Understanding what do trikes eat ark is essential for anyone looking to master the ecosystems of the ARK: Survival Evolved landscape. The Rock Elemental, often affectionately called a trike, is a deceptively simple creature that forms the bedrock of many advanced farming and breeding operations. While they are one of the first creatures tamed by new players, optimizing their diet is crucial for maximizing the rare resources they provide, such as Stone and Crystal.
The Core Diet of the Rock Elemental
The foundation of a healthy trike revolves around its primary food source. Unlike other herbivores that graze on simple foliage, the rock elemental has a specific preference for minerals and raw resources. To sustain a standard trike, you will need to provide a steady stream of raw materials directly from your inventory.
These creatures consume vast quantities of resources compared to other herbivores, making them one of the most resource-intensive animals on the island. If you fail to meet their constant hunger, they will begin to take damage, making regular feeding a non-negotiable priority for any rancher.
Acceptable Food Sources
Raw Meat
Cooked Meat
Vegetables
Berries
While the trike’s signature diet is stone, it is flexible enough to consume standard herbivore fare in a pinch. If you are unable to mine resources immediately, feeding it vegetables or berries will satiate its hunger temporarily, preventing starvation and health loss. However, these are not sustainable long-term solutions for resource generation.
Advanced Breeding Mechanics
For players focused on breeding, the food requirements shift significantly from simple survival to genetic optimization. When attempting to breed rock elementals, you must move beyond basic sustenance and utilize specific items that trigger the mating process.
The official breeding diet for the rock elemental relies on two key resources: Eggplants and Sweet Vegetable Cake. Without these specific foods, the probability of a successful mating event drops to nearly zero. This makes cultivating small plots of eggplant or berry bushes a critical step for anyone looking to scale their trike production.
Required Items for Breeding
It is important to note that regular grass or thatch does not work for breeding these creatures. Many players new to the game waste time collecting thatch only to find their trikes unresponsive. Focusing on agricultural efforts for eggplants is the most efficient path to a large trike stable.
The Resource Generation Engine
The true value of the trike lies in its passive ability to convert consumed resources into high-tier materials. Once tamed and assigned a habitat, the rock elemental acts as a mobile refinery, turning raw stone and crystal into more refined versions of themselves.
This process is automatic once the creature is fed. As the trike digests the stone in its inventory, it will slowly output Stone and occasionally Crystal Fragments. This makes them indispensable for players who need a steady, albeit slow, supply of crafting materials without sitting at an obsidian node.
Harvesting the Products
To collect the output, you simply interact with the trike and select the "Harvest" option. The Stone and Crystal produced are deposited directly into your inventory or the creature's inventory if you have configured it that way. Managing this inventory space is vital; if the trike's inventory fills up, it will stop consuming resources and subsequently stop producing output.
