6 Quick Steps to Make a Campfire in ARK: Survival Evolved

Understand how campfires work in ARK: Survival with this user-friendly guide

Written by Rain Kengly

Last Updated: May 22, 2025 Fact Checked

Are you having trouble building and lighting campfires in ARK: Survival Evolved? Whether you play on PC, console, or mobile, you can make a campfire in a few simple steps. You'll just need to build a campfire, gather fuel, and interact with it properly. This wikiHow will show you how to make and light a campfire in ARK: Survival Evolved using your PC, Xbox, PlayStation 4, iPhone, or Android.

Things You Should Know

Build a campfire with 12 Thatch, 1 Flint, 16 Stone, and 2 Wood. Place it on the ground.
Gather Thatch, Wood, Sparkpowder, or AnglerGel as fuel. Select "Access Inventory" on top of campfire.
Select your fuel of choice, and then select "Light Fire".

Steps

Download Article

1
Launch ARK: Survival Evolved. This game is available to download on PC via Steam, Linux, macOS, and mobile.^{[1]
X
Research source}
- You can also play ARK on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
2
Build a campfire. This should be one of the first things you do as a new player. In order to build a campfire, you'll need to unlock the ability using three points in the Engram screen. Once this is unlocked, follow the steps below to craft a campfire.^{[2]
X
Research source}4
- Collect the materials:^{[3]
  X
  Research source}
  - 12x Thatch – chop down trees with a hatch, pickaxe, or bare hands
  - 1x Flint – mine rocks with a pickaxe
  - 16x Stone – mine rocks with a pickaxe or gather from the beach
  - 2x Wood – chop down trees with a hatch, pickaxe, or bare hands
- Navigate to the Craftables tab.
- Select Engram: Campfire.
- Select Craft Item.
- In your inventory, select the campfire and place it on the ground.
Advertisement
3
Gather fuel. The campfire requires fuel to ignite. Different types of fuel will have different burn times. Gather any of the following materials:^{[4]
X
Research source}
- Thatch (7.5 seconds) – chop down trees with a pickaxe
- Wood (30 seconds) – chop down trees with a hatch
- Sparkpowder (1 minute) – crafted with 2 Flint and 1 Stone at a mortar and pestle
- AnglerGel (4 minutes) – kill an Angler, Deathworm, or another Corrupted Creature
A new window will open. There will be a left panel, middle panel, and right panel. On the right panel, you'll see three empty slots for the campfire fuel.^{[5]
X
Research source}
Select the materials in the left panel to add it to the right panel. You can use as many as you'd like. This fuel will eventually turn into charcoal, which you can collect later.
6
Select Light Fire. This is the button in the middle panel. After selecting it, your campfire will ignite.^{[6]
X
Research source}
- To extinguish the fire, stand next to the fire and press the designated button or key for Put Out Fire.
- With the campfire built, you're almost ready to start taming creatures.