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Need suggestions for caves


BobInSeattle

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My wife and I play on our own (rented) server and have a good time building up our base and breeding dinos. We decided to try out our first cave last night and we had a hell of a time. Every hit by spiders took out our armor, which we could not repair, and we were hit by so many afflictions, we died unexpectedly several times. Wow, was that an eye opening shock,. Here we've been running around killing Alphas and Rexes and a bunch of measly spiders take us out?I

I'd appreciate any suggestions on what gear we should be wearing, how to handle caves, whatever insights or suggestions you've got. Thaniks.

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You take tames in with you to ride and let them do most of the work.   You bring in armor that suits the cave, if its hot - ghili, if its freezing - fur.  If you have soups you can offset the temperatures and go with flak.  Sometimes its a mix of all of the above.   You bring shotguns, crossbows w/ grappling hooks, sleeping bags for all the dying and respawning back by the cave.   It always depends on the map and the caves it has.  The island has only 1 cave you can't ride an animal in, that one you make sure to bring the above grappling hook and leave a set at the door w/ your sleeping bags so you can retrieve your body if it falls into the voids.  

Some caves you can't get the tame in, so you pod them and unpod them inside.   IF its bugs you run into, a megatherium is the best bug killer if it fits in the cave.

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Thanks for the suggestions, much appreciated. Armor in this game seems to be very fragile, in so many fights I wind up with all my pieces broken, sometimes after 1-hit. I'm guessing I should be looking for good blueprints to make better armor? Where are the best blueprints found, in supply drops, caves, boss fights?

Thanks again, we're having a fun time with this game but there's a lot to learn lol. I have to admit, the game has so much more depth than I realized looking at it in the past. The breeding system is fabulous fun.

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There's different loot tables for the different ways you can get items.  The deep sea loot crates I think has some of the toughest to get stuff, they are also spread far apart and few exist at any given time. 

People generally gave up hunting for blueprints on The Island, and we hunted more on Scorched Earth for the longest time.  Extinction came along and gave out the best loot overall from OSDs.  Now we get loot drom drops on genesis 2 makes all other maps a sick joke.  You can get 2 124 rex saddles from drops, 124 rock drake blueprints.... its unreal, and the place to get blueprints if you have access. 

Crystal Isles is a good map to get drops.  It has the deep sea loot crates and desert drops from scorched all over the place.  It has all the best loot tables available from the first maps, and very easy to get to.  

The key to improving the #s you see on the blueprints is available on some maps not all, that's the lioplurodon.  You can tame it on The Island, Crystal Isles, maybe Valguero but I never saw one when we looked.   There could be more maps with it but I don't which ones. 

Oh Fjordur is pretty good place to get loot from doing the easy bosses.  Its maybe a step up from Crystal Isles because you don't have to travel quite as much to get loot on Fjordur.  

 

If you are looking for specific blueprints, you may want to look up the loot tables to see which types have the right stuff you want.  That way you can focus your energy harvesting that type of drop.

 

*Aberration is a different sort of beast on getting loot.  The drops all over the map stink to high hell.  The best stuff shows up on the surface.  You can only hunt the surface at night , and the day lengths vary so sometimes night is super short, sometimes its super long.  Its always very deadly though, even at night.   The 2 good caves with loot are difficult to say the least.  That entire map is a death trap, and the most fun, the most infuriating, arguably - the best map for the game.  And you will have complete crap for gear unless you bring stuff with you, it will take a long time to get good gear on Aberration. 

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Just now, BobInSeattle said:

Thanks for the suggestions, much appreciated. Armor in this game seems to be very fragile, in so many fights I wind up with all my pieces broken, sometimes after 1-hit. I'm guessing I should be looking for good blueprints to make better armor? Where are the best blueprints found, in supply drops, caves, boss fights?

Thanks again, we're having a fun time with this game but there's a lot to learn lol. I have to admit, the game has so much more depth than I realized looking at it in the past. The breeding system is fabulous fun.

Armor is pretty fragile compared to many games, and that's intentional. The way to think of armor in ARK is that it's a backup plan if something goes wrong. Plan A should (almost) always be something like "bring animals that can clear the cave, and if I get dismounted my armor will keep me alive long enough to get remounted." Obviously you can develop all sort of tricky strategies for doing things on foot that will work situationaly (like hanging from grappling hooks and shooting at stuff), but dinos are your primary source of muscle and survivability. Also, many people take extra sets of armor with them because, ya' know, ARK happens.

It helps if you have a variety of good mounts so you can take whatever mount is best for the cave you're doing, and with only two people it helps if you bring extra animals on follow to help with the bigger fights. Two people with four animals or six animals have a better chance of succeeding than two people with two animals. Obviously you have to practice animal management, using whistle commands so you can prevent your escort animals from running deep into the cave and getting killed, but it's worth developing those skills when you roll into an area with a bunch of baddies. Also, you'll need those skills when you do boss fights, so you might as well start practicing them now.

My personal favorite animals for caving are therizinos (for general purpose caving, if the cave is large enough), megatherium (for caves with lots of insects, again if the cave is large enough), thylacoleo (for general purpose caving, if it's to small for therizinos). But, of course, some of the caves are smaller and you may want to consider taming (and maybe breeding) a good pack of wolves for the pack bonus.

Of course other people have their personal favorites, these are just mine. But no matter what  mounts you use, always keep in mind that dismounting and fighting things should (almost) always be "Plan B", animals are your main source of power.

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9 hours ago, BobInSeattle said:

My wife and I play on our own (rented) server and have a good time building up our base and breeding dinos. We decided to try out our first cave last night and we had a hell of a time. Every hit by spiders took out our armor, which we could not repair, and we were hit by so many afflictions, we died unexpectedly several times. Wow, was that an eye opening shock,. Here we've been running around killing Alphas and Rexes and a bunch of measly spiders take us out?I

I'd appreciate any suggestions on what gear we should be wearing, how to handle caves, whatever insights or suggestions you've got. Thaniks.

My first suggestion is to bring along tames that can fit into the caves. Some people would say a sabretooth, wolf, baryonyx, or a bear. I personally like to use thylo's. The main reason why is they have a bigger base health pool than the ones previously mentioned, and they also have the bleed effect. They can also climb walls. Now they get a bit peculiar against uneven walls, but they can still navigate vertically. You may also need a cryo pod in certain spots because the thylo is too big to fit through, but other medium sized tames will have this issue too.

Once you have your "cave smasher" leveled up and ready, Id strongly suggest the easy one called the cave of the hunter. Its the most southern central cave on the map. Its gonna have bugs, snakes, sarco's, and piranha, but it does not have bats. Which is important because bats can give you mega rabies, even if your rideing your tame.

If you're on a high level tame, you can very easily work your way through it but do be mindful of how much damage your tame is taking and be prepared to be jumped by MULTIPLE amounts of creatures in each den you work through. If you're on a predator, I would stop after clearing each den and force feeding regular raw meat to help heal them to full health again. Sadly herbivores can only be healed with time, deadon, or veggie cakes. And that last bit is kinda hard to cook up. {If your looking to grow a garden, this cave can offer tamable dung beetles. The best companion for a garden.}

Last but not least, your kit. Since its "cool" inside the cave, you want something warm, so I'd suggest full hide armor. However, I would not wear anything hard to fix because if a centipede spits on you, it instantly breaks your armor. Next is weapons. Crossbow and grappling hook is an absolute must. ALLWAYS bring a crossbow and 10 or more grappling hooks. Other than that though, you can bring whatever you want. Compound bow, shotguns, metal pike...don't overload yourself or your tame, but you can be as prepared as you want. Just keep in mind, if you lose it, you have no back up stuff for a rescue mission. Last but not least is consumables. Bring a full stack of cooked meat, at least one water container, and it's up to you to bring med brews and/or Rockwell soups, but the med brews is defiantly a good idea. In fact, I'd suggest them for all the caves, and maybe even a full stack of them in the harder caves. As for soups and battle tartar, up to you as they are expensive and time consuming to make, but I could recommend Feria curry for warmth bonus, and either Lazarous chowder for better health regen or battle tartar for improved resistance to damage.

No matter what cave you do, Id always suggest dropping a sleeping bag, a bed, or a bunk bed. Putting up some temp storage, and leaving at least 1 back up "kit" to be prepared to use in order to rescue your tame or your first kit. 
Take it slow, don't panic, and accept what happens if something goes wrong. Good luck!

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Lot of great suggestions here. We have been fundamentally playing this game wrong, relying on ourselves for the muscle and using dinos for support, when in fact it sounds like just the opposite is required. We're going to take the advice given here and regroup to better plan our next outing. Many thanks to all, this is a great community!

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32 minutes ago, BobInSeattle said:

Lot of great suggestions here. We have been fundamentally playing this game wrong, relying on ourselves for the muscle and using dinos for support, when in fact it sounds like just the opposite is required. We're going to take the advice given here and regroup to better plan our next outing. Many thanks to all, this is a great community!

(it was already mentioned above but..) a clarification:

for those new to the caves, it is important to underline the importance of knowing that Megalania and Onyx when they strike can cause your character the (often fatal) disease MEGARAGE even if you are riding a dino, besides them we must not underestimate Arthopleura who with his attack literally DISSOLVES the armor (even good ones), all combined with the SLOWDOWN effect of the spiders can create disastrous situations.

PS: Megarage can only be cured with Minor Antidote and NamlessVenom, otherwise it drains life over time until the timer runs out.

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13 hours ago, BobInSeattle said:

My wife and I play on our own (rented) server and have a good time building up our base and breeding dinos. We decided to try out our first cave last night and we had a hell of a time. Every hit by spiders took out our armor, which we could not repair, and we were hit by so many afflictions, we died unexpectedly several times. Wow, was that an eye opening shock,. Here we've been running around killing Alphas and Rexes and a bunch of measly spiders take us out?I

I'd appreciate any suggestions on what gear we should be wearing, how to handle caves, whatever insights or suggestions you've got. Thaniks.

If your armor was getting 1 shot, it was most likely not the spiders and more likely the Arthropleura. The centipede like creatures. They're nasty. Always prioritize killing those things if they are nearby. They spit and break armor and unless you are on a high creature (height I mean) they will end up hitting you.  For the bats, I would bring lesser antidotes to caves. Cures and makes you immune to their rabies. 

 

I definitely would avoid fighting on foot in caves. Sometimes, stuff will pop out of the wall mesh even if you don't see it and ruin your day. 

 

Good tame for caves is usually a Thylacoleo, Baryonyx, etc. \

 

 

What cave were you in, by the way?

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1 hour ago, BobInSeattle said:

We were in the cave that is just up from the southern central most part of The Island. We got to the end and my wife looted some kind of Artifact (of the Hunter?), but I was not able to loot it. Not sure what to do with it, but it was quite the adventure.

They respawn quite slowly.  Artifacts are used for starting boss fights. 

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On 1/30/2023 at 12:40 AM, BobInSeattle said:

Lot of great suggestions here. We have been fundamentally playing this game wrong, relying on ourselves for the muscle and using dinos for support, when in fact it sounds like just the opposite is required. We're going to take the advice given here and regroup to better plan our next outing. Many thanks to all, this is a great community!

Hey, your not the first, and I think at one point in time, we have all been guilty of this. I can't tell you how many times I went out to pick berries when I first started, even though my saddled parasaur was standing right there watching me spend hours picking the same amount of berries he could have gathered in minutes XD

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9 hours ago, BobInSeattle said:

We were in the cave that is just up from the southern central most part of The Island. We got to the end and my wife looted some kind of Artifact (of the Hunter?), but I was not able to loot it. Not sure what to do with it, but it was quite the adventure.

ok, good news, bad news. Good news is, your experiance was a steep learning curve, but it was one that was necessary. The bad news, That was the easiest cave.
Also, that was one of 10 artifacts {yes, that means you have 9 other caves and they get worse} needed to summon the boss's.
And once you have defeated the boss's, you must then ascend if you wanna get to the next map proper.

And thus, you are no longer in an endless survival game, but a survival game with a true ending!

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On 1/29/2023 at 1:52 PM, GrumpyBear said:

lioplurodon

That thing is worth about as much as the dirt on my feet. For how difficult it is to find and tame, it's honestly probably not worth it. Squishy as hell too, so your once in a lifetime tame meets a megaladoodle, poof, it's gone. If you're desperate, go for it. But you'd probably have a better time just searching cave drops and underwater loot drops on the island.

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On 1/30/2023 at 12:27 AM, Zeldei said:

The centipede like creatures

Bring a longneck or a sniper, bp or higher quality preferable, a pump shottie, a pike or sword, plenty of water, med brews, and food. Also bring lesser antidote and wear whatever armor fits the cave best. Lava cave? Ghillie armor. Snow cave? Fur. And so on and so on. As for quality-an engram quality shottie would work, just not as well as a drop shottie. Primitive quality longneck is fine, just bring around 30 shots and a scope, which should be all you need. Bring plenty of shotgun ammo, and ride on something that both fits, and is powerful. Direwolves are a great starter options, as are baryonyx. Thylas are probably the best for purely land caves, while the bary slays in underwater and above land as well.

Hope that helped! Cheers, good luck, and happy ARKing!

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23 minutes ago, Griffin998 said:

That thing is worth about as much as the dirt on my feet. For how difficult it is to find and tame, it's honestly probably not worth it. Squishy as hell too, so your once in a lifetime tame meets a megaladoodle, poof, it's gone. If you're desperate, go for it. But you'd probably have a better time just searching cave drops and underwater loot drops on the island.

You don't ride them forever.  All you do is tame them and let them die.  They give you a 6 hour boost to the drops you open.  So if the bp was going to be a 70 armor jm, it could go up above 90 armor jm saddle instead.  That's why people tame them, not to ride.  You tame, every tribemate touches it, you all get a buff.  Makes the 90s armor saddle bps that show up on crystal isles hit over 100.

 

* it is a law of averages though, you will get tons of junk.  But the shiny gems should shine a little brighter after you get that buff....for 6 hours.

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2 hours ago, Griffin998 said:

Hold it right there-it's a 6 hour buff? Never mind then. I thought it was, like, ten minutes. I withdraw my argument, your honor.

Nah, they got an adjustment awhile back. No one ever bothered taming them because of the crappy ownership and buff time.

But on SP, their buff is bugged. If I run around with max difficulty checked and SP settings enabled, Im getting the best gear right away. However if I tamed a lipluradon and checked drops with the buff, it goes from the best stuff in the game, to barely better than primitive. Also, it does not seem to improve the odds of getting the extra rare loot. Instead of finding giga saddles, theri saddles, and ascendent riot armor. It stays the same, such as crop plots, compass's, and phioma saddle......Truely taming a lipluradon on SP is a huge waste of time.

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17 hours ago, wizard03 said:

Nah, they got an adjustment awhile back. No one ever bothered taming them because of the crappy ownership and buff time.

But on SP, their buff is bugged. If I run around with max difficulty checked and SP settings enabled, Im getting the best gear right away. However if I tamed a lipluradon and checked drops with the buff, it goes from the best stuff in the game, to barely better than primitive. Also, it does not seem to improve the odds of getting the extra rare loot. Instead of finding giga saddles, theri saddles, and ascendent riot armor. It stays the same, such as crop plots, compass's, and phioma saddle......Truely taming a lipluradon on SP is a huge waste of time.

This I did not know.  That's good info there.  My experience is mostly just on pve official. I need to remember that when I make blanket statements.

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19 hours ago, wizard03 said:

But on SP, their buff is bugged. If I run around with max difficulty checked and SP settings enabled, Im getting the best gear right away. However if I tamed a lipluradon and checked drops with the buff, it goes from the best stuff in the game, to barely better than primitive. Also, it does not seem to improve the odds of getting the extra rare loot. Instead of finding giga saddles, theri saddles, and ascendent riot armor. It stays the same, such as crop plots, compass's, and phioma saddle......Truely taming a lipluradon on SP is a huge waste of time.

Okay then, so that explains my opinion on them. When I read Grumpybear's post, I thought they'd been balanced recently or something.

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On 1/30/2023 at 5:50 AM, BobInSeattle said:

My wife and I play on our own (rented) server and have a good time building up our base and breeding dinos. We decided to try out our first cave last night and we had a hell of a time. Every hit by spiders took out our armor, which we could not repair, and we were hit by so many afflictions, we died unexpectedly several times. Wow, was that an eye opening shock,. Here we've been running around killing Alphas and Rexes and a bunch of measly spiders take us out?I

I'd appreciate any suggestions on what gear we should be wearing, how to handle caves, whatever insights or suggestions you've got. Thaniks.

Spider man itSpider-Man Hello GIF by MOODMAN

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