Despite its somewhat turbulent and controversial launch in October 2023, ARK: Survival Ascended has managed to attract an enthusiastic player community. While the gameplay closely resembles that of ARK: Survival Evolved, with weapons, armor, and other items being identical. However, the graphical enhancements in Ascended significantly enhance the immersive experience.
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Base building, defense, and raiding are a big part of ARK: Survival Ascended's gameplay, especially for the PvP players. There are a number of emplaced weapons that players can build to help protect their base. Some of these turrets are auto-targeting and auto-firing, whilst others require the player to man them, aim, and fire.
7 Ballista Turret
Basic Sear Firing Turret
Stats:
- Level: 29
- Rate of fire: 0.77
- Damage: 600
- HP: 7000
The Ballista Turret is a very commonly used early to mid-game emplaced weapon. However, it also has a place in late-game as well, due to its good damage against enemy players during base raids. Another bonus of the Ballista Turret is that it doesn’t need to be powered. This turret unlocks at level 29, so it is the first emplaced weapon that new players can build.
The Ballista Turret can shoot two different kinds of ammo. It can fire both spear bolts and chain bolts. But the biggest downside of the Ballista Turret is that it is not auto-firing. The player will need to man the turret and fire it themselves.
6 Catapult Turret
Boulder Firing Ranged Weapon
Stats:
- Level 31
- Rate of fire: 0.77
- Damage: 500
- HP: 7000
The Catapult Turret is a ranged weapon that fires large boulders a great distance. However, these are fairly slow-moving, with a trajectory that has a high firing arc. This means that they are quite difficult to aim accurately, and will take some time to master. This is another player-operated turret and requires the player to mount and fire manually.
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The Catapult Turret doesn’t require electrical power to run, and it can be used in the mid-game stage. However, it isn’t really suitable for use in PvP. It does have some PvE utility but is overshadowed by later game-emplaced weapons.
5 Auto Turret
Advanced Auto-Targeting Weapon
Stats:
- Level: 68
- Rate of fire: 2.86
- Damage: 77
- HP: 3000
The Auto Turret is an auto-targeting weapon, that offers an upgrade path from the ballista and catapult. With good DPS, mainly due to the great rate of fire, this turret is great for taking out enemy players or creatures.
However, the turret must be powered up to operate. It also requires Advanced Rifle Bullet ammo. This can be expensive to craft in the volumes required to keep this turret in operation permanently. Therefore, until the late game it is best used sparingly, only being switched on when really needed.
4 Heavy Auto Turret
An Upgraded Auto Turret
Stats:
- Level: 100
- Rate of fire: 2.86
- Damage: 300
- HP: 20000
The Heavy Auto Turret is a significant upgrade over the basic Auto Turret, doing over 3 times as much damage, with the same rate of fire. Something of a bargain considering it uses exactly the same amount of ammo to do this damage.
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However, as a level 100 weapon, the Heavy Auto Turret is really only going to be used in the end-game part of ARK: Survival Ascened, and by this stage, it is likely the player won't really care about ammo cost at all. That being said, the Heavy Auto Turret is a great weapon for AFK base defenses against late-game raids.
3 Minigun Turret
Low Damage But High Rate Of Fire
Stats:
- Level: 94
- Rate of fire: 10
- Damage: 150
- HP: 7000
Whenever players find a weapon with the name minigun, they know that it is going to be a rapid-firing, low-damage weapon that is best suited to a spray-and-pray style of gameplay. In ARK: Survival Ascended, this is exactly the ethos followed for the Minigun Turret.
As a PvP weapon, defending against enemies raiding a base, the Minigun Turret excels. It does need to be powered to work, and it is not auto-firing. The player will need to mount the turret to aim and fire manually.
2 Rocket Turret
Firing Explosive Grenades
Stats:
- Level: 99
- Rate of fire: 1
- Damage: 1500 (explosive)
- HP: 7000
As a level 99 weapon, the Rocket Turret isn’t available until the late game in ARK: Survival Ascended. However, once the player has leveled up enough to place this turret, it can do some serious long-range damage. And as this is explosive damage, it has an AOE effect as well.
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This is another manually operated turret. So the player will need to mount the turret and fire it manually. This turret uses Rocket Propelled Grenades as ammo. The crafting cost for these is quite high, so it is best to use the Rocket Turret sparingly.
1 Tek Turret
Requires Tek Unlock
Stats:
- Rate of fire: 2.8
- Damage: 500
- HP: 9000
The Tek Turret isn’t unlocked by leveling. It is unlocked by following the Tek-related quests to complete different scenarios in ARK: Survival Ascended. So although the Tek Turret gets top place on this list, it isn’t as easy to acquire as all of the other turrets already covered.
The Tek Turret is auto-firing and can use several types of ammo, including grenades, rocket-powered grenades, and tek grenades. It does need a Tek Generator to power it though. This is the best turret in the game for repelling enemy base raids.
Ark: Survival Ascended
- Released
- October 26, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Studio Wildcard
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Survival, Open-World
