What is the best map for Solo PvE players?

[DovahChikiin]

So I want to start playing ark again, I have played for about 1500 hours and played every base game map and a few modded ones. I am a solo or just with small group of friends player and mostly like to have a big creature variety for taming and fun things to do (Cool building, better breeding, better tools) What would be your suggestions for a map to play?base game or modded.

Also while here, any other suggestions on creature mods or just anything else I mostly like real dinos but I can accept other suggestions.

What would you guys recommend?

Thanks in advance!

[mayhem]

I really enjoyed my time on the Lost Island. Huge map, all major biomes and animals and Engrams, and some really cool locations. It feels like a proper follow-up to the Island's blueprint.

But then i played Fjordur and I think it's my favorite map. For all the same reasons, but it has even cooler locations and some fun ruins to explore, and some extra creatures like Shadowmane. I can see myself spending a lot of time there.

As for mods, I haven't gotten into creature stuff yet, but if you feel Ark's lacking a bit in the gun department, "Weapon Smith" is a great mod to add some real guns in the game. To get better than primitive versions there's also an "Upgrade Station" mod, or blueprints for them can manually be added to Supply Drops or Boss Loot. Also enjoying "All Animals Allow Guns" to shoot from any animal's back while you're riding.

[william_es]

If you're new to game, choose the basic map TheIsland.

Overall, if you just want to play single player pve, then genesis 2. The hexagon shop allows you to just buy bulk resources. There are events that are really easy to do with the right dinos, like the alpha level hunts, that will give you tons of hexagons.

My main breeding base is in Genesis 2, just for that convenience. Sometimes I just buy berries, meat, etc to throw in feeding troughs (yes, I could get that super easy in 10 minutes, but it's not wanting to spend the 10 minutes). Most of the time it's buying rarer materials, also to just save the time from having to go farm it.

[toxicprime]

If you are sticking to just 1 map, Fjordur is the most complete with respect to how many available dinos are there to be tamed. Its massive, has great caves, multiple environments, and the boss progression is good too. 3 of its unique dinos are so game changing and are the best dinos to take into caves. If you are playing solo pve, then caves can be very difficult and these tames can help immensely.

Lost Island would be runner up. But if you do play on those maps, it might make it a bit painful to play on the rest of the maps in the future. Gen1 stands apart as a black sheep with lots of limitations and maybe the 3rd most difficult to start on. Gen2 is the easiest map to start on and has some of the best tames as well.

If you are a masochist and wanted to go with (imo) the hardest and most unique map, Aberration is a great pick. After your first hour you will know what it is to be an ark player and if you still want to keep playing, then this game is for you.

Starting on the Island is the most vanilla experience, and not a bad pick, because when you are done there, any map you go to will have something new to experience.

For mods I havent used any creature mods since I enjoy the base games dinos just fine, although if I HAD to get one, it would be to allow breedable Griffons.

But the most important mods I'll never play without again are S+ and Dino Storage. S+ best feature imo is the inventory pulling system. Dino Storage is a mod that takes the function of cryopods and makes it significantly better and more useful for breeding.

[🦊 Hermit]

Why limit yourself to one map? You can upload characters, tames and items to the obelisk and swap between them as you wish. Play them all

[william_es]

Originally posted by 🦊 Hermit:

Why limit yourself to one map? You can upload characters, tames and items to the obelisk and swap between them as you wish. Play them all

or just keep different characters on each map. That's what I do.

I got tired of constantly uploading and downloading all the gear, and found it quicker to just move a few small stacks of items back and forth. When I load into a map, my character that lives on that map is already parked right at an obelisk, and I just take a few things out of the inventory (mostly taming related stuff like stacks of kibble and tranq darts). Each character has stats customized to that map (like my genesis 2 guy has zero pts in fortitude since it's just not needed there... you always spawn in a suit of dumbed down tek armor).

Each character already has there own gear (made from a blueprint I find on any of the playthroughs and then send to main base on genesis 2). There are a few things, like one insane ascendent longneck rifle that I pass from map to map, just because it's so high. I have stable breeding lines of tames, so I can pump out another therizino, thyla, argentavis, rex, etc as needed and pass it to another map.

[AlphaGodith]

the island is probably best for learning the game, and then the lost island free dlc is good for getting dinos normally exclusive to other dlcs, without being quite as intimidating for a solo player. (i believe it is the only map with all 4 types of organic wyverns... the only other kind are the tek ones exclusive to the genesis dlc). it's relatively simple like the island, but bigger and more beautiful, perfect for once you've mastered the island and are bored of it but want more.

but like others suggested, you can start with one map and then transfer that character and your fave tames to the next map. the payed dlcs are in fact designed with that being expected of you.

[Darinlh]

I personally like Ragnarok as "general" playthrough and must have mods are S+, Dino Storage either the standard one or I prefer the RPE version which uses primitive clay "jars" vs high tech magic balls and Krakens better dinos (I add babies and eggs to the ini file) Leave the aggressive adults on makes it fun, since dodos and paras will attack you on the beach if you are to close to a new baby and the secret dream of running up to a fertilized egg in a Rex nest on day 1, becomes possible (be careful since the "taking egg" mechanic is the same as wyverns and all dinos of that type will attack you, you can also passive tame the babies (if momma/daddy ain't around).

If you lean more PVE and building/living vs pure combat load add "R.P. EDDitions" and "Dynamic Fence System" the fence system is by far the best "I really don't want to build another damn perimeter fence" mod can be power to tranq or kill dinos but I use it to just keep the riff-raff wondering dinos out of my damn yard.

R.P. EDDitions has tons of great quality of life items like much better cloth armor made with fiber and includes SHOES, a motor/pestle that you can set on the ground (it is just a stone bowl after all) a Grinder/recycling barrel that is just a wood barrel but replaces an industrial grinder at 10th of the size, a freestanding stove that cooks everything and does not need to hook up to a waterline (I mean really who has a stove hooked up to a water line in their house?)