Ark Survival Guide for Beginners

Ark Survival Evolved can be a tough survival game to master, especially for those jumping into the game for the first time, but thankfully there are a few Ark tips and tricks that can help you survive a little longer, level up quickly, and master the game in no time.

If you’re new to Ark: Survival Evolved, it can be a tough game to master, with so many creatures to tame, things to build, and engrams to learn, there’s a lot to take in before surviving becomes easier, especially on a PVP server with more experienced players.

Thankfully there are some tips & tricks to make sure that you stand a much better chance of surviving the Ark.

Realistic Expectations

The first thing to do is have realistic expectations, although it could happen if you see a well-established player atop a T-rex coming to you, run. Most PVP servers see a lot of new players being destroyed by top-level players, just for sport, just like Rust, Ark can be especially brutal for new players.

Servers with extremely high rates are much more likely to not only have more aggressive PVP players but also seem to attract younger, less mature gamers, which might not be as suited to more mature gamers.

1. Choose the Right Server

If you are playing Ark online, one of the most important first steps is to make sure you pick the right server for you. If you prefer to play PVP servers, we have put together a list of some of the best unofficial PVP Ark servers around, which should help you find the perfect one for you.

When picking an Ark server, especially a PVP one, it’s important to be sure the community is right for you, which is why it can often be the best idea to jump into their Discord first and get a sense of what the server’s community is like.

We have also put together a list of some of the best PVE Ark servers around, for those looking for a more relaxed PVE Ark experience.

2. Craft Tools

The first thing you will want to do is gather some rocks and wood; find the rocks on the floor and punch a tree for wood and thatch.

Now you can craft a pickaxe – use this to hit some rock and get flint so you can then craft a stone hatchet and a couple of spears.

Make sure to keep enough rocks and wood on you, as the tools at the start of your journey in Ark tend to break much quicker.

3. Craft Clothes

Next, gather some plant fiber and make some clothes, you will need to unlock the engrams to be able to do this. Once you are dressed, craft a campfire as you will need this for cooking and to keep warm at night.

The starting clothes offer very little in the way of protection or warmth, so it’s worth saving your engrams to ensure that you get hide clothes as soon as possible.

4. Kill Basic Creatures

If you’ve started in one of the basic areas, there should be plenty of easy creatures to kill. It won’t take too long before you start needing to stock up on both meat and hide, so staying in the easy area will make this a much more simple task.

Not only do you need the meat, but the hide comes in helpful for making clothing, as well as making a bed, which you will need to ensure you have a spawn point when you die.

5. Build a Shack

You are going to want to get a bed or sleeping bag down as quickly as possible, if you die, you’ll have to spawn potentially far from your body. To start with you will want to build a small 4×4 shack and not stray too far from it.

Keeping it small will make it less intimidating to other players, and hopefully, incur less chance of being attacked. Once you have the shack, kill some more Dodos or similar small creatures and place down a bed or sleeping bag, although remember that a bed offers you a permanent respawn point but a sleeping bag does not.

Be smart about where you build, if you are on a PVP server, make sure you are not near another player that could pose a threat, and also check the surroundings to make sure you don’t have weaknesses, such as high ground overlooking the base, etc.

If you are on an unofficial server hopefully you will have good building mods such as S+ which will help you to make an even more secure base.

6. Tame a Dinosaur

By now you’ve likely become a high enough level to build a mortar and pestle so you can start making narcotics and tranq arrows. Split the meat so that it’s singular and not in stacks and let it all spoil. While the meat is spoiling gather some Narcoberries.

You can now make some narcotics, use half of them to make tranq arrows, and keep the other half.

You want to find and tame a Parasaurus as this will be a good starter dino to get you around, but also to help you get Narcoberries quicker so that you can tame even more dinosaurs.

Parasaurus might not be the quickest or strongest dinosaurs in the game, but they can carry a lot of weight, which makes progressing much easier when you are starting out in Ark.

7. Tame a Flyer

By this point you’ve probably tamed a few land dinosaurs, and are starting to get the hang of things now, the next stage is to take to the skies. Craft some bolas, make sure to make a couple, unless the server you are on is using Reusables Plus.

If you have a tribe mate, have one person ready to bola the flyer whilst you shoot it with tranq arrows. If you are solo you will need to time it perfectly; bola the flyer, then shoot it a couple of times with tranq arrows, then throw another bola at it and continue to shoot. Rinse and repeat until it’s unconscious.

While you will want to start with a basic flyer, it won’t take too long before you can start taming some of the more advanced flyers like the Tropeognathus, but for now, you just need something to make traveling the map a little easier.

Once you have a flyer, the whole Ark is at your disposal and the game becomes a lot easier. Once you have reached this point, you are ready to grow and expand your dinosaur collection and explore freely – enjoy!

8. Level Up Quickly

As you level up in Ark, you will unlock new engrams that will help you to survive, so build as many items as you can to level up quickly and make sure to kill anything you are able to for extra XP.

Rafts are a great way to level up if you can get the hide for them, just build one, pop it in the water and demolish it, then build another.

The speed at which you can level yourself will affect how quickly you will get settled and become a stronger survivor, so do what you can to make those levels go quicker.

Explorer notes are another great source of XP, make sure you are not on a dinosaur when you step on one, then go out and kill as much as you can, or if you are not equipped to kill much, build like crazy, your note will give you a temporary boost to XP.

Of course, if you are playing on a PVE server, you might not need to worry about leveling up as quickly, as other players are not going to be a threat.

9. Add Points to Fortitude

One of the hardest things for new players to deal with is the elements. As you find yourself going to more extreme environments survival will become harder.

As you level up, make sure to stack points into fortitude, as this will make it much easier to survive in both heat and cold weather, allowing you to focus on your progress.

Surviving Ark: Survival Evolved

No amount of how-to-survive Ark guides will stop you from dying, if you are new to this game, it’s tough, you are going to die a lot while you get used to it.

But these guides can at least speed up the process of you getting to grips with the game and offer some guidance on how to keep yourself alive and get a stronghold on the Ark.

Ark is an exciting and ever-evolving game, so if you liked our Ark beginners guide, make sure to check out our Ark Hub to see all the latest news and guides to help you survive the Ark.