Games
Got a lifelong ambition to walk with dinosaurs, ideally for more than a few seconds? We can help.
ARK: Survival Evolved has been a smash hit in early access on Steam with a “mostly positive” rating from over 54,000 reviews, and it’s a game that contains a vast, expansive place that tasks you with living among, and conquering the dinosaurs that are indigenous to the lands. Similar to Far Cry: Primal, this is a brutal world full of peril and adventure, but ARK promises something videogames have oft hinted at, but not quite delivered on: taming and riding dinosaurs. This is even harder than it sounds, especially when other players are often more anti-social than the prehistoric, carnivorous lizards.
Now it’s in Microsoft’s Xbox One preview program, we’ve put together some basic tips that should help you survive for a while. After that, well, you’re on your own, but leave our pet dinos alone, you rotters, because they took ages to tame.
1. Get used to the basics, and fast.
The early hours of ARK are very similar to that of Minecraft, only without the tutorials. We’re so used to having our hands held in games these days that the obvious may seem, at first, to be obtuse. Think about the raw ideas of what you’re doing: this is about survival. As quickly as you can, punch some trees for wood and thatch. Scavenge for berries (the very least you can do to ensure you stay fed for a bit), and maybe even very carefully swim in the shallow water to get some fish that won’t fight back. We say carefully, because it’s not uncommon to suddenly come face to face with an enormous shark, trust us. This world is vast and alive, and it won’t wait for you to get your feet. You need food and shelter, as soon as possible.
2. Try not to overdo it: use the right tools for the job.
It can be very tempting to start a character and smash the hell out of everything, obliterating an area to drain it for resources. But you’re a human being, remember? So punching a thousand trees will ruin you. It hurts to punch trees, right? The idea is to gather what you need quickly, but efficiently. After doing so you should have at least levelled up once, meaning you can learn one engram (these are skills you learn that let you craft) and therefore can build tools, relying less on the exhausting physicality of literally punching trees for resources. Perhaps more importantly, these tools allow you to gather more of what you want: a hatchet will get you more wood from trees, and more stone, whereas if you want thatch or flint, it’s better to use a pickaxe on a tree or rock respectively.
3. Repair rather than recrafting.
When your tools break, often in the most inconvenient time (like when we were running away from a gaggle of mini dinos, swinging our club wildly as they spat acid in our faces, hoping not to die for the sixth time), remember that you can repair them, rather than crafting them again. Not only is this far quicker, but it’s kinder on your resources, too.
4. Don’t be afraid to start over.
It’s okay to die in this world. It’s harsh, full of things that will kill you on sight, and unless you are fully aware of how things work, you will die often, at least to begin with. There’s no shame in playing offline (especially as the Xbox One servers are rammed full almost all the time), and it’s actually a fine way to learn the tools of your trade. It can be tempting to stick with a character you’ve levelled up a few times and respawn, but don’t get too attached initially. Burning a character and starting over can be a refreshing way to rediscover the world, and feel like you are progressing again.
5. Build and use a base, but don’t become attached to it.
Bases serve numerous purposes, of course. Sure, they can provide a safe place to sleep, but they can also provide spawn points if you get lost exploring. ARK’s world really is massive, with some areas offering more dangerous enemies and larger rewards. Just as in Minecraft, there’s something to be said for storing all your important gear, taking a few survival essentials, and going off to explore the map. As long as you’ve secured your prized possessions, finding a new area to make a forward operating base can be time well spent, so don’t become too attached to that first “home” you create, and be ready to up sticks and move somewhere better.
6. Be friendly online, you’ll last longer.
Being a persistent online world, ARK: Survival Evolved is rife for trolls. Currently, the community seems to be playing ball with one another, and if you truly want to excel and move into the more interesting game elements, you’ll need to team up and take down the bigger foes together. Whereas in Far Cry: Primal, seeing another spear-wielding man may mean death, here, be courteous to other players, and they’ll be the same to you. Before you know it, you’ll be riding together on the back of your pet Spinosaurus and charging toward a Giganotosaurus, foolishly confident, of course, but at least you’re with friends.
7. Remember that the world lives on, but you might not.
It might be tempting to consider simply logging out after a successful three hour session. Hey, you have a sleeping bag, right, so why don’t you just sleep in it? Bad choice, professor. Sleeping on the floor, in the open, on a live server means exactly that: you’ve just left your prized character with all his gear, asleep on the beach as dinosaurs roam and fellow players scavenge. The world of ARK lives on, and if you want to join it, finish up somewhere safe, perhaps lock away your possessions. Do you really want to log back in only to find you’ve been robbed, or worse, trampled to death by a horde of rampaging behemoths? No, of course you don’t!
8. Protect your own.
It won’t be long before you’re seeing enormous dinosaurs roaming the lands. Whether you are deep in the jungles, or scouring the beach, you’re going to run into them. For years people have wanted to play a game like this one, so the temptation is to jump in with both feet and start punching them. You’ll be gone in seconds if you do so without planning. As with many open world survival games, the prize is often right before you, but you’ll have to build up to actually earning it. A pet dino is the ultimate prize, but patience is a virtue, so use it.
It can take a huge effort to tame a dinosaur, but it can also be the difference between a character who you use for a few hours, a few days, or even a week or more. Dinosaurs, like you, have levels and skills, and need to eat. What’s the point in spending hours with friends taming Raptors, only to take them into a larger battle that they are useless in, because they’re hungry. Think of it like real life: you wouldn’t starve your dog, would you? Make sure you’ve got enough narcoberries to keep a dinosaur asleep while you feed it the preferred food choice. Is it a herbivore (thus, eats plants) or carnivore (meat)? Plan before you make your move.
9. Take your time
This is a huge, mammoth sized game full of deep mechanics that require patience and learning. If you’re planning on jumping in now and again, you’re not going to see the best it has to offer. ARK is a game that rewards time spent, just as any good survival game does. You’re not going to be riding dinos within your first hour, and you’re not going to be assaulting a T-Rex right away either. Enemies are varied and scale all over the map, so if you’re foolish enough (like we were) to think you can take on that small pack of dinos with your first spear and club, then think again, as you might well be waking up next to your own teeth, if indeed you wake up at all.
10. Remember that the game isn't finished.
When all's said and done, you’re going to encounter bugs, glitches, and visual oddities that are unexplainable. To many Xbox owners, this is a new concept, but what it means is that the game isn’t finished, and is constantly in development. If you have a bug that causes little dinos to get stuck under your freshly built house that allows them to constantly attack you, even though you can’t reach them to attack, then fine, it’s not ideal but you’re going to have to roll with the punches. That said, it’s important to take your time, and have fun. Remember, you can tame and ride a dinosaur!
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