Golden Rules of Ark

[mgsgta3]

This post here is not necessarily for the technical hints and tips, but more for the things weve learned from ark's culture/community over the many hours of playing. I made 1-4 but have now updated it to add in the other rules submitted in the responses.
 

Rule 1: You will die. All of your dinos will die(So dont get attached). You will lose everything, more than once. Sometimes from PVP and sometimes from bugs.  Accept this and take those times as valuable opportunities to learn from your mistakes. 
 
Rule 2:  Never tame a stego. unless it's for a kibble farm.
 
Rule 3: The likelihood of you crashing or experiencing some catastrophically terrible sequence of events raises in direct proportion to how valuable/irreplaceable some thing or things in your inventory are. 
Example: You can bop around taming stegos all day and be fine, but the moment you find an ascendant rex saddle blueprint theres an exponentially higher chance you'll be halfway back to base with no danger in sight, lose your mount because it gets stuck on a bunch of eels(that you narrowly escape from), then just as youre safe again your lscuba tank breaks and as you open your inventory to equip another one your client crashes, then it has to update before it can launch again, so you finally log in just as its the exact moment a gang of wild dinos snuffs you out, rubberbanding your body into oblivion)
 
Rule 4: 9 times out of 10, that girls not really a girl.
 
 
Rule 5: When Rule 1 happens to you, NEVER be the guy who asks "Why did you raid me?" You look and sound like a noob, it's a pvp server and thats all the reason one needs for raiding. They just took all you had, dont give them your dignity too.  If you're going to get the raider back then fantastic, but theres no need to tell him and everyone about it in global. It wont gain you any sympathy or friends by crying or being salty in global chat.

Rule 6: Dont be lazy and place your items in the first tamed dino that you see in your base (unless you wanna run around looking for your stuff because you forgot where you put it)
 
Rule 7: Don't ever land in the swamp/redwood biomes, and dont even fly close to the redwood trees unless you want to get brutally murdered.
 
Rule 8: If you join a high rate server(50x or higher) then make sure you have turrets up before you log off or you should expect to be raided.

Rule 9: Don't block resources. Otherwise you could end up on Extreme Home Makeover: Ark Edition courtesy of the alpha tribe.
 
Rule 10: Don't block caves unless your alpha 
 
Rule 11:  Empty the wood from the beaver dams. Otherwise youre preventing a new one with CP to pop up. 
 
Rule 12:  Dont trust anyone. No matter what. 

Rule 13:  If you see [][][][][][][][], Your servers more than likely doomed. Similarly if you see 123(especially if you see more than one) it’s not a bad idea to make friends and double down on your defenses. 
 
Rule 14: Always keep mejoberries in the last slot on your hotbar.

Rule 15: Feathers usually equal death. Therizinosaurus, Troodon and Yutyrannus are only huggable after being tamed. 
 
Rule 16: Please don't spam global with 'can i join clan pls'. Just start doing your thing, building your base and taming and be friendly and active in global chat, it’ll work out before you know it.
 
Rule 17: Never trust dossiers. 
 
Rule 18. When joining a PVP server play the noob/PVE player card.
The alphas will view you as less threatening if they think your some noob rather then some guy with 4000 hours.
 
Rule 19: When playing on a PVP server always be friendly. You never know, maybe the person  you helped out will stop another person  from raiding your base while youre offline. 

Rule 20: The quiet ones are the ones you have keep an eye on.
Players that type a lot in global chat are rarely a threat its the ones that never speak that you need to worry about.
 
Rule 21: Dont use chat during a raid. Those seconds spent typing could be your death or a tribemates, and it would be really bad if you accidentally used global chat and are the reason a raid fails. Discord is your friend. 

Rule 22:  Don't drop wyvern eggs! New ones won't spawn so eat the low level ones. 
 
Rule 23: Always have a parachute on you(and a grappling hook once you learn the engram)

Rule 24: If the wildlife suddenly stops moving head to safety ASAP. It could save your life. 

Feel free to submit yours!

[USADave85]

Today we were taming a 150 mega first thing in the morning...My friend lagged out riding back with the mutton and his fpassive dragon was killed.

Later on we were standing around waiting for about 20 minutes for 5 ovis, 2 doeds and an anky to all pop at once.  The second the first ovis drops through our ramp a pack of something aggros our entire base...literally while it's dropping in air.  We're running around trying to put berries in all 8 babies...."Your quetzal has been killed".

[Arkasaurio]

Three and four, oh so true...

I'd add:

• Play to your size and capabilities. If you're one guy on an official PvP server, it's not reasonable to think your cool stone castle overlooking the ocean is going to last very long. Build small and stay as hidden as possible (really only relevant to PvP).
• Getting burned out, try a new server type. If you've just been wiped on official PvP for the third time this month and are ready to quit forever, consider unofficials (seriously, some are almost like a different game). Or try PvE, or no tames, or single clusters. The point is, at least for PC, there is a ton of variety out there and maybe a different mode is more your style.

 

[Joebl0w13]

2 hours ago, mgsgta3 said:

Rule 1: 9 times out of 10, that's not really a girl(even if they claim they are one).

The internet. Where men are men, women are men and children are FBI agents. 

[WolfeUK]

Why rule 2 ?? far better than the Trike early game, plus i just got the bone skin for the Stego and want to try it out  

[Wikus]

- Make sure to have an ISP that gives you uncapped data to deal with the updates

[dk667]

3,4 and 5 are spot on, should also add:

- Always carry parachutes on flyers, we've all experienced lagging out or mysteriously falling off mid flight

- Don't send empty threats on chat

[rororoxor]

11 hours ago, mgsgta3 said:

This post here is not necessarily for the technical hints and tips, but more for the things weve learned from ark's culture/community over the many hours of playing. I'll start out with a couple off the top of my head.

Rule 1: 9 times out of 10, that's not really a girl(even if they claim they are one).

Rule 2:  Never tame a stego. unless it's for a kibble farm.

Rule 3. The likelihood of you crashing or experiencing some catastrophically terrible sequence of events raises in direct proportion to how valuable/irreplaceable some thing or things in your inventory are. 
Example: You can bop around taming stegos all day and be fine, but the moment you find an ascendant rex saddle blueprint theres an exponentially higher chance you'll be halfway back to base with no danger in sight, lose your mount because it gets stuck on a bunch of eels(that you narrowly escape from), then just as youre safe again your lscuba tank breaks and as you open your inventory to equip another one your client crashes, then it has to update before it can launch again, so you finally log in just as its the exact moment a gang of wild dinos snuffs you out, rubberbanding your body into oblivion)

Rule 4: You will die. All of your dinos will die. You will lose everything, more than once. Accept this and take those times as valuable opportunities to learn from your mistakes. 

Rule 5: When Rule 4 happens to you, NEVER be the guy who asks "Why did you raid me?" You look and sound like a noob, it's a pvp server and thats all the reason one needs for raiding. They just took all you had, dont give them your dignity too.  If you're going to get the raider back then fantastic, but theres no need to tell him and everyone about it in global.

That's all from me for now, you guys got any?

Rule 6: Dont be lazy and place your items in the first tamed dino that you see in your base (unless you wanna run around looking for your stuff because you forgot where you put it)

Rule 7: Don't ever land in the swamp/redwood biomes, and dont even fly close to the redwood trees unless you want to get brutally murdered.

[LokiTDD]

1 hour ago, rororoxor said:

Rule 6: Dont be lazy and place your items in the first tamed dino that you see in your base (unless you wanna run around looking for your stuff because you forgot where you put it)

Rule 7: Don't ever land in the swamp/redwood biomes, and dont even fly close to the redwood trees unless you want to get brutally murdered.

Don't fly close to the ground in the redwood either, troodons and purlovia are a nightmare, my dimetrodon saved my argy and myself after getting dismounted and knocked out

[Lewiatan]

Rule 8: Never put valuable item in your "0" hotbar slot.  

I lost count how many times I lost GPSs that way...

[IanHighlander]

12 minutes ago, Lewiatan said:

Rule 8: Never put valuable item in your "0" hotbar slot.  

I lost count how many times I lost GPSs that way...

Heh, learned that one the hard way many a time too. I now keep raw meat in my slot 0 at all times. 

[skeeta]

Always fly over water when possible or at a survivable fall hight when not. 

Keep an eye on the wild life. If they stop moving you know a disconnect is imminent. Try and get to a safe place before it happens. 

[Critter]

Add:

If you see [][][][][][][][], Your servers more than likely doomed. 

[SmokeyB]

Rule 9. . . . don't build on the metal 

Rule 10. . . . Don't block caves unless your alpha 

Rule 11. . . . Empty the wood from the beaver dams 

Rule 12. . . .  Don't block penguin spawns

 

[LastSagas]

Rule 13 Dont play pvp

[OnePotatoChip]

Rule 14: When going out to tame, keep your Kibble on your animal. You will be bum-rushed by at least three Pegomastax at some point. 

Rule 15: Feathers usually equal death. Therizinosaurus, Troodon and Yutyrannus are only huggable after being tamed. 

Rule 16: Please don't spam global with 'can i join clan pls'. 

Rule 17: Never trust dossiers. 

[SmokeyB]

10 minutes ago, LastSagas said:

Rule 13 only play pvp

Fixed it for you 

[LastSagas]

12 minutes ago, SmokeyB said:

Rule 14 Ban me senpai

Fixed it for you.

[JaHakk]

31 minutes ago, OnePotatoChip said:

Rule 14: When going out to tame, keep your Kibble on your animal. You will be bum-rushed by at least three Pegomastax at some point. 

 

Only if you want your kibble to eaten before you have a chance to tame what ever you are wanting to tame. Your critters will eat any kibble you put in them.

[OnePotatoChip]

1 minute ago, JaHakk said:

Only if you want your kibble to eaten before you have a chance to tame what ever you are wanting to tame. Your critters will eat any kibble you put in them.

Huh. That's weird. My Dire Wolf never ate any of the Kibble I put in her inventory; always prioritized the meat. 

[BulletForce]

15. When joining a PVP server play the noob/PVE player card.

The alphas will view you as less threatening if they think your some noob rather then some guy with 4000 hours.

To help facilitate this ask dumb questions in chat and make your base look noob. By this I mean act like what a PVE player thats just joined a PVP would do. Put up wooden signs outside your hut with text on it like "Please don't destroy my home". Also make your base design look the part, make it have towers and other PVE accessories such as staircases and greenhouse walls.

 

16. When playing on a PVP server always be friendly

Our group are some of the meanest bunch of killers you'll come across in ARK but on the surface we are a nice group of former PVE players that just want to base build, breed and tame on a PVP server. We are always friendly, helping new players where we can.We'll give them useless crap and they'll let us walk around their base. Meanwhile we're noting down the layout for when we raid them.

By being friendly you attract less attention then say a tribe thats sits in global typing out threats all day. Less attention means you can get more done without having to worry if the alpha is going to come and watch what your doing.

 

17. The quiet ones are the ones you have keep an eye on

Players that type a lot in global chat are rarely a threat its the ones that never speak that you need to worry about.

On my server if I see some new group join and they don't say anything in chat even after a day or two then they are marked for death. Players and tribes that don't talk are nearly always up to no good.

We had a case where 5 guys joined our server and never said a word. Their profiles were private and they had dodgy names. On the third day we went out to find their base and sure enough when we found it we found a metal shack hidden in the trees with a bunch of turtles and a vault full of rocket launchers. Needless to say they definitely up to no good.

[JaHakk]

4 minutes ago, OnePotatoChip said:

Huh. That's weird. My Dire Wolf never ate any of the Kibble I put in her inventory; always prioritized the meat. 

I have accidentally put kibble in a critter and they started eating the kibble. cant really remember if they had other food choices or not. I make it a rule to not put kibble in critters. To me it is better to be safe than sorry. 

[Flaminraptors]

Rule 76

 

The will always be ONE idiot that will use global chat in a raid, usually JUST before you launch your first assault, ALWAYS have another point of entry set up for that eventuality

 

Rule 77

 

NEVER trust a player who pops up in global chat woth any of the following 

* Experienced player lvl 9000 looking for a tribe

* I've never played before, can you help me out

*I'm new to server, can I buy tames

and especially

 

who's the alpha  

 

9 times out of 10 this spells doom

[Teddansen]

RULE NUMBER ONE: TRUST NO ONE 

[Havokpaintedwolf]

excuse stegos may not be the greatest mount ever but if you breed em right they can be pretty decent base defense tanky and strong with a big aoe