Stone is an essential resource in Ark: Survival Evolved that’s an ingredient in crafting from the Stone Age, right up until you’re pulling out GPS navigators to find your way around. Farming an adequate amount of stone can be a huge challenge for players, especially if you don’t have the man power of a tribe behind you. While nothing will completely eliminate the grind necessary to gather enough stone for the larger projects, there are some ways to increase your rock count that work a lot better than smashing a stone with your axe.

Beaches and Mountains

One place you wouldn’t really associate stones with is the beach, but in Ark who’s to say what’s normal. Beaches along the ocean and many of the rivers will often be littered with easy to pick up stones that will save you time and hatchets. Just gather them like you would berries using the “E” key.

Mountain sides are a little more obvious but also hold a lot of loose stone ripe for the pickup. Just be cautious, mountainous areas usually contain the most dangerous creatures on the island like Sabretooths and T-Rex’s.

Smash Rocks with Axes?

If you absolutely can’t find a source of loose rocks in your area, or you’ve picked them all u-p you’ll be left with no choice than to farm them from the large rock outcrops. Logic would dictate that this be a job for your trusty pickaxe, but put that back in it’s holster, your Wood chopping hatchet is the prime candidate here.

Smashing rocks with your axe will give you much larger amounts of stone than your pickaxe will. You should use a pickaxe if you are going to be farming flint or metal, but that’s another day.

Ankylosaurs

The walking tanks with a mace for a tail aren’t just great at smashing people and other dinos to bits, they have the same effect on rocks. Place a large boulder in the sights of his tail and attack to shatter it and gather any rocks, flint or metal that it held.

There is some debate as to whether a metal axe is more efficient than the Ankylo, but the fact that an Ankylo doesn’t wear out after use and that it has a massive inventory to automatically hold the rocks make it number one in our books.

Just remember that attacking uses stamina. Many an Anylo has been rendered unconscious because it was pushed too hard in the stone farming fields.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Ark: Survivor Evolved Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 21, 2016

About The Author

A man of many hats, Greg divides his precious gaming time between competitive games like League of Legends and Dota 2 and Action/ Adventure Games like GTA, and Destiny. At Ten Ton Hammer he specializes in making guides for new and veteran players alike.

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