Beginner Guide to Ark Survival Evolved

Ark Survival Evolved

Stage 1 of the Ark Survival Evolved Beginner Guide: Establish yourself in the south

Choose one of the easier southern spawn zones.

Your immediate priorities should be:

  1. Make a stone pick, stone hatchet, spear and sleeping bag.
  2. Build a small thatch or wood shelter.
  3. Create storage boxes, a campfire and mortar and pestle.
  4. Learn how food, water, temperature and stamina work.
  5. Tame your first useful creatures.

Good early tames:

  • Moschops: harvesting and carrying supplies
  • Parasaur: transportation and basic danger detection
  • Triceratops: berries, thatch and defense
  • Pteranodon: your first major exploration upgrade
  • Raptor: early combat and transportation

This naturally earns achievements for surviving a day, taming a dinosaur, riding one and progressing through early levels.

Stage 2: Build a permanent base

Once you have a flyer, relocate or expand into a proper base with access to metal, water and relatively safe terrain.

Build:

  • Refining forges
  • Smithy
  • Preserving bin
  • Fabricator
  • Generator and refrigerator
  • Greenhouse
  • Breeding area
  • Large dinosaur gates
  • Organized storage

The southern shore is safe but inconvenient later. Areas near the central rivers, western coast or Hidden Lake provide better long-term access, although each carries more danger.

Stage 3: Obtain your essential working dinosaurs

You do not need to tame everything immediately. Build a reliable workforce first:

  • Argentavis: flying transport, weight reduction and mobile support
  • Ankylosaurus: metal
  • Doedicurus: stone
  • Castoroides: wood
  • Therizinosaur: wood, fiber, berries and eventual boss combat
  • Baryonyx: caves and water
  • Basilosaurus: underwater exploration
  • Yutyrannus: boss support
  • Daeodon: healing
  • Rex or Therizinosaur: main boss army

The Argentavis is probably the single most important midgame tame. Once you have one, building and transporting resources becomes dramatically easier.

Work on achievements while exploring

ARK’s achievement list includes milestones involving:

  • Surviving
  • Taming and riding creatures
  • Reaching maximum survivor level
  • Fully uncovering the map
  • Reaching the highest and lowest locations
  • Collecting artifacts
  • Defeating The Island’s bosses
  • Taming the Island’s species
  • Finding Explorer Notes
  • Ascending on Gamma, Beta and Alpha difficulty

The Xbox achievement list also contains a large Explorer Note sequence, progressing from finding 10% through completing the collection.

Whenever you explore, mark down:

  • Explorer Notes collected
  • Artifacts collected
  • Creatures personally tamed
  • Caves completed
  • Map areas uncovered

Do not assume that seeing or breeding a creature always counts the same as personally taming it. For achievement safety, personally complete at least one legitimate tame of each required species.

Stage 4: Prepare for the caves

The Island’s caves contain the artifacts needed to summon bosses. Do not enter every cave with the same dinosaur.

Useful choices include:

  • Baryonyx: one of the best general cave mounts
  • Sabertooth or Direwolf: smaller land caves
  • Thylacoleo: strong mobility and combat
  • Basilosaurus: underwater caves
  • Otter: insulation and carrying multiple artifacts
  • Grappling hooks: emergency movement and recovery
  • Cryopods: getting creatures through difficult entrances

Bring medical brews, food, water, armor replacements, weapons, ammunition and sleeping bags. Some caves involve extreme heat or cold, while others contain environmental hazards or creatures capable of knocking you off your mount.

Stage 5: Breed a boss army

Do not take random wild-caught Rexes directly into the higher difficulties.

A straightforward army is:

  • 18 strong Rexes or Therizinosaurs
  • 1 Yutyrannus
  • 1 Daeodon, although some players simply use another damage dealer

You should:

  1. Tame high-level parents.
  2. Combine their best health and melee statistics through breeding.
  3. Imprint the offspring.
  4. Equip good saddles.
  5. Level the army before attempting bosses.

For Therizinosaurs, vegetable cakes provide extra survivability. Rexes are simpler to manage and are excellent for most fights, while Therizinosaurs are particularly useful against the Dragon because they are herbivores.

Stage 6: Defeat the bosses in increasing difficulty

The Island’s main guardians are:

  • Broodmother Lysrix
  • Megapithecus
  • Dragon

Each has Gamma, Beta and Alpha versions. Complete Gamma first to understand the fights, then improve your army for Beta and Alpha.

Boss victories provide trophies and Tekgrams. The trophies are also needed for the Tek Cave and Overseer progression.

Stage 7: Complete the Tek Cave and ascend

The final Island progression requires entering the Tek Cave, surviving the cave and defeating the Overseer.

There are separate achievements for:

  • Gamma Ascension
  • Beta Ascension
  • Alpha Ascension

The safest general strategy is to complete the entire run on Gamma first, then progressively improve equipment, breeding lines and execution for Beta and Alpha. Alpha Ascension is the logical final challenge of your normal playthrough.