In Ark: Survival Ascended, just like the original game, there will be a lot of grinding involved when it comes to getting blueprints for better equipment and other useful stuff.
There are many ways to get them, but some methods may be more efficient or reliable compared to others. In this guide, we’ll go through a few great ways to farm blueprints.
Top 5 Blueprint Farms
There are many ways to get blueprints throughout the course of your ingame career, including simply leveling up and unlocking some of them.
While you can get by just occasionally looting supply beacons that appear randomly all around the map, there are much more reliable ways to farm them if you are trying to unlock something specific.
#1. Fishing
The first way is to simply start fishing in any decently sized lake or pond. All you will need for this method is a fishing rod and a chair, as well as a bit of patience.
Good quality fishing rods are dropped by certain alpha dinosaurs in the sea, and it’s absolutely worth getting one if you plan on using this method, as it increases the chances of getting better loot from your catches.
#2. The Caverns of Lost Faith / Lost Hope
The next method involves raiding either of the two underwater caves on opposite sides of the map. For the Caverns of Lost Faith, refer to the image below for the general location of its entrance.
SIDE NOTE: In case you’re interested, we have a guide which covers the best dinos for navigating the Caverns of Lost Faith/Lost Hope!
One the other hand, if you would like to try your luck with the Caverns of Lost Hope, you’ll have to travel all the way to the other side of the map, to the east.
Either option has good potential loot drops, but you will need a relatively powerful water-based tame, as there will be some pretty tough enemies in both of them.
NOTE: For that, you might want to check out the best Ocean dinos for Ark Survival Ascended!
It takes around half an hour for crates to respawn in these caves, so if you have a lot of time on your hands, you could likely stay around for a prolonged period of time and continuously loot them.
#3. Roaming the Snowy Part of the Map
One slightly easier method that only requires you to have armor that keeps you warm is to simply roam around the snowy part of the map.
You’ll basically just be running around this region until you encounter high level beacons. You are very likely to find a bunch of them as newer players will not be able to do this due to their lack of the necessary gear to survive in such conditions.
#4. Deep Sea Loot Crates
In the edges of the map, deep in the ocean biome, deep sea loot crates can spawn around every hour. It is said that only a few of them can spawn at a time, so you’ll need a fast underwater tame that can help you search all the way around the entire island.
#5. The Swamp Cave
Finally, one of the best methods of farming blueprints involves raiding the Swamp Cave, which can be found in the Redwood Forests area.
SIDE NOTE: If you’re looking for a good tame to use to explore this cave, check out our guide which covers the best dinos for the Swamp Cave!
In order to safely roam around the inside of the cave, you will need either a gasmask or a full SCUBA set.
Basically, you will want to bring with you a good set of gear and a strong dinosaur that can fit through the entrance.
There will be a lot of powerful high level enemies in this cave, but the loot (which respawns relatively quickly in certain spots inside the cave) will be absolutely worth it if you can survive the harsh conditions inside.
And those are some of the optimal methods of collecting blueprints in Ark: Survival Ascended. Most of these ways will require you to have a strong roster of dinosaurs ready, so you should start taming and leveling up some worthy mounts!
ALSO READ: Ark Survival Ascended: Single Player Settings Guide
