ARK Survival Ascended TEK Forcefield: How To Craft and Uses

ARK Survival Ascended offers players various useful and powerful TEK devices and structures, and one notable example is the TEK Forcefield. This device is highly effective for protecting your base and resources, making it a priority for every ARK player.

If you haven't explored the capabilities of the TEK Forcefield device and want to learn more, keep reading. Below, we'll provide details on how to craft the TEK Forcefield and outline its uses in ARK Survival Ascended.

How To Craft the TEK Forcefield in ARK Survival Ascended

The TEK Forcefield is quite an underrated Tek tier item in our opinion, as it allows you to effectively set up a barrier or energy shield that protects an area from damage. This makes it extremely useful in PvP scenarios as well as when playing solo (but more on that later).

For now, crafting the TEK Forcefield will require a few resources that most players who have reached the end game should have access to, including a TEK Replicator, which is where you'll craft the device. So let's cover the actual item requirements for the TEK Forcefield below:

• 5000 × Metal Ingot or Scrap Metal Ingot
• 600 × Crystal or Primal Crystal
• 150 × Black Pearl
• 800 × Polymer, Organic Polymer, or Corrupted Nodule
• 75 × Element

This is a fairly simple list of items to gain except for two things, the TEKGram for the TEK Forcefield, and Element. Thankfully, you can solve both these problems at once since unlocking the TEK Forcefield TEKGram requires killing the Dragon boss (Beta), and doing so will also reward you with a decent amount of Element, so check out our Dragon boss fight guide here, as well as the solo Dragon guide if you're playing on your own.

How Does the TEK Forcefield Work in ARK Survival Ascended?

Now that you have your hands on a TEK Forcefield, let's discuss its utility (which there is a lot of). The first thing is its setup, and thankfully it can be placed without the need for a foundation, as well as being able to function underwater, and it can also be picked up. Once fed Element to run on, it will have an initial start-up time of 5 minutes before it is activated.

Now that you've activated the forcefield, the size can be adjusted by the player via the radial menu. The smallest possible size is roughly 4 foundations in diameter, and the largest is around 25 foundations in diameter. However, you need to remember that the size of the barrier affects the amount of Element it consumes while active. On its smallest radius, it consumes 1 Element per hour, on its largest radius, it consumes 10 Element per hour—keep this in mind if you're running low on Element.

The forcefields also cannot be placed very close to one another, and size doesn't matter either, so any two forcefields, regardless of size, will need to be placed quite a distance apart from one another (roughly the space of a Titanosaur). When it comes to irrigation, the forcefield also blocks rain, so any vegetation needing rainwater (if it's not irrigated) will also die.

Now, regarding the effectiveness of the barrier; the forcefield prevents any wild dinosaurs or non-tribe/non-owner players from going through the barrier as if it's a solid wall, while the Tribe/Owners and Allies can pass through it with ease. 

Aggressive dinosaurs will attempt to attack through the forcefield, but they will do no damage to the forcefield or any players/dinosaurs inside. This allows players/dinosaurs within the forcefield to freely hit any dinosaurs large enough to have parts of their body phasing into the forcefield, such as a Rex or a Brontosaurus.

While the barrier is extremely beefy, it can be damaged by a few things in the game, and when damaged, the dome will start to blink. When destroyed, not only does the structure itself vanish, but any Element left inside will also be destroyed, so keep this in mind if you don't want to lose the Element stored inside.

The full list of objects and creatures that can damage the TEK Forcefield barrier are:

• Explosives (enemy and friendly fire)
• Tek Rifle
• Titanosaurs
• Corrupted Creatures
• Mosasaur Tek Saddle lasers
• Rex Tek Saddle lasers
• Tapejara Tek Saddle lasers
• Megalodon Tek Saddle lasers
• Rock Drake Tek Saddle lasers
• Compound Bow (Flame Arrow)
• Tek Sword
• Titans
• Magmasaur spit attack
• Astrodelphis Starwing Saddle lasers
• Flamethrower

So there you have it, a comprehensive breakdown of everything you need to know about crafting and using the TEK Forcefield in ARK Survival Ascended. This device can easily protect you from tons of damage and other dangers on the island, making it well worth investing in for PvP as well as late-game solo playthroughs, so be sure to try it out as soon as you can!