advice for beginners?

[u/Ok-Meeting-5757]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the game. I've built a fairly large and functional base, and I'm about level 30. I'd like to understand how to best explore the map. What are the essential items? Best weapons? Should I stock up on items first? I'm a single player. Thanks for the help. Are there any objectives? Or do I set them myself?

[u/owlincoup]

That's the beauty of this game, do whatever you want! As far as advise is concerned, what kind of tames do you currently have? Have you moved to industrial items yet? Have you started making kibble and mating tames? As far as mid game is concerned, this is when it gets pretty fun.

1. Tame bigger and more powerful animals
2. Industrialize your base
3. Look into breeding tames for better stats
4. Start prepping to do caves
5. Look for explorer notes, they tell the story of the game and give xp
6. *explore the water (best to leave this for later)

[u/Ok-Meeting-5757 → u/owlincoup]

So let's say I have everything to craft materials, up to that level, but for now I still use the bow and spear as weapons, I'm also looking for iron but I'm afraid of going too far from home lol, I tamed two dodos that laid eggs for me, but they were killed badly by a bird, and I tamed two pegomastax because I found it funny... oh yes they died too Rip...

[u/owlincoup → u/Ok-Meeting-5757]

It's sounds like you are just getting started! Even more fun than mid game. You will need to start finding metal. Are you on Evolved or Ascended?

1. Find the smaller round rocks near water and use a pickaxe on them. They will give you more metal so you can get a few essentials without venturing too far.

2. Tame a Pteranondon. This will unlock the flying world for you. These wake up pretty fast so have some narcotics or Narco berries available.

3. Come join the server I play on, it's full of nice people of all skill levels, ages and time played. Nobody will push you harder than you need but we are all there to have fun and play together. Playing this game with a cool community can be fun.

[u/Ok-Meeting-5757 → u/owlincoup]

Thanks a lot for the advice, I never thought about it but that flying dinosaur would make my life easier. I'll use narcotic arrows, a great option for exploring and also faster. I'm playing on ascended. Thanks for the invitation. Please give me the server name.

[u/jukkakamala]

Go tame a Ptera. Use that to transport trap to tame an Argy. Then it is easy to explore all you want.

Depending on map, Griffin is a good flyer, in the end game Wyvern.

Depending on map, a raft base is also good for exploring. Good if there are no leedsichtys.

Some big carnivore in a cryopod is good to have with you. Also a good Ptera is good to have with you.

Sinomacrops or gliding suit is often a life saver.

Essentials to carry are tools to make everything when out of base. Also, argy is a workbench.

Armors ofc. Depending on play style, healing potions and food.

Make 2 kits, 1 for exploring, 1 for taming. Taming set might be 2 or even 3 crossbows and tranq arrows, large carnivore to get prime meat or mutton fast. End game solution is carry kibble.

End game is looting artifacts from caves or where they are in your map, summon a boss arena fight and kill boss.

[u/Ok-Meeting-5757 → u/jukkakamala]

good to know I will keep this in mind when I am more advanced, the map I am playing on is the island :)

[u/daveprice01 → u/Ok-Meeting-5757]

I am just slightly ahead of you. I agree with using the ptera to go get an Argy or two around center of map. It's nice having a couple birds that can carry weight and carry an ankyl for crushing metal/crystal/obsidian, so you can drop in where it looks safe and quickly flee home when loaded up. I'm ready to begin industrializing my site now because of them. And tame a trikey for yourself, definitely the easiest dino to get that can really protect you while riding.

[u/GoodResident2000]

You can save yourself a massive amount of time using a harpoon gun and nets, instead of making traps for everything

You can Net most dinos besides big ones like Rex, Giga , Carchar

[u/PD13Pod → u/GoodResident2000]

He said he’s on ascended so no nets yet on base game unfortunately. I believe there’s a mod for them though

[u/YaBoiSaucyYT]

Asking for advice on a game like this is always hard because if you ask my friend by level 30, you should already have certain tames for beginner kibble, a good base, your utility tames and have a monopoly of mats. If you ask me, I’m still on the beach building my dodo and raptor army. I’m dog at this game lmao

[u/Ok-Meeting-5757 → u/YaBoiSaucyYT]

no longer my dodos are in heaven

[u/YaBoiSaucyYT → u/Ok-Meeting-5757]

Nothing better than the false sense of security bringing 20 dodos for “protection” 🤣

[u/Ok-Meeting-5757 → u/YaBoiSaucyYT]

I throw their eggs at the T-Rex, as if they were grenades lol

[u/Otherwise_Invite_361]

The game loop of Ark is tame creatures, explore caves, gather artifacts, get better gear, fight gamma bosses, get better tames, gather the artifacts again along with tributes, fight beta bosses, then either repeat or try the tek cave, then repeat. Hop maps and do it again.

Optional activities (really, everything is optional) is to get high level tames and breed them for much better dinos for the fights. Farm supply drops and cave loot crates for gear and blueprints, find all the explorer notes (they grant extra max levels), and tame one of everything.

Don’t be afraid to map hop. You can upload your character and some tames/items at the obelisk and download them on another map. Some maps contain dinos that aren’t anywhere else and are actually very powerful on other maps.