Tek Tier is the most advanced technology tier in ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA), the Unreal Engine 5 remaster that is now the primary version of the game. It represents the true endgame: glowing armor with a built-in jetpack, energy weapons, teleporters, and self-powered structures. But unlike every other tier in ARK, you cannot simply level up and learn Tek from a book. Tek is locked behind ARK’s hardest content — the bosses. This guide walks through exactly how the Tek unlock loop works, how to farm the Element that powers it, what each piece of Tek gear does, and how server admins can configure and test Tek progression on their own dedicated server.
Tek first arrived on January 30, 2017, in the original ARK: Survival Evolved (ASE), and it carries over as shared endgame content in ASA. If you are running your own world, a stable dedicated ARK: Survival Ascended server makes boss fights and Element farming far more reliable than a laggy peer-hosted session — and it gives admins the console access needed to test progression safely.
What Is Tek Tier?
Tek Tier is ARK’s most advanced technology tier — a collection of endgame structures, armor, and weapons built from the rare resource Element. According to the official wiki, “all Tek Tier objects … require defeating bosses” to craft and use. There are a few documented exceptions to that boss-gate rule: Extinction-exclusive Tekgrams, Cryopods and the Cryofridge, and robotic creatures fall outside the standard unlock loop. Everything else — the Tek Replicator, Tek armor, Tek weapons, and Tek structures — sits firmly behind the boss arenas.
The progression loop has three repeating beats: advance your survivor level and gather conventional gear, defeat progressively harder bosses to unlock Tek engrams, then farm Element to actually craft and power your Tek. Each beat feeds the next, and the difficulty ramp is steep — which is exactly why Tek feels like a genuine endgame reward rather than just another crafting tier.
The Unlock Loop: Boss → Tekgram → Element
Tek engrams are called Tekgrams, and the only way to unlock them is by defeating bosses. This is the single most important fact about Tek Tier and the part most new players get wrong: you do not buy Tekgrams with engram points the way you do with normal engrams. You earn them by walking into a boss arena, winning, and collecting the Tekgrams the boss grants on death.
Each boss grants specific Tekgrams
Crucially, bosses do not all unlock the same Tek. Each boss grants a specific set of Tekgrams. For example, the Broodmother Lysrix grants the Tek Helmet, while the Desert Titan grants the Tek Railgun. That means full Tek progression is not a single fight — it is a campaign across multiple boss encounters, each one adding more blueprints to your unlocked list. If you want a complete Tek loadout, you will need to clear several different bosses.
Gamma, Beta, Alpha — harder fights unlock more
Most bosses can be summoned at three escalating difficulties: Gamma → Beta → Alpha. Harder difficulties unlock more Tekgrams (and, as we’ll see, drop more Element). Gamma is the entry-level fight and the most forgiving; Alpha is the hardest and the most rewarding. The practical implication for a progression-focused server is that players will revisit the same arenas multiple times, stepping up the difficulty as their dino army and gear improve.
Element: The Resource That Powers Tek
Tekgrams tell you what you can build, but Element is what you actually build and run it with. Element both crafts Tek items and fuels Tek structures like the generator. It is rare, it does not occur in casual overland nodes, and learning where to farm it efficiently is half the battle of living in the Tek endgame.
Verified ways to acquire Element
- Boss inventories. After killing a boss, Element appears in its inventory. The amount scales with difficulty (Gamma < Beta < Alpha) — with the notable exceptions of Rockwell and the Overseer, which do not follow the standard boss-drop pattern.
- Element Nodes in the Extinction Wasteland. Defending these nodes against waves of enemies yields Element.
- Refining Element Shards. This is the most efficient farm — Element Shards (gathered most readily on Genesis and Crystal Isles) refine into full Element.
- Charge Nodes on Aberration. These craft Element from Element Ore, charge batteries, and gems.
- Genesis Part 2 supply crates. Small amounts of Element show up in these crates.
- Hexagon Exchange via HLN-A. You can trade roughly 2,000 Hexagons for one Element.
Element also converts both ways: into Element Shards (used to power some Tek structures) and into Element Dust — though the conversion to Dust comes at an 80% loss, so do it deliberately, not casually.
Crafting Tek: The Tek Replicator
Once you have the Tekgrams unlocked and Element in hand, you craft Tek gear and structures at the Tek Replicator. The Replicator is the dedicated Tek crafting station — think of it as the Tek equivalent of the Fabricator. Most of your high-end Tek items, from armor to weapons, are produced here. Standing up a Replicator (and feeding it Element) is effectively the moment your base transitions into a true Tek base.
Tek Gear: Armor, Weapons, and Structures
Tek armor
The full Tek armor suit is made up of five pieces: the Tek Helmet, Tek Chestpiece, Tek Gauntlets, Tek Boots, and Tek Leggings. Beyond raw protection, the suit grants powered abilities. The helmet is widely documented for its vision modes, and the chestpiece is commonly known for its jetpack/flight capability. (Per-piece ability details vary, so check the in-game descriptions on your version for the exact behavior of each piece.) Powered abilities consume Element, which is why a Tek-suited survivor always keeps a stack on hand.
Tek weapons
- Tek Rifle — an energy rifle powered by Element.
- Tek Sword — a high-end melee weapon.
- Tek Grenade Launcher — heavy explosive ordnance.
- Tek Railgun — a long-range energy weapon unlocked from the Desert Titan.
Tek structures
Tek structures turn your base into something out of science fiction. Key examples include the Tek Teleporter (instant base-to-base travel), the Tek Generator (a wireless, Element-fueled power source that drives Tek and even conventional electrical devices), and the Tek Forcefield (a protective energy dome). These are only a few of the many Tek structures available once the relevant Tekgrams are unlocked.
Tek creatures and saddles
Tek extends to creatures too. Tek dino variants exist alongside Tek saddles — for example, the Tek Rex saddle and the Rock Drake Tek Saddle — which layer Tek-grade protection and abilities onto your mounts.
Tek at a Glance
| Tek element | What it is | How you get it |
|---|---|---|
| Tekgrams | Tek engrams (blueprints) | Defeating bosses; Gamma < Beta < Alpha unlock more |
| Element | Resource that crafts and powers Tek | Boss inventories, Element Nodes, refining Shards, Charge Nodes, Hexagon Exchange |
| Tek Replicator | Crafting station for Tek | Crafted after unlocking its Tekgram |
| Tek armor | 5-piece powered suit (vision, jetpack) | Crafted at the Replicator with Element |
| Tek weapons | Rifle, Sword, Grenade Launcher, Railgun | Crafted at the Replicator with Element |
| Tek structures | Teleporter, Generator, Forcefield, more | Crafted at the Replicator with Element |
Running Tek Progression on Your Own Server
If you host your own world, you have far more control over how the Tek grind plays out — and you can test it directly with admin commands. The ASA dedicated server installs via SteamCMD using its own App ID, separate from the game client.
| Item | SteamCMD App ID |
|---|---|
| ARK: Survival Ascended (game client) | 2399830 |
| ARK: Survival Ascended Dedicated Server | 2430930 |
| ARK: Survival Evolved (legacy game) | 346110 |
| ARK: Survival Evolved Dedicated Server (legacy) | 376030 |
To install or update the ASA dedicated server, the SteamCMD command is:
app_update 2430930 validateBecoming admin to test Tek
Tek testing requires admin rights. First set ServerAdminPassword in GameUserSettings.ini under the [ServerSettings] section (or pass ?ServerAdminPassword= on the command line). On ASA, there is a launch-argument parsing quirk: ?ServerAdminPassword= should be the last ?-style argument, placed before any - dash arguments. In-game, open the console with Tab and run:
enablecheats The password must exactly match ServerAdminPassword — it is case-sensitive with no trailing spaces — and admin rights last only for that session, so you must re-run enablecheats after every relogin. On ASA, admin actions are typically prefixed with admincheat (for example admincheat fly or admincheat god), and cheat works once cheats are active. For a full walkthrough of admin setup, see our guide on setting the admin password on an ARK server, and the step-by-step ARK: Survival Ascended documentation.
Spawning boss creatures and Tek dinos to test
With cheats active, you can spawn creatures to test boss arenas or stand up Tek dino variants. There are three commands, each behaving differently:
cheat summon— spawns a wild creature at your location at a random level, using the short classname. You cannot specify the level.cheat SpawnDino "— spawns a wild creature but lets you choose the level and spawn offsets, using the full blueprint path.cheat gmsummon "— spawns a tamed, rideable creature. It applies the normal taming bonus, so a requested level 150 lands around ~225 after the bonus (the level argument is the pre-tame level)."
Worked examples using the Rex classname Rex_Character_BP_C:
cheat summon Rex_Character_BP_C
cheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Rex/Rex_Character_BP.Rex_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 150
cheat gmsummon "Rex_Character_BP_C" 150Exact class strings vary per creature — pull the precise classname from a community spawn database rather than guessing. For a deeper walkthrough of spawn syntax and offsets, see our guide on how to spawn dinos in your ARK server.
Tuning the grind: rates and multipliers
Because Tek is gated behind bosses and Element, many admins tune harvest, taming, and XP rates to make the climb to endgame manageable on smaller communities. These keys all live in GameUserSettings.ini under [ServerSettings], each defaulting to 1.0, where higher means more:
[ServerSettings]
HarvestAmountMultiplier=2.0
TamingSpeedMultiplier=3.0
XPMultiplier=2.0
HarvestHealthMultiplier=1.0HarvestAmountMultiplier increases resources gathered per action; TamingSpeedMultiplier speeds up taming (helpful for building a boss-fighting dino army); XPMultiplier accelerates leveling; and HarvestHealthMultiplier raises the durability of harvest nodes so they survive more hits before depleting. For granular control, Game.ini supports per-resource overrides via HarvestResourceItemAmountClassMultipliers, which override the global harvest rate for specific resource classes — verify the exact class string for your target resource before publishing it to a live config. A complete rundown lives in our guide to changing the gather rate on an ARK server.
ASA vs ASE: What’s Different for Tek Servers
Tek Tier content and most .ini server keys are shared between ASA and the legacy ASE. The biggest operational difference is mods. ASA distributes mods through CurseForge with an in-game mod browser — not the Steam Workshop that ASE used. On a dedicated server you enable mods by appending -mods= to the command line (and/or setting ActiveMods= in GameUserSettings.ini), and the server auto-downloads them from CurseForge on start. If you have seen the older -automanagedmods flag referenced, treat it as a legacy ASE-era flag; the verified ASA method is -mods= with CurseForge IDs.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you unlock Tek Tier in ARK: Survival Ascended?
You unlock Tek by defeating bosses, which grant Tek engrams (Tekgrams). You cannot learn Tek with normal engram points. Each boss grants specific Tekgrams — the Broodmother Lysrix grants the Tek Helmet, the Desert Titan grants the Tek Railgun — and harder difficulties (Gamma < Beta < Alpha) unlock more.
What is the best way to farm Element?
Refining Element Shards is the most efficient farm, with Shards gathered most readily on Genesis and Crystal Isles. Element also drops in boss inventories (scaling with difficulty, except Rockwell and the Overseer), from Element Nodes in the Extinction Wasteland, from Aberration Charge Nodes, in Genesis Part 2 supply crates, and via the Hexagon Exchange (about 2,000 Hexagons per Element).
What crafts Tek items?
The Tek Replicator is the dedicated crafting station for Tek gear and structures. Once you have unlocked the relevant Tekgrams from bosses and have Element on hand, you produce most Tek items — armor, weapons, and structures — at the Replicator.
What does Tek armor do?
The Tek armor suit has five pieces — Helmet, Chestpiece, Gauntlets, Boots, and Leggings — and grants powered abilities on top of heavy protection. The helmet is documented for its vision modes and the chestpiece for its jetpack/flight. These abilities consume Element, so a Tek survivor always keeps a stack available.
Is Tek the same in ASA and ASE?
Tek Tier content and most server .ini keys are shared between ARK: Survival Ascended and the legacy ARK: Survival Evolved. The main operational difference is the mod system: ASA uses CurseForge (loaded with -mods=), whereas ASE used the Steam Workshop.
Can I cheat-unlock Tek on my own server to test it?
As an admin you can enable cheats with enablecheats (the password must match ServerAdminPassword exactly and is re-required after each relogin) and use admincheat commands to spawn creatures, fly, and test arenas. Spawning boss creatures with summon, SpawnDino, or gmsummon lets you rehearse Tek progression before your players attempt it for real.
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