Which should I do?

[Wesmanee]

Finally getting around to doing a full ark playthrough. The last run so to speak before ark 2. All maps one character. Should I play through with open borders meaning I can pass through each map any time for any reason bringing items and tames with me or keep everything map restricted? What would be your choice and why? 

[LordHotPockets]

I likely will never do what you're planning on doing but theoretically if I did it then I'd play with the mindset that I'm like one of the previous survivors (Helena, Santiago, Mei-Yin). Once I'd beaten the boss from the current map I'm on, if it doesn't automatically give me the option to do so then I'd transfer to the new map taking whatever I could transfer on my person. I think the transfer part of it is fine because the obelisks themselves allow it so its part of the world I'm trying to survive in, why wouldn't I use every advantage afforded to me? Tames in cryopods would be fine using this thought process or you could go old school and only use the tame transfer feature on the ob and limit yourself to 20, your call but personally I'd cryo them up and take as many as I could carry because, again, the world allows it. Once I've left a previous map though there will be no going back, only forward so once I leave a map its lost to me forever, with the exception of whatever I bring with me.

That's my take on it, kudos to you for attempting it. Like I said I will more than likely never do this personally but I have no qualms about rooting for you 👍

[wizard03]

10 hours ago, Wesmanee said:

Finally getting around to doing a full ark playthrough. The last run so to speak before ark 2. All maps one character. Should I play through with open borders meaning I can pass through each map any time for any reason bringing items and tames with me or keep everything map restricted? What would be your choice and why? 

Since its the last hooray, Id say go nuts. Start fresh, work your way through the storyline maps, and have fun. Once your done and ready to move on, take what you want. Maybe not everything, but whatever you want......Got a special argy? bring it. Made 50 walls, floors, and ceiling tiles of metal? Ship it. Those super awesome BP's you just never got around to? Hopefully you can cook em up in the next map.

As for me personally, I do like that early game challenge {except for extinction, that would take decades without at least bringing you older character with the tek engrams. Perhaps genisis 1 as well}
When its time to transfer, take my character over and allow only 48 items to transfer with me.....This limits the amount of stuff I can bring and while Im still going to be OP compared to a new beach bob, it still puts some challenges in place to prevent a totally ruined experience. For instance from the island to SE, I may take an argy egg {this prevents OP argy right away and I got to at least get some AC units in place before attempting to hatch}
I may send over stone and cloth BP's only, instead of metal or stuff built in a fab. Im usually lax on saddle BP's cause those things are farm fest's just to build a single one, in fact I might send over the super hard to find ones even if that dino isn't in that map, just so I can send on to the next map and the next map where that dino exists again, just so I already have it. 

all in all however, I only will allow 49 slots of whatever to transfer to the next map to prevent the game from spoiling out on me.

[DirkInSA]

I also would likely not attempt this.

However were I to go there I would use all of the experience and resource available to me. So (for e.g.) I might spawn in on Crystal Ilse  and go catch a passive tame wyvern, and then go to the island and start building stuff.

Why go through all the "beach bob" stuff when you have done it before, and it is really no longer necessary. As a really clean new player, there is merit in doing the maps as they come, but if you have been there and done that - use what you know and go forward as fast as you can!

[TimeBomb2003]

The way I did it was like this:

I started on The Island, occasionally going to some of the free maps just for fun. And when I defeated the Overseer, I then "unlocked" Scorched Earth, so to speak. And when I defeated the Manticore, I then "unlocked" Aberration, and so on and so forth. I wouldn't transfer to the other story maps until I conquered the previous one. Not bringing anything with me.

I would also create a new character for each story map, so that I am required to level up, and as such, not beat each map to quick. Once I reached a high enough level with the new character, I would then swap the new one, with my old one, so that when it's all said and done, I'd only have the 1 character.

As for transferring between the story maps, I made it so that when I conquered a map, along with unlocking the next map, I also opened up transfers to the map I beat.