Ark: Survival Evolved for beginners can feel overwhelming at first. Players spawn on a mysterious island filled with dinosaurs, hostile creatures, and limited resources. The game throws new survivors into the deep end without much guidance. But that’s part of the appeal, and the challenge.
This guide breaks down everything new players need to know. From picking the right server to taming their first dinosaur, beginners will find practical strategies that actually work. Ark rewards patience, preparation, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. And trust us, there will be plenty of mistakes. That’s okay. Every experienced player started exactly where new survivors are now, naked on a beach, punching trees, and wondering why everything wants to eat them.
Key Takeaways
- Ark: Survival Evolved for beginners is best learned on single player or a beginner-friendly PvE server to avoid losing progress to experienced raiders.
- Prioritize basic survival engrams like stone tools, campfires, and simple clothing before unlocking advanced crafting recipes.
- Survive your first day by gathering resources, crafting a stone pick and hatchet, staying near water, and building a simple shelter with a bed for respawning.
- Tame a Parasaur early for transportation and carrying capacity, using knockout taming with narcoberries to keep it unconscious.
- Build your base in the south or southeast areas of The Island map where fewer dangerous predators spawn, and upgrade to stone walls as soon as possible.
- Protect tamed dinosaurs by enclosing them within walls or a gated pen to prevent attacks from wandering predators.
Understanding the Basics of Ark: Survival Evolved
Ark: Survival Evolved is an open-world survival game where players must gather resources, craft tools, build shelters, and tame dinosaurs to survive. The game drops players onto an island called “The Island” (or other maps) with nothing but their bare hands.
Survival depends on managing several key stats:
- Health: Determines how much damage a player can take
- Stamina: Controls running, swimming, and melee attacks
- Food: Depletes over time: players must eat to survive
- Water: Also depletes constantly: stay near water sources early on
- Weight: Limits how much a player can carry
Players earn experience points (XP) by harvesting resources, crafting items, and killing creatures. XP levels up the character, granting stat points and engram points. Engrams are essentially crafting recipes, players spend engram points to unlock new items they can build.
For beginners playing Ark: Survival Evolved, focusing on basic survival engrams first makes the most sense. Stone tools, campfires, and simple clothing should be priorities. Fancy weapons and advanced structures can wait.
The game operates on a day/night cycle. Nights are dark, dangerously dark, and cold. New players should plan to have shelter and a fire ready before sunset. Predators also become more active at night, making exploration risky.
Choosing the Right Server and Game Mode
Ark: Survival Evolved offers several ways to play. Beginners should understand their options before jumping in.
Single Player lets players experience Ark alone. The game pauses when not playing, and settings can be adjusted freely. This mode works great for learning game mechanics without pressure from other players.
PvE (Player vs Environment) servers allow multiple players but disable player-versus-player combat. Other survivors can’t destroy bases or steal items. This creates a friendlier atmosphere for beginners in Ark: Survival Evolved.
PvP (Player vs Player) servers are ruthless. Other players can attack, raid bases, and take everything. New players often lose hours of progress to experienced raiders. PvP isn’t recommended for absolute beginners.
Unofficial Servers are community-run with modified settings. Many offer boosted rates for gathering, taming, and experience. These servers help beginners progress faster without the brutal grind of official settings.
Official Servers use default game settings and are run by the developers. Progress is slow, competition is fierce, and the learning curve is steep.
For those just starting Ark: Survival Evolved, single player or a beginner-friendly unofficial PvE server offers the best experience. Players can learn at their own pace without losing everything to a random attack.
Surviving Your First Day
The first day in Ark: Survival Evolved sets the tone for everything that follows. Smart decisions early on prevent frustrating deaths later.
Step one: Gather basic resources. Punch trees to collect thatch and wood. Pick bushes for fiber and berries. Grab stones from the ground. These materials form the foundation of all early crafting.
Step two: Craft essential tools. A stone pick gathers flint and thatch efficiently. A stone hatchet harvests wood and hide better. Make both immediately. They speed up resource collection dramatically.
Step three: Find water. Thirst kills quickly. Spawn points are usually near beaches or rivers. Stay close to water sources until a waterskin can be crafted.
Step four: Eat berries. Narcoberries cause drowsiness, avoid eating those. Stimberries drain water but reduce torpor. All other berries provide food safely.
Step five: Avoid dangerous creatures. Beginners in Ark: Survival Evolved often die to carnivores they underestimate. Raptors, Dilophosaurs, and even Troodons will kill unarmored new players quickly. Run from anything aggressive until better equipped.
Step six: Build a simple shelter. A thatch hut provides minimal protection but establishes a respawn point. Place a bed or sleeping bag inside to set a spawn location. Dying without a spawn point sends players back to a random beach location.
Surviving day one means having tools, shelter, food, water, and a spawn point. Everything else builds from this foundation.
Taming Your First Dinosaur
Taming dinosaurs is central to Ark: Survival Evolved for beginners and veterans alike. Tamed creatures can gather resources, carry items, fight enemies, and serve as mounts.
Most dinosaurs are tamed through “knockout taming.” This process involves:
- Knocking the creature unconscious using fists, a club, or tranquilizer arrows
- Placing food in the creature’s inventory
- Waiting while the taming bar fills
- Keeping the creature unconscious with narcoberries or narcotics
Good first tames for beginners:
- Dodo: Easy to knock out, fast to tame, produces eggs for kibble later
- Parasaur: Excellent pack mule with decent speed: great for carrying resources
- Trike (Triceratops): Harvests berries efficiently and provides early combat support
Taming takes time. A low-level Parasaur might take 15-30 minutes. Higher-level creatures take longer. Bring extra narcoberries to keep the dinosaur unconscious throughout the process.
Some creatures use “passive taming” instead. Players place food in their last inventory slot and approach carefully. The creature eats directly from the player’s inventory. Iguanodons and Moschops use this method.
Protect taming creatures from predators. Nothing hurts more than a nearly-tamed dinosaur dying to a random Raptor attack. Build wooden spike walls around unconscious tames for protection.
For beginners in Ark: Survival Evolved, taming a Parasaur first provides immediate transportation and carrying capacity benefits.
Building a Secure Base
A proper base keeps resources safe and provides a home for tamed creatures. Location matters significantly.
Good base locations for beginners:
- Near water sources for easy hydration
- Close to forests for wood and thatch
- Away from carnivore spawn points
- On flat ground for easier building
The south and southeast areas of The Island map are safest for new players. Fewer dangerous predators spawn there compared to northern regions.
Building material progression:
| Material | Protection Level | Resource Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Thatch | Very Low | Minimal |
| Wood | Low | Moderate |
| Stone | Medium | High |
| Metal | High | Very High |
Beginners in Ark: Survival Evolved should upgrade to stone walls as soon as possible. Thatch and wood structures break easily. Stone withstands most creature attacks and basic raiding attempts on PvP servers.
Every base needs certain structures:
- Storage boxes for organizing resources
- Bed for setting spawn points and fast travel
- Preserving bin for keeping food fresh longer
- Smithy for crafting metal tools and weapons
- Mortar and pestle for creating narcotics and other compounds
Don’t build too big too fast. Large bases require more resources to maintain and defend. Start with a small, secure structure and expand gradually.
Enclose tamed dinosaurs within walls or a gated pen. Wandering predators will attack unprotected tames. Losing a dinosaur to a random Carnotaurus attack is preventable with basic fencing.
