ARK Survival Ascended Armored Turrets: How To Set Up & Use

Turrets serve as powerful and game-changing artillery in ARK Survival Ascended, yet, despite their potency, they are not invincible. Nevertheless, this doesn't mean you can't protect them with their own "suit of armor" to make them nearly impervious to takedowns - enter armored turrets.

By retrofitting normal turrets with protection or "armor," you gain a substantial advantage in safeguarding both the turrets and the entities they are meant to protect. In this guide, we will show you exactly how to achieve this by detailing the setup and usage of armored turrets in ARK Survival Ascended.

How To Set up and Use Armored Turrets

At present, there are two primary approaches to constructing armored turrets in the game, and we've aptly named them the Caged Armored Turret and Ironclad Armored Turret (as there's no official name for these setups). Both methods are reliable options, but the latter is nearly impervious to takedowns, irrespective of the type of turret employed. So let's delve into each one below and explore their setup and strategic applications.

How To Use the Caged Armored Turret Setup

The initial turret arrangement is appropriately named for its design, which involves using fencing to enclose your turrets in sections, preventing anyone from inflicting direct damage to them. The process begins with laying down a foundation and then placing a turret of your choice in the center.

Once positioned, you can use railings around the turret to create a cage and place a ceiling on top to completely shield it. This setup is advantageous because players won't be able to approach and destroy it easily; they must first deal with the railings.

However, a notable drawback to this method is that destroying the turret's foundation will knock out both the railings and the turret simultaneously. Although there isn't a perfect solution to this, you can add more railings in front of the turret, essentially double-caging it, or integrate the turret cage into the side of your base.

Ultimately, the most effective approach is to secure your turrets to the ground, rendering them indestructible unless players or creatures can reach them directly. Here is where the Ironclad armored turret setup proves invaluable, in addressing this specific issue.

How To Use the Ironclad Armored Turret Setup

As mentioned earlier, the Ironclad armored turret setup leverages the advantage of placing turrets directly on the ground. This is achieved by first inserting a pillar into the ground as far as it can go, providing some elevation, and then placing hatch ceilings on each corner of the pillar, allowing for four placements.

Now, you'll have four hatch ceilings hovering slightly above the ground, and the openings in these hatches are where you'll position your turrets, comfortably sitting on the ground and protruding through the hatches. Subsequently, closing the hatches shields the bottom of the turret from damage, providing additional "armor."

To safeguard the pillar underneath your Ironclad turret setup, you can easily do so by installing walls along the edges of the hatch ceilings toward the ground. This fortifies the foundation, and for additional defense, similar to the Cage turret, you can encase the entire structure or extend the foundation and then encase it, compelling players to approach closely to deal with the turrets.

This setup is nearly indestructible, as players can't simply use C4 on your turrets due to the required distance, can't attack from a distance thanks to the defending fence, can't obstruct the turrets since they're omnidirectional with a 260-degree radius, and can't destroy the structures to access them since the turrets are on the ground. 

This compels enemies to employ a "spray and pray" approach, hoping to disable the turrets from mid to close range before the turrets can retaliate, giving you ample time to handle adversaries at your leisure.

The only drawback to these turrets is that they need to be placed on the ground to gain their advantage, but thanks to their robust structure, they can easily be positioned right at your door, efficiently accomplishing their purpose. Undoubtedly, a setup worth investing in for intense PvP raids.

So there you have it, the two best options for creating armored turrets in ARK Survival Ascended, and credit goes to YouTuber Teachers Game Too for developing both of these setups. Depending on where you set them up and how you support them, both the Ironclad and Caged methods can prove effective, so be sure to experiment with both the next time you're fortifying and reinforcing your base in ARK Survival Ascended.