Greetings & Salutations: Humble Beginnings

[Bull1128]

Greetings and salutations fellow scholars, explorers, brigands, adventurers and warriors alike! My name is Bull1128, but you can call me Valus. This series, and more particularly, this episode, is for anyone who may be new to the ARK. The Island, (AKA, the first ARK you'll ever likely see) is a beautiful yet dangerous place with many prehistoric wonders just waiting for someone to find them...albeit a good lot of them want to tear you apart and eat you, but nevertheless, the island is just as grand in the sights and sounds just as it is deadly. Now, without further ado, let's get into it, shall we.

A small note before we begin, at the start, regardless of when and where you are on the ARK, you are bound to die a lot at first. This game requires lots of patience and I recommend that you also take time to study some of the mechanics to get the best jumpstart.

Before you begin an online adventure, I highly recommend playing at least a few hours solo. This will give you a good idea what the ARK is like and just how to survive it. The beauty of solo is that you can adjust the ARK how you see fit, so, even if you don't intend to play offline for long, you can practice in a controlled space to your liking until you are used to it. If you want to get online right away, I highly recommend a PVE server at first, if you can get one. PVP can be very harsh and unforgiving, especially to new players, so it might be better to start on an ARK where everyone either works together or minds their own business versus one where everyone is trying to kill the first person they see. Now, when it comes to tribes, there advantages and disadvantages to certain size tribes. Smaller tribes will, of course, have fewer people, and that means you'll have to divvy up your time helping your tribemates more often, however, a larger tribe might demand more resources from each player, as the large size means a lot of resources will be needed for any group-based events, be it bosses, end-game caves and holiday bosses/events. 

Now, either you've joined a tribe or have, assuming you haven't quit, managed to set up a good place to settle down. Next thing we oughta cover is...*cues the Jurassic Park theme*...Duh-duh, Duduh, Dududu-Di-Dinosauuurs...*clears throat*. Throughout the ARK, you'll find a plethora of dinos, prehistoric beasts, and even a few things that don't really exist. When it comes to these creatures, it's, again, vital to your survival that you study them beforehand, as each varies on aggro/aggro range (AKA what it takes to get them to attack you, if they do attack players, and how far away do you need to be to get them to attack you) as well as overall habits. As well, as I'm sure you are aware, if you've a heard anything about ARK, you can also tame these beasties. There are two types of taming; passive and torpor. Torpor tends to be more common, and it is important to note which you can tame a creature with, as you won't be able to (at least in most cases) be able to tame them through their opposite methods. For example, you can tame a raptor or rex via torpor taming, while if you try to passive tame them, the only good that will come of the attempt is the free food for them. While I won't go into specifics, I will tell that to Torpor tame, you need to knock out a creature, this most often being done with tranq arrows and darts, and feed them while also preventing them from waking up, and Passive taming involve getting close to the creature with the taming food in your last inventory slot, and clicking your use key/button.

A smaller, but important thing to note are supply drops. These have random items and blueprints, each of varying qualities if the item/s in it has a quality. To be clear, quality determines how good an item is. If you want to see the items' statistics, hover your cursor over the item and it will show durability and damage, if it has damage. You can also see armor value on the item's picture itself. The color indicates the level needed to open it, white being level 3, green being level 15, blue is level 30, purple is level 45, yellow is 55, and red is 70, the higher levels having more items they could contain as well as a better chance of a higher quality.

Finally, for this episode, you have engrams and stat points. Each and every time you gain a level, you get a point which both let you increase a stat of your choice and gain some points towards engrams, AKA things you can build. There are several stats you can increase; 

Health - Increasing this will allow you to endure more punishment before the grim reaper comes a knockin'

Stamina - Increasing this will let you sprint, attack and endure stamina-draining effects more. A small note, once you are out of stamina, you will slow down and won't be able to jump, and when you attack, your torpor will increase

Oxygen - Increasing this will increase the time before you start drowning in water. A small note, in water, your stamina will drain as well, though oxygen will only decline underwater

Food - Increasing this will allow you to store more food in your belly and let you go longer without starving. Personally, I'd recommend leveling something else

Water - Increasing this will allow you store more water and let you go longer without dehydrating

Weight - Increasing this lets you carry more. Good for if you need more room for loot and for builders.

Melee Damage - Increases the damage of your fists and any melee weapons you wield. For anyone curious, it doesn't affect weapons other than melee.

Movement Speed - Increasing this increases how fast you move. Very handy for quick getaways. Remember, "you don't have to run faster than the dinos...just faster than your friends"

Fortitude - Increasing this will increase your resistance to torpor and to the weather. Small note regarding insulation, Hyperthermic protection means protection from heat, while Hypothermic protection means protection from the cold. The higher the number, the better you're protected.

Crafting Skill - Formerly crafting speed, increasing this makes what you craft faster, and if you craft from a blueprint, which can obtained from a supply crates, will make that item better for each point you have in crafting speed. A small note, whatever you craft in any inventory other than your own will not have the speed increase. This is good for arrows, bolas, and other basic items you intend to make en masse.

 

That'll do it for this episode. Get out there, start taming some creatures, conquer your enemies and rule the ark! Hopefully this helped with some of the more basic mechanics and cleared a lot of the confusion you may have had prior. Keep all this in mind and keep researching and, most importantly, keep practicing, and it won't be long before you're sitting on the back of a mighty steed with a gun in your hand and an army of beasts following your every command!

[ReddDoc]

Should do a steam guide.