ARK: Survival Evolved: Survival Guide

A practical guide to ARK: Survival Evolved (ASE): first-day survival, taming, base building, tech progression, breeding, and boss prep, aimed at single-player and unofficial-server players.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the final ASE build (last content update September 2023; official servers closed on every platform, Switch included as of August 31, 2026). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Status check: Studio Wildcard has stopped developing ASE. Official servers on PC, Xbox and PlayStation closed in 2023, and the Nintendo Switch officials followed on August 31, 2026. You can still play single-player, non-dedicated sessions with friends, and community-run unofficial servers. Active development moved to ARK: Survival Ascended (the Unreal Engine 5 remake), which is a separate purchase with its own servers.

Quick Start

Pick an easy spawn. On The Island, the south coast zones are the gentlest. Avoid spawning in the north or near the Redwoods on day one.
Punch a few trees, then craft a Stone Pick right away. Thatch, Wood, Stone and Flint are all you need for the first hour.
Level Health, Stamina and Weight first. Melee and Fortitude can wait. Weight is what lets you actually gather and move materials.
Learn Spyglass, Sleeping Bag and Campfire early. The Spyglass shows a creature's name and whether it's aggressive, which prevents most early deaths.
Carry water. Waterskins (and later Canteens) let you leave the riverbanks.
Tame something on day one. A Parasaur or Trike tamed with a Slingshot or Tranq Arrows makes gathering and defense far easier.
Build out of the way of creature paths. Don't build on beaches where Carnos and Raptors roam, or directly on river mouths.
Set spawn points. Put a Sleeping Bag or Bed down at every outpost so a death isn't a trek across the map.
In single-player, adjust the settings. Taming, harvest and XP multipliers in the settings menu (or the ini files) can turn a slow grind into something you can enjoy.

Core Systems

Survival stats

Stat	What it does	Early priority
Health	Your HP pool	High
Stamina	Sprinting, swimming, harvesting, fighting	High
Oxygen	Underwater time	Low (unless you're cave-diving or on ocean maps)
Food / Water	Hunger and thirst pools	Medium (a bigger pool means fewer stops)
Weight	Carry capacity	Very high
Melee Damage	Punch/weapon damage and harvest yield	Medium, for gathering with tools
Movement Speed	Walk/run speed	Low to medium
Fortitude	Resists temperature and torpor	Medium in cold/hot biomes
Crafting Skill	Better blueprint quality and faster crafting	Specialist only

Every level gives you one stat point plus Engram Points to unlock recipes. You can't unlock everything, so plan ahead. A Mindwipe Tonic respecs your stats and engrams if you get it wrong.

Temperature

Hypothermia and hyperthermia drain food/water quickly and eventually health. Early fixes are Hide or Fur armor for cold, Cloth or Chitin in hot zones, a Campfire or Standing Torch overnight, and Fortitude points. Snow biomes need Fur armor before you go in.

Gathering tools

Tool	Better at	Worse at
Stone Pick	Thatch from trees, Flint from rocks, Raw Meat from corpses	Wood, Stone, Hide
Stone Hatchet	Wood from trees, Stone from rocks, Hide from corpses	Thatch, Flint, Meat
Sickle	Fiber, Berries	Everything else

Upgrade to Metal tools as soon as you have a Forge. They're much faster and higher-yield.

Key early engrams (roughly in unlock order)

Stone Pick, Stone Hatchet, Torch, Campfire, Spear, Cloth armor
Spyglass, Sleeping Bag, Waterskin, Mortar and Pestle (Narcotics, Sparkpowder, Gunpowder)
Slingshot, Bola, Bow, Tranquilizer Arrow
Thatch, then Wood structures, Storage Box, Smithy, Refining Forge, Preserving Bin
Cooking Pot (kibble and custom recipes), Compost Bin, Crop Plot
Metal tools, Metal structures, Longneck Rifle, Tranq Darts, Industrial Forge, and eventually Tek (via bosses)

Taming

Methods

Method	How it works	Examples
Knockout	Build up torpor with a club, slingshot, bola plus tranq arrows or darts until the creature falls unconscious, then feed it	Trike, Parasaur, Pteranodon, Argentavis, Rex
Passive	Crouch near it and hand-feed its preferred food while it isn't looking at you	Lystrosaurus, Moschops, Gigantopithecus
Special	Unique conditions (eggs, trapping, stealing babies)	Wyverns (stolen eggs on Scorched Earth/Ragnarok), Rock Drakes, cave creatures

Taming rules of thumb

Kibble is the best taming food for most creatures. Kibble tiers go Basic, Simple, Regular, Superior, Exceptional, Extraordinary. Each creature's dossier (and the wiki) says which tier it wants. Kibble needs eggs from specific creatures plus crops, veggies and fiber, cooked in a Cooking Pot.
Keep it asleep. Torpor drains while it's unconscious. Top it up with Narcoberries or Narcotics (made in the Mortar and Pestle). Narcotics are the stronger of the two.
Protect the tame. If it takes damage while unconscious, taming effectiveness drops. Build a quick wall of wood spike walls or a trap pen around big tames.
Use a trap for dangerous tames. A Behemoth Gate or pillar box lets you tranq a Rex or Spino safely.
Higher-level wild creatures come out stronger. Taming effectiveness adds bonus levels on top of the wild level.

Recommended tame progression

Stage	Tame	Why
Day 1	Parasaur, Trike, Dilophosaur	Berry and Thatch gathering, guard duty
Early	Pteranodon	First flyer; fast scouting
Early	Phiomia	Poop for fertilizer; easy knockout
Early/Mid	Doedicurus	Stone harvester, weight reduction on Stone
Early/Mid	Castoroides	Wood gathering plus weight reduction
Mid	Ankylosaurus	Metal, Flint, Crystal gathering
Mid	Argentavis	Carries mid-size creatures, weight reduction on raw meat
Mid	Therizinosaur	Versatile harvester and good fighter
Mid	Mammoth	Huge wood and weight reduction
Late	Quetzal	Flying transport and mobile platform base
Late	Rex / Giganotosaurus	Boss fighters

Base Building

Location: Water nearby, flat ground, not on a creature migration path, and no aggressive spawns right next to you. Plateaus and cliff tops are popular.
Material tiers: Thatch, Wood, Stone, Metal, Tek. Stone is the first material wild dinos can't chew through easily, and it's reasonable against low-level raiders.
Foundations first. Place and snap foundations, then walls and ceilings. Pillars extend support.
Behemoth Gates allow large tames like Brontos and Quetzals through.
Preserving Bin and Refrigerator stop food spoiling. Put kibble and meat in them.
Defense: Plant Species X, Auto Turrets (which need bullets and electricity), and large-dino gate walls. On a PvE or single-player save, a stone wall plus guard dinos on "Attack Target" or "Attack Your Target" will handle most wild threats.
Electricity: An Electrical Generator (runs on Gasoline) powers lights, a Refrigerator, Auto Turrets and an Industrial Forge. Cables and Outlets carry the power.

Resource Locations (The Island)

Resource	Where to look	Best harvester
Metal	Mountain tops, volcano, snow mountain	Ankylosaurus, Metal Pick
Crystal	Volcano, mountain peaks, caves	Ankylosaurus
Obsidian	Volcano, mountain summits	Metal Pick, Ankylosaurus
Oil	Oceans (deep-sea nodes), snow biome rocks, Oil Pumps on oil veins	Metal Pick, Ankylosaurus, Basilosaurus (passive oil)
Silica Pearls	Shallow ocean floors, clams	Hand-harvested; Beelzebufo
Cementing Paste	Chitin plus Stone, or Beaver dams	Beelzebufo gathering insects; Beaver dams
Rare Flowers / Rare Mushrooms	Redwoods, caves, near swamps	By hand

Other maps have different distributions, so check the ARK wiki map pages.

Threats

Early: Dilophosaurs (they spit and blind you), Raptors (packs, fast), Troodons (at night), Titanoboas and Arthropluera in caves, Megalodons in open water.
Mid: Carnotaurus, Allosaurus packs, Spinos (they swim), Sarcos in rivers, Kaprosuchus in swamps.
High: Wild Rex, Giganotosaurus, Purlovia (they hide underground), Titanosaur, and Alpha variants (red aura, much stronger, better loot).
Environmental: Swamps (Leeches cause Swamp Fever), cold snaps in the snow biome, and in the Redwoods, Thylacoleos that drop from trees.
Supply drops (the colored beacons) scale in quality by color and are gated by your level. Higher-tier drops are where good blueprints come from, but they tend to land in more dangerous areas.

Map Overview

Map	Type	Notes
The Island	Base game	Classic starter map, three bosses plus the Overseer
The Center	Free	Floating islands, underworld, bigger resource spawns
Scorched Earth	Paid DLC	Desert heat, Wyverns, water scarcity
Ragnarok	Free	Huge, mixed biomes; generous for beginners
Aberration	Paid DLC	Underground, no flyers, Rock Drakes, radiation
Extinction	Paid DLC	Titans, Orbital Supply Drops, Element farming
Valguero	Free	Mixed biomes, Deinonychus
Genesis: Part 1	Paid DLC (Season Pass)	Mission-based simulation biomes
Crystal Isles	Free	Crystal Wyverns
Genesis: Part 2	Paid DLC (Season Pass)	Space ark, Rockwell finale
Lost Island	Free	Amargasaurus, Dinopithecus, Sinomacrops
Fjordur	Free	Norse realms, Andrewsarchus, Fenrir

Story order (for the explorer notes and endings): The Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, Genesis: Part 1, Genesis: Part 2. The free maps are side content.

Bosses and Tek

On The Island, you summon each boss at an Obelisk (red, green or blue) by offering Artifacts, which you get from caves, plus trophies from specific creatures. Boss fights come in Gamma, Beta and Alpha difficulties.

Boss (The Island)	Summoned at	Notes
Broodmother Lysrix	Green Obelisk	Spider. Brings adds; bring Rexes and Yutyrannus if you have them
Megapithecus	Blue Obelisk	Gorilla on a platform; aggressive melee
Dragon	Red Obelisk	Fire breath; Rexes with high HP and good saddles
Overseer	Tek Cave	Final boss; needs defeated-boss trophies and a lot of preparation

Boss kills unlock Tek Engrams (Tek armor, Tek Replicator, Tek rifles, Teleporters, and more) and grant Ascension, which raises your character level cap. Bring a pack of high-level Rexes with good saddles, and imprint and mutate for HP and melee. Don't bring flyers into boss arenas, because the arena teleports only allowed creatures, and there are creature count limits per fight.

Breeding and Imprinting

Put a male and female of the same species on Wandering or Mating enabled in a comfortable temperature zone.
Egg-layers need incubation: keep eggs in the right temperature band using Air Conditioners, torches or campfires. Mammals gestate and give birth.
Babies must be hand-fed until they can eat from troughs.
Imprinting: babies periodically ask for care (cuddle, walk, specific kibble). Full imprint gives a big stat bonus when the imprinter rides it.
Mutations add levels to a random stat and can change color. Each lineage has a mutation counter, and stacking mutations on one stat is how endgame boss dinos get built.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Dumping points into Melee or Crafting early. You'll starve and be over-encumbered. Weight, Stamina and Health come first.
Building a thatch base on the beach. Raptors and Carnos will flatten it. Move inland and go stone quickly.
Knocking out a tame and leaving it unprotected. Wild carnivores will eat your hard work in seconds.
Taming low-level creatures you'll replace. Taming a level 5 Rex is a waste of kibble. Use the Spyglass to hunt for high-level spawns.
Not using a Preserving Bin. Your kibble and meat will rot.
Flying over the ocean on a weak flyer. Stamina runs out and Megalodons are waiting.
Forgetting that crafting weight counts. Raw metal is heavy, so refine it on-site with a Forge or use Argentavis/Doedicurus weight reduction.
Assuming official servers still exist. They don't. If you want an active public community, look for unofficial clusters or move to ARK: Survival Ascended.

Advanced Tips

Single-player settings: Tweak TamingSpeedMultiplier, HarvestAmountMultiplier, XPMultiplier and BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier in GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini, or use the in-game sliders. Single-player already applies some taming and breeding speed adjustments.
Admin commands in single-player: Open the console (Tab on PC) and use enablecheats [password] on hosted sessions, or admincheat [command] in single-player. Examples: admincheat fly, admincheat god, admincheat summon [classname]. Using cheats may affect achievements.
Wander your harvesters. A Phiomia or Ovis set to Wander near a base helps; so does a Beaver dam near your base for passive Wood and Cementing Paste.
Use Cryopods (Extinction content, craftable on maps that support them) to store tames and avoid wild spawn fights and server tame limits. On some unofficial servers they're restricted, so check the rules.
Pre-craft bullets and arrows. Boss fights and cave runs burn through ammo.
Cave prep: You can't take large dinos into most artifact caves. Bring a Baryonyx, Thylacoleo or other small tame for water caves, and a Scuba set or Oxygen points for the underwater ones.
Check mod compatibility if you join unofficial servers. Many use mods such as Structures Plus or Dino Storage. Steam Workshop mods for ASE still work.
Consider moving to ARK: Survival Ascended if you want official servers and active updates. Progress doesn't transfer between ASE and ASA.

FAQ

Are ARK: Survival Evolved official servers still up? No. PC, Xbox and PlayStation official servers closed in 2023, and the Switch official servers shut down on August 31, 2026. Single-player, non-dedicated hosting and unofficial servers still work.

Is ASE still getting updates? No new content. The final update was in September 2023; the ARK: Animated Series Skin pack followed in March 2024. Development now happens on ARK: Survival Ascended.

Which map should a beginner start on? The Island, for the story and the classic difficulty curve, or Ragnarok, which is more forgiving and resource-rich.

How do I play with friends without official servers? Host a non-dedicated session (one player hosts, and the second player should be nearby) or rent an unofficial server. The Steam version includes a dedicated server tool.

What's the fastest way to tame? Knock out with tranq arrows or darts, feed the creature's preferred kibble, keep its torpor up with Narcotics, and make sure nothing hits it. In single-player, raise the taming multiplier.

Do ASE saves or tames transfer to ASA? No. ASA is a separate game with separate saves and servers.

How do I kill the Broodmother? Collect the artifacts and trophies listed at the Green Obelisk. Bring a group of well-bred Rexes with good saddles, and clear the small spiders so they don't overwhelm your dinos. Start on Gamma difficulty.