Getting Started
Start here if you're new, seriously don't skip these or you'll be the guy in chat asking why you keep dying to dodos and everyone will laugh at you, I'm not even joking, and also half the people who quit ARK do it in the first hour because they skip the beginner stuff and get wrecked. But whatever.
Beginner's Survival Guide
Those first 30 minutes on the ARK are kind of terrifying honestly, I still remember getting killed by a raptor before I even had a spear crafted and it was humiliating, this walks you through gathering and making tools and getting a shelter up before night falls so you don't end up as raptor food like I did my first five attempts at playing this game, and also there's some stuff about water and food that most people overlook. So trust me.
System Requirements
Before you get too excited and buy the game make sure your rig can actually run it because ARK 2 is gonna be heavy with all the UE5 stuff, I've seen way too many people buy survival games and then find out their laptop can barely hit 20fps and then they leave a bad review like it's the game's fault, just check the specs first and save yourself the disappointment, and also check your storage space because this game is huge. And tbh.
FAQ
All the stuff people keep asking like when it's coming out and what platforms and is Vin Diesel actually in it and what's different from ARK 1 and is it on Game Pass and when's the PS5 version coming, just all the basic questions answered in one place so you don't have to dig through forum threads and Reddit posts and Twitter drama and all that junk. So you get the idea.
Core Mechanics
Get good at these three things and honestly you'll be ahead of like 90 percent of players on any server, I'm not even exaggerating because most people don't bother learning the mechanics properly and then wonder why they keep losing, and anyway these are the fundamentals that everything else builds on top of. But for real.
Taming Guide
KO taming passive taming special methods the whole narcotic math nightmare, every single way to tame stuff explained in detail, I've probably tamed thousands of creatures at this point and there's still new tricks I keep discovering, the difference between a good tame and a rushed one is huge and once you get max effectiveness a few times you'll never go back to sloppy taming, and tbh half the fun of the game is figuring out which creatures are worth your time. So anyway.
Crafting & Recipes
The full recipe database with all the kibble types and medical brews and advanced ammo and Tek tier crafting requirements, because standing at a fabricator wondering what you can actually make is nobody's idea of fun and half the recipes have weird ingredient combos you'd never guess on your own, trust me I've tried and wasted so many materials, and also some recipes are way more efficient than others even though the game doesn't tell you that. And no joke.
Base Building
Where to build what materials to use which PvP defense designs actually work and which ones just look cool but get raided in 5 minutes, I've had bases wiped enough times to know what not to do and honestly that's more valuable than knowing what to do, the building mechanics are deeper than they look and a well designed base is the difference between keeping your stuff and losing everything overnight, and also there's some building tricks that aren't obvious at all. And tbh.
In-Depth Strategy Guides
For when you're past the noob stage and want to actually understand what's going on under the hood, these go deep into specific systems and if you read all of them you'll know more about ARK than most people who've been playing for years, and honestly some of these guides cover mechanics that even veteran players don't fully understand. So yeah.
PvP Combat Strategy Guide
Raiding tactics base defense turret placement soaking creatures counter strategies, basically everything you need to not get wiped every single weekend like clockwork, I've spent way too many nights defending bases at 4am and this is all the stuff I learned the hard way through losing millions of resources and having to rebuild from nothing, and also the mental game of PvP is just as important as the actual fighting techniques. But I mean.
Resource Gathering & Farming
Where to farm metal and oil and stone and wood and crystal and obsidian with the best creatures and tools, because running around with a pickaxe for 3 hours is not a strategy it's just sad and I've been there, I'll show you the routes I use and the dino combos that maximize your yield and the spots most people don't know about, and also some farming techniques that literally triple your output if you do them right. And also.
Boss Fight Guide
Broodmother Megapithecus Dragon Overseer all the arena strategies and what creatures to bring and what loot you can actually expect to get, these fights are absolutely brutal if you go in blind and I've lost entire armies because I didn't know about a single mechanic so learn from my mistakes and don't waste weeks of breeding on a failed run, and honestly the boss fights are where the game really gets interesting. So trust me.
Tribe & Clan Management
Rank permissions role assignments diplomacy how to recruit without getting insided, preventing your tribe from falling apart because tbh tribe drama kills more tribes than raids ever do, I've seen month old tribes implode over one guy getting mad about someone using his personal forge and it's honestly tragic, and also good tribe management is probably the most underrated skill in the entire game. But for real.
Biome & Exploration Guide
Complete Arat biome breakdown with resources and dangers and where to build in every region from beaches to snow and everything in between, I've explored pretty much every corner of every map and some spots are just death traps disguised as pretty scenery, knowing which biome has what resources and what wants to eat you there is half the battle, and also the temperature system means you can't just wear the same armor everywhere. So anyway.
Underwater & Ocean Guide
Scuba gear aquatic tames oil farming deep sea loot crates underwater bases, the ocean is absolutely terrifying and I used to avoid it entirely but it also has some of the best loot in the game and once you get comfortable down there it's actually kind of peaceful in a "something could kill me at any moment" sort of way, and also underwater bases are way harder to raid than surface ones. And honestly.
Resources & Items
You need this stuff at every stage of the game and if you don't know where to find it you're gonna have a bad time, trust me I've spent entire weekends just farming and it's way more efficient when you actually know what you're doing instead of wandering around hoping to stumble on resources, and also some resources are way more important than others depending on what tier you're at. But tbh.
Metal
Best locations for metal the Anky plus Argy combo that literally everyone uses because it just works and there's basically no better way to do it, weight reduction tricks and how to process it all into ingots without going insane from the smelting times, I've spent so many hours flying an Argy loaded with metal that it's basically muscle memory at this point, and also the industrial forge is a game changer once you can afford it. So yeah.
Oil
Underwater nodes with a Dunkleo or snow biome rocks if you hate the ocean which I totally get and honestly most people do, gasoline and polymer production chain so you can actually make stuff instead of just hoarding raw oil and never using it which is what I did for way too long when I first started, and also oil is one of those resources you suddenly need hundreds of and have none saved. And also.
Crystal & Silica Pearls
Mountain peaks and Anglerfish farming routes, the stuff you need for electronics and Tek crafting which you'll want eventually even if you think you won't, crystal is one of those resources you ignore until suddenly you need thousands of it and realize you've been walking past it for weeks, and also silica pearls are the bottleneck for a lot of midgame crafting. So anyway.
Polymer & Paste
Organic versus hard polymer and which one to use when and why it actually matters more than you think, getting cementing paste from beaver dams because grinding stone for paste is for chumps who hate themselves, the beaver dam route is honestly one of the best time saving tricks in the entire game and I wish I knew about it 500 hours earlier, and also organic polymer spoils so don't farm too much at once. But I mean.
Element & Tek Ingots
Boss farming strategies for element Tek Replicator conversion, all the endgame crafting requirements that take forever to gather and will make you question your life choices, element farming is the real grind of ARK and once you get into Tek tier you'll understand why people are so obsessed with boss efficiency, and also the jump from regular to Tek gear is honestly the biggest power spike in the game. So trust me.
New Guides
Fresh content for the advanced stuff I've been working on, these are the newer guides covering mechanics that took me ages to properly understand and now I'm passing all that pain on to you in a much more digestible format hopefully, and also some of these cover stuff that changed recently or that the community figured out new strats for. And tbh.
Dinosaur Taming Tier List
S tier must tames down to F tier stuff you should probably skip entirely, ranked by how useful they actually are at every stage of the game, I've tested most of these myself and some of the rankings might surprise you because the meta has shifted a lot and some dinos everyone used to love are honestly not worth the effort anymore, and also some creatures are amazing early game but fall off hard later. So yeah.
Advanced Taming Techniques
Passive taming net traps underwater taming getting max effectiveness on every tame, the kind of techniques that separate pros from people who just shoot tranq arrows and hope for the best, once you master these methods you'll look back at your early taming attempts and cringe like I do, and also some of these techniques require a bit of setup but the payoff is huge. But for real.
Tribe Warfare & PvP Strategy
Raiding tactics base defense turret placement soaking counter raiding and all that stuff, the kind of knowledge you need when you're actually fighting other tribes instead of just dinosaurs which is a completely different game, PvP in ARK is its own entire world and if you go in unprepared you'll get absolutely demolished, and also the psychological warfare aspect of PvP is something nobody talks about but it's real. And honestly.
Underwater Base Building
Ocean base locations vacuum compartments underwater defense guard dino setup and stuff like that, building underwater is a whole different game and honestly most people never even try it which is exactly why it's so good for staying hidden on PvP servers where surface bases get found in hours, and also the vacuum compartment mechanics are kind of weird until you figure them out. But whatever.
Caves & Dungeons Guide
All cave locations with GPS coordinates artifacts creature spawns recommended loadouts, because wandering into a cave unprepared is basically suicide and I've learned that the hard way more times than I'd like to admit, some caves look harmless from the entrance and then you turn a corner and there's a level 300 creature waiting, and also bring grappling hooks seriously just bring them. So trust me.
Breeding & Mutation Guide
Egg incubation mutation stacking color regions stat inheritance imprinting bonuses, breeding is the real endgame and once you get into it you'll understand why people spend hundreds of hours on it, there's something deeply satisfying about hatching that perfect mutation after stacks of failed eggs, and also the imprinting mechanic is way more powerful than most people realize. And tbh.
Advanced
You've got the basics down and you're ready for the heavy stuff, these are for when you want to go deeper and actually understand the systems that most people just ignore or never even discover, and also some of these are prerequisites for endgame content that you'll need eventually. So anyway.
Server Setup & Hosting
Dedicated servers hosting providers config files admin commands cluster setup and all that server stuff, everything about running your own ARK world and being the person everyone complains to when the rates are wrong or the server crashes at 3am and you have to wake up and fix it, and also running a server is actually kind of fun once you get past the initial setup headache. But I mean.
World Map & Biomes
Full world map breakdown biome overview resource hotspots cave entrances best PvP zones, knowing the map is genuinely half the battle and I still see high level players running past resource nodes they didn't know existed because they never bothered to learn the map properly, and also some of the best base spots are in places you'd never think to look. And also.
Creature Database
Every known ARK 2 creature spawn locations taming requirements combat stats saddle unlocks utility ratings, the complete database for when you need to know exactly where to find something or whether it's even worth taming in the first place, and also some creatures have hidden abilities that aren't obvious from their stats. So yeah.
PvP Survival Tips
Stuff I learned the hard way after getting raided a hundred times and losing everything I owned over and over, follow these or don't and find out what happens, either way you'll learn eventually and honestly it's better to learn from my mistakes than your own. But for real.
Build in dense forests or caves seriously, anything on a beach or open plain gets scouted within hours on an active PvP server and then you log in the next morning to a crater where your base used to be, I've had bases found in the dumbest places and it never ends well so just take the extra time to hide properly, it's honestly the single most important thing you can do for survival on any PvP server, and also don't harvest resources near your base because that's how people find hidden bases. Anyway.
Heavy turrets at different heights Tek turrets for player only targeting plant species X for the slow effect you know the drill, overlap your fields of fire and don't leave any blind spots because someone will find them and that's exactly how they'll get in, I've raided enough bases to know that bad turret placement is basically an invitation to get wiped, and also put some turrets inside your base not just on the outside. So trust me.
Stegos and Carbonemys with good saddles can literally eat thousands of bullets before going down and that's exactly what raiders use to drain your turrets, counter them with Tek turrets on player only mode and Velonasaurs on turret mode which honestly not enough people do, I've watched my own defenses get soaked because I didn't prepare for this specific tactic, and also plant species X turrets are good for slowing soakers down. And tbh.
ARK 2's new ORP thing reduces damage to offline tribe stuff by 80 percent after 15 minutes of everyone being offline which is finally some protection for people who have jobs and can't play 24/7, server admins can tweak the grace period so check what your server is set to because it might save your base one night when you're sleeping, and also ORP isn't a guarantee so don't get complacent. But whatever.
Never give full admin to new people seriously this is how tribes get insided and it happens constantly, use rank based permissions and keep track of who touches the good vaults and breeding dinos, I've watched tribes collapse because someone gave admin to a guy they met three days ago and he cleaned out everything while everyone was sleeping, and also have a separate tribe for your best breeding stock if you're really paranoid. So idk.
Detailed raiding tactics infiltration methods turret placement principles tribe defense for every server type, read the full guide if you actually want to win fights instead of just surviving them, I've put pretty much everything I know about ARK PvP into one place and it's the kind of stuff that took me years to figure out on my own, and honestly it's probably the most comprehensive PvP guide you'll find anywhere. So yeah.