Ark: Survival Ascended is the current version of Ark, and if you bought the game recently, this is the one you are playing. The early game is the same loop that has always worked, but Ascended adds a few systems — and removes a few excuses — that change how the first week goes.
This guide is written for Ascended. Where Survival Evolved differs, it says so.
Hour one
The first hour is the same on every map and every version. Punch a tree for wood, pick berries for food, and pick up stones from the ground. Craft a thatch box before dark, because the night is when new players die.
Put a campfire and a storage box inside. That is a base. It does not need to be bigger than that for a long time.
If you are on a private single-player session and the defaults feel slow, see the settings section below — most early quit-offs are a settings problem, not a skill problem.
The beach loop
The southern beaches are the safe zone for a reason: herbivores, flat ground, and water within a short walk. The loop that carries the first day:
- Gather wood, stone, thatch and fiber from the trees and bushes around your box.
- Kill the nearby Dodos and hatchlings for hide and meat.
- Craft the essentials: a spear, a slingshot, hide armor, and a campfire.
- Level into weight first, then stamina, then health — in that order.
Do not walk inland looking for a fight. The center and north of the map hold carnivores that end runs in seconds, and there is nothing there you need yet.
Your first tames, in order
Tames change what you can do, and the order matters more than the choice:
Parasaurus. 200 health, 12 damage, and 480 base weight — the weight is the point. Your first storage problem is solved by a creature you can knock out with a slingshot on the beach where it already lives.
Pteranodon. 210 health, 120 torpor, and a saddle at level 38. Bola it, feed it Regular Kibble or raw meat, and the map opens up. It dies to everything, so scout with it rather than fight with it.
Trike. The first tank that can hold a beach against a pack of raptors, and it gathers berries while you do something else.
Raptor. Fast, aggressive, and the first real combat tame. It is also the first creature that can get you killed on a regular basis.
After those four, the specialist tames start: Ankylosaurus for metal, Doedicurus for stone, Mammoth for wood, and the Argentavis to carry all of it. If you are playing Ascended and want something rarer early, the new Ascended creatures have their own taming guides on this site. The Acrocanthosaurus, Deinosuchus, Gigantoraptor and Megaraptor are all options later, but none of them are beginner tames.
The level gates that catch new players
Every rideable creature has a saddle, and every saddle has a level requirement. Check the level before you spend the kibble:
| Creature | Saddle level | What it fixes |
|---|---|---|
| Parasaurus | early | Weight |
| Pteranodon | 38 | Travel |
| Argentavis | 62 | Flying weight |
| Rex | 74 | Combat |
A tamed creature you cannot ride is a food bill, not an upgrade. The Pteranodon gate at 38 is the first one that stops players, and it arrives right when they want to fly.
The first week
Days one to two are the beach loop plus the first two tames. Build the box, tame the Parasaurus, and start stockpiling.
Days three to four bring the Pteranodon and the first metal run. Fly to the mountains, look at the metal nodes, and fly home. Do not land anywhere hostile yet.
Day five onward is the Ankylosaurus and the Argentavis. With those two, the mid-game starts: metal stops being an expedition and starts being a routine.
Engrams and crafting order
You unlock engrams by leveling, and the order you spend points in matters less than the order you craft in. Craft in this order:
- Hide armor and a spear — survival.
- Thatch walls and a storage box — a real base.
- The mortar and pestle, then narcotics — taming support.
- The smithy and the fabricator — the tier jump.
- The cooking pot — kibble, which is what serious tames need.
Ascended quality-of-life to use on purpose
Ascended adds systems that Evolved players have to mod in, and beginners routinely ignore them:
Building snap. The improved snapping makes base building dramatically cleaner than the Evolved default. If your walls are not lining up, you are fighting the system instead of using it.
Dino Tracking. Use it. It tells you what spawned nearby and at what level, which is the difference between finding a level 150 taming candidate and wasting an hour on level 4s.
Official mod crossplay. Ascended supports mods through the built-in crossplay system. If a mechanic feels tedious, there is probably a quality-of-life mod for it — and installing one is a supported path, not a hack.
Console commands. On a private session, the admin console commands (accessed with the console key) let you adjust things mid-game. Use them for experimentation, not as a replacement for learning the loop.
Single-player settings that fix the early grind
If you are playing alone, the default rates are tuned for official servers where hundreds of players compete for resources. On your own session they just make everything slow.
The multipliers worth changing in your session settings:
| Setting | What it fixes |
|---|---|
| Taming speed | The single biggest early-game time sink |
| Harvest amounts | Stops the third metal run from feeling like the first |
| XP multiplier | Reaches the saddle gates without the grind |
| Player food and water drain | Removes a chore that punishes exploring |
There is no wrong answer here. The game is a sandbox, and the settings exist so that your session matches the pace you want. Raise them until the loop is fun, then lower anything that stops feeling like a challenge.
The five mistakes that end runs
- Building in the open. Hidden beats strong until you have turrets.
- Fighting what you cannot outrun. If it is bigger than a raptor, ride away.
- Spending kibble before the saddle level. The creature is useless to you.
- Carrying everything. Weight is the limit that decides how far a trip goes.
- Ignoring temperature. Fur in the snow, cloth in the desert, or you cook and freeze on the same map.