Eleusius

Wow... it's actually amazing coming back here after 2 years of Ark, looking up all the misshaps that happened 2 years ago. Most of the things I wrote I still remember quite vividly. However Ark has become a very different story for me now. Most things I do these days are breeding and Boss fights or preparations thereof. Resources are no longer an issue, no matter which ones. Even Element is a plenty, which I barely knew back in the days, let alone how to use it. This game really takes you a mile and then another. Now, Ark2 feels around the corner, but knowing the release strategy of wildcard, I don't expect it too soon. There'll likely be a delay or two. But from the reading many of the shortcomings of our beloved original will be addressed. So ... we may hope Have a nice day everyone. Eleusius.

Mind the edges. The map-edges are particularly evil, sometimes just killing you without warning or other hint. You just die for no reason whatsoever. But then, Extinction isn't as bad a place as it has introduced itself to you. Start in the city and make your way over the map.

Last weekend a tribemate and me took on the Forest Titan on Extinction. Well... I admit we've been lured to the Titan by tales that it's more or less easy. There's even some vids out there that suggest he's the easiest titan and we had done the desert titan with ease. So we took a bunch of Rexes and a few Allos in support and went there. Leveled the Rexes to around 35k health and 700-800% damage and the Allos to around 15k health and 500+ % dmg. Well, guys... don't go with that setup. It's not enough. The titan lost some health - I say almost half of it, but then the Rexes died rather quickly. The Allos had perished long before that. I have to admit that they were rather useless, because the AoE dmg of the titan takes them out really fast. We tried some additional damage with the forest wyverns, but the titan regenerates health faster than you can take it away with the wyverns, so we eventually quit. So... it's back to breeding. Plus next attempt we'll use a bunch of Gigas and the Rexes will only support. 'til next time. Have fun. Eleusius.

Hello there, personally I'd recommend diving creatures (i.e. griffins or owls) when digging into wyvern-areas. Or (of course) Tropeos, if you have any. You need to be able to shake them off... Regards, Eleusius.

Well well, since the cluster I'm playing on is mostly modded I never got around to playing anything beyond valguero for a long time and suffered from players talking about the "nanny" and other mods doing stuff for them. Last year there was a sale on Steam for Ark that I took, but always had trouble to fit a double installation of Ark on my old computer (Epic and Steam). Always wanted to wait until I got a new one, but everybody I talked to recommended to wait. I guess Corona spoiled hardware prices around the world. So I eventually sat down and tried to make the Steam-install fit on my gaming partition. It was a bit of work and it got a little ugly, but finally it fits. So I started a new character Got up to Lvl 69 on the second day. Had to pause a few days, since real life got really demanding. Lost a lot of stuff trying to change maps for the first time. There are a lot of mistakes to be made there. Eventually got to Ragnarok and found a tribe-mate of mine (well, rather she found me). So I already got a new home over there with all the fancy stuff I have been dreaming of. There's so much eye-candy with the mods, too. Sweet. We did a small tour over the desert, looking for drops and having fun. Also did the ice-queen with Thylas. It was probably the easiest fight I've been in with the queen not being able to hit small dinos. The way there was much more challenging than the boss itself. Anyway... gotta grind a few levels. Hear ya! Eleusius.

With a taming pen, these are as easy as can be. Just lure them in and tranq them. Eleu.

Oh well, I didn't know I'd come back here so soon, but I've had a little adventure and I'm in the mood to spread the news. As pretty much always I've been playing Valguero on the chaos-server. Besides having a line of Thylas going, I also have a smaller line of Sarcos and a lease of a Basilo and a Baryonyx from a friendly player. So I decided I need some black pearls. Hadn't seen any. White pearls I can farm in masses pretty much everywhere, but black pearls... none. So I looked up a youtube video and got a location. I sorted through my possessions and picked a couple of useful things. Then I mounted the Basilo, took two Sarcos along and of course the Baryonyx (those two are a dream-team, honestly) and set out to the designated coordinates. It didn't take long until the megalodons started tampering us, but at first they were little trouble. One, two or three I could take out easily. Then a school of about 6 megalodons hit with an alpha in it. Now that was a different story. The fight lasted for a while and the two Sarcos eventually died. Not much of a bother, though, since I have more coming. However I noticed that when leaving my base I had forgotten to "activate" them, so they were still on passive. Well... lesson learned. The dream-team took care of those nasty school of megalodons and for the first time I noticed their health-pool to get a notable dent. That was serious stuff. Well, serious it was, but I managed... or less me than my dream-team. I have to add that I find maneouvering under water a bit tough. The Basilo, when riding it, tends to go head into the mud and I always feel like I have to look up from his ass rather than straight to keep him going. Well... handling aside, I kept swimming along looking for the designated spot. Went a bit here and a bit there, but I couldn't get to the spot designated in the GPS. A while later I was attacked by two Alpha-Megalos, but without more sharks in the trail. The fight went better than the first one, although it lasted pretty long. After that I decided to go home to repair my scuba-gear and have the dream-team heal up as well as get some new sarcos (and activate them). Also I decided to take some more advice in finding the right place and took to another video. Just on the side, I had to unpack several hundreds of Biotoxin when coming home along with a bunch of side-loot from the fights. The Biotoxin, however, will be a gift for my favourite player, since I can't construct shocking darts due to level restriction just yet. Not too long, though. From the next video I learned that I had to go to the underground ocean and round about where the entrance is. The dream-team was healed up (at least mostly), I took 3 sarcos along, had repaired the scuba gear and took off again. There were some skirmishes (I guess there always are when you are swimming), but not as serious as the first time. Btw - I've got to check my chibi on progress at the next opportunity I found the entrance to the underground ocean and went down. At first it was a very very irritating place. I had little orientation and there was much fighting to be done. Killed several electrophorus, two plesios and a couple of sharks, to name the most notable ones. Again they were handled nicely and this time the sarcos did a good job, too. Actually I was glad to have them around for a little distraction from the dream-team. Then the server-restart-message hit me. Oh my... 5 minutes to find safety in the abyss. How should I do that. I suppose there's no safety to be had anywhere down there, so I started searching for the exit. It was actually quite tough, since I hadn't gained much orientation during the little time I had spent down there. Also there were still some attacks coming in. Those electrophorus come in larger numbers in the abyss I say. At last I found the entrance (or exit) and retreated into the chasm leading back to the surface-lake. I didn't reach the surface, but the chasm was way better than the underground sea. I felt confident that my team would handle the threats coming upon us down there. Then the restart hit and I logged off. Got back as soon as I could and found everything in good condition, the team ready and eager for more exploration in the chasm between surface-lake and underground sea, just as I had left them. Good luck so far! I set out to search for the black pearls. At first I didn't find them, but looking closely and more thoroughly they were actually almost abundant down there. I started gathering and was soon surprised that those pearls are heavy as hell. I soon had to redistribute loads from the Basilo to the sarcos to accomodate all the loot. Well, all the important loot that is. Then, while gathering black pearls we were all of a sudden attacked by a tusoteuthis. I hadn't seen it coming. It was just suddenly there and I have no idea where it came from. Luckily I wasn't hit first. It would have been an awkward end to my expedition, since I wasn't mounted at the time (gathering pearls). I didn't know if it was serious - I just knew I hadn't fought this creature before and that at least the higher level ones can be quite serious if not unbeatable in a one-on-one. But having a team of capable fighters with me, the scene soon turned in my favour and the Tuso spit ink. Not much longer and I got the message that it was defeated, despite me not being able to see. Well, that was better than expected. Probably it wasn't such a high-level one. But it was another warning that this place was not to be messed with. I took a quick look around but decided that I've had enough excitement for the day and took my loot home. I got almost two full stacks of black pearls (whoa... nice catch for the first trip down there) and everybody got home safe and sound (except for the two sarcos lost on the first attempt). Put everything away, cleaned up and called it a day (oh... well, rather a night). It had been several hours and several means rather many in this context. Anyways - I hope you enjoyed the story. Again, merry christmas and hope to read you again, soon. Bye, Eleusius.

Hey all, it's been a while since I've posted to this thread. I'm playing on the chaos-Server almost exclusively. Some nice people donated a breeding-pair of Thylas to me and I've quite the population running. Taking them out is fun. They're no match for the wyvern trench, but that's to be expected. Mostly, because they take to swimming in Lava for some KI-specific reasons. Also because they're having a hard time to actually hit the wyverns. but other than that, they're doing great. And taking them to the wyvern trench was really only a desperate attempt at getting some gear back I had lost in a failed attempt to raid some eggs. Except for wyverns, going out in a pack of 4 or 5 Thylas is a lot of fun. I've been out hunting Raptor Claus' presents for a while, but I've to say it's really really tedious. On average I get 2-3 presents in one night. I'm out in an owl, though, which probably is way way too slow. I'm lacking a better mount right now, since I haven't had any time critical challenges, yet. Best mount, I guess, would be a managarmr. I've seen some out and about, but for all I know they're not the easiest tames. Gotta check if I can get any. Maybe I can get some help eventually. The server is not very populated, but there're some nice people on it (if they're active). Most people play other maps as well and Valle is the only map for "us" Epic players. Anyways... if I don't get back here in time, merry christmas everyone. Have fun! Eleusius.

I realised quite happily that you can whistle underwater. I didn't expect it. So... on Valguero (Chaos Server) I started diving. Only small dives, but with scuba gear. Got me 500 (white) Perls, which happen to be right next to my base. Nice. Got a nice Sarco as Bodyguard and had fun getting it to kill Mantas and low-level Megalos. Let's see what else he's capable of. Didn't bother him much, yet. Other than that I'm having first experiences in breeding. Have a nice pair of Thylas (gift from another player) and try to get one every day. One of the newcomers is already adult, three more coming (with 1 day difference in birth, each). Having problems killing my Ovis (the new ones, those I get from breeding). Seems it's not always allowed? Have fun everybody. Eleusius.

You can actually practice to fight snakes with spears or a pike (that is fight and win). Have some stimulant on you in case something goes wrong. There's also videos on how to do this, because snakes are a great source for hide early game. Have fun Eleusius.

Hello Survivors, today I have two little episodes to tell. I've done a lot of grinding and base work to get a solid foundation on the chaos-server (valguero), but I'll spare you the details. It takes some effort getting used to playing on a 24/7 server, though. Those food-troughs never last long enough. Also I had some health-issues at the end of last week and couldn't play, so feeding the dinos has been an issue. Luckily a fellow player helped me out. I would've been in some trouble otherwise (since I didn't have any cryos then and all the Dinos were sitting at my base). ====== Episode 1 ====== After I had experienced trouble to play regular enough to feed the dinos as needed, I decided it was time to get my first cryopod(s). That actually meant to go out farming organic polymer. Well... that's a lot easier on val, since you find it all along the beaches, not just at the snow-biome. For shorter distance I decided to just cross the big lake instead of going to the south shore. Soon enough I found some fishes and other loot and harvested all in the vicinity. I wasn't quite satisfied, though, since I wanted to make at least 5 pods and the polymer I got wasn't enough. Well, a few dozen meters up the beach was another section of beach. I examined it, found a fish some way further up and farmed it. Examined the vicinity and was surprised that a pack of Allos was within sight. To avoid troubles I decided to take my little party some way back from where I've come. Luckily I found another fish and landed. During the harvest I was suddenly ambushed and from the glimpse I got during the first attack it was either a rex or an allo. Oh no... trouble coming. I ran. Too slow. I was hit again and soon died - it was an allo. My heart was racing, since my expedition party was no doomed to fight the ambushers and from all I had seen out of the corner of my eye, that allo wasn't alone. My most important flyers were all out there, most importantly my only two argys. Well, they had some health-points, but I had no idea how long that would last. Only thing I knew is that they were in serious trouble. So I hasted to jump on the next Ptera and pushed it to race over the lake. Had to make a little rest before flying on to the battle site. Checked the tribe-log. No entries other than myself. Good. Onwards! Coming closer to the battle site I saw a 3 vs 3 battle. My two argys and the Ptera I had taken across the lake vs a pack of 3 Allos. All were alive and I started whistling passive & follow as soon as I saw them, still racing closer to get into hearing distance. Then the fight stopped and I was surrounded by all my buddies. *deep*sigh* I checked on everybodys health. The Ptera was quite beaten up, but the Argys were doing almost ok. The pack of Allos must have moved up the beach to my last farming spot, which I hadn't expected. And quite fast, too. I was pretty sure they hadn't taken up my trail when I first saw them and I've definitely been out of rendering distance. So... another lesson learned and I didn't pay too dearly for this one. Only problem was I still wanted to recover my equipment, so I settled on a nearby rock which was clearly inaccessible by the allos and watched. And indeed - it didn't take long until the pack moved on, keeping their direction. They must have been set to travel up the beach anyways. So I got all that belonged to me, still got all the stuff I had farmed and moved on to craft the pods. Well... that could actually make another episode, but today I've something different to tell. ====== Episode 2 ====== Recently I had done a whole lot of housekeeping and fillling up supplies. Just the daily duties you have to do to keep your base running smoothly. To be short - it wasn't fun. So after all was done I decided to overdraw my "ark-time-account" even more and have some fun. Namely completing my 3-D-collection. The 3-D-collection consists of a Doedicurus, a Daeodon and a Dimetrodon. All excessively useful and I started to call them the 3-D because I had so much trouble getting started on them in my solo play on the island - you might read this story a few pages back on this thread. On Valguero I already had a sweet Doedicurus, again with the help of a very generous fellow on this server, so this time it was Daeodon-time. I had seen some a bit north of the big lake, knowing the territory being not the easiest - all kinds of trouble spawns there. But another night I had landed at the descent of a large hill in that area, expecting that no other creature would be able to traverse the incline. Mistake. A small group of wolf-sized shapes, though a bit bulkier, had come rushing towards me and I had only just enough time to take to the air again. I then checked out what had rushed me and found Daeodons. So that's why I decided to come back here. First thing I found - as pretty much always in this area - were mammoths. And only seconds later some wolfes. Of course the two groups were fighting each other. It seems as there's no other way of existence for the two. No Daeodons, though. A bit later I found the corpse of a Daeodon, which of course was useless. No chance to even harvest it, though. Too much trouble around. So I kept looking. Took me quite some time, but a bit later I saw a Daeodon that had teamed up with a pack of wolves to bully two mammoths. I switched from Ptera to Argy and dived right into the fray, grabbed and took to the air as fast as I could. Only took one or two hits. Luckily, I was indeed carrying a Daeodon. Hooray. It was a level 60, not too good, but not too bad either. I made haste to leave this unfriendly area, pushing my argy to hurry. That was another mistake. It didn't take too long until I ran out of stamina. I had to rest. I decided to land on a small headland, hoping that it would be easy to pick up the Daeodon later. What was I thinking? As soon as it touched ground it stormed towards the local herbivores. Man ... it was fast. FAST. Next time I saw it, it was fighting 3 Trikes and a Stego, and it wasn't giving them an easy time. The fight had quickly moved on into a forest and as much as I tried, I couldn't get my argy into any position I could even think about grabbing something. This was a lost case. It didn't take long until the dust settled - there were even more dinos in the vicinity that had joined the fray and made for a quick finish for my (supposed) Daeodon. I pondered my options and actually decided to return to the unfriendly area and give it another go. I had to search some, but not too much this time. Arks gods probably had a look on the clock, granting me a faster exit. I was late. Terribly late. This time I had found two Daeodons taking on a single mammoth. By the time I arrived at the battle site, the mammoth had collapsed and the Daeodons were feeding. That was a lucky circumstance, since each of them was on one side of the corpse. Knowing that they are a quick bunch I didn't bother to examine them, but just grabbed one and flew off. This - no matter what - would be my last action for that session. I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised - I found myself carrying a level 140 shiny white Daeodon. How sweet! Well, I knew I shouldn't push my luck any further, so I let my argy fly at it's own speed and made it easily back to my base. I also hit my taming pen on first try - I'm still having issues with that, but for the Daeodon, knowing that it'll rush the next best creature in the vicinity, it was kind of critical. And I did it. I was almost going crazy. What could go wrong from here? Well... I could overlook something and spoil things. I always can. So I calmed down and prepared for the taming. Looked up the kind of food, the amount of food. Man... this was a hungry fellow. A very hungry fellow. Pondering between my rather small supply of prime meat and my first attempt to make some kibble I decided for the latter. So I got some extra tranq-arrows and my trusted crossbow and stuck the arrows into the Daeodon. It took a LOT. Almost thought I'd never stop shooting. Then it came down with 7+k torpor. Well, that was a number. Next I started preparing the kibble, gathered all the supplies from various storages throughout my base, thres it all together in a pot and set it on fire. It worked. I have to admit that it was my third attempt to cook kibble, but I've failed the first two, so this was my first self-made kibble. Hooray. I added some prime meat and threw it all on the Daeodon. Man, it was hungry... ate ALL the kibble I had prepared (I had hopes it might leave some for future tames) and some extra. Oh well... it was an investment. And it worked. Took only a little time to have it stand up and shine. I had done it. Named it. Put everything back and hurried to sleep in real life. Feeling good ============== Thanks for reading! Have fun everyone! Eleusius.

Oh well... my last session was a catastrophe. Though only a minor catastrophe... this game can be very unforgiving and when you get tired and keep playing it only gets worse. So here's an abstract. I was playing the chaos server/valguero again. When I logged on I noticed that most of my reserves had spoiled. The preservation-chambers had run out of powder. Bad planning. I'm not used to playing on a permanent server. Need to adjust the amount of powder. Set out to look for a Doedi Level 140 or 145 (max Level on this server is 150), that I had seen the other day and failed to tame. Actually I found it ... or very similar one at almost the same location. It's not the easiest location, though. Some corners and some dangerous animals around. I had 4 Pteras with me, all tamed around 140 and leveled a little, but not good. Had good results with the team so far, though. Took down a 140 Carno with little effort when in a pitch recently. So I had some trust in the team. Noticed a Dire-Bear around the Doedi, that would probably interfere with my taming. It was level 50, so I could dispatch it. No problem. Started taming. Crossbow broke. Went back to repair the crossbow. Came back, started taming again. The Doedi had moved into a small room between a massive tree and some rocks that actually trapped several of the animals of the surrounding. Several female Megaloceros and a Paraceratherium among them. I decided to tame the Para to get it out of the way. Easy. When I got back to the Doedi, the Crossbow broke again. So another trip to my smithy. Came back, the Para was tamed up and unharmed. Only low level though. Nothing important. I started working on the Doedi again. Another bear interfered. This time I attacked immediately. Bad idea. I quickly noticed this one hit hard. Not too hard, though... every one of my guys would be able to tank around 8 or 9 hits from it and all would hit simultaneously. I thought we'd make it. Well... we did. But badly - very badly. From my team of 4 hand-picked Ptera 2 died. The Para died, too. And eventually the bear died, too. Phuh. That was a win I should have done without. Could have left the bear and come back at a better time. Screw the Para. Well... a lesson learned. Set out working on the Doedi again. This time I was attacked by a swarm of Titanomyrma. Not too bad normally, but I had the other Ptera (only one) left somewhere else on passive and was alone and seriously outnumbered and these Titanos were max level. Then I disconnected. poop! When I got back to the place I had died and the Ptera with me. So that's 3 Pteras down and they were all hand-picked over several hours. The level 140ish Pteras are quite rare on this server. Picked up a new Ptera, but only had meat with me, no prime. So this one would be worse. And unleveled. But hey... at least I had some support. I decided that I wouldn't be successful with the Doedi today. It had evaded my attempts so many times - I should do something else. I decided to go for loot-boxes and tried placing my oil-pump I had found the other day. Well, that would be exciting. Never had an oil-pump - never even knew these existed until recently. Well, it wasn't a smooth ride, either. Several loot-boxes disappeared right before my eyes. Got some trash out of some (e.g. wooden structures). Not worth mentioning. So I looked after an oil-vene. Hard to find, those buggers. When I found one, there was a Megalosaur roaming the small plateau of the vein. No chance to evade it. I was in no mood to give up, either. Unfortunately. And I was too tired to think about digging up information about the Megalo first, too. Could have been so easy - wait for daybreak and I could have done everything I wanted. But no... I decided to lure it down the hill. Set the new Ptera aside on passive and moved towards the Megalo when it was close to the edge. It didn't notice me. One bite and the show was on. Quickly turned around trying to fly off. Didn't work. Was demounted immediately and went down the edge. The fall didn't kill me, but I was injured. And pursued. I couldn't even start moving before I was killed. So now I was alone... my only Flyers and most of my equipment far away at an oil-vene and my playing time far far overstretched. And I was dead-tired. However I had to get my stuff back I wouldn't want to start this all over again. Things would disappear on the server if I just stopped now. No way. So I just crafted a few bolas, took an old bow from the storage and made some tranq-arrows. Luckily found a Bronto that sacrificed itself on my spikes, so there would be some prime-meat for taming. Then I started looking. First I only saw level 20ish Pteras around. They probably wouldn't even be able to carry me naked. So no way. After some searching I found a 135 Ptera over the islands. Well... it wouldn't get any better, so I swam over to the island, arrived safely and sorted through the local Pteras. Found the one I had been looking for. It was actually on it's way to the coast. So I swam back. Searched again. Didn't find it. But then I spotted a 150 Ptera. Yay! Wouldn't get any better than this. Bola'd it, Tranq'd it. Easy. Ran back to my base, collected prime and crafted a saddle, back to the Ptera. It worked. A bit rough, but flawless taming. So I set out for my equipment. Finally arrived at the spot. The Megalo had curled up next to my equipment. Collected the stuff, found the other two Ptera of mine, placed the oil-pump and went home. I was so exhausted. Incredible, what this game can do... So... bottom line... I lost a lot. Most of my air-force came down this episode. Got some reinfocements, though, too. Hopefully they'll be as useful once they're leveled some. Set up an oil-pump. But it's too far away for easy access. Wonder if it's worth the effort. Didn't manage to tame the Doedi. Wonder if I'm ready for this. Felt exhausted. Learned some things... hope it was worth it. Have fun everyone. Eleusius.

I found out that if you train Iguas for speed, they can become pretty awesome mounts, since they don't require any stamina to keep it up. The berry gathering is a bit lackluster, but it works. At least the berry-conversion is really nice Have fun. I like those fellows. Eleusius.

Well... just a quickie, since it's getting late and I need to catch some sleep. Visited Valguero today (the "chaos-server", named such by it's creators) and grinded stuff. Need to advance in levels to get access to several engrams. Bola'd a 95-Ptera and managed to tame it. went straight to level 140. Wow. On my own server I started so much slower and always had so much trouble picking up flyers (for the first I don't know how many sessions). Kept grinding. Couldn't ride the Ptera (too low level for the saddle), but had it gain a few levels. On the way back to base, we found a stuck phiomia. Since they give decent loot (hide and meat are rare items early game) I decided we attack. I wanted to save the Bola, since it was stuck anyways. It broke loose and took off and my Ptera with it. It eventually came back around, but was chased by a horde of Trikes. I assume like 5 of them? No idea what had happened in between. I tried to whistle it to Passive/Flee, but it was too late. The joy of having a halfway decent Ptera as my first tame wasn't a long one. I gathered all the material for my first taming pen. I'll hopefully set that up next session. Trikes, I'm coming for you! Beware! (Got to have some revenge ;)) Also on this server I have access to a preparatory tool (description says it is used to skin an animal). Using this is definitely slower than PickAxe or normal Axe. It yields a special skin with the name of the dinosaur, that can later be used to create a statue. Other than that I'm wondering about the effectiveness of this thing. Anyone have some numbers? Ttyl, Eleusius.

Oh well... I got my 200+ crossbow from a lowly alpha-raptor. Easy kill, nice pickings.