In the open-world, action-adventure game Ark: Survival Evolved, players are able to hunt, tame, craft, and harvest a wide variety of items. However, it is difficult to progress to the upper leveled crafting engrams without gathering the first important crafting material fiber. Without this, players will remain easy pickings for the predatory dinosaurs that roam Ark’s wilds.
To better explain fiber’s importance in Ark, fiber is the first material that players use to make clothes to protect their survivors from both the elements and dinosaurs that might try to take a bite out of them. It is also a staple in crafting early buildings, shelters, and tools while players are still earning more engram points to access the more advanced schematics such as Oil. Despite fiber being an early game material, it will remain a key item that players will need to continue to collect to make the more advanced engrams such as those used in farming.
Gathering fiber is also an early method for gathering food in Ark. As this is a survival game, players will need to have their survivors eat food to keep them alive. Through gathering fiber, players will also gather a large variety of berries that they can eat prior to them spoiling. Fresh and spoiled berries will also have later uses for players, including crafting medicine and tranquilizers that aid in capturing dinosaurs. Thankfully, both fiber and berries are easy to acquire without Ark's tools through the time-honored human tradition of gathering.
Gathering Fiber and Berries in Ark: Survival Evolved
What players will need to do is first make sure that their hands are empty, which is the default when spawning a new survivor. In the area where they spawned, after checking for any dangerous dinosaurs, they will then need to look for patches of bushes and foliage which look like large ferns or palm leaves and proceed toward them. While near or in the foliage, players only need to press their action buttons (E for PC, Y for Xbox, and Triangle for PlayStation) to add fiber and berries into their inventory.
Later in the game, players will be able to use the Metal Sickle or the Excavation Rig if they have the Genesis: Part 2 DLC expansion. For those who prefer using creatures, tamed Dire Bear, Gacha, Gigantopithecus, Maewing, Mantis, Megatherium, Moschops, and other tamed creatures in Ark are also able to gather fiber. Additionally, players will be able to find fiber in the green, white and blue colored diamond-shaped Supply Crates that appear for a limited time on Ark's landscape.
Ark: Survival Evolved is available on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/S|X, Steam, and PC.