Grug’s Exhaustive Guide to Ark.
Section 2 - Before your first play session.
Section 4 - Waking up naked on a beach.
Section 5b - Building a safer base
Section 6 - Earning experience and Character progression.
Section 7 - Threats to be aware of; Do’s and Don’ts.
Section 9 - Good first tames to get and where/how to get them.
Section 10 - Being of Utility.
Section 13 - Locating Friends.
Section 1 - Introduction.
[Note: This document is being/has been amended to recognize differences between Ark: Survival Evolved (referred to as ASE hereafter) and Ark: Survival Ascended (Referred to as ASA hereafter) or to generalize more broadly between them, wherein I feel either is called for. It’s also worth noting that I may leave some Official ASE references in as they are given that ASE official servers still exist on Nintendo Switch.]
My experience is largely with Official PvP on PC, through Steam, playing ASE (about 7,000 hours) and some ASA now (about 400 hours). I have a few hundred hours of PvE experience on Nintendo Switch and a few dozen hours spent on single player in order to hunt for possible base locations and to test build ideas or mechanics. As such the PvE or single player may not get nearly as much out of this. Though much of it they might also find adaptable to their situation and there is some general advice as well that they may find useful.
This may also not be so much for the very experienced player. As they may likely already know most of this. Rather this is geared towards the new player, who is playing on PC, through Steam, and on PvP. In-so-much an attempt is being made to put information in order of relevance (What one needs to know in the order of when they are likely to come upon first needing to know it). But I’ve also made it into sections given that one might encounter needing to know about a subject in an order I have not anticipated. So this way the player can read a section title and hopefully jump around to what is relevant to them and their experience.
This is also not meant to be some sort of absolute prescription for how to play. Meaning that there are other ways to go about things. Other ways in which to prioritize things. Which may have their own benefits or even be superior. For instance in ASE there is an argument to be made for leveling fortitude over movement speed. Or even melee damage. I prefer prioritizing movement speed in ASE. But that could just be due to my attitude towards conflict. Which could be best described as ‘Better to retreat and reassess; Than to remain and regret.’ Yet in ASA I have prioritized health and weight as movement speed outside of buffs and debuffs is static.
Finally this is a living document. Whenever I write something I think is particularly useful (usually on reddit, facebook or in a youtube comment section). I copy and save it to a wordpad document. I make alterations to it over time. Then I add it to this document, trying to fit it in where it seems to go best. So you may notice some fairly large leaps in subject matter. Because while the ultimate goal is a guide someone could follow from their first few minutes into the end game, the process of getting this guide to that point is going to be a fair bit messier than the intended final result. You may find incomplete sections, notes, aside thoughts and inconsistencies in formatting throughout and for a long time to come. So if you’ve been linked to this, keep checking back periodically. It should improve over time.
Section 2 - Before your first play session.
It’s good to get off on the right foot. But that may be hard to do when first faced with all there is to consider with actually getting into the game. The first choice you’ll be immediately presented with is getting onto a map.
I’d highly suggest downloading all Free DLC (Non-Story/Non-Cannon) maps. At the time of this writing these include (on most platforms):
For ASE;
- Ragnarok (Rag)
- The Center (Cen)
- Valguero (Valg)
- Crystal Isles (CI)
- Lost Island (LI)
- Fjordur.
For ASA;
- The Center.
Having these maps keeps your options wide open and each of them have things to offer that are pretty much exclusive to them or that they are best for. But more on that later, to be brought up as it is relevant.
Once you have the base game and at least all Free and Officially supported DLC Maps that you care to or have storage for installed you’ll need to make a choice about game mode. Majorly, there are two options. Which are playing by yourself or with others. If one is stretched for time (defined here as only able and willing to play perhaps 1-3 hours per day or less). The single player experience will probably best match your needs. However if one has nothing but time and is perfectly willing to throw themselves into the game. Then I would highly recommend at least trying a multiplayer experience. Having others around helps with learning the game. Also while single player offers a lot in the way of control over one’s play experience. It’s harder to know how to exercise that control without having a prior frame of reference (i.e. The official vanilla experience informs you as to what you would actually want to change from the default when given the opportunity to do so).
Assuming you’ve decided to try PvP Official on for size (as stated in the introduction this guide is primarily geared towards helping those in that mode of play) the best advice I can give is to manage your expectations. It does no good ultimately to try and PvE on a PvP server. If you expect that:
- You should be able to build up un-harassed and are entitled to protections from it.
- Violence should be an option available only when diplomacy fails.
- People should try to co-exist and help each other even in a competitive environment.
...These are unreasonable expectations for PvP Official (though it’s really nice where you can get it and does exist in some places even on PvP Official). This is a survival game. Not a thrival game. You are constantly fighting against intelligent entropy. The goal here is to do well under pressure. If there is any kind of thriving; It’s thriving on adversity.
A very select few live that unraidable life. That’s in all likelihood not going to be you. Understand that you may well die on spawn the first few times. You will see your thatch shack and all your first tames utterly destroyed by an apparently malicious and mysterious actor. You are going to have a hard time getting going on things and achieving the smallest of goals. Everyone is your enemy until proven otherwise and even then… Watch them and always expect them to do the shittiest thing at the worst moment. Your goal should be to get without getting gotten as much as possible. Because often the fastest way to advance your position on PvP official is to take what you need from others. Being able to trade for what you need is nice. Finding a place you can breathe a little and play a bit more relaxed is great. But such servers are few and far in between.
You might think intuitively that it’s good to start on a server with a lot of players. But this is incorrect. More players means more opportunity for someone who isn’t equipped to and doesn’t know how to fight (you) to get into a fight. You need room to breathe. You need a minute to find a spot to build and put down some kind of roots. Low ping, Low population. That’s what is actually ideal for starting out.But holding that in consideration. There is such a thing as taking that to an unuseful extreme. For instance trying to find your footing in single player will teach you next to nothing about doing so in PvP.
When you first join a server you will be presented with the option to create a character. On PvP the ideal character is a short and petite female with massive hands. Being smaller has a lot of advantages and female characters can be made smaller than male characters. For one thing you’re harder to actually hit accurately with ranged weapons at a distance. There are more nooks and crannies you can fit into for hiding (even going prone in a bush to cause pursuers to pass by you works better when tiny). You’re harder to actually see when mounted on some saddles as their model can actually even fully envelope a small enough character..
As for the large hands. The hands have hit boxes that takes the least damage when attacked. The head takes the most. So if you have a ranged weapon held up to aim it. Large hands that fully block line of sight on your character’s head, effectively add armor to your highest area of vulnerability. And when moving around otherwise large hands move with the arms. Meaning the hands are constantly covering some percentage of the character model from most angles.
I’m not saying that you should only make petite small female characters with huge hands. You may not like it (but that is what peak performance looks like). It’s just something to know and keep in mind when making a character.
And just like small characters have a lot of advantages. Large characters have a lot of disadvantages. With a large character you may find it difficult to fit through some openings. There will even be places you want to crouch into that you can’t. You’re a lot more visible and can’t hide nearly as easily. However you would have a reach advantage with melee. One could in theory make a very tall, skinny, and long limbed character with all points into melee damage and hang out around the common spawns or obelisks, punching people out to take their stuff. That’s a viable strategy. However it’s very niche and it gets old fast.
In any case, a toothpick limbed, otherwise pear shaped character, with a meme chad head, while both possible and hilarious is the first player to get popped. Of course it’s fine if all your doing with it is checking out a server. Which you should make a habit of doing…
Because while you can potentially have one unique character on every server in the game. Currently it is impossible to have two characters that are attached to the same account, on the same server, at the same time. Creating or importing one deletes the other. Something else to know is that your upload (Called Ark Data which is accessed through drops, obelisks and the like) is shared between characters, account wide.
These two facts can be used to your advantage. You can make ridiculous throw away characters to check servers out. Most servers have an Alpha Tribe. Which is a dominant tribe on a server who has the best base locations locked down and who polices that server as they see fit. Often they will place a lot of build objects as spam all over. Sometimes they will block off ways to transfer out of a server. They may even be in the habit of capturing characters and imprisoning them indefinitely (which is something the game has a full suite of support items and mechanics for).
They do all this mostly to protect themselves. Because they have more time, effort and resources invested into the game then you likely ever will. They have a lot to lose should someone successfully come onto their server and raid them. So they tend to be very diligent and you coming onto their server to live (especially without permission from them) looks the same as a known and capable enemy coming on their server to scout it for a raid with a newly made character. Remember what was said about everyone being an enemy until proven otherwise? They apply this to you, when you come onto their server.
If it’s an official server. Technically they don’t own it. They don’t have Dev level access and capability. It’s theirs in effect, by right of might. They are the strongest and best established and actual dev level moderation in this game is rare to see first hand. So even though they don’t technically own it. It is still theirs. And you remain (if you do) only by their grace.
The thing here is it’s easy to log onto a server for the first time and find that you are both incapable of getting anything accomplished on said server and also incapable of easily transferring out of said server. This is why it’s a good idea to make throwaway characters for feeling out a server/map that you’ve not visited before. As a bonus anything you find for yourself and manage to upload can be retrieved (within 24 hours before it auto deletes) with another character on another server that is attached to the same account.
You can even use this to complete trades that you’ve set up. Creating a throw away character to go to someone’s server and do the actual trade with instead of taking your main character with all its points, engrams, and kit into an unfamiliar situation. This is in general a safer way to explore the Arks and you should take full advantage of it from the outset.
Section 3 - What is a Bob?
Originally the default character name was “Bob” (it is now “Human” or some translation fo that in other languages). At the time it was used to mean someone who knows so little about the game that they didn’t even know they could choose a name. Someone who probably doesn’t even realize that their character remains on the map asleep when they log out. Someone who may not even know how to find the server they were previously playing on (my survivors filter in the server selection list on ASE) and probably thinks every instance of play is a one off.
However these days the term “Bob” has taken on additional meaning. Sometimes it’s used to refer to someone who Builds on beach. Because this is an incredibly newbish thing to do (it’s a good way to get one’s base wiped quickly).
Though often they will seemingly redundantly refer to such a player as a “Beach Bob”. But when saying that it’s in the context of the Bob in question being one of a multitude. No different and not meriting any more consideration than any other one of their ilk. An NPC of a player. May as well be a Dodo or some other common creature spawn for all the regard they are worth. Except that a Dodo has more value as it gives Hide and Meat in harvesting it as opposed to just meat, Bob junk that requires dropping, and potentially swamp fever (though it should be noted that tamed dodos can contract swamp fever).
If any of the above in this section is new information to you...Then you are a Bob. Even if it isn’t completely new information to you. Bob is often used to refer to players who have no real lasting impact or expected long term presence. They’ve no significant alliances or affiliations. They have a near complete inability to get revenge for losses they’ve suffered (impotent rage is the norm). They know what they are basically doing on a rudimentary mechanical level perhaps. But not the hundreds of little tips and tricks that they would be greatly benefited to know. They will build up something. See it all wiped and flee to what they see as greener pastures or quit.
None of this is to come down on this type of player in a malicious way on my part. Most players are some kind of Bob. Even some players who seem to have it made; That are riding around on a powerful tame in good kit. They often don’t know how to actually use any of it effectively and were just lucky enough to be scraped off a beach by a benevolent Alpha (pet Bobs exist and they often don’t know that they are pets). There’s also the solo bob. Someone who has perhaps been in an alpha or mega tribe and knows a lot about the game. But chooses the struggle.
It’s just good for the newly or uninitiated to know the full breadth of what this terminology means because it will be used frequently from here-on-in. It’s also a point of humility to know when one is a Bob and to really get the difference. As it keeps a person from delusions of grandeur that more often than not end in disappointment.
Section 4 - Waking up naked on a beach.
When you first log onto a server and after you’ve either created a character or downloaded one, you should wait perhaps 10-15 minutes before spawning. There are game settings and tools that show the residents of a server when someone logs on. If they are very aggressive they may do as much as to hop on a fast and powerful mount and check all the spawn areas. If you spawn in immediately. You may be attacked shortly after. So it’s good to give any aggressive players time to look for you and give up before selecting a spawn area and actually loading your character onto the map. Especially if you’ve brought kit and tames with you. This also gives you a breather to refill a beverage, use the restroom etc.
If you have brought a tame with you in a cryopod. You want to wait a good 20 seconds after spawning before taking it out of cryo. As there is currently a longstanding bug that can cause a tame to be cryosicked (knocked out and able to receive 10x damage while not being able to be re-cryo’d until awake) if you take it out within about 20 seconds of spawning.
Also, note that on ASA PvP Official that it is currently required that a player be within range of a powered cryofridge in order to deploy from a cryopod. If you have access to Aberration, you can seek to obtain charge batteries. This will mean you don’t have to carry a generator and foundation as well. As a charge battery can be placed inside the cryofridge in order to power it, then removed to be kept for later uses.
Assuming that you are spawning naked. Don't walk as soon as you spawn. Look around 360° identifying potential threats. Then move accordingly and cautiously. Try to find the closest (relatively safe for the moment) area to you that has a source of Wood, Thatch, Fiber, Flint and Stone. As well as plenty of small non-aggressive creatures like Dodo, Phiomia, Maschops, Parasaur (in ASA passive creatures only remain so as long as you don’t attack their young) etc. As you will need these for hide and meat.
Your first priority should be to pick Stimberries. Put them on your last Hotbar Slot. While stimberries massively dehydrate you they will also keep you from running out of stamina. You can eat them while running full speed and they won't only keep your stamina from falling but increase it while doing so if you eat enough of them.
With the ability to run infinitely you can always get to a source of water. Even in places where the source might not always be obvious. For instance on Aberration (AB for short) there are Aquatic Mushrooms that can be picked from brown mushroom patches (also worth noting that Auric Mushrooms from those same patches can substitute stimberries). On Scorched Earth (SE for short) Cactus Sap, which can be obtained from a variety of chopable plants, can serve the same purpose as Aquatic Mushrooms.
Stimberries also counter torpor damage. So they are great for recovering from getting bit by Troodons (which are far more aggressive at night), stung by Pulmascorpions, or even accidentally eating Narcoberries.
You want them on the last slot in specific (as opposed to just any hotbar slot) is because of Pegomastax. They are encountered a lot. Especially in the early game. They are thieves and will always steal what you have on your last Hotbar Slot as a first resort. If that last hot bar slot is empty they will steal from inventory, preferring consumables first. When (because it’s not a question of if) your stimberries do get stolen they are easy to get more of on the fly. This is the reason why one should use Stimberries as opposed to Stimulant if you were wondering.
The only good reason to not have stimberries on your last Hotbar Slot is if you are currently passive taming something. But you should still have them somewhere on your bar even when passive taming. Even when swimming across water or passive taming a water tame, stim berries are good to have. Because you can pre-consume a bunch of them before going into the water so you don’t run out of stamina for a lot longer. And since you’re already in the water you won’t get dehydrated (while you remain in the water when still under the effects).
You should have a stack of at least 50 Stimberries on bar and another 50 in inventory to quickly replace them if need be. Pegomastax often work in pairs or trios. So once one steals from you another usually isn't far behind. They’re like this because it’s part of their passive taming mechanic. You should always have stimberries. You will never feel the need to put points into stamina or food if you get into the habit of abusing stimberries.
Once you are sorted on Stimberries for the moment, make 6-9 Sleeping Bags (this will require learning the engram in order to craft and the rest of this section will discuss other starting engrams you should seek to learn). You can stack sleeping bags on the same spot or spread them out in ASE. However on ASA sleeping bags (and beds) cannot be stacked. Sleeping bags unlike beds are 1 time use before they auto destroy. Which is why you want stacks of them. However unlike beds they don't require a foundation to place them. They also only show to the player that placed them when looking at beds to fast travel to (i.e. if you have Tribemates, Sleeping Bags you place will not show to them in the fast travel/spawn menu).
You want your Sleeping Bags spread out a bit. The idea is to give yourself an option to not spawn right next to where you died but nearby enough to have a chance at retrieving your kit and inventory. This may require you luring aggressive creatures away from where they killed you last and away from your bags. The important thing with retrieving your loot is to not just make a run for it fresh off spawn. You have 30 minutes until it despawns so think about what you need to do in order to be successful or you'll just end up leaving a pile of bodies and bags.
I wouldn't worry about learning house building engrams right away. Plenty of Green and White Loot Drops will give you the materials to build a Thatch or Wood Shacks (often even with Wooden Beds or Sleeping Bags).
As soon as possible you'll want to learn the engram for Bola and Parachute. A successful Bola will root (prevent from moving though not from attacking) players and the following creatures:
They are best used in third person view mode. They root wild creatures for 30 seconds (players for 25). You don't have to aim at the legs. You only need to actually hit something with it anywhere on its body. They don't work on Alpha variants. Which are identifiable by full body red misting and being red/white in color as well as larger than normal. You need to strafe as you throw it with most aggressive creatures. Because while they can't run when bola'd they can still use leap forward attacks if you are close enough and in front of them. So you will want to not only clear the line (side step as you throw it to get out of harm's way). But also attack from the side or rear, depending on the attack range of the creature.
Once you can make parachutes (chutes for short) you will want to choose paths that allow you to bail out with them when something comes at you (stay on high ground as much as is practical). Chutes can allow you to get away from a Rex, pack of Allos, or something of a similar nature (things you can’t bola). They can allow you to sail over a whole mess of death at a section of river you want to cross and let you cover a lot of ground in relative safety. Almost as if you had a very slow flyer.
Another engram to consider is the whip. While the whip originally was made for the SE(a paid DLC map). The engram is available to learn on Rag and Valg (free DLC maps) on ASE . As is the primary material for crafting it (silk). Whips can stop most things that a bola won't. If you crack a wild aggressive creature in the face with a whip, the creature will become stunned (for 3 seconds) allowing you to make an escape or at least get close enough to a prey item that it may go for them instead. Whips also can be cracked at players on flyers to force their flyer to land and dismount the player from it. The player won’t be able to re-mount for about 15 seconds. Whips can be used to get a tame to backup or reposition without following commands. Which is really useful when your tames trap you in a doorway or corner in an attempt to follow you.
One final engram I find to be vital is a Spyglass. As with most engrams explicitly mentioned here these are ones you might not immediately consider learning without first knowing their value. Of course there is a roster of all the engrams everyone should know. Such as metal tools. But most of these will make sense as a course of natural progression.
Other than what I've covered regarding engrams you should have, a good general personal rule is to not spend Engram points on anything unless you have an immediate need for it. It might even be a good idea to try and find a Blueprint for something before learning an engram. Because some blueprints are so common on all maps that learning the Engram is nearly pointless unless it is a prerequisite for a higher level Engram that you need. You will not obtain enough engram points to get all of the Engrams on a single character. There are a lot of unnecessary engrams people tend to pick up in the early game that plague their ability to get things they really need later on. For instance wall torches or fireplaces (but standing torches can actually be useful for early-on breeding and campfires are essential).
As for skill points... Really there is only one thing you absolutely need to put your skill points into starting out on ASE. Movement Speed. At about 180% movement speed you can outrun most wild creatures. On ASA as Movement Speed is a fixed value (aside from buffs/debuffs). Points into Health (to take the hits you couldn’t avoid by being faster) will have to suffice.
You could also put some points into fortitude (for resistance to the elements and taking torpor damage). But that's not incredibly useful under 20 Fortitude and it doesn’t level much per point spent. A little more carry weight is good as well. But it's better to make several trips at full speed than one trip over-encumbered. You may want to adopt a 2:1 policy (2 levels into Movement Speed/Health for every 1 level into something else).
But speed by far is the most important as it will save you more than anything else in the early game. Luckily on ASA, while base speed is not modifiable with points, it is higher than it was in ASE. In general, this early on, you shouldn’t worry about points too much. You will have the opportunity at some point to reset your assigned skill points and Engrams. It’s not a one off like it is in a lot of other games either. The full details of it you will likely learn when it becomes relevant to your play. For now it’s good enough to know that these choices are not necessarily (and not in all likelihood) permanent. So don’t be afraid to play with stats a little and don’t agonize over whether or not you actually need an engram too much. When you know enough and get good enough at ARK. You’ll be able to make and level characters to vanilla cap (105) in a single day when motivated to do so.
Section 5a - Building primer
There are plenty of areas that look buildable but simply are not. Often that has more to do with terrain obstructing it or being too high above ground, or no actual ground to place something that needs grounding. So you might have to fiddle a bit with exact positioning.
But also you cannot place your own structures within a certain distance of enemy structures. So if there is even one foundation piece hidden nearby (you might not necessarily be able to see it). That will keep you from placing your own object until the enemy foundation is removed.
Another thing could be that you're simply trying to build wrong. Like just trying to place a wall on the ground without first placing down a foundation piece for it to snap to.
Usually text at the top of your screen will tell you what is wrong with what you are trying to do building wise. If not or you can't figure it out. Try doing it somewhere nearby to figure out if it's what you're trying to do placement wise or if it's the area you're trying to do it in.
It’s also a really good idea to build from the ground up. As build pieces that are already positioned above where one wants to place another piece can sometimes prevent that piece from being placed. It can also leave unsightly gaps. For example: While it might make intuitive sense to place a ceiling before placing a doorway and door. The game mechanics would prefer that the doorway and door go in before the ceiling. In some advanced building techniques (like making a level build area off of a slope). You may find it necessary to break this rule. But there’s a difference between going against a guideline because you weren’t applying any guidance to begin with and knowingly suspending a rule wherein what you need to do falls outside the bounds that rule was meant to govern.
Something to be very aware of with building is decay timers. These vary between grade of material and even specific pieces and circumstances. A lot of build items say what their decay timer is. But there are some rules that might not be obvious. Firstly, if something is placed on a build structure and that build structure is destroyed out from under it. This will also destroy the thing placed on top of it. Secondly, a build structure that is not snapped to another build structure will decay in 12 hours of not being rendered.
So if you do something like place a single foundation and on it you place a forge, smithy, mortar & pestle, and a bed. But you are unable to play for most of the next day. When you log on. It could all be gone from auto-decay. But if all you did differently was to snap any other build piece to that foundation (say a triangle foundation as it’s cheaper than a lot of other build pieces and won’t get in the way). That’s enough to give that foundation and everything on it the full decay timer of the material used.
So basically if it’s on the ground by itself or on a single build structure that’s not snapped to anything else. The time it takes to auto-decay is a lot shorter than most are actually prepared for. It’s almost always worth not having the thing (like campfire or preserving bin) not directly on the ground even though some objects can be placed there. And it’s always a good idea to snap-on that securement build piece if you can.
Section 5b - Building a safer base
The beach is just about the worst place a player can gather resources and build. Sure there is water. But water is portable in this game and collectable from more than just standing sources. In the desert there are jug bugs and most other places there is rain frequently enough. One can even build reservoirs to collect rainwater. And yes the beach has abundant access to food. But it’s not of very high quality. Perhaps you just like that ocean view? Well the problem with that is everything else does too.
It’s easier to move downhill, So every above-ground terrestrial creature that lives long enough finds it’s way to the beach sooner or later. This includes major threats to you, such as higher tiered predators and even alpha creatures (they constantly mist red, are a bit larger than normal, have much higher damage and health than normal, and cannot be tamed under normal circumstances). Dangerous things that spawn at higher elevation (higher tier creatures) don’t tend to stay there.
Because of this you’ll run into a lot more issues with living on the beach than you may have thought you would. But also creatures are easy to trick for the most part. You can kite/lure aggressive creatures onto passive creatures that you normally couldn’t kill yourself. Then steal the resources (or at least a share of them) out from under the nose of the predator after they kill it. Because often times a predator is carcass focused after they kill something. You can also get them to run off cliffs, get stuck on rocks, or do damage to themselves on spike walls, campfires, or lava. You can even lure them into the water and leave render range. This will cause them to go into stasis (where they don’t move because they are not being rendered) and mostly drown. Come back with enough time to spare and you can deliver the final hit to finish off even a Giganotosaurus that you’ve stasis drowned, for the experience and resources.
But I digress (you may have noticed that I do that a lot). These dangers aside, you are also very visually exposed on the beach. Raiders often comb beaches for Bob shacks. And no, they don’t generally care that you’re new or have to work a lot or anything like that. A sign saying as much or a plea in global won’t dissuade anyone. It may actually encourage them to do more to you. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily toxic (well some of them are); Just at a bare minimum that they’re actually playing the game mode and the can both detach themselves from their actions and be provoked. You can easily be them to someone else, on another day, with more experience and better resources. Building on the beach makes it easy by many means for the worst to happen very quickly.
The best place to build for resource concerns isn’t one that gives you immediate access to a resource. Especially since a foundation blocks resource respawn for 5 foundation lengths. The best spot for resource concerns is one that places you an equal distance from most resources that you need. Of course you’ll also want to balance this with security. Getting to stone grade structures quickly is important. Thatch and wood are mostly only good for placeholder pieces in a build until you can change them to stone.
Although it should be noted that while any player with metal tools and many creatures can damage wood; And while stone structures pretty much require explosives or higher tier tames to damage; That Wood structures do have higher resistance to explosives than stone. This combined with it being hard for many creatures that can damage wood to reach very high up. Or for a player that can only damage wood to get up high. It’s not a bad idea to put a wood roof on a stone structure. Or even better, to ward off those that like to raid by going through a ceiling tile (these structure pieces usually have the least durability so it takes less explosives), wooden spike walls on a stone roof tend to slow them down a bit.
This won’t keep you from being raided completely (nothing really will). But it will gate keep who can raid you. Through design you can also change how you are raided. If the ceiling is too much effort, they’ll likely go through the door. If they go through the door and no containers inside are locked or the containers are renamed to their pin codes, they aren’t as likely to destroy those as well. If they’ve already blown your door in, locked containers won’t stop them. So you may as well leave them unlocked on the chance that they won’t blow them if they’re easy to access and pick through (you might get left with some resources instead of everything being taken).
Through clever design you can turn what could have been a complete base wipe into a low impact B&E (Breaking and Entering). Where they kicked in your door, took a few things they actually wanted out of all the stuff you had, then left. It inconveniences you, but doesn’t prevent you from repairing the damage, improving defenses, and continuing to progress. But a lot of people just don’t care about being conservative with their raiding and will foundation blow the whole thing to save time. Especially if they feel they have been on the server too long not to be noticed by whomever might oppose them. Or even if they are from that server and have been given instructions to wipe all bobs. I’d say this helps about 30%-40% of the time if I had to guess. But it’s better than foundation wiping maybe 70%-80% of the time otherwise.
Getting onto high ground also gate keeps who can raid you. Suppose you build the same kind of structure proposed above. But you build it up off the ground on a ledge with no from-ground-access like natural terrain ramps up. Now you’ve barred not only those without explosives or higher tier structure damage tames from raiding you. But also those without flyers or a way to get up otherwise from doing so easily.
If on top of that you build in a spot where line of sight on your base is blocked from most angles by terrain (the sky being most important to consider here). Then you have fewer angles to actually have to defend and may go longer without being discovered to begin with.
At which point you’ve limited who can even find you to raid you. Which would either be down to dumb luck on the raider’s part, just happening across your base while doing other things. Or someone so advanced as a raider that nothing you’ve done thus far would stop them anyway.
I’d recommend not building only one, but building multiple spots. The more spread out what you have is, the less likely it will all be taken from you at once. Maybe don’t keep your parasaur at base. Maybe keep it in a pen away from base, designed primarily to protect it from wild creatures while you’re not there. Might be a good idea to take it further away from its pen before harvesting as well so you don’t clear the area around its pen of foliage that gives the pen some measure of cover..
It’s also a good idea not to clear cut resources around your main base. As again, you want the tree and rock cover. Though it should be mentioned that many raiders play with .ini files mods that remove foliage and some even play with paid for cheats that allow them to see any structures, tames or players within render distance of them. There is even a cheat that informs them when someone builds on a server and where. But again these are subscription services on a per server basis. So it requires someone who has the money to spare and the willingness to set it up and use it. Which is simply not most players. Especially not for casual raiding purposes.
At the very least you can expect someone who is semi-serious about PvP and raiding to play with draw settings that make it so that minable rock or choppable tree is not hiding your base from them.
This is why by far, the best base location for security concerns is one that will not normally be within anyone’s render range. It means that techniques like flying a parasaur around on detect mode with a wyvern or using cheats like ESP are rendered useless if the people using them never get close enough to render your base to begin with. Not being easily discoverable will keep your base intact a lot longer than spending all of your time worrying about defenses.
Turrets are really the last thing to concern yourself with if you’re a solo bob or in a tribe of say less than 10 players. Without 24 hour online presence there is no hope of a tribe not getting raided eventually. No amount of automated defenses will make up for at least one player in your tribe being online when a raiding party comes.There is room in this game for Alphas and Megas at the top of the stack. There is room for clever bobs at the bottom of the pile. What the meta will not tolerate are middling sized tribes. For them it is grow or perish. And far too many of them waste their time on defenses that mean little to the people who will actually be raiding them. And nothing to them if no one is online to defend. Because even a single online defender can call for allies, rescue some portion of vital loot if need be, or get the attention of others in the tribe so they can log on and help defend (wherein they are able to. Real life comes first always).
Staying hidden is a little tribe or solo player’s best bet for going the longest without getting raided. Part of staying hidden isn’t just making many little spots built for purpose across the map. It’s not just making the whole map sort of your base. It’s also staying sharp and evasive. Flying at the ceiling so as not to be seen as easily. Taking different routes to and from your spots (so you aren’t wearing down the chances that no one will see you taking that same old tired direct route). It’s not running for base as soon as you are discovered. But instead getting as far away from base as possible and not returning until you are certain you are not being followed.
Restart caches (best to keep in a buriable tame like a Purlovia, Basilisk or Reaper) and spreading out your resources will make it so when you do get raided, that raiders don’t find perhaps 70%-90% of what you actually have.
But doing all this building is going to require resources. And let’s face it, you’re not going to have every tame you need when you need it. So give some consideration in the early game to assigning points to your melee damage and weight. You can carry more with more weight (obviously). But higher melee damage will have you gathering more resources as well. Combine this with good tools you might find and you may not even feel the need to get that ank or theri any time soon. And a melee bob can even be a threat to a high level player if they aren’t careful enough.
Many maps also have more resources than might be immediately obvious. Two of the best maps for getting a lot of specific resources quickly on ASE are Rag and Valg. On either of these, sandy beach areas have carcasses that “wash up”. It’s an interesting aesthetic. But the reality is that these are great resource nodes. All such carcesses are great sources of hide and spoiled meat. But any particular carcass type has a material it gives the most of besides that. On Valguero Itchy and carbo carcasses can be found (again on the sandy beach areas only). The Itchy carcasses give a lot of organic polymer. Carbo Carcasses give a lot of keratin. On Ragnarok in the Highlands, along the beaches you’ll find Basilo carcasses. Like the ones on Valguero these give a lot of spoiled meat and hide. But they also give a good amount of oil.
Besides this both these maps also have bones and tusks laying about. Some are just cosmetic elements to the map. But most are harvestable for salt and keratin. If you have Genesis (A paid DLC 2 map package) you can purchase things like blue gems (good for things like glider suits and metal cliff platforms), ammonite bile (a substitute for leach blood), and even crypods from the HLNA shop. You don’t even have to do missions or fix glitches (though it helps). If you hang around long enough HLNA will want you to “Say Hello!” When you do so she gives you 300 hex. This can be a lot easier than having to go to Aberration or mess around in a swamp.
Though not all maps that have great resources are great for building on. Ragnarok is well known as the map that bobs think it will be great to build on but that high level players go to almost exclusively to raid bobs. Aberration, while it has a lot of cool little spots to build a base and does not permit flyers or some of the more powerful tames like gigas, It’s often tightly policed by alphas. To the point where one pretty much needs explicit permission from the alphas to be there at all. Some maps that are not the best on resources tend to be great for building at all levels of play. The Center has some fairly strong Alpha tribe spots. And it’s often called the land of a 1000 rat holes. Because there are so many places where one can build small bases and go undiscovered for weeks to months. Even after the devs went on crusade against unintentional rat holes back when ASE was the only major version of the game. There were still a lot of places on the map where one can hide a well designed compact base. And since ASA A lot more new ratholes have been created.
Section 6 - Earning experience and Character progression.
There are basically two official map types (bare with me this is going somewhere relevant. I’m just repeating what was said in section 2). Those being story and non-story maps. For ASE story maps are buy-to-play DLC and include The Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, and Genesis 1-2. Non-Story maps are free-to-play DLC and include The Center, Ragnarok, Crystal Isles, Valguero, Lost Island, and Fjordur. On ASA even the story maps are thus far technically free but have additional paid content to unlock (and not all of either are released yet). The principle difference between these map types isn’t if they were purchased or not. It’s that Story maps were originally made by the developers and as such are canon. Whereas non-story maps are community mod maps that became so popular that the devs incorporated them as officially supported maps.
Why this matters to you for your experience and progression is that only story maps have Explorer Notes and Dossiers (although Fjordur has “Runes” which are functionally nearly identical in effect). These are snippets of information left behind by characters in the game’s lore. They are often somewhat inaccurate so I wouldn’t rely on them to inform you of anything (other than say the mere existence of a creature you’ve yet to encounter). Sometimes they can be found as small metal footlockers. Other times they might be present in the world as amphoras or even small Tek containers (it depends on which one of Ark’s story characters left the Note/Dossier). They are often found among small ruins, but can also be found sitting somewhere stand alone and somewhat out of place.
When your character walks across a note or dossier (which I’ll note here are always in the same place on a map) that they have not previously discovered. It will open and reveal it’s information in a pop up screen. This screen can actually be inconvenient as it does not pause the game world and you can be attacked while it is up (best to close it immediately and review it if you like later once in a relatively safe location).
Once opened the player will be granted a chunk of experience towards their next level and an experience gain boost for some time. These actually stack. And some areas of some maps have a lot of easily accessed notes. If one were to look up note runs for Ark on youtube they would find prescribed routes and given locations that make it easy to find them in a timely manner and have them gaining so much boosted experience time in such short succession that it’s quite possible to combine that with planned spam crafting in order to level a character very quickly (though just the chunk xp they give you when found alone will level you you quite a lot if you’re low level).
The game also has fairly frequent holiday events and events otherwise where rates are boosted and one can earn a lot of experience very quickly as well as a lot of great items. ASA even has an official mod called Club Ark. Which allows you to play minigames to earn rewards around holiday events and download those rewards (the ones that aren’t of an unlockable nature) from Ark Data to your server. So keep an eye out for all of this because it can really help with progression.
Section 7 - Threats to be aware of; Do’s and Don’ts.
Red mist is a great place to start with knowing what to look out for. The more the effect the more dangerous something potentially is. You may likely first encounter this with Trikes. Their heads mist red when a predator is nearby. This gives them additional health, damage resistance and damage output. But a trike will never attack you unless you do something to draw its ire. Such as hitting it or stealing a Trike egg in the vicinity of one. And as is the case with most species. Mess with one Trike and you mess with all Trikes (that are within range). One accidental punch can find you quickly surrounded and batted around like a ping pong ball until dead.
But death is sometimes a desirable outcome. You can actually use this to your advantage. If you place a sleeping bag nearby because you really want to grab that bronto egg to help with taming an oviraptor for instance. You can grab it then let the brontos kill you. Once dead they no longer care about what you do. So you can respawn, then run right over to your body and grab its inventory (including the egg they were initially upset about but seem to have forgotten exists now). The same tactic can be used to steal honey.
Dying on purpose can even be used to resolve an issue with other red misters. That being Alpha creatures (not to be confused with an Alpha Tribe). Which are wild creatures that not only full body mist red, but also tend to be somewhat red in their skin texture and give off ember like sparks. The most common of which you are likely to have run-ins with is an Alpha Raptor. They cannot be bola’d. They cannot be picked with a tame. They have a lot more health, damage resistance and damage output than a normal variant level for level. Unfortunately, on officials, they cannot be tamed either…
These often plague Bobs as they tend to be the most prevalent of alpha creatures. Also, the easiest way for a creature that wanders randomly or to target to move is downhill. So a lot of them tend to end up where Bobs often like to live (regardless of where they may have initially spawned). “Beaches have fewer threats but also fewer resources” as given by the tooltips on loading screens in ASE is in theory only. If it lives on land and long enough, it eventually finds its way to a beach.
There are few things more annoying for a Bob than having a real threat between them and an objective. Aside from perhaps a Bronto or Titanosaur deciding that their shack makes for an excellent lounge chair.
But intentionally dying may once again come to the rescue. A series of sleeping bags and perhaps even a chest containing one’s carried valuables can be placed somewhat nearby this sprinting nightmare. The player can then use a series of catch me if you can maneuvers to get the Alpha raptor incrementally further away from where they don’t want it to be. Eventually it may even target some wild creature and take itself a lot further away (or back to where it was in the chase, resetting progress on the endeavor).
On ASE a body can also make an excellent distraction given that Alpha creatures are incapable of actually harvesting or eating. So as long as a body does not decay or is not harvested by something else. An alpha creature will attempt to harvest from it indefinitely or until it is given a new target. Which can allow the player to slip by unnoticed or even set up the circumstances for the alpha creature's demise. However, on ASA Alpha creatures are a lot more dangerous because they can harvest carcasses. Which means they are distracted for less time and can heal. On ASE Metal Spike Walls are not a bad option (they will tear right through wooden ones). Or a metal door frame with a pike wielder on the other side of it. Though on ASA wild creatures have better path finding and it may take some experimenting to find a trap that works.
It may be well worth one’s time to actually kill an alpha creature. As they can drop up to master craft tools, weapons, and up to journeymen gear (mostly leather and cloth, sometimes chitin). Not only that but they give excellent experience at lower levels. So getting it into some manner of trap or into a situation where it will drown or have its health ticked away by lava or something is not a bad idea if one is hard up for decent lower tier equipment.
Some red misters have a bit of a flame to them. This occurs with a few of Ark’s pack animals. Such as Hyenadons, Allosaurus, and Dire Wolves. Wherein the highest level member of a pack (3 or more) will receive a pack leader buff. This makes it and all of its ilk within range a lot stronger. When stacked with mate boosting (another proximity effect between males and females of the same species, displayed as a small heart icon above their heads when active). And effects like say the courage buff that Carnosaurs get from Yutyrannus. As well as a Carnos ability to deal bleed damage and cripple…Well it’s safe to say one might wish to stay far away from a Yuty with Carnos in tail if they are not adequately prepared to deal with them.
Speaking of Ye ole’ Feather Rex. Both Yuty and Rex have the ability to really mess with a flyer. A Rex roar can force land a flyer that it hits if the flyer is lower level than the Rex. This can help one when on a meat run with their own rex. But in PvE and PvP it comes into play so infrequently that I am unsure if a Rex can even cause a tamed flyer to land (if so I’ve never experienced it first hand). However a Yuti can cause a flyer that is hit with its roar (tamed or wild) to fly in uncontrollable patterns and random directions for a short time. Which as you can imagine might easily lead a flyer and its rider into a great deal of peril. Another reason to not go near a Yuti absent the absolute necessity to do so. Luckily for the new player, the Yuti tends to inhabit colder regions where one is not likely to find themselves by accident.
However in the warmer regions there are still plenty of dangers. The least anticipated of which are often those only some of the time threats. Meganeura for instance are usually passive. Unless there is a carcass nearby. At which point they become ravenous like Piranha. This can actually be used to one’s advantage (you’ll find that most inherit deficits can be turned to benefit with a little thought on the matter). Dragging a carcass along the edge of a swamp is a great way to attract many of these giant dragonflies. Crouching in place and stabbing directly upward with a spear or pike is a great way to kill them while taking little to no damage. Stabbing upward from a crouched position can actually allow one to kill quite a few flying things without much danger to oneself.
One thing it won’t help you with at all is another of Ark’s sometimes threats. The Troodon or as I like to call them the Truedon’t. They are fairly docile during the day (unless you get too close or you’re on the Lost Island map). At night they become absolutely terrifying. I have seen fully fledged mega tribe PvP’ers dismount, then immediately remount and nope out after seeing a pack of these things heading toward them. Even when they have a tame fully capable of killing all of them quickly.
They don’t do all that much physical damage. Not dissimilar to a compy in that respect (those tiniest of dinosaurs that wait to have the power of the pack to actually pounce. The main difference in terms of physical power being that companies have a huge pack bonus). But a Troodon’s torpor damage can fell the best of them in short order.
Dealing with pack animals of really any sort in Ark brings to mind a tactic of the Japanese swordsman of old. When having to fight multiple opponents. The clever swordsman would start the engagement by running away. Naturally his pursuers would run at different speeds. This would cause them to form a line behind him. He could then turn around to deal with the fastest of them. And turn back to running once that opponent is neutralized before the others have a chance to catch up. In doing so he incrementally reduces the speed and the number of his pursuers until only one remains.
With ark one has to throw in a few more tactics as most things run at the same speed. But the same basic principle applies to dealing with pack animals. Which is to create distance in which you can operate. The most important part is to keep one’s wits about them. This means remaining calm, staying situationally aware (noting things like dangers or opportunities ahead as you run away, what your stamina is looking like etc.), and constantly assessing what you can and cannot do in the moment.
Another such need to flee danger is getting jumped by an alpha (or strong otherwise) creature or biting off a bit more than one can chew. Especially when having an inherently low health flying tame like a griffin (it’s easy to take on bigger fights than you can finish with one). Always avoid fights with alpha Carnos on non-ranged attack tames. It's way too easy to get stuck in their head mesh. Also passive flee is the best setting for low health flyers. They'll fly just out of attack range of whatever is on them when minus the rider. The only thing that can still get them on passive flee is another flyer. But they tend to fly strait up over time out of from ground render range and into stasis when this happens. So either way you have a chance to get them back, even if you die.
When getting stuck in any creature you're fighting (or got jumped by). As long as the tame isn't on aggressive, neutral or attack my target (and you can whistle passive if they are). A good first reaction is to jump off, get some distance and whistle follow. While they may not be able to escape the mesh of a creature with you on them, they can easily do so when you're not. But wasting any amount of time trying to manually get them free by turning this way and that is a bad idea. The second it feels like you've gotten stuck you should be dismounting to try and pull off this maneuver.
This is something you really have to rehearse in your head. Like 'Stuck in creature? Dismount, whistle passive, create distance, whistle follow.' Memorize it like a mantra so you actually follow the steps when it happens or you may get flustered and do the thing that is likely to get the tame killed instead (like trying to remount and not whistling passive). It’s always good to try to imagine disaster ahead of it happening. Because you can bet that the worst thing that could happen at any given moment is what Ark will throw at you. You should constantly imagine what could go wrong with whatever you’re up to and how you might handle it if it does.
With avoiding any danger in Ark or being able to deal with it as it comes I’d put to you a simple question. What differentiates People from the rest of the animal kingdom? There are probably a lot of ways one can answer this. But most often if you also search hard enough you’ll find an exception to almost any delineating factor you might propose. Save for perhaps one… Wild animals are constantly aware of their vulnerabilities.
Take the Squirrel for example. It will come some way down a branch. But then suddenly stop and look about. After a time and perhaps even freezing mid motion it will continue down onto the trunk and stop again to take in its surroundings. It will repeat this behavior for the entirety of it’s outing. If at any point it is given cause to. It will dart back up the tree irrespective of the progress towards its goal that it has made…
Be like a squirrel. Have a look around before you land your flyer. Make sure you land it before you run out of stamina and choose your ground. Fly at the ceiling so you’re not spotted. Be ready to bail out or jump on your flyer or mount otherwise at a moment's notice. If you get your mount stuck inside a dangerous predator jump off, run away, and whistle it to you. Gritting your teeth and hard pushing for an outcome will not get you far in ark. Oftentimes noping out is the best first instinct. If nothing else then to assess from a safe distance what the actual danger is.
But unlike the squirrel or our actual selves in this terrible game we call real life (Where rewards are not always commensurate to effort, resources are finite, and it’s perma-death). You get another chance when you mess up. So learn from it. Figure out what if anything you could have done differently to not even be in that situation to begin with and come up with a new personal rule (that you’ll stick to) to prevent that from happening again. Look to yourself for blame before looking to others (even if others are to blame there is almost always still something you could have done to ward against their malice or incompetence). Build up a repertoire of best practices over time and you will get exceedingly good at this game. And never let yourself think you’re done learning. Over 5,000 hours in and I still learn something new almost every time I play. At this point a lot of it is novel information. But still previously unknown to me. And you never know what little tidbit of knowledge will come in useful at some point.
Section 8 - Tips for taming.
Never be in a hurry. If you are, then you are not prepared to tame it (even if you think you have everything you need). Always condition the area first. That means killing, kiting or driving off everything. Not just aggressives but passives as well (within about half render distance is ideal). Because passives within the area of a tame can draw agro on aggressives that previously were not. It's actually better to kite them away or drive them off than it is to kill them. If they are still alive but just not in the immediate area, chances are few if any new creatures will spawn in the area during the tame.
A Parasaur can be invaluable parked next to a tame in progress. Via it's contextual menu wheel, under behavior one can set it to turret mode with auto-scare on. Auto-scare affects all of these creatures:
Auto-scare (while in turret mode or Scare if activated while mounted) will send them fleeing from the area. Sure it won't help with a Rex, Carno or pretty much anything you cannot bola. But it will keep away most of the common threats.
Narcotics (when starve taming, which should be whenever able) go in after initial torpidity is nearly depleted. This is to make sure one doesn't waste narcotics by dosing a tame at the start, then seeing it die mid way to starved (a starved creature will eat constantly and therefore not lose taming efficiency to waiting too long between bites of taming food) from whatever the game throws at you. Not putting in narcotics or taming food until it's actually needed means if something goes wrong during the first half of the tame, you still have most of what you need to try again with another creature.
The effect of Narcotic stacks. So one doesn’t have to sit there and feed it one at a time. Once a tame is nearly depleted of torpidity, and actually requires narcotics, the player can force feed the whole stack that it needs at once. It’s a good idea to do an additional 5%-10% narcotics, on top of what is required. This will help to safeguard against untimely disconnects.
Finally use www.dododex.com it will not only tell you exactly what is needed to knock out and tame. But it even has a starve and torpor timer (you don’t have to activate the timer with the tool. But if you choose to do so, it will give a loud dodo call about 5 minutes before the timer expires). One thing to keep in mind with this tool -since I’ve made the mistake myself several times now, it seems worth mentioning- is to make certain you enter the proper values (for what you’re using) in the taming food section. Otherwise the relevant timers will not reflect accurately for what you are actually using.
Section 9 - Good first tames to get and where/how to get them.
Equus can be found on most maps. But one will find the most of them in any one place in The Highlands (Also referred to as Scotland) on Ragnarok. Not only that but the area is wide open with few actual threats to taming one. So a trap is not even necessary. Moreover their favorite (non-kibble) food can be found growing wild there. It doesn’t take much running around to gather well over 100. Which is more than enough to tame an Equus of any level.
[There is even a seemingly better than normal chance that one might find a Unicorn. For which only one wild will be spawned in at any one time unless on Valguero or Crystal Isles. Except on mobile Unicorns are functionally identical to Equus. Some will say they increase the chance of twins or triplets when breeding. But that is incorrect.]
The Equus does not carry as much weight as a Parasaur. It also cannot detect enemies. Nor scare them off. But it does collect berries better than a Parasaur. Not just because of a higher gathering rate but because it has a slightly larger base attack range (500 as opposed to the Parasaur’s 400). As well as being more maneuverable and faster. So the player can get to bushes faster on an Equus.
Equus are also less time to tame than a Parasaur (not by much). While they don’t require a saddle to ride, there is a saddle available for them that acts as a Mortar and Pestle. In addition to this their kick deals a significant amount of torpor damage. Finally a Lasso can be crafted in the inventory of a saddled Equus. The Lasso can be equipped and used from Equus back (only) to tether a creature to the Equus, If awake that creature becomes rooted (much like with a bola). If knocked out, that creature can be dragged. Although what specifically can be dragged is limited to the following creatures:
Your first attempt at trying to tame one will likely not go well as it is something of a quick time game. You sneak up on it and feed it (taming food on last equipment slot) without startling. Then quickly use the prompt to ride. Instantly it will try to buck you. This can be stopped by feeding it again before it succeeds. As with any passive tame it takes a while (about 2 minutes) it to be ready to feed again after the first feed. But after that it goes fairly quickly. You can’t control where it runs to. You can’t control your view. Your only concern once on it is to feed it when prompted.
Tek Parasaur are a variant of normal Parasaurs. A normal Parasaur on Official servers can reach a maximum wild level of 150. However any Tek variant of a creature will spawn in at 20% higher level than it would have been were it not a Tek variant. This means one can potentially find up to level 180 Tek Parasaurs. Which in turn means higher stats once tamed.
A caveat regarding taming a Tek Parasaur would be that if you can find a higher level regular Parasaur, you should tame that instead. Because the only real benefit of Tek variants is that they can spawn in at over the normal level cap.
As alluded to in the Tips for Taming section, Parasaurs (as well as their Tek variant) can both detect and scare off enemies. They can do this while the player is mounted by manual activation of the abilities. Or while in turret mode using behavioral settings. The value of this is also given in the Tips for Taming section.
I would suggest also taming these on Rag (short for Ragnarok). Though not necessarily in The Highlands. As you can gather veggies for the tame but tame them elsewhere (wherever a good one happens to be).
A Tropical Crystal wyvern (requires level 65 to tame) is a passive creature (unless attacked) that can be found in the South West of the Crystal Isles (a free DLC map). One should have at least Spyglass, Metal Pickaxe, and Parachutes before attempting to tame one of these. It’s advisable to also have Ghillie or at least Chitin armor. Though one can get away with having as little as primitive tools, no armor, and no chutes or spyglass. It’s just a lot harder if you go this minimalistic.
Their taming mechanic is not dissimilar from that of Equus. The principal difference being that you are not prompted to mount them. Rather their back is something like a platform. So you’re staying on them by careful positioning and repositioning. They also won’t try to buck you like an Equus will exactly. They will do steep climbs, dives and perhaps even brush you off by scraping against some terrain or a tree.
But once you feed one it’s first bite of taming food it will take to the skies and not land again until tamed or until they have managed to get the monkey off their back (you). So unlike the Equus you will have to get on it’s back before feeding it that first bite of food (what I’ve found to be the ideal positioning pictured below):
[Once on and having done the initial feed it will take off, counter rotate your camera view when it turns to remain ideally positioned. If you start to slip, use minor light correcting to re-position. Don’t over-react to slight slippage.]
You’ll need at least regular crystal as it’s taming food. With regular crystals you can tame a level 15-20 fairly quickly. Though it’s possible to tame up to a 150 with regular crystal, I would not recommend this outside of events (or some other point at which at least 3x rates are active). The reason being that regular crystal raises the taming progress by so little. While not really noticeable on a low level. On a high level this creates far too many opportunities to be knocked off and likely fail the tame.
The good news is that a level 15-20 is all you really need when starting out. The resulting tame will have stats equivalent to a 150 Pteranodon tamed out to 211-224. But these don’t require a saddle (there isn’t even a saddle for them, you ride bareback). As a passive tame they don’t require tranquilizers or narcotics and their taming food is a very common resource (especially on the map which they are native to). They are also faster than a ptera and can be far more effective in most combat situations you will have. Especially since these get the Hydrated buff (the same buff the Spinosaurus gets after touching water). Which for 30 seconds (or as long as still touching water) boosts their damage by 15%, Health recovery by 25% and speed by 20%. A Tropical can also pick (grab and hold onto while in flight) a wider variety of creatures than the Ptera (shown in comparison below):
Tropical;
Ptera;
Tropicals are also not affected by having a C4 attached to them (A ptera cannot do it’s spin attack when it has C4 attached to it). While a Ptera is still hard to beat for some very specific tasks. None of those are something the new player will be concerned with anytime soon. For most things the Bob is far better served by a Tropical than a Ptera. On top of all that it can be really easy to prep for the tame and find a tropical of adequate level. Whereas one can spend hours alone just on that part of taming a Ptera. And a level 15-20 Tropical tames in about the same amount of time as a Ptera does. You will need a ptera at some point. But taming one before taming a tropical if you have the option is doing yourself a disservice.
Ankylosaurus, while not good at gathering fresh organic material, are worth getting even before one has an Argentavis to carry an ank that’s weighted down with metal. When used properly by a rider these things can take on all but the scariest of enemies. The trick is not to face attackers head on. Face them with the tail and not only will the tail hit them twice per swing (once on the swing and once on the return) but it will do a significant amount of knockback. Often the player will be ready to take another swipe before the aggressor gets back within attack range. Well timed and skillful use of an Ank can give the player a massive advantage in combat. One can even fly it around like a wrecking ball with their wyvern, whistling it to attack targets and increasing the total damage output (there is rarely time for a wyvern to bite following up a breath attack from the air).
[It should be noted that non-skilled use would be letting the Ank get mobbed up on from all sides or letting it fight without it’s rider mounted as it does not make the best combat choices on it’s own].
And something a lot of people don’t seem to know is that an Ank is faster at swimming than it is at running. They also tame out with some fairly decent oxygen (usually around 650 for an Ank tamed from a 150) and they can do their tail swipe attack underwater. This means one can take an ank for a swim in the river to get Oil nodes and kill every Piranha that attacks them as well.
To my mind the ank is the actual “first water tame” Because it opens up that environment to use and to getting more water tames. Such as a Basilosaurus which are often heavily guarded by Mantas. An Ank can kill all the Mantas, even a few Megalodons, and leave the basilo open to passive taming. And a Basilo would be good to tame because they are tanky and immune to Electrophorus and Cyndaria stuns.
Again Rag has the taming food you need free for the taking. But for these I’d say it’s best (if you already have a flyer) to grab a few hundred veggies and take them along with your flyer and taming gear over to The Center (another free DLC map). On the middle western edge of the map there is an unmissable cliff. If you fly over the side and down a ways there is a massive open faced cavern entrance that interrupts this cliff face. It’s identifiable by giant stalactites and crystals, as well as an Ice Palace in the back. This cavern only has as potential aggressives (meaning they will initiate a fight) Dire Bears and Argentavis. But you can see them a long way off in there and you must be very close to actually draw their aggression. If one is even paying half attention it’s fairly easy to not draw the aggression of either and keep the respectful distance they prefer.
Other than this there are only Rhinos, Mammoths, Kairuku (Penguins), Procoptodons (Giant Kangaroos), Coelacanths, Sabertooth Salmon, Trilobites and Ankylosaurus. None of which will start a fight with you (some of which will finish one you start). This is in fact a great area for taming all the creatures present. Specifically because they are the only creatures you will find down there in isolation from everything else and you are very unlikely to be interrupted while taming them. There are ample materials to build a stone trap and you don’t have anything like Raptors, Carnos, Troodons or other common harassers of taming.
The downside is that The Center is something of a good taming food desert. There are not many common sources of Rare Flowers. Honey can be a bit more difficult than on other maps to find and obtain. There are no wild vegetables. There are only perhaps 4-5 Ovis spawns across the entire map (half of them in the underground) and they are usually killed so quickly where they do spawn that it’s a rarity to see one alive on The Center. So any taming food you might need or ingredients for it. You’ll want to bring with you from another map.
Lystrosaurus. These little passive tames have an invaluable effect. When within range of other tamed creatures the player can pet them periodically. They will do a little happy animation (one of four) and the effect will come into play. Until they need another pet all tames within range will get boosted passive experience gain. This is a great way to help your tames level when they aren’t doing anything else but standing there. And you’re just doing things around the base as well.
The effect is the same regardless of the Lystros level. But even a max level takes only 3 minutes to tame off 5 rare flowers or 10 minutes off a half stack of berries, at normal rates. So if you see one, take the time to tame it. It’s well worth it if you spend a lot of time at base. Just park it in an area you pass by a lot that’s central to a lot of your tames and give it pat frequently. And these little happy fellows can be found and tamed on all maps with equal ease.
Shoulder Pet Any shoulder pet to start with is useful for (if nothing else) to increase your carry weight. Things in their inventory don’t count towards your weight. Albeit they do count towards a mounted tame’s weight. By far my personal favorite for shoulder pets used to be the Microraptor. There is more on those specifically in Section 11 - Tips for Flyers, sub-section 4).
However they’ve been supplanted by Sinomacrops. Which not only act as a backpack like other tames. But they actually reduce the weight of any items in their inventory by 50% (while those items are still in their inventories). On top of that they act as a Double jump boost, Glider Suit, Parachute and Jetpack (a slow one)! All for the cost of the spare chitin you collect anyways. They can be tricky to tame. And while there are plenty of taming guides out there. What I’ll say about it is that a higher level one is much easier to tame after taming a low level one.
But another shoulder pet worth mentioning here is the Dimorphodon. They are the only flyer that sees a speed increase while flying from manually leveling their movement speed. Being quick and turning on a dime means they can do several hits to every single hit they take (especially to larger creatures. When told to attack a mounted tame, they always target the rider as their first priority. They don’t do a whole lot of damage alone. But they are fairly easy knockout tames and a flock of say 10-15 of them can keep up with an argy at full speed. When whistled on say a 150 wild rex, They can melt it in about 10 seconds. You can walk around with a flock of these on “Attack my target” and pretty much anything that hits you is dead without you having to lift a finger.
Section 9b - Notes on Eggs.
Most found eggs are unfertilized. There are some exceptions. Such as Wyverns, Deinonychus, and Rock Drakes. But eggs that are laid fertilized in the wild will be found in a nest (besides Magmasaur eggs I think). When it is a creature that lays wild fertilized eggs. It's because they cannot be tamed from the wild (the only way to get one from the wild is to steal and raise one of their eggs).
But because most creatures can be tamed from the wild; Most of them don't lay fertilized eggs. And there is no way to fertilize an unfertilized egg either. For tameables you need to mate them in order to get a fertilized egg for them.
Fertilized eggs will have a red mist around them. It looks similar to the mist that Alpha Creatures have or that Trikes produce when a meat eater is near them. It's rather distinctive.
It usually takes a ring of campfires or standing torches (standing torches are easier to work with overall) to produce enough heat to hatch an egg. It's also a good idea to do it in a fully enclosed space that gives you the shelter icon when in it. Otherwise there will be times of day where the fires you have going are too hot or too cold. When a fertilized egg is too hot or cold, it will say so on the hover description and it will lose health/durability while it remains so. When just right it will say "incubating".
Now just because an egg isn't fertilized doesn't mean it isn't useful. Put it in a preserving bin with some spark powder for the time being. Keep an eye out for more large eggs. If you find 4-5 large eggs you should be able to tame a low level (15-20) Oviraptor. This tame has the effect of boosting passive (non-fertilized) egg laying rate of tames within it’s range. Which is good if you have mostly female, egg laying tames out. Because then you'll get a lot more eggs with which you can start thinking about making kibble (really good taming food) or custom recipes.
You want the Oviraptor to be a low level one. That's because it only does this when it has wandering enabled. But you also don't want it running all over the place. A low level one gives the same effect as a high level one. The difference is that a low level one has a lot less carry weight. So it's easy to weigh it down so that it can be on wander without actually going anywhere. Alternatively an Oviraptor can fit in a wooden cage. But it’s a little glitchy looking and can make a lot of annoying sounds.
Section 10 - Being of Utility.
When choosing to live on virtually any server, you will often have some interaction with the Alpha Tribe (Though sometimes it is the case that they are aloof). It’s in your best interest to make sure this interaction is positive. The Alphas actually liking you goes a long way towards your survivability. Mere indifference to you is not good enough.
Some Alphas like to have a healthy population of Bobs on the server. This is because if some enemy decides to come try to raid them. The enemy cannot bring as many people on with which to do so if Bobs are taking up available slots. But this is not the attitude of all Alphas and the downside is it’s harder for them to know who on the server is the enemy and who is not at any given time. So you’re mere passivity of presence is never enough to make you a boon to them.
Your bare minimum goal in your standing with the Alphas is to get that relationship to the point where all their active players know who you are, do not perceive you as a threat, and are not likely to wipe you on a whim. This doesn’t mean you have any kind of protected status really. Raiders frequent servers afterall and while an alpha might police their server or even come to defend a bob on it. They can’t help what they don’t know about. They also have their own priorities and helping you probably ranks fairly low on the list for most of them, most of the time.
Of course this all makes it sound like Alphas are a tool for a Bob to use. Which ignores the fact that those tribes are comprised of people. Not NPCs. If you are a user; If you leach off the Alphas as much as possible. Don’t think for a second that they are not fully aware that you are leaching and regard you as what you are (when they give you any regard). One should try to stand on their own two feet as much as is practical. But it’s good to have friends. It’s better if those friends are in a position of power. To some extent how far you can go in this game is directly related to who you know.
Being useful isn’t just something that keeps you on a server. It also feels good to be of utility. But you could be forgiven for thinking that there is no real way in which you have anything to offer an Alpha tribe. As it is just as easy to think that what you have to offer is worth more than it is. The problem with such assumptions is common core. It’s that you don’t know what you don’t know. And if an Alpha is any kind of good at being one. You will only ever know from them what you need to know as you need to know it.
Switching gears from preface on this topic, let's get to the part of this section that is of real utility. That being the kind of things you can do to be of utility to an Alpha:
- Be a dirty little tattle tale. Meaning you should inform on everyone and everything you come across. Even yourself. Anything built or present that isn’t part of the default map and doesn’t belong to the Alphas, you should tell them about. Preferably you want to do so over Discord (saying anything in global when there is potentially an enemy presence is a good way to get got). So a first measure would be to give them your discord and get some kind of out of game point of contact going.
Once you have a line of secure communication. If you find a new base location that is
Unraided. If you put up a new location that has active defenses (defender
creatures/turrets/traps). If you find an abandoned tame, tek transmitter, or grinding
location that even remotely looks like it could be there for the use of raiders. Tell the
Alphas. Give them Coords. Give them Screenshots.
Even if they actively patrol their server on a regular basis. They’re not likely to find everything. You telling them about things they want to know about, regarding other player activity is useful.
- Certain Blueprints you wouldn’t suspect of being so are incredibly valuable. You may well have the engram for Parachute or Bola. So you might turn your nose up at finding a blueprint for one in a drop. But these seemingly useless Blueprints are actually very rare finds. What makes them useful is that they can be placed in a Tek Replicator and crafted at an incredible rate of speed over normal inventory or crafting station speed. So certain things that an Alpha tribe burns through a lot of but are tedious to make, have high value in Blueprint form. This includes but is not limited to, Bola, Parachute, Water Jar, Grappling Hook, Spyglass, Metal Arrow etc.
So hold onto these when you occasionally find one in a drop.
One such Blueprint to an Alpha that is on the lookout for one can be worth as much as an entire roster of well bred grinding tames, high end kit, a battle mount with capped saddle, and full metal 5x5 base components with heavies in trade (though it depends on who you’re talking to specifically and how happy they are to get that blueprint...Your mileage will vary). Dropping that kind of wealth on a Bob doesn’t mean much to an Alpha and the Blueprint itself is useless to you most likely. This is the best kind of trade. A win:win.
Don’t waste your time trying to trade saddle BP’s (Blueprints) and the like. They probably already have better than what you have on offer. It’s these seemingly useless BP’s that let them make a lot of a common item lightning quick that have real value.
- Chocolates and Candies and event Materials. Some events (especially Love Evolved) have contained within them the opportunity to acquire special items that are really useful for maximizing battle mounts. Some Candies which change dino color do as much as provide +15% to movement speed. And a Box of Chocolate when fed to a tame half heals it.
Sometimes Alphas just want all the skins or emotes from an event. But are not willing or able to do the grinding to get it (rates are increased during events, so they are often busy breeding and raising). A lot of this stuff has a shelf life and cannot be transferred. But in General events are your time to really profit and get good stuff that you need in trade.
- Downbreeders. On PvP Official creatures have a maximum level of 450 (but can only gain 73 levels from the point of being tamed/hatched/birthed). At that maximum level the game starts to break a little and there can be all sorts of issues with said creatures. When breeding creatures the resulting level will typically be the mean of the level of the two parents (from tame/hatching/birthing). So Alphas who do a lot of breeding occasionally have need of certain female creatures of very low level. That way they can work the stats of a high level breeder onto the offspring of a low level and come out with something that has all the stats they want but a level low enough that the offspring will never hit cap.
This is perhaps an extreme over simplification but as it relates to you what is necessary
to know is that some extremely low level females have high value to Alphas. If you can a
male and female level 10 rex. And mate them a few times to get a level 5 female (which
is possible because the level is dictated by the stats and when the level is so low a little
rng makes for a big swing in level). That level 5 female rex will have high trade value.
Perhaps not quite on the order of certain blueprints (it really depends how much the
Alpha you trade with actually needs what you have on offer). But still well worth the work
involved. Especially since this another minor task that many Alphas simply don’t have the
time to get around to.
Make no mistake. Taming an extremely low level creature can be hard. One has to keep
something like a level 10 rex alive long enough (they will attack wilds far above their own
level) to actually tame. Knock it out without killing it. Punch it so the taming efficiency is
Ruined and it gains no additional levels. And knocked creatures take 10x damage. Even
though it requires less narcotic and taming food. They can be harder to find to begin with
and difficult to keep alive throughout the taming process.
The tedium of finding and taming a male and female to get a level 5 of a desired creature species is by itself enough to warrant contracting the work out. On the Island one can actually find level 5 creatures rarely in the wild. But if you can establish a line of downbreeder Rex, Rhinos, or really any bossing tame besides a Yuti (And later down the line Extinction unique tames). You have yourself a viable and steady source of goods for trade.
- Tributes. They are the special trophy drops acquired from some creatures. They are mostly used as part of the cost of entering most Boss Arenas that are higher than Gamma level difficulty. Unlike the artifacts that are also used to enter most Boss Arenas, Tributes cannot be transferred between servers. And since the Element rewards from a successful boss fight are also not transferable. It means that Alphas have a need to grind Tributes on the servers they intend to make use of the Element reward on.
Not all boss arenas require the same Tributes (you’ll want to look these up for the map or
maps you play on. Or ask the Alphas which Tributes they need). But usually on any given
map there is at least one tribute that is a bit annoying to grind. So if you grind them out in
batches of 10-25. Alphas will often trade you stuff for those tributes. This isn’t the highest
value trade good (typically). But it’s usually the easiest to get and the one for which there
is the most consistent demand.
Section 11 - Tips for flyers.
- Flip the bird when you fly (Pinky Finger on Shift, Ring Finger on A, Middle Finger on W, Index Finger on X, Thumb on space). This will make it easier to use the air brake as needed (X key) for precision movement of most flyers. Air brake is important for landing on things you normally couldn't and for picking.
- Always have chutes and grapples or a Sinomacrops. Not just good for surviving a fall. Also good for preventing you from falling all the way and helping you get back up quicker. Additionally for most small flyers, you can replenish their stamina by jumping off and deploying chute (or chute mode on Sino), Then whistling them to follow and jumping back on when they are close enough to "ride" (grappling them after hey’ve moved a bit if no Sino).
- Always fly at the ceiling if able. Going straight up from your start point to the ceiling and only descending (straight down) when at the desired coordinates, will keep most other players from spotting you most of the time.
It's also a good thing to be in the habit of, so it will be your first instinct to get away from a Mana rider. A skilled Mana rider can get you even at the ceiling. However most don't seem to fully understand their Mana's controls and will give up the chase. Especially if you're over water. A Mana has a cool down for being able to freeze the same creature twice. If one has enough health (200 and at least primitive flak as well as at least 3,000 health on tame) they are likely to survive the initial freeze. Even if nearly out of stam, you've a better chance heading for the ceiling than waiting on a restam.
- Microraptors. They take 1 rare flower to tame (regardless of level). As long as one is higher than their attacker or at the same altitude the Microraptor can be thrown from the shoulder (double tap F while on foot, single tap R while mounted) at attackers. It will have to be on something behaviorally other than passive or passive flee and whistling to attack this target before throwing ("." by default) is best. Just don't level movement speed. If they are too fast they will overshoot their target. But when used correctly they will dismount a rider almost every single time and stun that rider for 30 seconds. Consider these a one shot. Don't try to retrieve it. If it has dismounted someone and allowed you to kill them or escape it served it’s purpose. Just tame another.
4a) Sinomacrops have made for an excellent contender to the microraptor as a shoulder pet
for when on flyers. There still really isn’t anything that will make a player attacker think
twice quite as quickly as a microraptor will if hey have any sense at all.
- Sometimes it is necessary or far more practical to fly low. But whether low or high always recover stamina when at half stam. If your flyer is ever out of stamina entirely. Then you've already messed up and whatever bad thing that might occur immediately after running completely out of stam is likely a direct result of not recovering stamina sooner.
- Whips and bolas. Always have them and always keep them in mind. A whip can land a flyer and force a rider to dismount. This can be useful to know as if you attack someone on a ptera you may be bola'd or whipped or both. If you manage to pick someone they may end up using a whip on you to escape and force you into a bad position. But these can also save you from a pick. The whip is especially useful with your own wyvern. It can be a pain to get these to land where you want when you’re not on them. But just whip them and they will close their wings and land.
- Minimize your time using parachutes. They should be a tool to do things like restaming and saving you from fall damage. Not a means of getting around. If someone picks you and is clearly taking you to the water to drop you. Then as soon as they let go you deploy your chute. They have plenty of time to pick you again. They may well rinse and repeat until you are out of chutes. So deploy the chute only at the last second in order to minimize your time in the air. Also run-jumping off a cliff and gliding over danger may seem clever. But it makes you a slow and very visible target.
- Air Brake (X key by default on PC) is your best friend for precision control and landing. This is especially useful when trying to land larger flyers on a very specific spot (hold x and press space over the spot you want them to land. With flyers that are slower to come to a stop you may have to begin air braking before you reach the target landing zone).
Section 12 - Transfers.
If you have other maps installed, You can travel to them at any time through various means. This is called transferring. The two easiest means as a new player would be Loot drops. Which are the beams of light that deliver packaged goodies. And Obelisks. Which are the big, floating, color coded, constructs you can see in the distance. Generally speaking. Loot drops are easier to get to as there are simply a lot more of them coming down all over the map. But you have to be a certain level to access them depending on their colors. Obelisks can be harder to reach. But they don't require having achieved a certain level to open their menu and they don't disappear after a while.
You can take your character to any server of the same type it started on. So single players can only play single player. PvE characters can only go to other PvE servers etc. Even if it's the same map but just a different server number it must be of the same type/game mode that the character to be transferred was created on.
When a character is transferred, all aspects of that character remain intact (ideally...But Ark is Ark and the devs have been known to break this on occasion. Though they are usually pretty good about fixing it and affected accounts fairly quickly). When you get to the server/map you're traveling to and download your character (you start off as technically dead and have to pick a spawn). Your character will load in with all it's levels, assigned and unassigned points and engrams as they were before you departed. Your character will also have all the things you had on it when you left (as long as you download to a destination map within 24 hours. Because the only thing that preserves in ark data longer than 24 hours are characters themselves).
Some maps even have engrams that you can only learn on them (or maps that have a biome from them). But if you learn those engrams on those maps and transfer back. You'll still have those learned. Note that any such engrams also require special materials that are only available to collect on maps that the engrams can be learned on. So even though you will keep a learned engram when transferring back. If you did not collect those materials for it and take them with you, the engram is effectively useless until you acquire those materials or their acceptable substitutes.
You can technically have as many characters on as many servers as you like. But you cannot have two characters that are attached to the same account, on the same server, at the same time (i.e. A character that is imported will overwrite an existing character on a server, unless that existing character is attached to a distinct and separate ownership of the game that has that map unlocked for it).
Two characters on different maps that are attached to the same account share their uploads in Ark Data. So you could in theory create a new character on a new map of the same type in order to gather specific resources, upload those resources by themselves to Ark Data. Then download them with your main character that is already on the destination server.
This is also a safer method for exploring maps you’ve not visited before or multiplayer servers that have a high likely-hood of the Alphas having blocked off most easy ways off the server (such as city terminal blocking on extinction servers). You can check a server out with a throw away character. And if you like how it is, import your main character, overwriting the newly made one in the process.
All items have a cooldown on the ability to transfer them. For most items this is on a 15 minute cycle. If you open an Obelisk, Loot Drop, Loot Crate, City Terminal, Mission Terminal, or Tek Transmitter (this last one requires having learned the Tekgram in order to use it), you will likely see that many if not all of your items in your character’s inventory have a counter that is ticking down. Anything acquired or that changes in your inventory (like a piece of cooked meat spoiling or a creature put into a cryopod) before that timer expires will be transferable when that timer expires. If it happens after, you would either have to leave that item behind or wait another 15 minutes to take that item with you/upload it to ark data.
The game will warn you when you have items that are not ready to be transferred if you do when you attempt to (which gives you a chance to back out and check that it isn't anything important). The game will also warn you about non-transferable items. Such as tributes that drop from killing certain creatures (like Megalodon Teeth or Argentavis Talons).
Tamed creatures can be uploaded directly to Ark Data as well if they are close enough to the location of uploading. Though they drop their saddles and inventory when they are (and the timer will apply to that stuff they drop as if they were newly acquired items when picked up). Tames also have a 12 hour cooldown on being transferable doing it this way. Which means via this method you can reasonably only move them between two servers once per day. You can circumvent them dropping their saddles, as well as the 12 hour cool down by storing them in a cryopod (basically a Poke'ball that you can learn the engram for at level 51) and transferring them inside a cryopod instead.
There are other restrictions on item transferring. Consumables that decay typically can only be transferred once (If none of them are consumed, decayed or transferred to another inventory they can be transferred twice as long as the server number being transferred to is lower than the server number being transferred from). So if you take a stack of med brews with you to a new server. Better to only take as many as you think you may need to use while there. Because you likely won't be taking them back with you.
This is especially important to know when it comes to Kibble for taming. If you travel to a map where you intend to find a creature to tame with Kibble. But are unable to find one of an adequate level. You may need to go to another server on the same map to find one. If you downloaded your Kibble already you won't be taking it with you to do so in all likelihood. So if you upload Kibble into Ark Data to tame something, it's a good idea to leave it in Ark Data until you actually need it.
Some maps also don't allow all creature types. Aberration is the most restrictive with this. And a newly released official map may not allow players to transfer items or tames in for a period of time (though they usually allow transfers out).
One really important tip about transferring or uploading (because sometimes ark data is used by players as temporary storage), is if you do it at a loot drop, check how much durability is remaining on the drop first. If you try to transfer using a drop that is about to disappear (when it's at 10 durability, it has less than a minute remaining), and it disappears when you click to either transfer your character, upload, or download something. You will be stuck on a waiting menu that you cannot exit except by force closing the client and re-entering the game. You can't move or use items while locked into this menu. But your character can be attacked while that menu is up and will still suffer from any debuffs currently active. It takes about 5 minutes to go away on its own. So ALWAYS check how long a drop has left on it before interacting with it.
Obelisks don't have this issue. But if playing on a PvP server, other players do often frequent Obelisks, to find people who are waiting on timer to kill. So it's more of a risk. Smart PvP players especially like to jump people while they have their inventory up (because they have a lower response time to being attacked). They may even try to knock you out as opposed to kill you. That way, there won’t be a stamp with their name on it in your tribe log, and you won’t be able to instantly jump on a mount back at base and return with more force.
City and Mission terminals (on maps where available, which are typically also maps where obelisks are not available) are a nice alternative to either as they don’t disappear on you. There are so many of them that your chances of being caught with your pants down at any one of them are relatively low.
Another tip is regarding server population. While Steam users show on a server listing. A server listing does not update automatically (there is usually a couple minutes delay). Also EPIC users do not show up on server listings [note this may have changed but I have not verified]. These days (at the time of this writing) EPIC users probably comprise at least ⅓ of the PC player base. So even if a server says it has no players on it currently. That isn’t necessarily the case. However you can keep track of server performance and rough player count using a the website battlemetrics.com
Section 13 - Locating Friends.
Since the advent of tame tracking, knocking out a low level creature is often the simplest and easiest way to give someone a guide to your location. However there are conceivable situations in which this may not be an option (such as trying to help someone who is not in your tribe find you or being in an area where there is nothing you can easily knock out). Previous to tame tracking the devs had instituted many ways to find each other. These methods are detailed below.
- The cheapest and easiest of these is the flare gun. It's single use but they are light and they stack. It's about as easy as meeting at a loot drop (wherein there is only one drop of a certain color in an area). One drawback with using these is range. If a player is too far away they simply won't see the flare. Another drawback is if playing on a PvP server. Everyone else in the area can also see your flare.
- Another option would be Transponder nodes. These are used in conjunction with Transponder Trackers in the same manner as C4 and Detonators (except that a single node can be triggered an indefinite number of times). They can be tossed on tames and even players. One drawback to these is that death, using a bed, or cryopodding a tame removes the node. Another is that they operate on channels (which you can change in their wheel option). So anyone scanning on the same channel as you with their own node (regardless of whether or not they are in your tribe) will see anything your nodes are attached to.
- Yet another option is the GPS. It's positioning is much more accurate than on the map. Players are also a lot less likely to give you coordinates exactly opposite of their position using a GPS than they are with a map (Because they don't know how to read the map). Holding up a GPS at the same time as the map book can actually help those who don't seem to know or who mess it up a lot learn to give accurate map coordinates as well.
- With the map book itself one thing that too few people know is that you can set markers. You have to have your map book held up and you must be dismounted and on the ground to set a marker. Fulfilling both of these conditions pressing the P key will bring up a menu that asks for coordinates, name, and color of marker.
These markers are not super accurate. They seem to be made to only work well only with default field of view settings. But you can use them to mark meeting points or locations of interest.
[I use them on Ragnarok to mark the location of the red desert crates. I also use them on crystal isles to mark the locations of artifacts for artifact runs. To mark turrets and teleporters on potentially hostile servers. And to mark raid prospects while scouting].
The major downside with map markers (aside from not being incredibly accurate) is that they must be set individually by all players in order for all players using them to see them when they open their map. There is no way to set them up for a whole tribe by the actions of a single player.
- The devs also gave most regions of the maps distinctive names. For instance the aberration-like underground region on Valguero is officially called the Emerald Forest. Using mutual knowledge of the layout of a map can help a lot. So if one knows Valguero well enough, they could say "I'm hiding in the chitin cave above the pond with the uncuttable tree in the boreal region" or "Half way between the Jungle entrance to the Emerald Forest and the Castle."
Or let's say one is on Ragnarok. They could give their location as "Highlands, Lighthouse." As there is a rather prominent lighthouse in The Highlands region. Or they could say "Mushroom rock, Volcano" because just off-shore of the volcano is a very mushroom shaped rock (easy to spot from the air). Learning the proper regional names and some of the distinctive/landmark features can really help another player who also knows a given map well visualize where you are.
Now some people come up with their own names for places. Some of those names really catch on as well. Like many call Carnivorous Caverns on Ragnarok "Dark Cave" or "Darkness Cave" as it can be really hard to see your hand in front of your face in there. But the benefit of striving to use official region names is that even if someone doesn't know where that is. The wiki has tools to show you regions on maps and even has whole articles about regions (so they can look it up and find you even without any foreknowledge).
Section 14 - Important Milestones to aim for.
I would say the first important level goal would be level 21. That’s the level at which tranq darts become learnable. This is such a quick level to achieve, - even without notes and dossiers - that I wouldn’t even recommend wasting time on knockout taming things before you hit this level (besides perhaps a few dodos) and start making darts to aid you.
Assisted by having unlocked the ability to build your own metal production stations and start making metal equipment one level earlier. This is when taming really becomes worth it. You will also have unlocked the ability to learn all of what I would consider essentials for entry level survival.
The next level goal that is really worth setting is level 62. Once again you will have unlocked many of the essentials and be pretty much set for early game play. So it’s not like it’s a desert of unlocking content between 21 and 62. There’s plenty of great stuff along the way. But this is the level at which the Argentavis saddle unlocks. Being able to saddle and ride an Argy is a game changer.
Next up I’d say would be level 80. This is the level at which one is able to open red containers of all types. Red deep sea crates (which are oddly enough not always located in the deep sea) have especially good items and blue prints. They are often easily accessible (if not off the beaten path) as well. Some of the easiest ones to loot are in the desert on Ragnarok. Such acquisitions can really help one transition into the mid game. Even giving the blue prints for or simply the saddles you might need to do your first boss fights with some tames you have been breeding/training up.
Now at level 100 you will be able to make and repair tek items that you unlock from many boss fights. You’ll also unlock the ability to learn the heavy turret engram. Some Tek tier items actually require higher levels than the vanilla game level cap (105) to make. So level 100 is when you really want to start thinking about ways you can raise your level cap.
Correction needed? Feedback?
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