ARK’s crafting system is a ladder of stations, and the ladder has a shape you can read directly from the recipe fields: the first step costs about seven times the one below it and the second about ten, and each one unlocks a conversion the previous tier cannot perform. A Fabricator is 35 ingots; a Chemistry Bench is 250; an Industrial Forge is 2,500.
This guide works from the cached infobox data in ark-items.json, so the costs, health values, slot counts and engram prices below are the game’s own numbers rather than estimates.
The station ladder, priced
| Station | Metal Ingots | Paste | Other inputs | Level | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campfire | 0 | 0 | 12 Thatch, 1 Flint, 16 Stone, 2 Wood | 2 | 3 |
| Fabricator | 35 | 20 | 50 Sparkpowder, 15 Crystal | 48 | 24 |
| Chemistry Bench | 250 | 250 | 100 Sparkpowder, 250 Crystal, 250 Polymer, 250 Electronics | not listed | 65 |
| Industrial Forge | 2,500 | 600 | 250 Crystal, 400 Oil | 80 | 90 |
| Industrial Cooker | 1,800 | 450 | 300 Polymer | 89 | 60 |
The progression is not linear and it is not meant to be. The Fabricator at 35 ingots is a single mountain run; the Chemistry Bench at 250 is seven Fabricators’ worth; the Industrial Forge at 2,500 is seventy-one. Each step is a different order of project, which is why the mid-game feels like it stalls — the station you want next is always an order of magnitude away.
Polymer is a strong, light material in ARK that you shape and heat-treat into casings used across many crafting recipes. — ARK Wiki
That line matters here because the bench’s 250 polymer is the input most players underestimate. Polymer is 0.25 weight and stacks to 100, so 250 is two and a half stacks — light to carry, but 125 crafts and 250 obsidian to make. The polymer page covers the chain.
Health, slots and what the numbers imply
Build cost is only half the story. The infobox also gives each station a health pool and a slot count, and those two figures decide how it behaves in a raid and in a crafting session:
| Station | Health | Item slots | Decay (seconds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campfire | 100 | 3 | not listed |
| Fabricator | 2,500 | 70 | 1,382,400 |
| Chemistry Bench | 2,500 | 100 | 1,382,400 |
| Industrial Forge | 27,000 | 100 | 1,555,200 |
The Industrial Forge’s 27,000 health is eleven times the Fabricator’s, which is the dataset’s way of saying it is a structure you defend rather than a tool you carry. The Chemistry Bench’s 100 slots against the Fabricator’s 70 is the quieter upgrade: thirty extra slots is thirty extra recipes’ worth of stock you can keep at the station.
The decay timers are also worth reading. A Fabricator and a Chemistry Bench both list 1,382,400 seconds — sixteen days — while the Industrial Forge lists 1,555,200, eighteen days. That is the window before an unvisited structure starts to take damage, which is the real constraint on a sprawling base.
The engram budget
The ladder is expensive in points as well as materials:
| Station | Engram points |
|---|---|
| Campfire | 3 |
| Fabricator | 24 |
| Chemistry Bench | 65 |
| Industrial Forge | 90 |
| Industrial Cooker | 60 |
| Total | 242 |
Two hundred and forty-two points is a large share of a character’s budget, and the ordering matters because points cannot be refunded without a mindwipe. The practical sequence is campfire, fabricator, then a long pause while you decide whether the bench or the cooker comes first — and the answer from the data is the bench, because its 250 electronics gate everything with a circuit in it.
Note that the Chemistry Bench’s level field is blank in the dataset while its mobile level is 82. The PC level is therefore not something this page will assert; treat the 65-point price as the reliable figure and confirm the level in game.
Craft times: where the queue actually goes
Craft times are short enough that they rarely matter for a single item and long enough that they matter for a hundred:
| Recipe | Craft time (seconds) | Station |
|---|---|---|
| Cementing Paste | 1 | Mortar and Pestle |
| Sparkpowder | 1 | Mortar and Pestle |
| Gunpowder | 1 | Mortar and Pestle |
| Polymer | 2 | Fabricator |
| Electronics | 2 | Fabricator |
| Element Shard | 5 | Charge Node |
| Chemistry Bench | 5 | Fabricator |
| Industrial Forge | 5 | Fabricator |
The pattern is that raw conversions are one second and structural crafts are five. A hundred cementing paste is a hundred seconds of standing at a mortar — under two minutes, which is why paste is a batch job rather than a bottleneck. A hundred polymer is two hundred seconds, and that is where the Fabricator queue starts to feel like a queue.
What the stations actually unlock
The point of each tier is a conversion the previous one cannot do:
- Campfire. Cooks meat, burns wood into charcoal. Three slots, so it is a survival tool rather than a production station.
- Fabricator. Polymer, electronics and the metal-tier gear. This is the wall between stone and everything after it.
- Chemistry Bench. Bulk versions of the mortar recipes and the electronics-heavy structures. The 250 paste and 250 electronics costs are the gate to the tek-adjacent tier.
- Industrial Forge. Mass smelting, and the only structure in the cached data whose fuel field reads Gasoline.
- Industrial Cooker. Kibble and bulk cooking, at 300 polymer and 1,800 ingots.
Each unlock is also a new dependency. The forge needs gasoline, gasoline needs oil, oil needs a route or a farm. The gasoline page covers that chain, and the oil page covers the supply.
Beyond the ladder: what else eats ingots
The stations are not the only consumers, and the utility structures are where the metal goes once the ladder is built:
| Structure | Inputs | Level | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical Generator | 25 Ingot, 10 Electronics | 49 | 24 |
| Air Conditioner | 80 Ingot, 15 Electronics, 5 Polymer | 61 | 21 |
| Auto Turret | 140 Ingot, 70 Electronics, 50 Paste | 68 | 40 |
The turret is the striking one: 70 electronics is 210 silica pearls, which is about two stacks of a resource you have to dive for. Defence is expensive in exactly the currency that is hardest to farm. The silica pearl page covers that dive, and the base building guide covers where the turrets should point.
Sequencing without wasting points
The order the data supports:
- Campfire at 3 points, immediately. Nothing else works without cooked meat.
- Fabricator at 24 points and 35 ingots. The first real station and the cheapest one that changes what you can make.
- Chemistry Bench at 65 points. Build it before the forge — the 600-paste Industrial Forge is 800 chitin cheaper once the bench exists.
- Industrial Forge at 90 points. Only when oil supply is solved, because 400 oil in the build cost is four full stacks.
- Industrial Cooker at 60 points. Last, and only if you are feeding a kibble operation.
That sequence spends 182 points on the four stations that matter and defers the cooker until there is a reason. If you are still at the beach, the beginner guide covers the first day, and the items guide lists what each station can actually produce.