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Welcome to the ARK: Setting up

Tessa Bear

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Hey guys, Welcome to the ARK! Today, we're gonna be looking at getting set up to survive the ARK!
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With the game installed, you'll notice that there are a few DLCs, with another one on it's way in October. Scorched Earth, the Center, Ragnarok and Primitive+. Prim+, Center and Ragnarok are all free DLCs, but Scorched Earth is a paid DLC, and hence includes a lot more features than the others.
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Each DLC other than Primitive+ contains a new ARK. The Center is a vast and beautiful landscape filled with ruins and temples to explore, while Scorched Earth is a desert where surviving the heat is harder than the creatures that can be found there. On which note, Scorched Earth contains a lot of new and exclusive animals such as the Rock Elemental and the Thorny Dragon. Ragnarok combines the elements of the Island, Scorched Earth and The Center, once again featuring some awesome new creatures, including the mythical Griffin, and the epic Ice Wyvern.
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Once you've chosen your ARK, and your server, you will find yourself on the character creation/spawn screen. We've all created stupid looking characters in the past, so feel free to get the ginger black man with tiny arms phase out of the way. Each map has 12 spawn regions, but be sure to choose carefully, some spawn regions are more difficult to start with than others.
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So, you've managed to create a bad ass looking character and have most likely woken up on a beach, or in the desert, or anywhere else that just happens to be surrounded by sand. Good choice! What next, huh? Next, you'd better get familiar with that inventory menu. To open your inventory, hit I. You'll find two tabs in the top left corner of your screen titled Inventory and Crafting. It doesn't take a genius to work out what each tab is used for, why don't you go ahead and open up crafting and check out those amazing craft-able items?
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Well, you've clearly managed to open up your crafting menu, only to find the ability to craft a torch and a stone pick. Why is this you ask? Because you're not good enough to craft anything else yet! Now, you're gonna wanna get yourself a nice set of tools before you do anything else.
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Firstly, you're gonna want to craft a pick. By holding the mouse over an item in the crafting menu, you can see the requirements for what you're looking for. The requirements for the stone pick are:
  • 1 Stone
  • 10 Thatch
  • 1 Wood
Oh no! You don't have a pick, however are you going to get stone!? Well, you'll notice a lot of pebbles lying on the ground. Tiny little stones. To pick them up, hit E on them. Hitting E can also be used on bushes to harvest berries and fibre, for future reference. Thatch and wood can both be harvested by hitting a tree, sure, it's gonna hurt, but you're punching a tree. Did you expect punching a tree to heal you? I certainly hope not.
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At this point, you've most likely earned enough XP to level up your character. To do this, you're going back to the inventory with the I key. To level up, select which stat you want to increase by hitting the little + button next to it. As a new survivor, a lot of things will be attacking you. So your best bet is starting off with health. Once you've levelled up, you're going to get a few juicy engram points which can be spent in the engrams menu. The engrams menu can be accessed at the top of the inventory where you will see a row of buttons. You will want to use the engrams button!
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In this menu, you will notice a bunch of unlock-able stuff. But everything has a level requirement, so, don't get too ahead of yourself there pal. Now, of course, you're going to want to get yourself a hatchet! Hatchets are the best tools for obtaining hide, chitin, keratin, wood and stone. The pick is best for harvesting raw meat, thatch, flint and metal. But you're not going to be needing any metal so early into the game. Flint on the other hand will come in very handy.

Now, you're naked and starving on the beach with some tools. Time to fix that! While dehydrated or thirsty, you can step into any body of water and hit E to drink it. A minimal amount of water can also be gained from consuming berries. Speaking of berries, you're gonna need some source of food.
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I'm sure you've harvested so many bushes by now that your E key is starting to break. That's a sign of enjoyment, of course! Yes... The joys of... Picking... Bushes. Right. Now, there are a good few types of berries. All of them can be eaten, but some of them have special... Effects. The narcoberries will increase your torpidity, bringing you closer to unconsciousness. The stim berries will have an opposite effect from the narcoberries, but the stims will also drain your water and food upon consumption. As useless as these berries might sound, they will come in handy in the future.
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I guess you're no longer a naked, starving and thirsty person on the beach. Now you're just naked. Go ahead and get those cloth armor engrams learned. You'll need a ton of fibre for this, but I'm sure you've already got that covered! Thanks bushes!

Alright, now, you're officially a citizen of the ARK! In the next chapter of our adventure, we'll be looking into the art of setting up a base! Until then, it might be a good idea to begin levelling up your character.
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If this guide came in handy for you, please leave a like on the post! Thanks for reading, and good luck on the ARK!
 

Not Sag

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I don't own ARK and probably never will, but I watched like a 30 minute video on the ending in their most recent big update which actually came out a month ago and ARK is actually a really cool looking game. + FrankieonPCin1080P made it look like a sick game as he does with everything.
 
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