Ark Survival Evolved, however, feces are precious, collected and stored in boxes.
Dung has revolutionized taming – hours are saved
In Ark, it is not just about wandering among wild beasts and facing naked survival. Survival wants to be cultivated and, above all, made efficient.
Just like in real life, feces can be used as valuable fertilizer. From small seeds, with the help of dung, a magnificent garden full of nutritious vegetables can grow.
To keep such a dino as a pet in Ark, one must first tame the creature. The dino is then knocked out and fed its favorite food. In Ark, it is known that dinos are crazy about Kibbles. These are meals that survivors cook from various ingredients like dino eggs. One ingredient always consists of a piece of vegetable, such as carrots.
And where does the carrot ideally come from? Exactly, from one’s own garden, which is tended with dung.
Taming a dino can take several hours in Ark Survival Evolved. Taming a T-Rex at maximum level takes nearly 9 hours when using regular meat. With its favorite kibble, the entire taming process is shortened to just 2 hours.
The process becomes particularly efficient when survivors produce high-quality fertilizer. But for that, they also need dung. One option is to mix the feces with straw – a tedious process. The experienced survivor simply acquires a “Dung Beetle.” That’s the colorful bug shown in the title image. Here, you simply push the dung inside, and it comes out as high-quality fertilizer.
Dung is everywhere in Ark and comes in different sizes
Fortunately, in Ark, it is not difficult to come by dung. Survivors can even poop themselves and do not even need a dino. However, human feces are rather puny on the dung chart. Dung is categorized into 5 sizes:
- Human
- Small
- Medium
- Large
- Massive
Toilets with flushing are soon coming to Ark – using them gives a bonus
In an interview with Kotaku, lead designer Jeremy Stieglitz revealed that toilets will receive a working flush in patch v258. The reason for the upgrade is quite simple for Stieglitz: “How can you consider your tribe ‘civilized’ at all before there is an indoor toilet?!”
In addition to the toilets, there is a new measurement unit. The “Poop-o-Meter,” it works just like a fever thermometer. But instead of rising temperature, it measures rising bowel fullness. When the poop-o-meter goes off, survivors know it is time for a toilet visit.
Now the survivor can, like a civilized being, do his business in the bowl and flush. Now the dung is even transformed into compost, and the survivor receives a “Refreshed” status XP boost. A brave new world.
Dung was originally added to Ark for somewhat morbid reasons: Eating dung to commit suicide.
