Noob advice for caves and bosses

[Hedgehawk]

Noob advice for caves and bosses

Hello Everyone, 

So currently I have been cuddling up and enjoying Ark for the first time on my Ps4, turns out it is a nice way to help you when battling Covid. 

Set up on the Island, started at West Point 2 (on the snaky little beachhead) and have been having a grand old time, getting myself a small group of dodos for eggs, and breeding parasuars (Currently my highest is a level 200). I did have a level 110 pack of 5 dilos, but that go killed by a theriozore thing that doesn't register as hostile on a parasuar radar but rips apart anything that comes close apparently. 

So I recently crossed the level 33 mark and started looking into the endgame and the bosses. I discovered that you can tackle the broodmoother at gamma at level 30 supposedly. This would mean traveling and getting all 3 artifacts before level 30. So I decided to make that my next challenge. Surely I couldn't be too difficult if the requirement was level 30 for the boss. These artifacts should be a breeze to get right? 

Then I looked at the wiki for the center cave... If the wiki is to be believed then the cave is a hell hole that will rip even a seasoned veteran apart if he blinks incorrectly. So now I am stuck. Do I go for the caves? And what is recommended? I am playing single player, so I have those extra engram points, but buying say a whole suit of ghile armour is expensive. Could I sneak my way around or is that just unfeasible? I could use some advice in general now. Am I being too enthusiastic? Do I have to wait 20 or more so levels before trying? And are caves filled with like 30 enemies in a room like the wiki makes out at times? 

[wizard03]

14 hours ago, Hedgehawk said:

These artifacts should be a breeze to get right? 

Then I looked at the wiki for the center cave... If the wiki is to be believed then the cave is a hell hole that will rip even a seasoned veteran apart if he blinks incorrectly. So now I am stuck. Do I go for the caves? And what is recommended? I am playing single player, so I have those extra engram points, but buying say a whole suit of ghile armour is expensive. Could I sneak my way around or is that just unfeasible? I could use some advice in general now. Am I being too enthusiastic? Do I have to wait 20 or more so levels before trying? And are caves filled with like 30 enemies in a room like the wiki makes out at times? 

Sadly the artifacts are designed to be a super pain in the rear to acquire. Even the broodmother tributes/artifacts are still fairly tough. But there is some hope for you, these caves are big enough to hold some tames, and if you got a high enough tame that fits and is set up just right, you can breeze right through them. Just make sure you got all the stews on hand, just in case, plenty of water and food, and of course, plenty of healing potions.

First cave, the artifact of the hunter, is large enough for a bary, and if you decide to try and go through the wet spots, they can do a stun swirl on the piranha. If not, a carno works well too....just keep an eye out for the sarco's…..they are usually a higher lvl than the ones in the swamp. Also, it is a good cave to get beetle's, best thing ever for fertilizer, even with just a little dodo farm. You will encounter mostly scorpions, snakes, and centipedes on land, piranha and sarcos in water
ABOVE ALL ELSE!!!!!! Beware of the centipedes, their dilo like spit can cause your armor to completely get wrecked.....not a problem on the back of a dino, but a problem if your hot footing it. Also, you might get cold, cook up some fira curry and wear some leathers, you should be good.
Recommended tames to take are Baryonox, carno, thylo, dire wolf of high level, sabretooth of high level, or anything that could fit in those sizes. Keep in mind, the final area for the artifact is entered while crouched, so these tames will not fit into the final area...

Second cave, the artifact of the clever, is just north of the hunter cave. You will encounter the same critters as the first one, but this one is much bigger/longer and has bats that can give you diseases. There is a few tricks and tips on this one when you get close to the end, but its best to say that you should study tactics others deployed on how to take on this artifact. A tame can only fit in if its small, sabretooth or dire wolf might, but you should be ready to take on a horde at any one point in time by yourself just to be ready. Strongly suggest pump shotgun. If you want, you could use cryo pods to bring a tame into an larger area then use rare flower to bring in all the nearby targets and deal with them in stages this way, but even a thylo will have areas it cannot get into.

Last cave, lava cave.....it is big enough to get dire wolf or saber through the entrance, but all others must be cryo podded before going into the entrance. Once inside, you can uncryo your tame, and your good to go.
Most problems are due to overacting to the situation. Best advice, take it slow. But beware, this cave is super hot. If your fortitude is high, than you should be good as long as your also wearing ghillie suit. Might want to bring extra water, and you might wanna use a cooling unit to make the drink cold and refreshing. Other than that, beware of bats hacking through the walls, the centipedes, and accidentally falling off the rocks and into the lava.
BONUS FACT: if you do fall into the lave while riding a tame, you will die instantly, but your tame will survive!.....for awhile. Best to have a buddy with you in case you do fall in and you don't want your tame to die. They can whistle your tame to safety and they should survive. So long as your tame has some decent health bumps in the stats. 

 

 After that, its you and the broodmother. I do believe she is supposed to be the easiest boss, but could be wrong....she is easier to get the artifacts than the others, their cave runs are more dangerous. But the best bet on her is either rex's, or megatheriums for their extra bug buff.....I myself went with the megatheriums, was easy to tame, I had a spawn in location right outside my backdoor, I got two nice high level's, started breeding for the boss. I also got the hog for the healing effect and a yuty…..Cause you know, scream at crap.
But I have not pushed the boss fight yet, but Im right there

[Castlerock]

Second cave, the artifact of the massive, is just north of the hunter cave.

Just north of the lower south cave with artifact of the hunter is the upper south cave with artifact of the pack. The central cave that has the artifact of the clever, not of the massive, is further north, past the redwoods and near the center of map and the volcano. The artifact of the massive is located in the lava cave u mentioned.

[wizard03]

11 hours ago, Castlerock said:

Just north of the lower south cave with artifact of the hunter is the upper south cave with artifact of the pack. The central cave that has the artifact of the clever, not of the massive, is further north, past the redwoods and near the center of map and the volcano. The artifact of the massive is located in the lava cave u mentioned.

 

weird, I swore the upper south cave was the clever.....will do a double check later. Hate to show up with a crew of sloths but not the proper tributes

P.s. I found my mistake, I sorry. was super tired last night x.x

[Hedgehawk]

Thanks for the advice. I just didn't know if I was ahead of myself or not. I haven't really gone after any of the advanced tames as I keep getting killed by a group of alpha raptors on the beach. Never seen more than one in a group before. 

 

 

[wizard03]

2 hours ago, Hedgehawk said:

Thanks for the advice. I just didn't know if I was ahead of myself or not. I haven't really gone after any of the advanced tames as I keep getting killed by a group of alpha raptors on the beach. Never seen more than one in a group before. 

If your having troubles with alpha raptors, Id suggest waiting till you get a better dino tame and saddle.....If you got a pteradon, start bounce the supply drops and see if you can snag either a blueprint or a premade saddle for something big n bad, or better than what you got now. Typical go to's are rex's, megatherium's, and the occasional thylo. Once you get a saddle for something better {or you level up your character more so you can build engram saddles} then I would recommend leveling up your choice of tame. 
There are arguments all across the board as to which tame is best, but Id strongly argue a thylo would be a "good" choice for cave runs....small enough to fit in most areas, powerful enough to take down swarms of bats, and with a bunch of level up points in health and you will be set to tackle these caves fairly easily. {in a head to head fight of pure health point leveling vs pure melee damage leveling, pure health leveling will always win}

As for the raptor's, Id suggest getting an argy and teasing them to a rock where you can peck at them, but they can't get back at you.....You will want to put all the points you can into health at first, but once you get a nice chonky bit to where it can survive getting hammered a few times, get that melee above 500% and you will have a flying mount that is capable of rapeing all alpha's, even rex's. Simply swoop down to gain the attention of the alpha, lure them over to a rock or cliff that the alphas cannot climb up or attack, and peck away till they offer billions of prime meat.
If you get hit hard enough that you need to fly away and heal, fly straight up, go out to another area, tag something small, and clean up the carcass. The argy will gain a healing buff for 30 secounds. Heck, even bugs will give you the same buff. Simply wash rinse repeat till full health, then if you want, you can attempt the alpha again.

If you wish to just out power the alpha, rex's are in your future. Just make sure to lvl up health to a fat chonky amount before working on melee.

[JustAnotherBeachNoob]

You are a long long long long long long way from bosses. Keep leveling, make a main base, and tame some bigger tames. Good luck!

[Hedgehawk]

Thanks for everyone's responses. Well today has turned out less than amazing. More raptors have started appearing at the beach head, creating a kind of psuedo siege. I can't get in and out of my little needle area for my base without getting assaulted. Going to the mountain for metal is now out of the question. Just had a level 10 raptor kill me and eat my poop. (I had just made my first longneck too). This game is brutal. 

So one more question: I clicked the single player settings but then I made my game I dragged the difficulty slider all the way to 1.0 as I assumed that was the normal difficulty. However I am beginning to wonder if by doing so I have made the game too hard for a single person. Is it worth lowering it perhaps? What exactly does it affect? 

[wizard03]

3 minutes ago, Hedgehawk said:

So one more question: I clicked the single player settings but then I made my game I dragged the difficulty slider all the way to 1.0 as I assumed that was the normal difficulty. However I am beginning to wonder if by doing so I have made the game too hard for a single person. Is it worth lowering it perhaps? What exactly does it affect? 

You are attempting to take on all the Nazi army, tiger tanks, king tiger tanks, and a mous with just a water gun. XD
Well, I got good news and bad news, good news is if you do get a tame, it should be of extremely high level....look for something ABOVE lvl 100......bad news is, those same tameable dinos will be attempting bloody murder with one shots all day long and will take a metric ton of kibble/narco/tranq arrows as you could ever dream of makeing......Im at 0.2  difficulty and it can be tough and rough to get things going. And that's before you throw in any gigas or high level rex's. However, the highest level Iv ever seen thus far in the wild is a lvl 40 parasaur. The slider increases the wild dino's lvl's and thus stats. And heaven forbid if any of those extra stats are in health or melee damage......a single dilophisaur lvl 140 could probably kill you with its spit attack in one shot.

If you wish to continue upon this path, I strongly urge you to go the step by step route. First a parasaur, then a trike, then a stego, then theiz, ect. ect. And as for boss fights, completely out of the question. It would probably wreck you, and a cave run would end just as badly I would suspect.
HOWEVER, if you do continue upon this path, you do take the long route, and you do work on getting together a small army of dino's, they would absolutely dominate the island and you can easily tame up bigger and badder dino's who will absolutely destroy the big bosses, especially if you start breeding the correct sets. While the wilds and bosses may have their stats smeared all across the different stats, you can hone in on a overly particularly health boosted female or male, and then a male or female with overly boosted melee, then breed them together in hopes of achieving a hyper boosted baby dino with both attributes. Thus introduceing a high powered dino without many wasted stats to help take over the island.

If you just want to turn the insanity down however, Im finding 0.2 to be challangeing yet fun, and I did indeed do a first boss fight today. Brood mother vs 12 sloths and 7 yuty's with a deadon kicker. One yuty took a quick nap after the fight, but no lost dinos! Well, except a couple sacrificial lambs from the mutton farm.