Cheesy Utilities
Survival in ARK: Survival Ascended is a constant battle against time, resources, and the environment. Every tool you craft has a durability bar that ticks down with each swing, each raft you build feels sluggish, and placing structures often requires a degree in geometry. The Cheesy Utilities mod is a comprehensive quality-of-life overhaul that bundles three classic mods into one powerful package, aiming to remove these frustrations and let you focus on the adventure. This guide explores everything this mod brings to your island, from reusable tools to game-changing building options.
What is Cheesy Utilities?
This mod is the ultimate merger of the original "Cheesy" mod series, combining Cheesy Rafts, Cheesy Tools, and Cheesy Structures into a single, unified download. While the original three mods remain available, the developer has stated they will not receive updates as frequently as this combined version. By consolidating the content, Cheesy Utilities for ARK: Survival Ascended ensures you get all the best features with better performance and fewer mod slots used. All new engrams require the vanilla engram as a prerequisite and cost 0 points to learn, making the transition seamless for both new and veteran survivors.
Master the Seas with Cheesy Rafts
Transportation on the water is no longer a tedious chore. The mod introduces two upgraded vessels that drastically improve your naval experience.
Cheesy Wooden Raft
This isn't your standard wooden platform. The Cheesy Wooden Raft is significantly faster than its vanilla counterpart and allows for a much higher structure limit. This means you can build a true mobile base without worrying about the "too many structures" warning. A key quality-of-life feature is the ability to reverse, which the vanilla raft lacks, and a default camera distance increase for a better field of view while piloting.
Cheesy Motorboat
If you need raw speed, the Cheesy Motorboat is your answer. It is faster and more fuel-efficient than the standard motorboat. Like the raft, it can reverse and offers an increased camera distance, ensuring you can navigate tight river bends and open oceans with equal precision. This makes exploring the map and transporting resources across the sea a much more enjoyable experience.
Forget Durability with Cheesy Tools
One of the biggest annoyances in ARK is having your tools break at the worst possible moment. The Cheesy Tools component of this mod addresses this by introducing a collection of reusable weapons, tools, and armor that have reduced or no durability loss. Here is a breakdown of the key items:
- Bola: May be used multiple times, saving you from crafting stacks of them.
- Boomerang: No durability loss and no chance of breaking.
- Climbing Pick: No durability loss, making vertical exploration safer.
- Flare Gun: May be used multiple times for signaling.
- Gas Mask: Does not lose durability over time, perfect for swamp expeditions.
- Glider: Armor will not lose durability while gliding.
- Glow Stick: May be used multiple times, eliminating the need for replacements.
- Grappling Hook: May be used multiple times, a huge boon for traversal.
- Parachute: May be used multiple times, ensuring safe landings.
- Scissors: No durability loss.
- Shovel: No durability loss.
- SCUBA Tank: No longer loses durability over time.
- Spear: Will not break and can be thrown multiple times.
- Torch: No durability loss.
- Whip: No durability loss.
This suite of tools effectively removes the "grind" of constantly repairing or re-crafting essential gear, allowing you to spend more time taming and building.
Build Beyond Limits with Cheesy Structures
The structural additions are where Cheesy Utilities truly shines, offering creative solutions for base building. These features allow for more dynamic and efficient base layouts.
Snappy Water Intakes
Forget the hassle of placing water intakes on the ocean floor. This mod adds stone and metal intakes that can be placed anywhere, even on rafts. They snap to foundations and ceilings, making it incredibly easy to set up water systems in any location, whether on land or at sea.
Strong Greenhouses
Greenhouses are essential for farming, but their fragility is a known weakness. The Cheesy Structures mod adds a set of greenhouse structures that resist damage like stone, ensuring your crops are protected from raids and wandering dinos. A secret door has also been added to the greenhouse wall variants for a hidden entrance.
Foundation Ceilings and Stackable Foundations
This is a game-changer for base design. The mod adds ceilings that act as foundations, allowing you to extend your platforms beyond their normal range. Similarly, stackable foundations can be placed on top of each other or snap to the side of existing foundations. This allows for overhanging bases, multi-tiered platforms, and unique architectural styles that are impossible with vanilla mechanics. The "Garage" and "Barn Door" variants of these ceilings snap to anywhere a wall would snap to, offering even more flexibility.
Expanded Crafting Stations
To complement your new tools and structures, the mod also introduces expanded versions of essential crafting stations. These upgraded stations feature larger inventory slots, reducing the need for multiple storage containers. The list includes:
- Campfire, Cooking Pot, and Feeding Trough
- Refining Forge and Smithy
- Fabricator (Vanilla and Medium variants)
- Large Crop Plot and Generator
- Industrial Grill (cooks jerky) and Chemistry Bench (Vanilla and Medium)
- Industrial Cooker (Vanilla and Medium)
- Industrial Forge (Vanilla, Large, Medium, and Small variants)
The Smithy also features a unique conversion ability, allowing you to convert Cheesy Structures to Vanilla and vice versa, as well as converting most items to blueprints. For those looking to streamline their mod experience, the foxygame.net launcher offers a one-click install for Cheesy Utilities, ensuring you get the correct version compatible with your game build without manual file management. This is particularly useful for dedicated server admins who need to ensure all clients have the same mod version.
Compatibility and Installation
Cheesy Utilities for ARK: Survival Ascended is designed to work with the latest versions of the game. It is always recommended to check the mod page for the most recent updates to ensure compatibility with your server and client. To download Cheesy Utilities, simply visit the Steam Workshop page for the mod and subscribe to it. The mod will automatically download and install through the game launcher. For players using the foxygame.net launcher, the add-on catalog simplifies the process further; you can browse for Cheesy Utilities and install it directly, with the launcher handling version compatibility checks automatically to prevent crashes. Knowing how to install is straightforward: subscribe on Steam, or use the launcher's mod manager, and then enable it in your server's mod list before starting the game.
Known Issues and Future Plans
As with any mod, there are a few known issues to be aware of. Removing this mod will remove any of its placed structures from your world, so ensure you are committed before uninstalling. Additionally, the Cheesy Smithy converting features are not currently working on dedicated servers, though the developer has stated this will be fixed in a future update. The mod's roadmap includes INI configs for inventory sizes and additional structures, promising even more customization in the future.
Final Thoughts
Cheesy Utilities is an essential mod for any player looking to enhance their quality of life in ARK: Survival Ascended. It eliminates the tedium of durability management, revolutionizes water travel, and provides unprecedented freedom in base building. Whether you are a solo survivor or running a large tribe, the combination of reusable tools and flexible structures will save you time and resources, allowing you to focus on the true spirit of the game: survival and adventure.