Cool Chemistry
ARK: Survival Ascended is a game of patience, grinding, and sometimes outright frustration. Waiting for a baby dino to mature, dealing with a cryosickness cooldown, or praying for a decent mutation can eat up hours of your life. The Cool Chemistry mod was built to change that. This add-on introduces a massive collection of potions and specialized arrows that let you skip the tedious parts of breeding, healing, and taming management, putting the fun back into your survival sandbox. Whether you are a solo player or running a busy server, this mod offers a suite of quality-of-life tools that feel like cheating, but are entirely sanctioned by the game's modding framework.
What Does Cool Chemistry Add to Your Game?
At its core, Cool Chemistry for ARK: Survival Ascended is a utility mod focused on convenience. It does not add new creatures or structures; instead, it focuses on consumables and ammunition. The mod is perfect for players who want to streamline their breeding lines or recover from a raid without spending days on recovery. The mod's creator has compiled a list of potions that cover almost every major annoyance in the game, from a simple healing tonic to a potion that guarantees a mutation on your next breeding attempt.
The Complete Potion List
The star of the show is the potion collection. Each one is crafted to solve a specific problem, and they all work instantly upon consumption. Here is a breakdown of the most useful concoctions included in the mod:
- CC Repair Potion: Repairs every item in your inventory, saving you thousands of resources on armor and weapon maintenance.
- CC Cryosickness Remove Potion: Instantly prevents cryosickness for one hour, allowing you to throw out your dinos without the usual cooldown.
- CC Gender Potion: Changes a dino's gender instantly, perfect for fixing breeding pairs that are all male or all female.
- CC Growth Potion: Sets a dino's age and imprint to 100%, skipping the entire baby and juvenile phase.
- CC Healing Potion: Restores a creature's health to 100% immediately.
- CC Hunger Potion: Starves dinos, which is useful for knocking out creatures that need to be low on food to tame efficiently.
- CC Instant Gestation & Mating Potions: Finish pregnancy or mating timers instantly, accelerating your breeding projects significantly.
- CC Kill Potion: A quick and clean way to dispose of unwanted dinos without risking your weapons.
- CC Mating Cooldown Remover: Resets the breeding timer so you can breed the same pair back-to-back.
- CC Mutation Potion: Guarantees a single mutation on the next baby and disables the mating cooldown for 30 minutes, making mutation stacking far less painful.
- CC Speed Potion: Doubles your movement speed for five minutes.
- CC Stuffed Potion: Fills both food and water meters to max.
- CC Tropidity Potion & WakeUp Potion: These manage the "tropidity" mechanic, setting it to 100% or removing it entirely.
- CC Weight Potion: Doubles your carry weight for 45 minutes, ideal for resource runs.
- CC XP Potion: Grants maximum XP levels instantly, helping you unlock engrams faster.
- CC Mindwipe Potion: Resets stats and engrams for both players and dinos, allowing for respecs without the base game's limitations.
Arrows: Ranged Chemistry
In addition to the potions, Cool Chemistry adds a selection of arrows that apply the same effects from a distance. You can craft Gender Arrows, Growth Arrows, Healing Arrows, Hunger Arrows, and Kill Arrows in both standard and Metal Arrow variants. This is incredibly useful for server admins or players who want to apply effects to wild dinos without having to get close. For example, you can shoot a Growth Arrow at a wild baby to instantly mature it, or use a Kill Arrow to cull a high-level predator that is bothering your base.
Compatibility and Installation
This mod is designed for the latest versions of ARK: Survival Ascended. It is a client-side and server-side mod, meaning it needs to be installed on both your server and your local game client to function correctly. The mod is lightweight and does not conflict with most other popular mods, though it is always best to check your mod load order. If you are looking to download Cool Chemistry, you will find it on the official mod repository. To get started, the process is straightforward: subscribe to the mod, add it to your server's mod list, and restart. For a hassle-free experience, many players use the foxygame.net launcher to manage their mods; it simplifies the process of keeping Cool Chemistry up to date with the latest game patches and ensures version compatibility without manual file editing. The launcher's add-on catalog lets you browse and install the mod with a single click, and it automatically handles updates so you never have to worry about a broken save due to a mismatch.
How to Install Cool Chemistry
If you are new to modding, here is a quick guide on how to install the mod manually. First, navigate to the Steam Workshop page for Cool Chemistry for ARK: Survival Ascended and click the subscribe button. Steam will automatically download the mod files to your ARK directory. Next, launch the game and go to the mods menu to ensure it is enabled. If you are running a dedicated server, you will need to add the mod ID to your server's GameUserSettings.ini file under the [ModInstaller] section. Once the server restarts, the mod will be active for all players. Remember to check that all players have the mod installed to avoid connection issues.
While the mod is incredibly powerful, it is worth noting that the original creator has stated that this project, along with their other mods, is discontinued due to storage constraints. The developer cited the massive size of the devkit and hardware limitations as the reason for stopping updates. However, the mod remains fully functional for the current version of the game. There are currently no known bugs listed for the mod, so you can use it with confidence. The mod's utility is undeniable; it turns hours of waiting into seconds of action, making it an essential addition for anyone serious about breeding or just wanting a more relaxed survival experience. Whether you use the potions directly or snipe dinos with the arrows, Cool Chemistry delivers a powerful punch of convenience to your ARK island. It is a testament to the creativity of the modding community and a must-have for your mod list.