A Beginner's Guide (Hidden Gems)

It is the guide that I wish I had read beside a other guides (a complementary guide). It's intended audience is single (offline) players, however there are still some useful parts for online players. It covers levels under 50 and will not cover the higher levels as by then you should be sailing (sort of).

It covers undocumented hotkeys and "best" taming methods; ways to improve frame rate (performance); bugs and their possible solutions. If you find it long, I would recommend the Taming, Levelling and Inventory Sections.

The guide was written over a period and is still an ongoing work, so things I said I would do, in other sections I might say I've done it. I do try to clean it up, but I am only human.

If there are mistakes or advice please let me know. Thanks :)

Last Update 2016/03/21

- Updated inventory section

Map of the Island

Map Taken from Ark Gamepedia Site[ark.gamepedia.com]

Important Links and Information

• Ark Wiki[ark.gamepedia.com]
  
• Engram Calculator[www.survive-ark.com]
  
• Fishy's Engram Calculator[martinblackburn.github.io]
  
• Taming Calculator[www.survive-ark.com]
  
• Kibble Tree[ark.gamepedia.com]

The game itself does not tell you how to tame, how to make kibble for a particular dinosaur, all of this and more, you need to look at the links above. There's no point in reproducing everything here.

If you do not know the basics of taming, look there: http://ark.gamepedia.com/Taming

Improving Frame Rate

An excellent video by kephren on how to improve your frame rate. The launch options really helped. Launch options: -USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10

Into the Light

The image above shows the inside of a cave in daytime. It's darker at night (I kid you not). If you are having too much trouble with bright lights, then get inside the console (default tab) and type:

r.BloomQuality 1
r.LightShafts 1

That should make it better.

A more permanent solution is editing the ini file.

The Beginning

When you wake up, the first thing you need to do is create your stone pick, for that pickup a stone and punch a tree until you get 10 thatch and 1 wood. Get enough materials in perpetration of building you next three items (hatchet, campfire and spear). Gather berries while you are at it, the more full you are the better you handle cold or at least that is what I noticed. Once you hit level 2, I personally would recommend an axe and a spear and the campfire at level 3.

Build several spears (stackable), this is your first ranged weapon and it is the most powerful thing you have until you get your first bow. Also you spear/pike are the most important close compact weapon as they keep the enemy at bay with knock backs.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Stone_Pick
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Stone_Hatchet
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Spear
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Campfire

Engrams

Early on in the game you will not have enough Engrams for everything you want so get what you need and not want. You are a solo player so buildings are not a must but one must admit building a base is fun.

By level 15 you should at least have the following: Campfire, Hatchet, Waterskin, Spear, Slingshot, thatch foundation, Sleeping Bag, bed, Stone Irrigation Pipe - Tap/Intake, Storage, Mortar And Pestle, Narcotic, Compass, Small Plot and Compost Bin

In terms of armour it depends on your gaming style. The problem here is if you invest on armour you will not have enough points on the other items. In respect you won't have enough points for all armour and weapons. My level is in the low 40's and as yet I have not placed a single point on armour as all the armour I have gotten I got from Dinos (Cloth) and Hide/Chitin (Beacons). Once you get the Mindwipe recipe[ark.gamepedia.com] drop and the items to make it, you can go a little crazy or like me just sit on your arse as you cannot be asked.

From level 2 you can kill Titanoboa and any aggressive creature that are slower than you for drops. I got my metal pick, hatchet and bow early on. I was tight with the bow, simply because I could not craft more arrows. Once I hit level 15 I unlocked arrows and not bow, as by then I had several bows in storage.

There are a number of items you can unlock early on but you cannot build unless you get the rare material. An example is the case Spyglass needs crystal and for that you need a metal pick and either swim the depth of the ocean, climb high mountains or find a cave (I am not so lucky yet to find a cave). But once you get hold of a crystal, unlock it, it is a most useful tool. With it, you can give commands to your dino's from afar.

Unlock the Sickle as you will need fibre as the game progress. I delayed unlocking it as I never unlocked the Metal Hatchet and Pick as I had gotten a few from loot that I kept repairing. The Sickle is a great time saver, I never thought it would be that awesome.

Attributes

First thing you should invest in is Health. Increase it until you are comfortable. Having HP over 400 makes you very hard to kill. With a crossbow and narcs you could take on a Carno at 30. Also HP acts like oxygen, when you run out of oxygen your HP begins to drop in stages, so you can treat it as an last tank of oxygen.

Next, I would recommend Weight as it is tedious getting overweight messages. 150 is more than good enough at 40, but as you level up and get more equipment or want to go Snow Biome, then 200+ is needed. Currently I will be increasing my weight to 200 after I increased my fortitude. This means I would need to change my mount or put extra points on weight rather than hp.

And finally, I would recommend a few points on Fortitude. Currently I am upping Fortitude and hoping to place five points in there. The best thing about it, is the ability to handle cold better. Currently I have 2 and I think my food intake has decreased when I am cold. So it seems to help.

• Stamina - Pointless with Stems
  
• Oxygen - Pointless with Lazarus drop[ark.gamepedia.com] and also most of the time you are not going to be in the water. The game recipes are not clear or informative so use wiki. FYI: A serving means x3 so 3 Serving of Cooked Meat, means 9 Cooked meat (go figure).
  
• Food - Why bother. Just carry a little more
  
• Water - No
  
• Melee Damage - Pointless, you use range most of the time. However, it does increase the amount you harvest.
  
• Movement Speed - No need to rush. Also you are already faster than most of your creatures.
  
• Crafting Speed - No. Can you even put a point in it? I am not sure, as its not even on my radar.

It is recommended to look at the Cooking link below to see all the recipes that help boost your attributes.
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Attributes
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Cooking

Use the right tool for the Job

Each tool you have is more apt at getting certain type of resource. So learn to use the right tool for the right job and not make the silly mistake I made. Until I hit 20, I used the hatchet for getting meat as that is what I would have though the more logical option, well it turns out its a pick.

Links to tools and the resources you use them for.
Metal Pick[ark.gamepedia.com]: Flint, Meat. Prime Meat, Metal, Crystal, Thatch, Oil, Obsidian
Metal Hatchet[ark.gamepedia.com]: Stone, Wood, Hide, Angler Gel, Pelt
Metal Sickle[ark.gamepedia.com]: The best way to get Fiber

The best gatherers are not tools but dinosaurs. Look in the Gathering section.

Bow vs Crossbow
Simple answer, is you need both. With the crossbow, it takes too long to load and you cannot run at full pace when loading, which makes it in certain situations a dangerous hindrance. However, the advantage it takes less shots to knock out a creature, as torpor increase is Damage x Narc. So in certain situation the bow is better in others its the crossbow.

Inventory and Hotkeys

In your inventory, you can create folders and drag items in them, however currently its pretty useless as it does not automatically drop items of a particular type into the folder. To delete the folder, press del. When you sort you folder and drag or drop items, the order gets reset. To avoid this you can use the hotkey 'o' for drop, 't' for transfer. To drop/transfer single items press 'ctrl' with the hotkey.

WARNING If you have items filtered, and you drop/transfer using hotkeys it drops/tranfers items that are not currently selected.

You should always carry with you materials for torch and campfire. However, it is better to carry the finished product as it is lighter in weight. Torch is very important, you do not want to get caught out in the middle of a forest without a light or the materials to make it.

Waterskin vs Glass Jar. I would recommend the glass jar even though it is heavy. It is reliable unlike water skin. If one waterskin leaked out, all waterskin have leaked. I now carry two glass jars and rarely do find myself short on water, unlike when I had a dozen leaky waterskin flasks.

Skins

You can press shift and drag the costume off the armour.

Eat through a stack of berries

You can quickly eat through a stack of berries by entering the inventory and then placing the berries in slot 1. While still in inventory, press and hold 1 key and it will eat speed whatever is in slot 1.

Food and Spoilage

The smaller the stack the faster the spoil rate of items. So if you want items to last longer, keep the stack larger. If you want meat to spoil fast for Narcs, create a single stack of meat in your inventory. Moving item stack from one inventory to another, causes it to decrease the amount of time before it spoils. If you want to spoil meat really fast then you just transfer the stack from one inventory to another until it spoils, though it is a tedious task.

Shelf life multiplier of items in inventory:
- x1: Personal Inventory and normal storage
- x4: Feeding Trough, Dinosaurs Inventory
- x10: Preserving Bin
- x100: Refrigerator

That means that in a Preserving bin items last ten times longer in there than in your personal inventory. Look at the bug section to take heed of the Spoilage bug that can shorten your food life.

Dinosaurs Loot

The best way to get items above your level is to kill aggressive (slower) dinosaurs above a Dilo. I got spawned in "East Zone 3" which either was in the swap or near it. From a low level I killed Titanoboa and Sarcosuchus. The way you do that is by throwing the spears at the creature. At one point I had 8 spears while my weight was still at 100. Personally I would recommend avoiding Scaros if you are not comfortable as they are much faster than Titanoboas, and they take too many spears. Go for Titanoboa, 2-3 spears and they are dead and if lucky you get some great loot. One other thing, aggro them closer to your base and away from their spawning area. The last thing you want is to be caught by more than one aggressive creatures and you still have not unlocked the Sling Shot. If you have already tamed a few Dilos, then well done, they will save your life when your lights are out due to Titanoboa's bite and your (my) carelessness. Be careful in swap water, you cannot hear them and sometimes you cannot spot them. I've got attacked by 3-5 Tibo's more or less at once and its not them that kill me its worse. I got killed more times by getting knocked unconscious in knee deep swap water and drowning, than by physically getting killed by a Tibo.

Items you can get early on from drops are armour, bow, pick and if lucky a metal hatchet (seems rare).

Durability and Damage

Note dinsour drops usually have better quality items than you can create.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Titanoboa

Levelling

One of the quickest ways to level and let time past is when you are building or crafting Narcos. Craft narcos and watch yourself level fast. When you build a pen or a large base, you will level up. Crafting is the easiest and surest way to level. This section is short, I do not really know what more to add.

The passing of time levels you. .... :? Everything levels you, but fastest way is crafting and building you drug empire.

Compass, Navigation and the "Simple Bed"

The compass is a most useful tool. Without it I would have been lost. Learn how to use it. Always head in the direction of the "N" on the compass, so it is always straight up ahead if you are looking forward.

Where the blue arrow should be if you want to head that direction:
- North: Blue arrow pointing at N
- South: Blue arrow pointing at S
- West: Blue arrow pointing at E
- East: Blue arrow pointing at W
- North West: Blue arrow pointing between N and E
...

I discovered this at in my 40s. But it seems you can fast travel (empty inventory) between simple beds, and if you build one or more you can get the exact location of where you are. It also allows you to see the full map. Go figure. I spent ages trying to figure out my location and all I need to do was click on a bed.

Consider placing signs telling you the location or at what direction the next sign or base is. I would not waste an engram on signs, but if you are lucky you will get a few from beacons or even a blueprint for one (I got both).

Farming

Once you unlock the small plot, Irrigation Tap and Intake at level 10 build your first farms. With each Irrigation tap you can water up to 20 small plots.

Medium Plots you can do 16. You need them to grow you vegetables.

For faeces, start collecting small faeces and placing them in one of your tamed dino's from early on. They last a while and then place them in compost bin once you create it. 100 Thatch and 6 (+1 for backup) you get fertilizer. If you are luckier than me, you would find and tame a Beetle. Finding a beetle has become a top priority for me, but I have no luck in finding caves, neither in water or out.

Another highly recommended option is the Phimio. Get one and feed it stims and watch him defecate. If you do not have a Phiomia, the next best thing is a dodo. It seems you can also feed them stims to give them the runs, but watch their food stat, you do not want to starve the animal.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Small_Crop_Plot
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Medium_Crop_Plot
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Dung_Beetle

5x5 Small Sized Plots



4x4 Medium Sized Plots

Resources and Gathering

Farming Dinosaurs

When farming with your dinosaur, it might be best to lead him to the destination. If you mount the dinosaur, and make him sprint to destination he runs out of stamina fast. If you run ahead of him and make him follow you, his stamina is endless. So for you Ankylosaurus, Stegosaurus do not ride him to destination but lead him to it. Only exception is Doedicurus, they are fun to ride and stamina is endless. Do not set the Doedicurus on roam unless you want to lose it.

Build bases near farming spots that produce intermediary product. That way you can carry twice the amount. Eventually you might have a moving base, and this won't be such an issue.

I would recommend taking a carrier mount and a farmer mount. I used two mammoths from carrying stuff, thus I up their weight. For the farmers, after upping their weight to an acceptable level so I do not have to empty often, I always increase their melee. More melee damage the more resource you gather from a node.

A link good but sometimes erronous guide: http://ark.gamepedia.com/Domesticated

This is from my own personal experience on which animals I found best for harvesting.

Wood Mammoth and nothing comes close for anything below 50.The beaver is out (level 55) and I've managed to tame them, but I seem to get them killed before I get enough engrams to unlock the saddle. So I do not know how good they are. But looking at their stats and skill they seem the best choice.

Thatch Excluding the untested beaver, oddly I would suggest the male Megaloceros. It is an awesome thatch gatherer as it collects nothing else but thatch and the odd piece of wood/rare mushrooms. It's even better than the Bronto in my view, as the Bronto gathers a whole lot of unwanted stuff. Another one is the Stego or Doed.

Berries Stegosaurus until you get the Bronto. I still use the Stegosaurus rather than the cumbersome Bronto, though I have several of both creatures.

Narcoberries Oddly enough I would recommend the Stegosaurus over every other creature that can gather them. This includes the Bronto. It seems for me it gathers Narcoberries at a higher ratio compared to other berries. Also it gathers same amount of berries as the Bronto in a smaller area, so I do not have to wander around as much.

Stone, Obsidian
Doedicurus

Metal, Flint, Oil
Ankylosaurus

Hide
It is a close call between the Sabertooth and the Direwolf. I am leaning more towards the direwolf because of the amount of damage it does.

Meat
Not sure, never seem to have a shortage so never really took notice. Rex is awesome and you can let it gather without mounting it. Below 50 I would say the Carno and then either the Direwolf or Sabertooth.

Prime Meat
Carno and the big Carnivorous.

Pelt
Direwolf according to wiki.

Chitin
Sabertooth and Direwolf. Sabertooth seems to have a better chance at getting oil and pearls.

Rare Flower and Mushroom
I would consider the Bronto as it tail swipes a vast area and though ratio wise sucks, it does a good job. Otherwise the Ankylo, or even, for Rare Mushrooms. is the Megaloceros because it can travel between trees fast. Drop rate on Rare Mushrooms seems to be abysmal no matter what I use. Update: Mammoth seems to be awesome at getting Rare Mushrooms.

Snow Biome

The Snow Biome has a lot of these stuff in abundance. It is the best land place, but it is also very harsh in climate. You will need to get the "Rockwell Recipes: Fria Curry" drop or just get the recipe online. The other place I personally found is the bottom of the ocean near the barrier, or at least that was the case in the Eastern side. There I found large patches of oil/silica and a cave.

Water Caves

The thing that makes you spot water caves are the bubbles, as shown badly in the image below.

Resources

Just a quick section with image links to show you how the resources look. I used a dino image for missing screenshots. I will replace them eventually. These areas might not be the best areas as I am still discovering the map.
N.B. Below I mention mountains and say the "best place", I automatically exclude the Snow Biome as it is pretty dangerous. But in all resources the Snow Biome has the highest concentration, just the creatures and climate does not make it the "best".

Metal
Found on rocky mountain. The best mountain appears to be the Whitesky Mountain for dense areas of metal and obsedian.


Crystal
Found on mountain tops and easy to spot when dark. Also can be found in caves and Snow Biome. It seems to be most common on the peak of "Far's Peak" mountain. Drop rate with a pick seems abysmal.


Oil
A pain to gather, another reason to try and find a beetle. Can be mined from the ocean floor, Ocean Caves, Snow Biome (Great).

In most cases you will find one at a time but occasionally something like this:

Around a dozen nodes and Pearls, I wish I had GPS for that spot. I found it most common at the bottom of the ocean at the game barrier. So far, like land caves, I've not been able to find water caves. Oil is very common in Snow Biome and Snow Biome ocean (NW), but its harsh weather and tough creatures.

Silica Pearls
Found on the Ocean Floor. Click pickup twice to maximise gathering. "Easiest" place is the Snow Biome. You can find them along the coast line where Kairuku roam. Areas where Kairuku are secluded are best as it is safish.


Obsidian
You cannot miss it, its black and found at the middle of mountains.


Stone
No need for a section for this, but wanted to say the tiny little rocks displayed in the images below seem to generate a huge amount of stone if farmed with a Doedicurus. Around 25-35 per stone and you find a dozen+ of them in one place. Each stone only needs one hit to break.


A full list of resources can be found here[ark.gamepedia.com]
Resources
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Dung_Beetle

Building

When gathering resources for building remember, you should always craft the item as you gather as the finished item always weighs a fraction of the material used to build it. You can carry the materials maybe two wooden foundations, but you can carry over ten times the complete product.

Go to craft menu and drag item you want to build to the hud, example "Wooden Wall" and then build one and drag it to the hud. Now you can press a hotkey key to build a wall and look at the hud to see how many you've built.

Building a Pen

No matter what you build, your dinos will escape. To be fair, I only tried thatch and wood and in both cases dinosaurs have escaped. It is more common for them to escape in railings than wall fences. The game's collision detection is awful. You see dinosaurs getting agitated and ramming the wall that is between them.

I built all different forms of pens to try and keep them in and in all they escaped. My current version is they are in a massive room on foundations. I've lost several animals over the period and some got killed. My biggest loss was a Pteranodon with my stuff on it. I also lost a beel with dozens of railings only to find it over 10 levels later in the middle of the ocean following me. Again, do not use railings for a pen, it seems to leak like a sieve.

I would recommend the pen should at least be three walls high and you will eventually learn to need a wooden dino gate. The path finding in the game sucks, so to get a Dodo through a dino gate you need to line him up. Yep, line up a dodo for DINO GATE, otherwise he will hit the wall when he tries to follow you. Apart from the base level wall, the rest of the walls on-top can be thatch as there is no need to waste time making wooden one, and any dino that can climb over the wooden wall can smash it. The only exception is Beel, it can jump over the hight of three walls.

Magician at work with an escape trick

Taming Methods and Effectiveness (To Starve or Not To Starve)

A major issue with this game is the taming time. It is way too long. If you decrease the taming time the amount of resources needed becomes too little which makes it too easy. I would recommend at least x2 taming speed or even more. I am playing offline so I can do this with breaks, for those who are playing online it must be a hell of a bore.

I would also recommend taming more than one creature at a time as it is time consuming. My last tame two tames I tamed 3 Ankylosaurus, Saber and an Argentavis and the last five Megalodon at once. Initially, I just came for the Ankylosaurus because I hit 40 and I needed metal gatherer bad and I knew of a spot where they reside, but the others joined in the party so I knocked them out. When knocking dinos out try and get them close together. For skittish creatures that is an issue, and most likely you are going to tame one at a time unless you are lucky. For ones you can aggro, just move them into position. All the above where very close apart from the Argentavis which flew a bit away before it collapsed.

When taming and it is getting dark, start a fire and circle the area with torches. The last thing you want is to be surprised by an aggressive dino. Also if you have a few dinos spread them about the circumference of the area. Plenty of times, I had raptors, scorpions come in and instead of taking on one of the unconscious creature they started a fight with one of my pets. Dilo's are the ones you should worry about, they go for unconscious creatures rather than yours.

Effectiveness

The more effective the tame is the more levels the dino goes up. This is affected by the speed of the tame and if the dino gets hit after it becomes unconscious. This should go without saying the more preferred the food is the quicker the tame and thus the more effective the tame becomes. So in almost all Dino's this is going to be Kibble (http://ark.gamepedia.com/Kibble). If you want best result then get the right food and starve the animal. The auto-decrease of effectiveness seems to being when the dinosaur gets its first meal, so for best result you need to starve the animal and then feed it. As then it begins too feed without pausing. Disadvantage of this method, is if the dinosaur is with low health, its health only heals when you feed it or at least that is what I noticed. So there is a good chance it can get killed with ease.
I have not tried to starve to zero but maybe that's a better approach. But at min, you just need to starve the right amount. Use the calcuator[www.survive-ark.com] to get the exact amount.

Advantages of Starvation:
- If dinosaur, you are less likely to lose anything
- Higher effectiveness

Disadvantage of Starvation:
- Unconscious dinosaur does not appear to heal unless it eats. (Not 100% sure about this)
- You can starve him to death by accident
- It takes more time as you are not sure how much to starve

Remember use the calculator to find out how long it takes to tame a creature and how to make the kibble.
http://www.survive-ark.com/ark-engram-calculator/

What to Tame and How - Part 1

This mainly covers up to level 40 and not any higher.

If you do not want to read the whole section, then just read the Beelzebufo part as it is the creature I would recommend you tame and use as a mount until your 40s and above. This is not a complete list of what you can saddle by that level, but a mere listing according to my humble view.


First this is a game for your enjoyment, so tame the dino you like. I love Stegosaurus, so as soon as I saw one I tamed the sucker using a slingshot. What a waste of time that was, it was a level two and got killed by the OP Meganeura horde soon after. I kid you not,it got killed by flying insects. Mind you, he was surrounded by my moronic Dilo's who were trying to catch the flies that were out of their reach and I was still newish to the absurd control system. So remember, get Dinos of similar heights in the swamp and the AI sucks a little (a lot).

Consider taming one male and a few females as they are the ones that produce eggs.
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Stegosaurus
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Meganeura

Dino Saddles Unlock Level

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Dino_Dossiers
L00 - Direwolf (Does not need a saddle to ride but its hard to get and its in the Snow Biome)
L05 - Phiomia
L10 - Ichthyosaurus, Parasaur
L15 - Pachy, Raptor
L20 - Trike
L25 - Pulmonoscorpius, Carbonemys, Terror Bird, Beelzebufo
L30 - Stegosaurus, Doedicurus, Paracer, Megaloceros.
L35 - Pteranodon, Sarcosuchus, Gallimimus (3 Seater Saddle)
L40 - Ankylosaurus, Mammoth
L45 - Megalodon, Sabertooth, Paraceratherium (Platform)
L50 - Procoptodon, Carnotaurus

Simple Tricks

Theses are obvious tricks, but just in case you do not know...
- If you are close to your base aggro the creatures to a safer zone.
- Once you are able to fly, you can aggro Argentavis all the way back to your base, and tame him at your leisure.
- Build a drop pen, that you can drop dinosaurs in when you get the bigger birds (Argentavis, Quetzalcoatlus)

Dodo

You should consider taming them for their eggs and the kibble they create. With them you can tame an Ichthy, Pteranodon and Mesopithecus. And unlike most other kibbles you do not need oil. Also with their eggs you can tame an Oviraptor, though it takes time (no surprise there).

Also you can eat their eggs when you are back at home.Taunt the evil looking birds.

You can tame four at a time, though a bit tricky. Use your fist to knock them.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Ichthy
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Pteranodon
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Oviraptor
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Mesopithecus

Dilophosaur

Dilo's are the first useful animal you should tame. You need their eggs as their eggs starts the main "kibble tree" and also they are invaluable asset when trying to survive. They are good in the swamps for killing flying pests, and with 6 of them you can kill anything up to and including a Carno without a loss. Be careful though when it comes to angering a group of 4+ Dimorphodon, you will get some losses.

You can tame easily 3-4 at a time using a sling or just punch their lights out, though you need good timing.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Dilophosaur
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Carnotaurus
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Dimorphodon

Stegosaurus

A must for berry gathering. Once you get one, you no longer need small plots, or at least is what I would like to say. If you have dung beetles I would re-consider keeping the small plots and screw gathering.

They are easy to capture, even if you are bellow level ten. They maybe faster than you, but they have no stamina. Just shoot and run. If you are in a forest just skirt between trees and he will get himself in a tangle.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Stegosaurus

Dung Beetle

For farming it makes life a lot easier. I have not found one, yet, but I am looking.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Dung_Beetle

Doedicurus & Ankylosaurus

For gathering get both. I would not get a saddle for a Doed, just leave it on wonder while you mine metal and watch it go. Just keep an eye on it as it can go miles away. Update: I would get a saddle for a Doed, as it is much quicker to get on one and farm.

They are both slower than you so they are easy to knock out.

Doedicurus are a pain to knock out because they require a huge amount of arrows. Their torpo is ridiculously high, and they are built like a tank. Go for a low level one, otherwise bring 50+ arrows.

Both of these creatures are found in the same mountain areas. If you spot an Ankylo, most likely a Doed is around that area.

N.B. The wiki is wrong on the Doed. The Doedicurus does not farm obsedian, the Ankyl does.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Doedicurus
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Ankylosaurus

Pulmonoscorpius

I made the mistake of getting this very, very late. It's eggs are used for taming the Rex and the Plesiosaur, but more importantly it is one of the ways to allow you to tame a Quetzalcoatlus.
Get it early and put all points on damage, and just save it up for the Quetzalcoatlus.


http://ark.gamepedia.com/Plesiosaur
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Megalodon.
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Scorpion
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Quetzalcoatlus

Raptor

Your first reasonable mount though unable to carry a heavy load, so you keep having to empty your inventory. Also they seem to loot even though you tell them not too loot. I guess they are a bit aggressive.I am not fond of my Raptor mount though I kept one until my 40s out of lack of knowledge. Their eggs are needed for the lovely mammoths., so get those females. It's very easy to tame them with Prime meat, but should you want to tame them with Kibble you need to get the Parasaur.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Raptor

What to Tame and How - Part 2

Pteranodon

A must mount. It is you first flying mount and scout, and the one that allow you to get rare mountain resources with ease. For level 6 and less it takes one shot using the crossbow, right on its forehead, or 1-2 shots using the bow.

Also you can use it to aggro Argentavis bring them closer to your base where you can knock them out and tame them at ease. Late on, with the larger flying dinasours you can pickup the dino and drop them in a cage where you can tame them at your own pace.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Pteranodon
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Argentavis

Beelzebufo

You can tame as many as you can knock out at a time.
I delayed taming one as its a frog, oh, had I known better. I tamed one in my 20s because I had enough of the pesky insects. In the end I tamed a few. With 6 with levels below 30, can kill a 30+ Rex with ease, Bronto a little more tricky. Killed a few Rexs already with them. While Sabertooths die in seconds, these frogs go on killing. They keep the aggressor at bay with their tongues which makes them OP. And stupidly I did not get a saddle for on until 40s. What a mistake. There is no land animal that can catch you when you are jumping, and they are fast and fun to ride. And in terms of weight they can carry you and your inventory. On top of that they are great swimmer that can outlast any creature, and currently they are the mounts I use for ocean farming. Good thing about their swimming is they do not use stamina and their is only one speed, FAST! Only issue is they do not attack under water, but they sure can run circles (literally) around all the others. I am considering to use one to swim around the coastline towards the Snow Biome, they are that fast.

Paraceratherium

Your first platform mount. A must as it allows you to have a moveable base. Easy-ish to tame. Best weapon to use is the bow as it allows you to run. With the crossbow it takes too long to load and you cannot run when loading, thus making you an easy target for the fast Paracer.

Just be careful, try to get one on its own and drag him away from the others, otherwise start killing all but the one you want.

Brontosaurus

Knock him out with the bow for the same reasons as the Paracer. Again, like the paracer try to find one on its own, and kill all creatures in the area that do fight rather than flight when they get attacked, because its lashing tail is going to upset a lot of dinosaurs.

Again I would recommend taming more than one dino at at a time. I tamed him, on a whim as I was trying to tame the level 28 Paracer, which leveled up to 37 (I think) after it got tamed. Realising it was going to take a long time to tame him after looking at the online calculator, I decided to tame a bunch other creatures rather than sit and wait. In the end I tamed 2 Paracers, 3 female Stegos, and a Bronto. The last two to wake up where the level 28 (became 37) Paracer and then then the low level 2 Bronto. So it wasn't bad, and it was next to my base and I had a stego farm all the items I needed. Those pictures are taken from an unconscious stego.



http://ark.gamepedia.com/Paracer

Phiomia

Tame him for his dung, when you get the farms. Feed him stims to make him poop.

Parasaur

Walking meat and hard to tame more than one at a time but a must have for the Raptor kibble which leads to the Mammoth. Or, you can use prime on raptors like I did.

Mammoth

A great wood gatherer and also has great health and weight. Hard to get, due to the fact it is in the Snow Biome. You can anger one and bring it out into the neighbouring biome and take your time taming him.

Read the Snow Biome Section on how and where to find these useful creatures.

Sabertooth

It is worth getting this just for its ability to gather hides. It is awesome hide gatherer, but as a main ride, I still prefer the Beel, but as you get higher the Beel's low carry weight becomes an issue. By then you would have moved on to Argentavis and better.

Megaloceros

Amazingly fast creature and good carry weight. I mainly tamed one so I can move around my base area fast, and carry items without much worry. I do not use it in any form of combat. It's hard to catch, you need to make it get trapped between boulders or trees.

Carnotaurus

A must tame as it is up there with the T-Rex and Spinosaur for harvesting prime. Low level ones are pretty easy to get with 2-4 crossbow body shots. I shot them in the head but according to online sites, like the Patchy, its got a hard head and you need to shoot them in the body.

Itchy

I am not a fan of the Itchy, I prefer my Beel, but these creatures are pretty easy to tame. You need the dodo kibble. If you see one near the shore line, just go deep enough so it can reach you and it will come to you. If you need to go deeper in, then my advice is to use a beel as they are faster, but in all the cases I tried, I tamed them near the shore at the shallow end without a Beel or anything.

Trike

I found it too slow and not really worth the effort. However, you need its eggs for kibble for Sarco

Guide Difficult Dinosaurs to Tame

Compy

At low levels, capturing a Compy is hard as you are not always assured to have Prime Meat which is the only thing that tames them. Solution is simple, build a simple room with a door and either when you get attacked by a "Compy Gang" or get an inquisitive Compy to follow you, run into the enclosure, wait until it goes in and then run out and close it. Then get prime, knock the sucker(s) out with your fist and the feed.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Compsognathus

Megalodon

I wouldn't even have bothered capturing one but for being rare, they are very common in my area and keep attacking me when I try to mine Oil Nodes. The way you do it, is you need a Beel with Saddle and a Carbo with Saddle. It can also be done with just a few Carbo and remote control them, though you risk losing a Carbo.

What you do is go in with the Beel, and get aggro from a few Megas. Usually I found them in groups of three, but when I personally tried to tame Megas for the first time with this method, I got 6. Anyhow, what you do is bring them closer to shore and when they are close enough to it jump off and get on the Carbo, and go in and bite one and walk back to shore. By now they should be all very close to the shore and pretty angry. Get off your Carbo (both the Beel and the Carbo should be out of harm), and start shooting them. And if they lose interest go on Beel and bring them back, or go in yourself a little and hit them. You should be able to knock all of them out. Bring a lot of tranq arrows. Starve them according to the amount needed, and then kill all but one and use the fresh meat and prime meat to tame the remaining one. This was my intention when I tried to tame the one, but I got greedy and went for all five that I caught, I had a lot of cooked prime meat stored anyhow so it wasn't going to be too much and the swamp wasn't that far away. One had gotten away as I stupidly began just before sunset and then decided it is best to wait till morning after finding it too difficult to see what I was aiming at. Lucky for me I got four females and one male. You cannot breed them, so bleh.


(For some unknown reason, the male Mega seems to always be on its own and staring at those fins infront)

The method without the Saddle is a bit tricky and I would only attempt to do it with a few Carbo's. Basically you just tell the Carbo to attack one of the Megas and then set them to passive and call them back. Repeat until they get the Megas into the shallow end. You might be able to do it with a Beel, they do not attack but they literally swim circles around the Mega.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Megalodon
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Beelzebufo
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Carbonemys

Mesopithecus

There is nothing too difficult about this. Just get the right kibble. It's very easy to make. Too approach it,crouch and move slowly or run when it has it' back turned towards you. The kibble should be at slot zero, do not press zero and eat the kibble like I do, just press "E" when you get the message. After you fed it do not move an inch*, until it has it's back towards you and when it does just keep him within range. If it begins to turn your direction stop. This way he is less lkely to run. If he runs keep him in sight and just wait until he calms down.

* If enough time passes for second feed and he is still looking at you just move forward while crouching.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Mesopithecus
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Kibble

Gigantopithecus

Never tried and never will unless I get the eggs. So far, I've got exactly two Titanoboa egg. Also they are jerks, that hit you if get too close. I swear I did not touch the ugly ape.

Oviraptor

I used dodo eggs, on a very low level one. Easier than trying to get the rare eggs it prefers.

Snow Biome

Without fur armour, you need the following items to remain in the Snow Biome:

• Hide Armour
  
• Focal Chilie[ark.gamepedia.com] (I took about a dozen for a few days)
  
• Lots of Food or make it there
  
• Standing Torches and Sparkpowder

Standing Torch + Sparkpowder

Standing torch + Sparkpowder[ark.gamepedia.com] is the most efficient way to generate heat. Each sparkpowder in a standing torch lasts around 13min and generates +100 hyperthermal protection. Nothing comes close to it outside of stationary electrical appliances. At night you need 3-4 torches, and usually 1-2 sparkpowder per torch will last you the whole night. Focal Chili in the daytime when you are active, though occasionally you might need a hand held torch or worse a standing torch when the weather gets really nasty. But nothing you should not be able to handle.

Norther vs Western Plains

There are two main paths to entering the Snow Biome, while you are near the coastline. The first, and recommend is from the Northern Plains, the second is the Western Plains. The Northern plains (NP) entrance, has a number of small land masses separated by shallow water, and it is in the northern coastline (NC), you more than likely find Mammoth and Wolves. The Western coastline (NC) has large numbers of floating ice sheets and deep water and personally, I did not see many (any) mammoths from that route. Of course most of the mammoths are deeper in land but we are trying to stay close to the shore lines for safety and ease of navigation.

Also the NC is filled with boulders. When I went by land, I initially went under-prepared and got caught in the night time weather, even though I had Focal Chili it wasn't enough. Lucky the boulders allowed me to create Mortar and Pestle, and farm flint and stone. Remember Pick for Flint, Hatchet for Stone.

Fly in and Out

This is the method I first used and I didn't not have any Focal Chile (a mistake). I did it with a Pteranodon whose Weight attribute I upped. You go in early in the morning and leave before it goes dark, otherwise you are going to get caught by the nasty weather. Now the best method for getting pelt, is to find an area with ledges and a cliff the drops off into shallow, yet must swim level of water, and no easy way to get back up. You then aggro some wolves and hover over the cliff, they jump off the cliff trying to get you (stupid AI). Land on one of the ledges and kill them with your bow, jump in the water, get their pelt. Such a spot might be hard to find if you do not know what to look for. Another way is, to aggro them into the water and then use the crossbow on them. The direwovles are extremly slow in water. The Northern coastline near the Northern Plains is the best place for this, as their are a number of nice, non-snowish areas where direwolves roam and also shallow water and land mass is present there. The area is cold and easy to spot and occasionally you will even see a Kairuku.

If you have an Argentavis then you can pick off direwolves and carry them to your slaughter house.

By Land and Sea

The issue with the Pteranodon is a matter of weight. You cannot carry much. I was only able to carry less than 200 pelts and one needs over 300 for fur armour[ark.gamepedia.com]. The second method, is my preferred method and that is go in with Beels via the ocean. Again I would recommend the Northern Coastline. It's very fast to get there by Beels and you can take an army of them. I took six + the one I was on. You might consider giving them all saddles for extra armour protection as the direwolves are really vicious. The area where the boulders are, you are very likely to find a few mammoths there. It is a safer area to tame mammoths as they area is more secluded.

Kairuku

The Kairukus are found in large numbers on floating ice sheets that come after the cliffs of the main land mass. So to get to them you either need to jump off a cliff (not recommend), fly there, or go by ocean. I went by ocean. There you will find them in large numbers, in areas where crystal and oil can be farmed. Occasionally direwovles will jump from the cliffs to get you, or on odd occasion a T-Rex will fall down and say hi to your innards. These ice sheets are found again on the northern coastline. I cannot recall spotting some on the Western coastline but they may exist there too.

Controlling Your Pet

They are dumb, they have dumb path finding, and they get stuck a lot. I only had one beel die on me, and that occurred due to a dumb bug that had my beel stuck in the mangrove. I freed it and it just disappeared. Spend ages trying to locate it, only to get a message that a Sarco killied it. So remember always look back too make sure your creatures are not stuck or lost.

Currently the controls for dinos are lacking, and I am being polite here, so there is little to say here, but here are a few pointers:

(There are a few tricks and bugs in controlling your pet, I will add more information on it on a later date)

• If you are using a pet for egg laying only and it is in a safe area, and you wish to avoid it moving at all, weigh it down with stone. It will become immobile. There's a huge disadvantage in this, but currently the control system are so rudimentary, that drastic measures are needed.
  
• Never set them on aggressive when taming.
  
• Know your passive key and know when used remember to set them back on neutral
  
• Set them to Wander only in closed areas. I do not think there is a limit on the wander range, or if there is the roaming area is large.
  
• Use spyglass to give orders from afar

Beacons

Beacons sometimes drop items that have better quality than you can create. The best type of drop is a blueprint that allows you to create an item with higher durability or if lucky a weapon with more damage. I thought all blueprints are the same, they are not. Do not make the mistake I made of throwing them away after getting one.

Example. a Saddle armour with armor of 31.2 instead of the normal 25.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Beacon

Bugs You Should Avoid (Spoilage Bug)

Will add more as I come across them (and remember to add.)

Spoilage

When you drag a stack from your inventory, into another and then back to your inventory the amount left before spoil decreases dramatically. This is a bug. Instead of adding longevity to the goods, containers such as fridge, Preserving Bin and Dino inventory can instead shorten the lifespan of goods if you are not careful.

The bug is discussed here[survivetheark.com]. The way to avoid this is, when the item is another inventory, you press "Take all from Inventory". Its the only way.

Giga Party

There's a bug[survivetheark.com] that makes the map filled with Giga's and too many creatures. It occurs in single Player. It's kinda of fun but deadly. To get rid of them, you need to remove all wild dinos so they respawn again.
In console type "DestroyWildDinos"

nVidia Driver Reset

Solution taken from here[survivetheark.com]

Uninstall your current drivers using DDU (DisplayDriverUninstaller)[www.wagnardmobile.com] in safe mode
Install nvidia driver version 355.98 [www.nvidia.com]

No Beetles and Emptish Caves

A bug[survivetheark.com] I haven't resolved. The recommend step is using the "DestroyWildDinos" command in console but it does not work for me.

[Pallas]

@samhobbs658

No idea mate. I haven't played this game in years. It was still in development last time I played it.

[samhobbs658]

according to appsro on "neebs gaming" where would one might find "sock puppet island"?

[Ketameme]

how do you get a pego off your shoulder?

[Lookpuke]

anyone here know how to reset a single player world? I kinda stuffed mine up a bit and would like to start over, without structures everywhere

[Pallas]

@SpongeBobSuperiorPants

I don't play games that much. It's been a long time since I logged in my steam account.

[Ben]

I also really want a bronto but i dont know how many tranq arowws narcs and food ill need so if anyway has that info please comment on my page and tell me

[Ben]

Also how hard to kill carbos and trikes there EVERYWHERE

[Ben]

Hi im level 21 with 4 dodos and a. Parasour and i was wondering if i let the parasour wander with it gather for me

[Tyrannidae]

@Pallas Aye, no problem. ;P

[Pallas]

@Xenephos
lol
Thanks man