Ultimate Ark Survival Evolved Beginner Guide

I died. Now what?

Well, when you die – and there are no ifs, because eventually you’ll meet death’s cold hands; you have two options.

• A) Create a new character;
• B) Continue with your current one.

If you pick A, you’ll start anew and will have to fight and struggle to construct all of your hard-earned skills and privileges. If you pick B, then everything will be carried to your new-life.

At first, you’ll be randomly re-spawned on the map and will have to manually track down your valuables. But, you’ll eventually learn how to craft a Sleeping Bag or a Bed, so you can re-spawn there, instead of a dangerous place – like a nest of dinosaurs.

Yet, if I were you I would be super careful on how I take risks in the game. If you want to regain all of your lost possessions, you have about 20 minutes or so to return to your corpse to loot it. If you’re too slow, or manage to lose your past-body somewhere, then all of your items will be removed from the game.

The first hours in Ark Survival Evolved

…should be about getting to know how to survive. Understand how you amass XP – experience; and how to stay protected from the various elements the nature can throw at you. Don’t forget to stay hydrated and well fed, as well as pay attention to your surroundings, and ensuring that you are capable of building, foraging, hunting and, sometime throughout the game, taming a dinosaur.

The game’s crafting system is super important, and it really pays-off if you spend time trying to discover the perfect ways to construct something.

For your first tool, we recommend you build a Pick – which can be used to defend yourself from various, basic monsters.

Blueprints and Engrams

Blueprints and Engrams are, basically, recipes that a player uses to turn resources into items. Blueprints are usually found near, and at Beacon cargo drops, and they are quite rare, at least, at first. Engrams on the other hand, which you’ll be using far more frequently, are unlocked each time you level up. Yet, to actually gain them, you have to spend Engram points – they are provided every time you ding a new level.