How to Get Fiber in Ark: Survival Evolved

Gathering resources for crafting is one of the essential activities in any survival game, and each game has that one item that’s used for almost everything. In ARK: Survival, that’s fiber. Few recipes don’t include it, even as you gain levels and can access more complicated and expensive engrams. With over 400 items that require fiber for crafting, understanding the best way to get it can help improve your chances of survival. 

What is Fiber in ARK?

Fiber is one of the most common crafting resources in ARK and can be gathered from the lush, wild grasses and bushes that also yield seeds and berries. It appears like brown, soft strands in a bundle on the game art and is described as perfect for making a thread, cloth, or rope.

You will gain access to fiber very early on, at least on most ARK maps. It’s plentiful and easy to find – which is great because it’s used in more recipes than any other crafting resource. Stocking up on fiber early and replenishing your supply often can help keep your crafting area ready for whatever engrams you want to tackle. 

What Can You Do With Fiber?

There are a lot of recipes that need fiber. Some of them might seem expected, while others are more random. However, you can’t craft any of the following without it.

• Certain building pieces, like the Adobe items in Scorched Earth or fundamental Wooden elements, require fiber. You will also need it for resources like crop plots, fish baskets, preserving bins, and feeding troughs.
• Many saddles use fiber for their construction. Everything from the Dire Bear to the Mammoth to the Tusoteuthis needs fiber.
• Decorative pieces like elegant furniture on mobile or the painting canvas require fiber.
• You’ll need fiber to make alarm traps, rope ladders, and grenades.
• Fiber is used for most clothing recipes, including Chitin, Riot gear, and SCUBA equipment. 

You won’t get far in ARK without a steady supply of fiber. How you choose to collect it might make the difference in how much you earn, with specific options only being open to players who are later in the game. 

Collecting Fiber in ARK: Survival Without Tames

Before you’re ready and willing to tame a fiber-specific gatherer, you can collect fiber on your own. A beginner can quickly gather fiber as they move around the map, but there are other options for those who want a higher yield for less work. 

Collecting Fiber by Hand

Collecting fiber by hand is the easiest way to get it and, early on, the only way. Before you can build a sickle and tame dinosaurs, you’ll have to walk amongst the lush grasses and bushes to gather all the fiber you can get.

1. Search for an area with a variety of foliage. It shouldn’t be the base grasses but more prominent and visible plants.
2. Walk into an area with the plants you were searching for.
3. Press the Use button. You’ll see fiber, berries, and seeds pop up as harvested as they go into your inventory.
   

This is the least efficient way to gather, but it’s easy and can go fast. Most players walk quickly through, tapping the Use button to get as much as possible with each movement. Doing it in such a way makes it easy to clear large fields quickly. 

Using a Metal Sickle to Get Fiber

The metal sickle is the primary tool players use to gather fiber and masse. You must reach level 30 and have 12 available engram points to unlock it. Its prerequisites are the metal pick and the metal hatchet, meaning both of those must also be unlocked to craft a sickle.

1. Find the right crafting area to make the metal sickle. You can make it in the Smithy, the Tek Replicator, or the Agentavis and Castoroisdes saddles. It will craft and come out the same no matter your choice, so pick the most convenient. 
2. Add 18 metal ingots, 16 hides, and four wood to the inventory of the crafting area you’re using. You can also use scrap metal ingots in place of the metal ingots or fungal wood in place of wood, subbing them one for one. Which resources you use to make the sickle will not change the final product.
3. Click on the metal sickle engram and wait for it to finish crafting. Once it’s done, place it in your inventory and add it to a hotbar slot.
   
4. Press the hotbar number to take the metal sickle into your hand.
5. Walk into an area with foliage that includes fiber.
6. Press Use to swing the sickle and gather fiber. You’ll soon see how much faster it is than picking by hand.
   

Although you can probably tame dinosaurs by the time you’ve gained access to the sickle, it’s still a great, portable tool to have on hand. Since it gathers so quickly, it can assist you in putting up outposts or creating new bases, armor, and saddles when you’re away from home. 

Collecting Fiber in ARK: Survival With Tames

If you prefer to use tames to harvest, you’re in luck. A few tames are just perfect for collecting fiber – including one that does it autonomously. 

Dire Bear

Dire Bears are aggressive creatures that require a bit of skill to tame. However, they have excellent harvesting efficiency and provide a quick, easy way to get fiber.

1. Plan what food you want to use to tame the Dire Bear. They prefer Superior Kibble, but you can also use Giant Bee Honey, Raw Mutton, or Raw Prime Meat to significant effect. You can also use lower-level foods like raw meat or raw fish, though it will take longer. 
2. Stock up enough food to tame the bear of your choice. You will need more depending on the suitability of the food and the level of the creature. For example, at level one, you would need 3 Superior Kibble or 104 Cooked Fish Meat. At level 120, you’d need 12 Superior Kibble or 475 Cooked Fish Meat.
3. Stock up tranq arrows to take the bear down. You probably won’t need many.
4. Create a taming area where you can trap the bear. The best way to do that is to have a gate you can close once the beast chases you inside. Exit another exit, then run to the front and close the original door.
5. Knock the Dire Bear out with the tranq arrows. Take it slow. Too many might kill it. Wait five seconds after each one to ensure it’s still conscious before applying the next.
6. Place the taming food and narcotic into its inventory.
7. Watch the taming meter and the torpidity. If the torpor is too low, make the Dire Bear eat more narcotics. 
8. Once the Dire Bear is tamed, name it and saddle it. Mount up once you’re able.
9. Steer the bear into an area with fiber and press Use to start harvesting. The collected materials will be in its inventory. 

This process will be the same for most creatures you want to tame. Once they’ve collected enough fiber, take it from their inventory and store it where you please. You can use this same method – with different taming food – to get a Therizinosaur which can collect fiber similarly. 

Gacha

The Gacha is a hungry creature with a different taming process. However, it’s excellent at collecting fiber and offers a lot of utility to players.

1. Gather Plant Species Y Traps, Metal or Stone crafted items, Snow Owl Pellets, Metal Ore, Berries, or Meat. Which you choose is up to you, but you’ll have better taming effectiveness if you go with ones nearer the beginning of the list.
2. Find a Gacha in the wild.
3. Drop items in its path so that it eats them. You can leave the items in a stack when you drop them, and the Gacha should go through each one individually, eating until tame.
4. Enable harvesting on a tamed Gacha because it’s turned off by default.
5. Mount the Gacha and use its attack to gather fiber.

Gacha can also grow and create its own resources. One of the possibilities is fiber, but many other, more valuable options exist. 

Gigantopithecus

Gigantopithecus is an ape-like creature you tame in a slightly different method than forcible tames. It also has the benefit of being able to collect fiber without you riding it.

1. Create a trap for the Gigantopithecus. You should have an opening at the top you can use to feed the creature. Aggress it so that it follows you and then is trapped in the room. Leave it alone while it calms down. 
   
2. Gather the taming food of your choice. The best options are Regular Kibble, Fresh  Barley, and Fresh Wheat. However, Regular Kibble is far faster and superior to any other option for this tame. Place the taming food in the last slot of your hotbar.
   
3. Mount the roof of the trap and look at the Gigantopithecus. Press the indicated button to feed it. Wait for it to get hungry again, and then repeat this process until it’s tame.
4. Turn on harvesting and set the Gigantopithecus to wander in a fenced-in area with fiber. It will slowly fill up its inventory, and the fence should keep it safe from most predators. 

Each of these tames has the same gathering efficiency as a metal sickle. If you don’t want to tame a dinosaur just to gather fiber, don’t feel like you have to, even if you’re collecting massive amounts.