Fish Baskets for Island
Survivors on The Island have long envied the Aberration survivors and their clever fish-catching devices. The Fish Basket, a staple of underwater trapping in the sunless zone, has finally made its way to the surface world. With the Fish Baskets for Island mod, you can now learn this engram natively on The Island, without needing to travel to a different map or rely on server transfers. This guide covers everything you need to know about this quality-of-life add-on, including its crafting changes, installation process, and how it fits into your existing ARK: Survival Ascended setup.
What Does Fish Baskets for Island Add?
This mod does exactly what its name suggests: it adds the Fish Basket from Aberration as a learnable engram on The Island. In the base game, this structure is exclusive to the Aberration DLC, which means Island players had no way to passively catch fish for chum, bait, or simply for a steady food source. The mod bridges that gap by making the engram available in your Island tech tree.
Key Crafting Change: Regular Wood Instead of Fungal Wood
The most significant alteration is the resource cost. In Aberration, the Fish Basket requires Fungal Wood, a resource that does not naturally spawn on The Island. The mod cleverly replaces this with regular Wood, ensuring you can craft the basket from day one using standard gathering methods. This is a thoughtful design choice that respects the original blueprint while adapting it to the map's resource pool. You will not need to hunt for rare mushrooms or aberrant trees; just chop down a normal tree and you are ready to build.
Why You Need This Mod for Your Island Base
Passive taming and fishing are core mechanics in ARK, but they are often underutilized on The Island due to the lack of specialized structures. The Fish Basket allows you to set up a passive fish trap in shallow waters, which is perfect for:
- Collecting fish for taming aquatic creatures like the Ichthyosaurus or Baryonyx.
- Generating a steady supply of raw fish meat for cooking or feeding carnivores.
- Creating chum to lure in larger marine life for hunting.
- Building an automated fish farm near your coastal base without constant manual spearfishing.
The basket is also a great early-game tool. Since it only requires Wood, you can craft it within the first few minutes of spawning. This makes it an invaluable addition for fresh starts, especially on PvP servers where passive resource gathering is safer than swimming in open water.
Compatibility and Supported Versions
The mod is designed for Fish Baskets for Island for ARK: Survival Ascended and is fully compatible with the current stable builds of the game. It does not conflict with major overhaul mods, as it only adds a single engram and a crafting recipe. Whether you are running a vanilla server or a heavily modded cluster, this add-on will slot in without issues. It is also compatible with crossplay sessions, so both PC and console players can benefit from the new engram.
As with any mod, always check the mod page for updates when a new ARK: Survival Ascended patch drops. The mod author is diligent about maintaining version parity, ensuring that your saved data remains intact across updates.
How to Install Fish Baskets for Island
Installing this mod is a straightforward process, whether you are playing single-player or on a dedicated server. If you are using the foxygame.net launcher, you will find that managing your mods is incredibly streamlined. The launcher features a dedicated add-on catalog where you can search for Fish Baskets for Island by name, and it handles the download and installation automatically. This is particularly useful if you are running a cluster, as the launcher ensures all your servers have the same mod version, eliminating any risk of mismatched content.
For those not using a third-party launcher, the standard Steam Workshop method works just as well. Here is a quick step-by-step on how to install the mod:
- Navigate to the Steam Workshop page for Fish Baskets for Island.
- Click the Subscribe button to add it to your collection.
- Launch ARK: Survival Ascended and open the Mods menu from the main screen.
- Ensure the mod is enabled in your active mod list.
- If you are hosting a server, add the mod ID to your server's mod list and restart the server.
Once the mod is active, you will see the Fish Basket engram in your crafting menu under the Structures tab. You can learn it with a single engram point, and it will appear in your inventory crafting list alongside other wooden structures.
Server Administration Tips
If you are an admin, you may want to adjust the engram points cost or the crafting recipe using ini settings. The mod respects standard ini overrides, so you can tweak the resource requirements to your liking. For example, you could increase the Wood cost to balance it against other early-game traps, or reduce it for a more casual experience. The mod's flexibility makes it a favorite among server owners who want to customize the survival experience.
Final Thoughts on the Fish Basket Mod
The Fish Baskets for Island mod is a small but impactful addition to ARK: Survival Ascended. It fills a genuine gameplay gap, saving you the hassle of traveling to Aberration just to craft a simple trap. The decision to swap Fungal Wood for regular Wood is a masterstroke, making the basket accessible from the very beginning of your Island adventure. Whether you are a solo survivor looking to automate your food supply or a tribe leader setting up a coastal fishery, this mod is a must-have.
Remember to check for updates regularly, and if you are using the foxygame.net launcher, you will appreciate the auto-update feature that keeps Fish Baskets for Island in sync with the latest game version without any manual intervention. This ensures your server remains stable and your players can always access the mod without errors.
In conclusion, this is one of those rare mods that improves the game without changing its core identity. It respects the source material while adapting it intelligently to a new environment. If you play on The Island, do not hesitate to download Fish Baskets for Island and start building your underwater harvest network today.