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.

Sources

• ARK Wiki: ARK: Survival Evolved
• Nintendo Life: ARK: Survival Evolved sunsets official Switch servers
• VGC: Official Switch servers for Ark: Survival Evolved shut down
• ARK Wiki: Taming
• ARK Wiki: Stone Pick
• ARK Wiki: Obelisk
• ARK Wiki: Kibble