Explore creatures’ efficiency in collecting berries, best gatherers, and creatures with weight reduction in ARK Survival Ascended.
Berries are a vital resource in ARK: Survival Ascended, used for various purposes, such as taming herbivorous creatures, making kibble, and providing food for you and your tamed animals. To efficiently collect berries, having a creature with excellent gathering capabilities can make a significant difference. In this guide, we’ll explore the best berry gatherers in ARK: Survival Ascended. We ranked them to answer key questions and delve into creatures with berries’ weight reduction abilities.
Best Berry Gatherers in ARK Survival Ascended – Ranked
From our experience in ARK Survival Ascended, Brontosaurus and Therizinosaurus are the best berry gatherers, thanks to their high base harvesting abilities and a wide AoE attack. The best early-game gatherer is the Triceratops and Stegosaurus. Stego, being just a few levels more advanced creature than Trike, is an excellent choice due to weight reduction.
What creatures are the most efficient at collecting berries in ARK Survival Ascended?
- Brontosaurus
- Therizinosaurus
- Megatherium
- Chalicotherium
- Stegosaurus
- Woolly Rhino
- Mammoth
- Triceratops
Ultimately, remember that the best gatherer can depend on your preferences or the area you inhabit. You may have easy access to a specific type of creature or be at too low a level to craft a saddle for some of them. The level of the beast you come across can also impact your capability to tame and acquire an efficient gatherer. So luck will also play a role here. The higher-level animals will have more weight capacity, allowing them to carry more berries before needing unloading. Consequently, you will likely need to progress to more advanced creatures and simultaneously tame more efficient berry gatherers.
Every player has their favorite dinos, so I like to go with Stegosaurus or Trike at the start, then upgrade to Therizinosaurus or Brontosaurus later. For those who plan to breed their gatherers, Therizinosaurus might be a good option. It is fantastic for almost any type of resource. As a result, you only need a pair of those creatures, and they can produce offspring to become fast and efficient gatherers for each material. Such as wood, thatch, berries, hide, fiber, etc.
8 Triceratops
Triceratops features:
- Saddle: Unlocked at Level 16
- Taming Method: Knockout or by Claiming Wild babies
- Preferred Kibble: Simple Kibble
- Preferred Food: Mejoberry
These creatures excel at gathering berries and are arguably the best early-game berry collectors. Triceratops has a limited gathering area to the cone in front of it. Still, they collect a decent number of berries with each swing.
The saddle becomes available at level 16, and reaching that level in ARK Ascended is quite swift. You can tame Triceratops early on using the traditional tranquilizer/knockout method or by claiming wild babies and raising them as your own. While the creature doesn’t deal significant damage, its attacks have a knockback effect that pushes small and medium creatures back. When timed correctly, they can do this even before these creatures have a chance to harm your Triceratops, making it a valuable companion.
7 Mammoth
Mammoth features:
- Saddle: Unlocked at Level 31
- Taming Method: Knockout or by Claiming Wild babies
- Preferred Kibble: Superior Kibble
- Preferred Food: Crops
Mammoths are primarily gatherers of thatch and wood, but they also collect a decent amount of berries. The gathering area is bigger than the Triceratops but also limited to the cone in front of the Mammoth. You can consider this creature a mid-game gatherer, and you will need level 31 to craft the Mammoth saddle. These creatures inhabit the cold, snowy areas of ARK Survival Evolved, primarily in the northwest corner of The Island. Like Triceratops, their attacks can knock back enemies, but they deal slightly more damage.
6 Woolly Rhino
Woolly Rhino features:
- Saddle: Unlocked at Level 53
- Taming Method: Knockout or by Claiming Wild babies
- Preferred Kibble: Superior Kibble
- Preferred Food: Mejoberry
Known for their charge attack, woolly rhinos can efficiently gather large amounts of berries. They live exclusively in cold areas and have a unique method of berry collection. Thanks to their special attack, they charge forward and gain speed the longer they run uninterrupted. So, if you dash through bushes full of berries, your Woolly Rhino will destroy and gather berries from all the bushes it passes, creating a fun and distinctive way of collecting berries. However, it’s not as efficient as creatures like Brontosaurus, Therizinosaurus, or even Stegosaurus.
5 Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus features:
- Saddle: Unlocked at Level 26
- Taming Method: Knockout or by Claiming Wild babies
- Preferred Kibble: Regular Kibble
- Preferred Food: Mejoberry
While they gather a decent amount of berries, Stegosaurs also collect thatch and wood early in the game. It’s an early-game gatherer, and players need only be at level 26 to craft a Stego Saddle. The saddle doesn’t require a lot of resources, either. You can also tame them with the regular tranquilizer taming method or imprint wild babies and raise them to get this fantastic gatherer.
Unique to the Stegosaurus, it has three back-plate modes that can be cycled. The first is the Hardened Plate, which reduces damage from enemies by half, adding to this creature’s defenses. It also gives you the Wood harvesting bonus. The Heavy Plate applies a slow effect when attacking with the tail whip and adds a bonus when gathering thatch. Lastly, the Sharpened Plate will increase the number of collected berries and apply an armor penetration effect to the tail whip attack.
The most significant advantage of gathering berries with a stegosaurus is its 75% weight reduction. This creature can carry more berries, reducing the need for frequent unloading and allowing you to work longer before emptying its inventory.
4 Chalicotherium
Chalicotherium features:
- Saddle: Unlocked at Level 42
- Taming Method: Passive (Equip food to the last slot of your hotbar. Carefully approach it with Bear Jar to feed)
- Preferred Kibble: N/A
- Preferred Food: Beer Jar
The Chalicotherium is a creature with good berry-gathering abilities and unique defensive capabilities. They can act as living turrets by throwing rocks, making them a valuable asset. When it comes to gathering berries, their arm swing attack is swift and efficient, allowing them to quickly collect berries from the wide surrounding area.
3 Megatherium
Megatherium features:
- Saddle: Unlocked at Level 52
- Taming Method: Knockout
- Preferred Kibble: Superior Kibble
- Preferred Food: Giant Bee Honey
The Giant Sloth, also known as Megatherium. These creatures have a unique ability that increases damage and gathering capabilities when fighting insects. As a result, they are known for their exceptional ability to gather enormous amounts of chitin. However, it can also pick berries, fiber, thatch, wood, meat, hide, and keratin from various sources like bushes, trees, and corpses.
When searching for the best berry gatherers, most players might overlook the Megatherium. However, it deserves a spot in our ARK Survival Ascended: Best Berry Gatherer Tier List because it’s surprisingly efficient at berry gathering and chitin weight reduction. Moreover, it’s speedy when gathering chitin simultaneously with berries, thanks to its unique ability.
2 Therizinosaurus
Therizinosaurus features:
- Saddle: Unlocked at Level 69
- Taming Method: Knockout
- Preferred Kibble: Exceptional Kibble
- Preferred Food: Mejoberry
Known for their exceptional gathering abilities, these creatures can harvest large quantities of berries. They are fast compared to Bronto, and their claws can successfully deal fantastic damage compared to Rex and Spinosaurus. They are capable of gathering almost anything in the game.
The Therizinosaur is an all-around gatherer with excellent speed and agility. While it lacks weight reduction for gathered materials, its efficiency comes from its ability to focus on specific materials. This creature uses three types of attacks: power attacks, delicate claw attacks, and biting attacks. Every attack is focused on gathering specific types of resources.
When the Therizinosaur levels up, it gets harvesting points separate from its regular level points. Harvesting points can be spent to enhance its gathering efficiency. You can allocate these points to either its power or delicate attack, with a maximum of 88 points and a 165.7% efficiency boost in one category.
1 Brontosaurus
Brontosaurus features:
- Saddle: Unlocked at Level 63
- Taming Method: Knockout or by Claiming Wild babies
- Preferred Kibble: Exceptional Kibble
- Preferred Food: Mejoberry
These massive herbivores have a broad AoE attack that efficiently gathers the most significant amount of berries. The Brontosaurus is the most efficient gatherer, capable of collecting hundreds of berries with a single swing of its tail. However, unlocking the saddle requires reaching level 63, which makes Bronto a late-game option. They have slow movement and attack intervals but deliver significant damage with their tails, even pushing back approaching enemies and preventing them from getting too close.
What is the best tool to gather berries in Ark?
Most creatures in ARK Survival Ascended use their natural attacks for berry gathering, which is the best and most efficient method. In this game, no tools can match the efficiency of dino power when it comes to gathering berries. Collecting berries by hand is likely the least efficient method, so you should tame one of the best berry-gathering dinos as soon as possible.
Creatures with Berries Weight Reduction in ARK Survival Ascended
Weight reduction abilities can significantly improve your harvesting efficiency. Some creatures, like the Stegosaurus, provide a substantial reduction in the weight of berries they carry of 75%. This makes it convenient for players to carry a substantial amount in the dino inventory without becoming encumbered.
Stegosaurus is an excellent and efficient gatherer, with their saddle becoming unlockable at level 27 in ARK Ascended. Claiming Stegosaurus babies is easy after you kill their parents or tame them by knocking them out with arrows. Traditional adult Stegosaurus taming is also relatively straightforward, as their main disadvantage is their slow speed. However, when you choose to knock them out or kill their parents to tame a baby Stego, their slow movement speed will make your task easier.
In summary, berries are a crucial resource in ARK: Survival Ascended, and having a reliable gatherer can improve your gameplay. Consider your specific needs and preferences when choosing the best berry gatherer. Remember that creatures with weight reduction abilities can further optimize your resource collection.
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