[Top 15] Ark Survival Best Rules For Great Gameplay

15. Start by maintaining your stats

This includes finding a nearby source of water, easy accesible food, and adapting your character to the environment.  The first instinct of any new players will be to start exploring the island, search for impressive dinosaurs, and craft the necessary tools. Although all these are crucial for great gameplay, you should learn to prioritize, as you may die of hunger or hypothermia first. Kill some dodo’s and get some fiber for simple clothes, then you can advance. 

Why maintaining your stats is important: 

• You literally can’t survive without taking care of your stats 
• Finding a water source will be beneficial in the long-run 
• Clothes keep you warm at night 
• All the simple actions mentioned will get you Experience points and help you level up

14. Carry a sleeping bag & campfire with you 

Preparing for the next adventure is an important part of any trip. Before going to explore the woods or dangerous caves, make sure to pack a sleeping bag and a campfire. These are crucial items that will make your life easier, as they fulfill simple necessities, while also adding incredible benefits like fast travel. 

Why carrying a sleeping & campfire is important: 

• Sleeping bags and beds are both useful as respawning points and spots for fast travel. 
• By taking a sleeping bag and placing it on the ground, you can travel between your home base and the temporary one from the expedition in no time 
• Campfires are a great source of light and warmth at night 
• Campfires can also cook raw meat and other food items to help you maintain your stats

13. Keep a backup set of items at home 

After you get familiar with the game, you’ll probably build a stable base and tame useful dinosaurs for defense, transport, and harvesting purposes. Crafting efficient tools and high-damage weapons is the next for advancing in Ark Survival Evolved. With that in mind, don’t forget that dying is an inevitable action when exploring, and losing all those would be tragic. Always craft copies of each important tool and keep them in a safe place at your base. 

Why keeping a backup set of items is important: 

• It provides you with all the necessary tools when respawning 
• If you don’t get to your death place in time, you can’t recover the lost items 
• You don’t remain vulnerable to predators in the meantime

12. Level up your tames 

No one forgets to level up their survivor when given the chance. Improved stats and new engrams excite all players and are crucial for advancing in this impressive game. However, here is a useful trick that many players overlook. Don’t forget to level up your tames too. All dinosaurs become better fighters, transporters, or harvesters in time, as their level increases. 

Why leveling up your tames is important: 

• Dinosaurs can improve their abilities, exactly like survivors
• The higher their level, the more efficient your tame will become 
• High-level creatures make the best defenders, fighters, and harvesters 
• You don’t want your dinosaurs to be vulnerable to attacks 

11. Avoid exploring the water 

Actually, avoid water at all at the beginning of the game. It is a mysterious, dangerous place for survivors that are not prepared to discover its terrifying creatures. When given the choice, always travel on the ground, by foot, or riding a dinosaur, it doesn’t matter. If traveling on water is truly necessary, build a raft. Even better, tame a Pteranodon and forget about all your worries. The ocean can be an incredible adventure, but you have to be up for the challenge. 

Why avoiding the water is important: 

• The ocean is home to many dangerous creatures 
• You can’t see or protect yourself from its dangers 
• Swimming isn’t the most effective traveling method anyway 
• You will certainly be attacked by surprise, even by smaller creatures that will overwhelm you 

10.  Mark important locations 

Ark provides a compass and some relevant structures for orientation on any map. Despite that, finding your way back to your base after a long exploration or keeping in mind the exact spawning points of an interesting species is often a problem for most players. Luckily, there are certain tricks that can be used, including marking any relevant location on the map with colorful dots. 

What makes marking locations important: 

• It’s an amazing way to keep track of various spawning locations for specific dinosaurs
• You’ll never lose your base again 
• Mark on the map all the places you wish to explore next
• Revisit any incredible location on the map 

9. Learn the drop zones 

This is another useful rule for Ark. Drops are a blessing, especially in the beginning. After all, they were designed to help you gain engrams and advanced items faster in the game. Keep in mind that some drop zones may be dangerous because of various predators, or another may be inaccessible for your level. 

Why is learning the drop zones important: 

• Drops contain incredible blueprints, tools, armors, and even weapons 
• They are always located in the same places, so you can develop a strategy for reaching them 
• Some drop zones may be dangerous, so you should learn what places to avoid 

8. Build beds/sleeping bags 

You should build a bed in every interesting location you discover. Why? Despite the appearances, Ark beds are not made for sleeping. They allow fast travel between distant points of the map. Even more, if you die, you’ll have plenty of respawning options to choose from. More beds mean more possibilities and less time spent on the road. However, keep in mind that roll beds can be easily destroyed, and you can’t use them as a travel point until they are repaired. 

Why is building beds important: 

• Beds are respawning points in case of death 
• They allow fast travel between any parts of the map 
• Depending on the bed, you can even leave your inventory items on it

7.  Use ranged weapons frequently 

Small creatures can be easily killed from a close distance. Even more, melee weapons may come in handy when you are attacked by surprise. However, they will not do their job effectively when it comes to taming or hunting larger and more dangerous creatures. Naturally, your instinct should be to keep a safe distance from these giants and use the power of range weapons to defeat them. 

Why are ranged weapons important: 

• They allow you to create complex strategies 
• Ranged weapons have impressive damage and can induce torpor 
• They are safer than melee weapons when it comes to hunting large creatures 
• Even though they are harder to master, they are overall more efficient 

6. Focus on stamina and melee damage 

Stamina and melee damage are the two most important, life-saving attributes. Every time you level up, you get Experience Points to invest in various engrams of your choice. At the same time, you get to choose what abilities to improve. While stamina will offer you resistance and enhance running time, melee damage improves both harvesting and your fighting power. That being said, it’s time to invest your points wisely. 

Why are stamina & melee damage important:

• Stamina improves your running abilities 
• More stamina means you can attack for a longer period of time, without getting tired 
• Higher stamina also helps with thirst and hunger
• Melee damage increases the power of your attacks and can save your life when you are taken by surprise 

5. Defending dinosaurs need an anchor 

What does this rule mean? If you reached Mid-Game, you have probably established some sort of defenses for your base, including powerful and efficient dinosaurs. The problem with defending dinosaurs is that they tend to wander off and you just can’t make them stay in one place. The perfect solution is to pair these creatures with a passive one, as an anchor to return to. 

Why is important to pair defending dinosaurs with an anchor:

• You can command the dinosaurs to follow a non-aggressive creature that sits inside your base, so they can come back to the base after an attack 
• It’s an easy solution to stop your defending tames from wandering 
• It doesn’t affect the efficiency of any dinosaur 

4. Build farms 

For adventurers and explorers, farms may seem boring. Why would you need them when you can obtain fresh meat by hunting and set your tames to gather narcotics for you? Well, in the long run, farms actually save you considerable time and effort, as once they are built, they don’t require much to be maintained. Even more, you can automatize them and collect resources by doing nothing. 

Why are farms important: 

• They are a perfect source of narcoberries for making narcotics
• You can grow plants for medical brews 
• Farms also include keeping and breeding harmless creatures for meat, cementing paste, or other rare resources 
• They are efficient in the long run 

3. Use tame groups 

This one is for advanced players. Once you got enough tames to lose them around the base, it’s time to organize them. Tame groups are perfect for sorting out all your dinosaurs and setting the right commands for them. Every group responds to different whistles and commands, functioning as one incredibly powerful creature, but your tames can have the liberty to function individually if you choose so. 

Why are tame groups important:

• They make everything easier, you won’t lose track of any tame again 
• You can find lost tames by tracking them 
• Powerful carnivores can be grouped to attack or defend you
• The best harvesters can work together efficiently and safely 

2. Defense is crucial 

In many games, offense plays a much more important role than defense. However, when it comes to Ark, things are different. Joining a tribe and building a strong base in a powerful position on the map is probably the key to success. Invest resources and time into a strong and efficient defense, whether it’s about defending dinosaurs or about building structures to protect the place. 

Why is defense important:

• In order to survive you need stability 
• Without a proper defense, your base will fall and you’ll be vulnerable against creatures and other players 
• Your base is the priority, exploring and taming comes second

1.  Tame creatures smartly 

While surviving is the main goal, the most exciting part of Ark Survival Evolved is taming. Impressive landscapes and mysterious caves catch every player’s eyes, but nothing compares to the thrill of riding your favorite creature. So, learn to tame dinosaurs more efficiently and save hours of standing around by using their favorite food and the right level of narcotics. 

Why is taming smartly important: 

• Taming can take an unbelievable amount of time, and using specific food will make it much faster 
• Complex, dangerous creatures can’t be tamed without a strategy 
• Any dinosaur is different, so the taming process must be adapted after each of them 
   

You May Also Be Interested In:

• [Top 5] Ark Survival Best Character Builds
• [Top 10] Ark Survival Evolved Best Dinos
• [Top 10] Ark Survival Evolved Best Tames And Why They're Great
•  
• [Top 10] Ark Survival Best Flying Dinos And Why They’re Great
• [Top 5] Ark Survival Evolved Best Armor and How To Get Them
• [Top 10] Ark Survival Best Base Locations And Why They're So Good
•  
• [Top 15] Ark Survival Evolved Best Mods
• [Top 5] Ark Survival Evolved Best Fishing Baits
• 10 Best Weapons in Ark: Survival Evolved
•  
• 25 Best Ark: Survival Evolved Settings That Give You An Advantage
• [Top 5] Ark Survival Best Berry Gatherers To Have