Welcome survivor, most likely you are a new follower to ARK or just need some extra help understanding everything that you’ll need to know to be successful on this treacherous island for your first night.

Starting The Game:

Currently when you start the game you’ll see a prompt with different launch options to choose from. We’ll explain these below.

Play ARK: Survival Evolved: Opens the regular game.

Opens the regular game. Launch ARK (Low Memory 4GB): Opens the game which is better optimized for users with 4gb of RAM.

Opens the game which is better optimized for users with 4gb of RAM. Launch ARK (Extremely Low Memory): Opens the game which is better optimized for users with less than 4gb of RAM.

Opens the game which is better optimized for users with less than 4gb of RAM. Launch ARK Server: Opens a locally hosted server on your machine which you’ll be able to have others connect to.

Opens a locally hosted server on your machine which you’ll be able to have others connect to. Launch ARK (‘No Sky Effects’): Launches the game with a simple sky which helps with certain game crashes, though it does cause some odd visuals in-game.

Main Menu Options:

Once the game has loaded up you will be placed on the main menu where you will have four more options to choose from which we will cover.

Join ARK: Selecting this will take you to the games server list where you’ll be able to find a server to join and play on. You will be able to filter servers alphabetically, by amount of players, by ping, and by using a server name filter.

There is also an additional server filter drop down box that you are able to select and choose what type of servers you are looking for, these include:

Official: Servers hosted by the game developers.

Servers hosted by the game developers. UnOfficial: Servers hosted by dedicated machines/players.

Servers hosted by dedicated machines/players. My Survivors: Servers that you’ve created a survivor on.

Servers that you’ve created a survivor on. Favorites: Servers that you’ve added to your favorites.

Servers that you’ve added to your favorites. Friends: Servers that currently have a Steam friend of yours online playing.

Servers that currently have a Steam friend of yours online playing. LAN: Shows server hosted on a local network.

Host \ Local: Selecting this will take you to a screen that will allow you to host a ARK server locally or publicly. You’ll be able to configure the server settings however you like and then choose how you would like to launch the server.

Options: This is where you will be able to change your game settings to better optimize the game for you by changing your graphical settings, audio settings, and even adjusting your keybindings to your liking. Once you’ve changed everything be sure to select “Apply” and then “Save.”

New Character Setup:

When you load into a server for the first time, or if you die and choose to make a new character, you’ll need to go through a couple of steps before playing: character customization and choosing your spawn region.

Character Customization: Here you’ll be able to customize your own character by choosing your gender, skin color, body bone-scaling, and name. The character name that you choose will be visible to other players when they get close enough to you. Though, your Steam username will also appear, this includes in chat as well.

Spawn Region: You can select a specific spawn region of your choice by scroll through the available options. There will be no indication on the map where this is, but it will give you the chance to choice which side of the island you wish to spawn on. In general, if you’re new, you’ll want to stick closer to the south, as the creatures get harder the further north you move.

User-Interface:

Once you’ve completed your character you’ll go through an animation where your character wakes up on the coast of a beach. You’ll notice that there are six different icons on the lower right side of your screen. You’ll also be able to hold down “h” to show you more in-depth statistics regarding your character/server.

The icons from top to bottom are as follows:

Experience Meter: This icon gives you a general idea of how close you are to leveling up your character. Naturally, the higher level you are the longer it will take to level up.

Weight: This icon shows you how much weight you are carrying. If you are carrying too much weight then you will become overburdened which will cause your character’s movement speed to dramatically decrease or halt it entirely.

Hydration: This icon will show you how hydrated you are, once it empties then you will begin taking damage over time until you find a source of hydration such streams, irrigation, and so on. When you become hot your hydration level will go down much quicker than usual. Find some shade or go inside your home to return your temperature level to normal.

Hunger: This icon shows you your character’s hunger level. Once depleted it will cause damage over time until you find a source of food such as berries, meat, etc. If your character becomes too cold your food will decrease faster than it would normally.

Stamina: This icon shows your stamina levels. You drain stamina by sprinting, attacking, and using tools. You will be able to regain stamina quickly by not moving, but if you are on the move it will be regenerated slower when you are walking.

Health: This icon shows your health level. You’ll lose health damage if you are attacked by anything. You will also lose health by being dehydrated or starving. To regain health you’ll need to satisfy your hunger/thirst levels. There are also other methods for regaining health faster such as using blood packs.

Inventory/Crafting System: In order to access your inventory you will need to press “I” by default. Once open you’ll see all the items in your inventory, equipped items, character stats, and many other options. This is also where you will level your character up and learn new engrams.

Craftables: Selecting the “Craftables” option in your inventory system or “V” by default allows you to view the engrams that you’ve learned and what materials that are needed in order to craft them while hovering your mouse over it.

Engrams: Engrams are character-bound blueprints that you will be able to make without needing a physical blueprint. Each time that you level your character up you will be granted “engram points” which you can spend on unlocking new engrams. You will not be able to unlock the entire engram tree, so your tribe will require players specialising in certain areas, such as clothing, building, or weapons, and learning the various engrams for that area. Additionally, the higher level engrams will usually have prerequisite engrams, so you will need to learn an entire branch of the engram technology tree in order to get any of the better items.

Starting Off: Once you’ve gotten yourself situated with the inventory system and such you are now ready to begin your life on the ARK! Once you wake up on the beach the first thing you will want to search for the following:

Small Stones

Berry Bushes (Berries & Fiber)

Trees (Wood & Thatch)

Once you have all of the above resources you will use the resources to create a “Stone Pickaxe” and create it with 1 Stone, 1 Wood, & 10 Thatch. You will then use this pickaxe on larger rocks which will give you more Flint and some Stone. (You can also use the stone pickaxe on a tree to gather more Thatch and some Wood)

Now that you have some flint you can use that to create a “Stone Hatchet” (Once you unlock via engrams) which costs 1 Wood, 1 Flint, & 10 Thatch. The stone hatchet gathers mostly Wood and some Thatch from trees while gathering most Stones and some Flint from larger rocks.

Congratulations! You now have your primary tools that will help make your life in the ARK much easier. So what’s next you might ask? After all that hard work collecting resources you might have noticed you are getting thirsty/hungry. To quickly quench your thirst head over to the beach and swim underwater to fill your thirst meter. Most likely you are not going to have meat from any victims so use those berries that you got while picking through the bushes and eat them. This will help replenish some of your hunger and will also quench your thirst some, though it will take a lot of berries to fill your hunger/thirst meter. (WARNING: Do NOT eat Narcoberries, these will raise your Torpor level and will make you pass out if you eat enough. Also Stimberries will make you thirstier to beware of that as well.)

Temperature: Currently there are heatwaves, cold fronts, and rain in-game and this does effect your character. If your character becomes too hot then the they will become extremely thirsty so be sure not to sprint as that will dramatically lower your thirst level. If your character becomes too cold then their hunger level will lower more quickly. Your equipped clothing will effect your body temperature when there is a heatwave or cold front so keep that in mind to help adjust your body temperature accordingly. Below are the icons for your body temperature being too hot and too cold.

Setting Up Camp: Now that you know the basics of gathering and maintaining your survivor, it’s time to set up a place to call home. Once you reach level 5 that’s the best time to go ahead and build your starter home. At level 5 you will have plenty of spare engram points to learn how to build the all the Thatch building parts to build a house as well as a sleeping bag which acts as a one time respawn point, a storage crate to hold your excess gear, and a campfire to cook raw meat and keep you warm during cold nights. Keep in mind, Thatch is a very weak building material that is vulnerable to all types of attack so don’t expect this to be your main base. If you prefer to wait until you are level 10 to learn how to build the wooden base parts it will be much safer for you, though you will be exposed until you reach that point.

Leveling Up: Now that you are settled in your new home take some time to clean up your inventory and get ready to level your character up. The best way for you to level up your character early on is to either kill small low level dinosaurs or gather resources from trees or large rocks. Leveling up will allow you to unlock more engram points which you can use to unlock more valuable items to help you survive. Your main weapon of choice early on should be a slingshot (which you’ll have to unlock via engram) and your fist. Using your fists/slingshot it causes blunt damage which will knock out your target allowing you to finish them off with whatever you prefer thus saving you some time.

We hope that this guide helped you get off of the beach and start making progress for your character. We do plan on creating more guides to expand on this as well as more in-depth advanced guides to help you become a seasoned veteran of the unforgiving ARK.