How to get Red Element in ARK Survival Ascended Lost Colony

ARK Survival Ascended Lost Colony introduced a wealth of new tools and resources to the game, including Red Element. It’s a resource you can craft on the new story map, and while we do know how to acquire it, and craft it, we do not know its true purpose yet. We suspect it’s used in crafting, or perhaps to mutate creatures, but we will update this when we have ascertained its use.

Nonetheless, it’s pretty easy to actually get Red Element in ARK Survival Ascended. You only need two materials, and both are pretty easy to get. While there is a method to get it through combat, we don’t recommend it, because it takes a significant amount of time.

How to farm Red Element in ARK Survival Ascended Lost Colony

In order to craft Red Element in ARK Survival Ascended Lost Colony, you need to combine 2x Element and 50x Blood Packs together in the Bloodforge. The Bloodforge is a brand-new crafting station that allows you to repair your gear, no matter how low it is, at the cost of blood.

These high-up areas are the safest spot to farm Element Dust (Image via Studio Wildcard)

Any of the Lanterns/Street Lamps in the city section of the Lost Colony map will give you Element Dust by simply destroying them. Then, just craft it into Element from your inventory. The best place to do this is on the bridges high up in the air that lead towards the center of the city proper. There are seldom enemies up here, so you’re safe to farm.

You also need the new Medical Stand built in your base. Normally it’s used to heal your creatures, but you can also use it to extract blood, to create Blood Packs. I recommend a strong, large-health creature like the Stegosaurus.

Just attach the creature to the Medical Stand, and use the Take Blood tab. This will make the creature start taking damage, but churning out tons of Blood Packs. After a few minutes, you should have all you need. However, do heal your creature while it’s connected to the Medical Stand, because it will, as I said, take constant damage.

Just drain the blood of your creatures to make Blood Packs (Image via Studio Wildcard/YouTube@Frodo the Dodo)

Once you have all the Blood Packs you desire, just head over to your Bloodforge, and create Red Element on the ARK Survival Ascended Lost Colony map. You’re going to make Unstable Red Element, which does have kind of a long crafting time. You will also need to wait for its Spoil Timer to go down, but once that’s finished, you’ll have Red Element!

You can also get Red Element by taking part in the Outpost missions, which allows you to recruit Thralls. The downside is that it's time consuming, and you may not receive much Red Element this way. It's much easier to make your own.

Check out our other ARK guides and features

• Everything included in the ARK Lost Colony Expansion Pass
• ARK Survival Ascended: How does the Skill Tree work?
• All new creatures in ARK Survival Ascended Lost Colony DLC (known so far)

Edited by Jason Parker