Beginner: How do I make progress?

[Lampglow]

I'm being killed every 7 minutes or so either by dinos or just walking in the cold and since I drop everything on death (on body) I'm constantly having to start over. I made a raft (boat) and can't get back to it as dino I can't kill (can't remember these names).

Trying to obtain enough skins for metal processing but the basic weapons have little effect offensive/defensive on most opponents. It's getting tedious constantly losing my inventory and not being able to get back to it as enemy in the way.

[Vesuvius]

Wich map

[Vesuvius]

And is this server... or singleplayer

[Julius Seizure]

Happy to walk you through the initial phase of the game if you'd like me to. Added you, feel free to ignore if you'd rather not add a random to your friends list.

[retsam1]

1. What map?
2. Single player, official server or unofficial server? If unofficial or single player, what settings are you using... default or altered?


Ark is a game that requires you to experientially learn (or get outside of game help for).

That said as a new player and lets assume on the Island map:

1. Dont spawn in extreme conditions locations(ie cold or such in the north). Try spawning in the souther islets area (section 2 is usually a good spot).

2. Learn to keep your head on a swivel.(or mouse really). Starting out is hard but not being situationally aware of your surroundings makes it harder.

3. Dont spend tons of time exploring. Find food, make tools, find and make safe shelter. Plenty of places that you can choose to do this around.

4. Outside of dodos and a few other things, everything is conspiring to kill you. Play conservatively and accordingly. Just because its small doesnt mean you can kill it.... especially when its buddies come running. Learn the behavior of the creatures, they tend to do things in certain ways.

5. If 1-4 isnt suiting you and you still find it hard, then thats where settings come in. You can change settings to make you hardier with surviving to the point of being invincible even if you so choose. Ark has a steep learning curve at first for some and it seems you are one of those type folks. Make yourself available to the tools the devs give players to play the game the way they want intentionally.

[Chaser the Tiny Hippo]

Not knowing what map you're on and where you're spawning, something that I can guarantee will help you is to get bolas. They trap most little dinos in place and you can walk around to their back and poke their tail with spears until they die, or knock them out and tame them. The bola won't save you from rexes or other big threats, but it should keep you safe from most things that spawn on the beach, at the least.

[Xandor]

From lvl 9, start making bolas and always keep 10 on your hotbar. You can make most small/medium sized creatures unable to move with it.

Wear armor that has insulation for the area (ghille, desert cloth or cloth armor for heat. fur for cold. flak armor for damage reduction that is cheap to repair).

Get 130%+ movement speed, it really makes it easier to survive if you have a decent amount of movement speed.

Aggro from a rex/Spino/any other big creature that you can't bola? Run up around the closest hill so they get stuck, they don't path around so it is easy to just use the terrain to not die.

Don't go close to territorial dinos (theri is a common territorial dino that a lot of people die to).

Build a hut and place a bed down, so you safely and quickly can get back to where you was. For further expeditions, make sure you have backup flying dinos if you die so you can spawn back in, get on your spare flying dino and fly back to your body.

Use a crossbow for taming. It is the best weapon for it (tranq darts with longneck is really expensive but deal less damage so good on vulnerable creatures, bow is just not worth using for taming unless you can't get a crossbow).

Tame some good dinos (you need at least 1 berry picking dino to make it easier to make tranq arrows, tame a low lvl ankylo/stego/moschops/mammoth/gigantopithecus and use it to gather narcoberries).
Very easy to tame:
Raptor - use a bola then shoot it with tranq arrows. very easy.
Parasaur - same as raptor, less useful.
Pteradon - same as raptor, having a flyer is really useful. Make sure no hostile dinos can get to it, it is very vulnerable.
Ankylo / doed / Mammoth - slow moving, just shoot it with tranq arrows while moving away.
Direwolf/Sabertooth/Beelzebufo is some more dinos you can easily tame with bola + tranq arrows.
If you find a monkey man (Gigantopithecus) then walk up behind it and feed it berries, don't let it walk into you or it will kill you. Very easy and good tame.
Moschops at a little increased taming modifier it can be tamed with 1-2 items, sometimes it is a berry or meat so it can be really easy to tame or very hard, depending on what it wants.

If you get a high level dino, level it up and give it a fair amount of health and damage, then you are mostly safe as long as you have it to protect you.

Dinos that will likely kill your dino: Alphas (glowing red), rex, spino, yutyrannus, allosaurus, theri ("tickle bird"), giganotosaurus.

[xlovermanx]

sounds like ark is not the right game for you ark is a game of get good stay away from killy things and pray you dont get eaten by a raptor and if you started genesis without learning the how the game works before hand then "welcome to the ark experience"

[L3wt]

Stop leading angry dinos back to your base for starters. Don't carry anything on you that can't easily be replaced. Get yourself a good dino early on like a Trike or even easier, bola a few raptors. Movement speed is useless for bobs, level health to 400 soon as you can so you can survive most falls and put the rest in weight/fortitude.

Oh and did I mention stop leading angry dinos back to your base? I know it might feel safe to run straight home but you're just putting all of your hard work at risk. Make yourself a grappling hook as soon as you can and shoot high at trees if you see a raptor coming. It will get aggro on something below after a while and run away. But hey, don't be on foot anyway.

Pretty soon you will be like "WTH I CANT DIE IM SO BORED" so you start face tanking basilisks and they send you back to bob's beach cafe.

[Cobretti]

Spawn S2 on The Island map. Safest spot in the game. Learn the game there.

[Lampglow]

Originally posted by Vesuvius:

Wich map

The island (first option) singleplayer first spawn location I think.

[Uueerdo]

Originally posted by Lampglow:

Originally posted by Vesuvius:

Wich map

The island (first option) singleplayer first spawn location I think.

If it is the spitters (Dilos) giving you trouble, just try to strafe when they are about to spilt (you can tell by observing them). Once you close range (and continue sidestepping) you can (usually) take them out with just fists (but spears help).

I also like to tame a handful of dodos at the start (once I can keep them relatively safe in a small thatch structure); their eggs provide a stable food source and meat (for taming more vicious creatures) doesn't spoil if it is still walking around.

[Sicksadpanda]

If it is single player, I suggest increasing the resource farming ratio. Ark is a game that's heavily dependent on teamwork, so I'd just up resource harvesting to between 4x and 10x. I do not recommend boosting damage or resistance though.

As for starting out. Be very specific with your level ups. I consider health and weight to be extremely important. Never level up food or water. Fortitude seems weak at first, but with enough points, it makes temperature easier to deal with. Speed is also good, but I suggest leveling that later since most of the threats will most likely outrun you in the beginning.

As for the startup plan, don't spend your engram points needlessly! Unless you made changes in config files, they are not easy to get back. Only learn saddles if you actually have the dino, otherwise, failure to tame the dino is a waste of engram.

I also highly recommend taming an army of dilos. Dilos are weak alone, but in groups, they can destroy a trike in seconds, giving you hide and exp access easily.

[Lampglow]

Originally posted by CharlieWade:

sounds like ark is not the right game for you ark is a game of get good stay away from killy things and pray you dont get eaten by a raptor and if you started genesis without learning the how the game works before hand then "welcome to the ark experience"

Trying to but the 'killy things' tend to sneak up on me suddenly or they're in my way, and since I'm not entirely sure which dinos are harmless which are deadly (when not obvious). Those mini dinos can be hard to spot.

[ThePineappleKing]

If you don't like killy things stay away from plains (raptor & rexs) and jungles (pumas allos carnos and what not) stay by beaches but not river sides (spinos beryonyx).

[retsam1]

Originally posted by Lampglow:

Originally posted by CharlieWade:

sounds like ark is not the right game for you ark is a game of get good stay away from killy things and pray you dont get eaten by a raptor and if you started genesis without learning the how the game works before hand then "welcome to the ark experience"

Trying to but the 'killy things' tend to sneak up on me suddenly or they're in my way, and since I'm not entirely sure which dinos are harmless which are deadly (when not obvious). Those mini dinos can be hard to spot.

I already addressed this above....