How to cook meat in ARK Survival Ascended

Pretty quickly after you first start off as a new survivor, the hunger starts to kick in and you’ll need to know how to cook meat in ARK Survival Ascended. Just like it was in ARK Survival Evolved, hunger is one of your most pressing concerns, so having a strong supply of cooked meat to tide you over is a must if you want to survive the early game. That’s why we’re here to help you out.

Check out all the ARK Survival Ascended new features to see what’s new in this remake of the original ARK Survival Evolved. And if you’re wondering when you can play the game on consoles, our ARK Survival Ascended Xbox release date has all the answers. With that, let’s take a look at how to cook meat in ARK Survival Ascended.

How to get meat in ARK Survival Ascended

Before you can cook meat, you’re first going to have to find your ingredients, whether that’s meat or fish. This is fairly simple, as meat can be found by harvesting any animal you kill. Simply kill creature, whether that’s a dinosaur or other creatures like Dodos, and then hit the corpse to harvest some meat from it. Once you’ve got all the meat you’re looking to cook, we can move on to actually cooking it.

How to cook meat in ARK Survival Ascended

Before you can cook meat, you first need a means of cooking it. The first way you’ll unlock and the easiest way to do it is on a campfire. If you haven’t got a campfire yet, check out our how to light campfire in ARK Survival Ascended guide for a quick run-through on the resources needed and how to build one.

Once you’ve got your campfire built and lit, press E on it to open up the campfire inventory. In here, you’ll see your inventory on the left, and the campfire’s inventory on the right. Simply drag and drop your raw meat into the campfire to immediately start cooking through all the meat you deposited.

Each piece of meat takes 20 seconds to cook, at which point it will turn into ‘Cooked Meat’ or ‘Cooked Fish Meat’ and appear in a new slot in the campfire’s inventory. Simply take it out and put it back into your inventory, and you can either eat it directly from here, or attach it to your action bar to eat it using a hotkey. Just make sure you’re using fresh meat, as spoiled meat will do more harm than good.

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Alex’s Advice

You can eat raw meat if you’re in a pinch, but it will cause you to lose some health. If you’re desperate, this is a great last resort, but eating berries instead is a better idea.

Later on in your playthrough, you’ll unlock new means of cooking meat as you gain better technology and items. Things such as a cooking pot or industrial cookers increase your cooking ability, letting you try out new recipes. But for the early game, your best bet is a good old fashioned campfire.

You’ll also start picking up better meat, resulting it more filling food. Cooked Prime Meat, Prime Meat Jerky, or even Prime Fish Meat are all great options once you start getting your hands on them.

That’s all you need to know to cook meat in ARK Survival Ascended. Have a look at the ARK Survival Ascended maps release schedule to see what’s in store for the game’s future. And if you’re wanting to know more about ARK Survival Ascended crossplay, we’ve got you covered.

ARK Survival Ascended how to cook meat FAQs

How do you get meat in ARK Survival Ascended?

You can get meat by killing creatures and harvesting the meat from their bodies.

Can you eat raw meat in ARK Survival Ascended?

You can eat raw meat, and while it will improve your hunger, you will take some damage from eating it.