Alpha Rockwell in ARK: Survival Ascended: A Complete On-Foot Strategy

What kind of fight this is

Most ARK boss guides tell you to bring a tame army. Alpha Rockwell is different: Raconin's approach is to fight on foot, relying on weapons, consumables and constant movement. The boss appears on Aberration, and the official wiki lists the Alpha tier as the hardest of three (Gamma, Beta, Alpha) with a recommended player level of 100.

A note on framing, because the video title and the footage differ. The video is titled as a two-player strategy, and Raconin explains the plan for two players. In the footage he attempts the fight alone and comes very close to finishing it solo. He says that with a little more time he probably would have. Read this guide as a two-player plan whose solo version is also demonstrated.

The shape of the fight

Understanding the loop makes everything else click. According to the wiki, Rockwell is stationary and immune while his tentacles are up, so the fight is a cycle:

• Destroy the tentacles. Raconin takes them out one by one, until a single tentacle is left.
• Drop the last one to expose the heart. When the final tentacle falls, Rockwell collapses and the heart is exposed. This is your damage window.
• Burst the heart with the shotgun. The window length varies: some are generous, some are short.
• Rockwell submerges, bubbles appear. The wiki calls the homing projectiles orbs; Raconin calls them bubbles. Light pink orbs seek tamed creatures, dark pink orbs home in on humans, and they can be shot down.
• Repeat. Later stages add the Nameless in a constant stream (from stage 2) and Elemental Reaper Kings (from stage 3).

The wiki also notes that if you do not deal enough damage in a window, Rockwell and his tentacles reset, but your banked health progress is kept. That is useful to know when a window feels wasted: it was not wasted.

Loadout and consumables

This is the exact kit from the video. The reasons are given so you can swap pieces to match what you own.

The ammo numbers are what make this a planning exercise rather than a skill check. Thousand-plus shotgun shells is a significant crafting job, so start early, and stash spare ammo with a tame or in a storage box near the arena entrance.

Step by step

1. Drink Cactus Broth just before you are teleported into the arena. Keep it up for the entire fight.
2. On arrival, activate Focal Chili and Battle Tartare. Refresh both whenever they run out. When Battle Tartare expires, heal back to full health with a Medical Brew before you drink another, since it drains a little health over time.
3. Run counter-clockwise around the arena. You do not stop moving for the whole encounter.
4. Destroy the tentacles one at a time until only one remains.
5. Run down the ramp and destroy the last tentacle. Rockwell collapses and the heart is exposed.
6. Switch to the shotgun and burn the heart. Deal as much damage as possible before he submerges.
7. When bubbles spawn, switch to the assault rifle immediately and clear them as fast as you can.
8. Go back to the tentacles. Raconin notes that the faster you kill multiple tentacles, the sooner Rockwell stops spawning additional bubbles.
9. Watch the ground tentacles. When they start creating electrical effects, stay away. Destroy them from a safe distance before running past.
10. Repeat the cycle while keeping buffs up and healing when needed, until the health bar is gone.

How to split the job with a second player

Raconin presents this as a two-player strategy, and the cycle splits naturally. These are our suggestions, built from his cycle and the wiki's description of the fight, not something shown in the video.

• One player is on tentacles, the other on bubbles. The rifle player clears bubbles so the shotgun player never has to swap weapons mid-run.
• Both burst the heart. During the damage window, both players switch to shotguns. That is where most of your damage lands.
• Agree on a lap direction. Both players run counter-clockwise so you never block each other in a narrow part of the arena.
• Keep a spare armor swap in each inventory. A broken piece mid-cycle is a bigger problem when your partner is also busy.

What changes in later stages

From the wiki: stage 2 increases orb frequency, brings in the Nameless and adds an area shock attack from the tentacles; stage 3, which follows the second downing, makes orbs more frequent, lengthens the shock attacks and adds Elemental Reaper Kings. The practical effect is that the clean, quiet first stage is the exception. Do not judge your preparation by how the opening lap feels.

The wiki gives the Alpha boss a base health of 115,000, which together with the 1,000 to 1,200 shells Raconin recommends gives you a feel for how long the damage windows add up to.

Common mistakes

• Dropping Cactus Broth. Re-drink it before it expires, not after. It is easy to forget during a long run.
• Standing still to heal. Heal while moving where you can. Stopping is what gets you hit.
• Fighting bubbles with the shotgun. The rifle is built for that job, and constant weapon swapping is slower than committing to the rifle until the bubbles are gone.
• Running too close to electrical ground tentacles. Raconin's rule: destroy them from range before moving past.
• Running out of ammo. If you are low, leave a stash close to the arena entrance before you start.
• Not testing your Battle Tartare timing. It costs you health over time, so mistiming a refresh can leave you low when a wave arrives.

Before you queue up: a checklist

1. Level 100 or above for the Alpha tier, according to the wiki.
2. The Alpha tribute: the wiki lists Artifact of the Depths, Artifact of the Shadows and Artifact of the Stalker (one each), 8 Basilisk Scales, 20 Nameless Venom, 7 Reaper Pheromone Glands, 7 Rock Drake Feathers, plus an Alpha Basilisk Fang, Alpha Karkinos Claw and Alpha Reaper King Barb. Confirm the list in-game; it can change between patches.
3. Shotgun and rifle, repaired, with the ammo counts above.
4. Three or four armor sets in your inventory, Medical Brews, Energy Brews.
5. Cactus Broth, Battle Tartare and Focal Chili in your hotbar, in a fixed order so you do not fumble.
6. Your valuables stashed. The wiki advises stashing items before the Ascension that follows the kill, so you do not have to carry everything through it.

What you get

The wiki lists, for the Alpha tier, 264 Element, a Rockwell Flag, the Alpha Rockwell Trophy and three Chibis, plus cosmetic skins. The XP for the kill is listed as 12,000. If you are working your way through the bosses, this is also a good time to read how Raconin beats the Ice Titan on Extinction. That fight is a tame-based one, which makes a useful contrast with this on-foot fight.

Frequently asked questions