I need guidance from you!

[ItsChronic]

Hello fellow survivors!

I just started playing Ark again after quitting shortly before the Aberration launch. 

With close to 2k hrs of playtime I wish I could say that I know my way around the Ark since I did everything from building a base, taming effectively, breeding and also killing bosses on official PvE but I don't. I set up a small base on The Island so far where my main base should be in the future. Got myself some Argies, a Megatherium, Tape, Giga, Anky, Doedi and all that jazz to have a nice foundation. 

But I'm clueless where to go next. Usually I would start building a base and hatching Wyverns now on SE while setting my main base up for Rex and Direwolf breeding . (Never really touched Ragna because the servers were always full and the taming limit has been reached so I only farmed Ice Wyvern eggs there.)

Since there are two new maps out I'm not sure if that is the way to go because it seems like Extinction offers many things like Gachas and higher tier resources that would speed things up for me.

So I'm asking you: Where should I go next and what should I bring with me where I'm going and what would be my game plan there?

[Noric]

If you’re a high enough level start breeding rexes for the boss fights. Also breed up a good yuty. This will take some time. So will gathering the boss summoning resources, depending on which difficulty you’re doing. 

[Melcreif]

Go to Extinction and get yourself some Owls.  Super fast tames and they are awesome for scouting and also very helpful in taming with their healing ability.  For getting Wyvern Eggs I highly recommend you get yourself some Griffins from Rag as well.  You can't breed Griffins, but they are fast and fairly tanky so good for getting eggs in the Skar.

[Cymas]

It all depends on what your goals are really. There are two new maps, but they've been out long enough that there's a robust trade economy if you're playing on a server. So a lot of the things you're looking for can be acquired through trade if you want to go that route in order to speed up your progress.

Otherwise I think there's a lot of benefit to exploring the new maps with an open mind, rather than getting too focused on what you think you should do. They're both interesting, challenging experiences that add a lot to the overall game experience. Maybe get out there and have a little fun with it before getting into the endgame grind.

[steelhard]

I find extinction awesome because there's a lot more content there, easier to reach tek due to element veins, OSD's are actually hard as a solo player so you need to strategize properly, etc

[d1nk]

Id say your next logical step is to build your caving / boss armies. It really depends on what you need. Since you main Island you wont need to worry about Blueprints (Swamp Cave island and Easy/Hard water cave give the best bps in the game and most exclusive outside rarities from Extinction) nor will you have to worry about farming Artifacts for bosses since they're all easy there except Hard Ice Cave (use another map to farm quantity of this one)

You will have a problem obtaining 150s though. I would try Ragnarok honestly. You can tame ALL of Ark there outside DLC exclusives (phoenix, lightpets, reapers, drakes, gacha, owl and Mana) and you can get Griffins which help a lot. For mid tier blueprints theres no better. Run ice cave entrance for easy longneck, fur, tools, weapons and flak bps (you can fly in herr) and run desert drops for your pump shotties, giga / mosa / quetz saddles. Build your boss army here, equip yourself a bit and get really easy black pearls to get going. (Use island gamma brood to get replicator engram)

After (and during) last phase build an outpost in Extinction, near some terminals or something. Run an easy OSD drop (Blue) and get some cryopods. GAME CHANGER! 

After that you have free range of mood. Do you want to experience Abb? Do you want to explore more on Extinction? 

The end result is the same. Extinction will be your real endgame farming for tek stuff, element, Gachas are a base game changer and Snow owls are handy for the base too. Enjoy your mid game. Id suggest getting cryopods then startig in Abberation then complete extinction after.