If you’ve ever spent 20 minutes waiting for enough narcotics to craft to tame your first Carnotaurus, you’ve probably wondered if there’s a cap on how many low-tier crafting stations you can build. I’ve been playing ARK across official and private servers for 7 years, and I fell for this exact myth during my first playthrough on a small friend-run server. If you’re asking “can i only have 2 mortar and pestle ark”, you’re not alone, and we’re breaking down exactly how this limit works, where the myth comes from, and how to get the fastest resource processing speed no matter what server you play on.
Why You Might Think You Can Only Have 2 Mortar and Pestle in ARK
The 2 Mortar and Pestle limit is not a base game rule on official servers, so where did the myth come from? It almost always traces back to custom server settings that most new players don’t realize are not universal. A lot of smaller private servers put low caps on basic crafting structures to cut down on server lag, since new players often spam 20+ Mortar and Pestles all over their base when they first start out.
Another common source of the myth is accidental tribe limit settings. When you first create a tribe, you can set per-player structure limits for every item in the game, and many new tribe leaders accidentally set the Mortar and Pestle cap to 2 without realizing it. I did this once for my first PvP tribe, and we went 3 weeks thinking it was a game limit before we checked our tribe settings.
Official ARK servers have no default limit on the number of Mortar and Pestles you can place, for any tribe size or play mode. You can build 1 or 100 if you want, as long as you have the resources and space for them in your base. The only time you’ll face a 2 unit cap is if you’re on a private server with custom rules, or you’ve accidentally set a limit in your tribe settings.
Benefits of Using More Than 2 Mortar and Pestle
Even if you’re playing solo, 2 Mortar and Pestles are almost never enough once you move past the early stone age phase of the game. You’ll need to craft huge volumes of gunpowder, cementing paste, sparkpowder, and narcotics for taming, base building, and PvP fights, and splitting these tasks across multiple stations cuts your wait time drastically.
Some of the biggest perks of running more than 2 Mortar and Pestles include:
- Cut resource processing time by 50% or more when you run 4+ Mortar and Pestles at the same time
- Assign specific crafting tasks to each unit to avoid mix-ups (one for narcotics, one for gunpowder, one for cementing paste)
- Reduce downtime during high-stakes taming runs, when you need to make hundreds of narcotics in a 10-minute window to keep a high-level tame unconscious
- Cut down on lag compared to spamming dozens of campfires, since Mortar and Pestles use very little server processing power even when running nonstop
For mid-game tribes of 3-4 players, 6 to 8 Mortar and Pestles is the sweet spot for balanced processing speed without wasting valuable base floor space. If you’re playing solo, 3 to 4 units are more than enough to keep up with your crafting demands until you unlock higher-tier processing stations later in the game. I run 4 on my solo PvE save, and I never wait more than 10 minutes for a full batch of gunpowder or cementing paste.
What to Do If Your Server Enforces a 2 Mortar and Pestle Limit
If you are playing on a private server that does have a strict 2 Mortar and Pestle ARK limit per player, don’t panic. There are plenty of easy workarounds that will let you process just as many resources as you would with a dozen units, without breaking server rules.
The first and most effective workaround is to rush the Chemistry Bench unlock as soon as you hit level 82. This mid-to-late game crafting station uses gasoline to process resources, and it’s exponentially faster than the basic Mortar and Pestle. A single Chemistry Bench processes resources 6x faster than a single Mortar and Pestle, so it’s worth the 100 cementing paste and 250 metal ingot cost to build one as soon as you can. You can replace 6 Mortar and Pestles with one Chemistry Bench, and it takes up less space too.
You can also use tamed dinos to process many of the resources you’d normally make in a Mortar and Pestle, no crafting station required. Castoroides (giant beavers) can craft cementing paste 50% faster when you put chitin and stone in their inventory, and Achatina snails produce cementing paste passively over time with no effort from you. Thorny Dragons can craft organic polymer in their inventory from keratin and chitin, so you don’t need a Mortar and Pestle for that resource at all. I used this trick on a roleplay server with a 2 Mortar limit, and I never ran out of cementing paste for my metal base builds.
If you’re in a tribe, you can also coordinate with your teammates to place your allowed 2 units each in a shared crafting area. A 4-person tribe can have 8 total Mortar and Pestles this way, which is more than enough for most mid-game crafting needs. Just make sure everyone has access to the shared area, and assign specific tasks to each unit to avoid mix-ups.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Multiple Mortar and Pestles
Running more than 2 Mortar and Pestles is a great way to speed up crafting, but there are a few common mistakes that can make the setup more hassle than it’s worth. The first mistake I see new players make is placing all their Mortar and Pestles in a tight row with no labels. I did this once before a PvP raid, and I accidentally turned 500 gunpowder into sparkpowder when I opened the wrong unit, which cost us the raid entirely.
Another mistake is not setting up dedicated storage bins right next to each Mortar and Pestle. If you have one unit assigned to make narcotics, keep a bin of spoiled meat and narcoberries directly next to it so you don’t have to run across your base every time you need to restock. Dedicated storage next to each Mortar and Pestle can cut your crafting time by another 30% just by eliminating travel time across your base.
A lot of players also spam way more Mortar and Pestles than they actually need. If you’re a solo player, you don’t need 15 units, that’s just a waste of stone and hide that you could use for other base builds. You also don’t need to keep a dozen units running once you unlock the Chemistry Bench, since it’s far more efficient. You only need to keep 1 or 2 Mortar and Pestles after you unlock the Chemistry Bench, for small, quick crafting jobs when you don’t want to waste gasoline on a small batch of resources.
The last mistake is placing your Mortar and Pestles in an exposed part of your base if you’re on a PvP server. They’re easy to destroy with even basic weapons, and if an enemy raids you and destroys all your crafting stations, you’ll be stuck starting from scratch. Keep them in a reinforced stone or metal room with your other crafting stations, and add a few turrets nearby to protect them.
At the end of the day, the answer to whether can i only have 2 mortar and pestle ark depends entirely on what server you’re playing on. Official servers have no limit, so you can place as many as you need to keep up with your crafting demands. If you’re on a private server with limits, there are plenty of workarounds from dino processors to higher tier crafting benches that make the 2 limit barely noticeable. Test out different setups to see what works for your playstyle, and don’t be afraid to add another Mortar and Pestle if you’re tired of waiting for resources to craft.