Spoilage
Many items in-game spoil over time, that is decay while in an inventory or container. Spoil times can vary based on where the item is located. The map Scorched Earth has a global spoilage multiplier of 0.9.
Modifying Inventories/Containers
Each item that spoils has a base spoil time, which is the amount of time it takes for one of the items to decay while in the player's inventory. However, certain containers apply a multiplier to this value, making them last longer.
Location | Spoil Multiplier | Scorched Earth1 |
---|---|---|
Player's Inventory | 1× | 0.9× |
Hyaenodon Meatpack | 2× | 1.8× |
Tamed Dinos | 4× | 3.6× |
Feeding Trough | 4× | 3.6× |
Preserving Bin | 10× | 9× |
Smokehouse | 15× | 13.5× |
Beer Barrel | 50× | 45× |
Refrigerator | 100× | 90× |
Tek Trough | 100× | 90× |
Crop Plot2 | 200× | 180× |
Compost Bin | 200× | 180× |
1 Scorched Earth experiences a global 0.9× spoiler multiplier.
2 Only applies to Produce while Fertilised. 1x if not.
Preserving Salt
In the DLC: Scorched Earth, Preserving Salt was introduced. When placed into any inventory or container, Preserving Salt will double the spoil timers of all perishables in that container.
Spoiling Times
Keep in mind that full stacks of the same good (20, 30 or 100) will take proportionally longer to spoil. For example, stacking up to 100 makes berry stacks last way longer than the per unit spoil time indicates.
Note: One stack of 20 raw meat in a feeding trough takes 13.33 hours to spoil. Bear this in mind when raising juvenile or adolescent dinosaurs.
Foods
Item | Player Inventory | Tamed Dino or Feeding Trough |
Preserving Bin | Refrigerator | Crop Plot | Bee Hive |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Berries | 10m | 40m | 1h 40m | 16h 40m | 1d 9h 20m | --- |
Crops | 5m | 20m | 50m | 8h 20m | 16h 40m | --- |
Berry and Crop Seeds | 15m | 1h | 2h 30m | 1d 1h | 2d 2h | --- |
Raw Meat1 | 10m | 40m | 1h 40m | 16h 40m | --- | --- |
Cooked Meat | 20m | 1h 20m | 3h 20m | 1d 9h 20m | --- | --- |
Raw Fish Meat | 20m | 1h 20m | 3h 20m | 1d 9h 20m | --- | --- |
Cooked Fish Meat | 30m | 2h | 5h | 2d 2h | --- | --- |
Raw Prime Meat | 4m 40s | 18m 40s | 46m 40s | 7h 46m 40s | --- | --- |
Cooked Prime Meat | 46m | 3h 4m | 7h 40m | 3d 4h 40m | --- | --- |
Raw Mutton | 10m | 40m | 1h 40m | 16h 40m | --- | --- |
Cooked Lamb Chop | 1h 7m 30s | 4h 30m | 11h 15m | 4d 16h 30m | --- | --- |
Cooked Meat Jerky or Prime Meat Jerky |
2d | 8d | 20d | 200d | --- | --- |
Spoiled Meat | 1h | 4h | 10h | 4d 4h | --- | --- |
Dishes2 | 5h | 20h | 2d 2h | 20d 20h | --- | --- |
Custom Consumable | 2d | 8d | 20d | 200d | --- | --- |
Sweet Vegetable Cake | 1h 20m | 5h 20m | 13h 20m | 5d 13h 20m | --- | --- |
Eggs | 8d | 32d | 80d | 800d | --- | --- |
Kibble | 3d | 12d | 30d | 300d | --- | --- |
Giant Bee Honey | 20m | 1h 20m | 3h 20m | 1d 9h 20m | --- | 15d 6h 40m |
1 All forms of Meat spoil and become Spoiled Meat. All others spoil and vanish.
2 This includes Battle Tartare, Broth of Enlightenment, Calien Soup, Enduro Stew, Focal Chili, Fria Curry, Lazarus Chowder, Mindwipe Tonic and Shadow Steak Saute
Medical
Item | Player Inventory | Tamed Dino or Feeding Trough |
Preserving Bin | Refrigerator |
---|---|---|---|---|
Blood Pack | 30m | 2h | 5h | 2d 2h |
Medical Brew | 2h | 8h | 20h | 8d 8h |
Energy Brew | 2h | 8h | 20h | 8d 8h |
Utility
Item | Player Inventory | Tamed Dino or Feeding Trough |
Preserving Bin | Refrigerator |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bug Repellant | 5h | 20h | 2d 2h | 20d 20h |
Bio Toxin | 45m | 3h | 6h 40m | 2d 18h 40m |
Item | Everywhere | Achatina |
---|---|---|
Organic Polymer | 30m | 1h 30m |
Lesser Antidote | 3h 20m | --- |
Feces have different spoiling times.
Item | Player Inventory or Tamed Dino |
Dung Beetle | Crop Plot or Compost Bin |
---|---|---|---|
Human Feces | 41m 40s | 2d 21h 26m 40s | 5d 18h 53m 20s |
Small Animal Feces | 50m | 3d 11h 20m | 6d 22h 40m |
Medium Animal Feces | 1h 23m 20s | 5d 18h 53m 20s | 11d 13h 46m 40s |
Large Animal Feces | 2h 46m 40s | 11d 13h 46m 40s | 23d 3h 33m 20s |
Massive Animal Feces | 2h 46m 40s | 11d 13h 46m 40s | 23d 3h 33m 20s |
Scorched Earth
Item | Player Inventory | Tamed Dino or Feeding Trough |
Preserving Bin | Refrigerator | Vessel |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cactus Sap | 10m | 40m | 1h 40m | 16h 40m | --- |
Preserving Salt | 20m | 20m | 20m3 | ---4 | 694d 10h 40m |
Cactus Broth | 1h 30m | 6h | 15h | 6d 6h | --- |
Wyvern Milk | 27m | 1h 48m | 4h 30m | ---5 | --- |
3 Preserving Salt isn't affected by Spoilage Time Multipliers.
4 Preserving Salt cannot be stored in a Refrigerator.
5 Wyvern Milk can not be stored in a Refrigerator.
Aberration
Item | Player Inventory | Tamed Dino or Feeding Trough |
Preserving Bin | Refrigerator |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mushrooms | 10m | 40m | 1h 40m | 16h 40m |
Mushroom Brew | 5h | 20h | 2d 2h | 20d 20h |
Nameless Venom | 30m | 2h | 5h | ---6 |
6 Nameless Venom can not be stored in a Refrigerator.
Extinction
Item | Player Inventory |
---|---|
Crafted Element Dust | 0.05s |
Corrupted Nodule | 30m |
Unstable Element | 2m |
Unstable Element Shard | 30s |
Genesis: Part 1
Item | Player Inventory | Tamed Dino or Feeding Trough |
Preserving Bin | Refrigerator |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ambergris | 20m | 1h 20m | 3h 20m | 1d 9h 20m |
Notes
- Making custom consumables will save on spoilage for each ingredient due to their long timer, especially when refrigerated.
- Before 280.130 the multiplier for the map Scorched Earth was 0.3
- Spoil timers can be adjusted by adding the following line to Game.ini -
GlobalSpoilingTimeMultiplier=
Changelog
Patch | ARK: Survival Evolved Changes |
---|---|
171.0 | Increased the length of time for dead player bodies/inventories to decompose, to 20 minutes |
171.7 | Crops will now take an extremely long time to spoil if they are watered and fertilized correctly. |
173.0 | Spoiling timer exploits fixed. |
184.0 | 40second cooldown on bloodpack usage, 30 minute spoiling time time (in a fridge it's 100x of course) |
189.0 | Custom servers INI can now scale globally the spoiling times of perishables, as well as scale the global decomposition time of items and bodies on the ground, respectively |
223.2 | Organic Polymer now spoils after 30 minutes |
242.3 | Leech Blood now spoils after 3 hours (Stackable in Quantities of 50), can be stored in Fridge. |
248.5 | Implemented a fix for Spoiling times. |
251.2 | Made Spoil Timers retain their realtime values thru CrossARK transfers |
252.7 | Veggie Cakes now take 4x as long to spoil |
252.82 | Veggie Cakes now have 50% spoiling lifetime |
253.5 | Fixed calculation errors with Spoiling Time. |
253.995 | Fixed issue with Spoiling times. |
254.7 | Element no longer spoils, and bosses drop approximately 33% more Element. |
254.944 | Added server ?ClampItemSpoilingTimes=true which will clamp all spoiling times to the items' maximum spoiling times. Useful if any infinite-spoiling exploits were used on the server and you wish to clean them up. Could potentially cause issues with Mods that alter spoiling time, hence it is an option.
|
255.4 | Fixed several spoiling time exploits |
256.3 | Updated the UI to include a way to differentiate regular eggs from fertilized eggs, as well as show a health bar and spoiling bar. |
256.34 | Fixed Spoil Bars appearing on recipe blueprints |
258.44 | Fertilized Microraptor Eggs will not decompose on the ground anymore |
259.0 | Fixed issue where feeding trough was not updating spoilage timers. |
261.0 | Fixed Frozen Canteens from 'spoiling' into empty containers instead of regular Filled Canteens. |
264.3 | Dead tame bodies and player bodies and dropped item caches now save (with their decomposition timers & corpse locators intact) |
312.65 |
|
326.13 | Seeds now have a spoil timer (included a one time destruction of them in dedicated storage boxes) |
353.1 | Fixed decompose timer on fertilized Carcha eggs |