ARK: Building Guide

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ARK Building Walkthrough

Finding A Suitable Location For Your Base

A good location for a first base would be an area fairly close to water, but not close enough to be threatened by the aquatic life. You'll probably want to make sure you aren't too close to more aggressive dinos, make sure you are not on any aggressive dino spawns. The next big consideration is flat land. Building on a slope won't be easy and you'll need additional Engrams for things like supports.

Your First House

Depending on where you are standing, the segments can suddenly shift position. So make sure they are where you want them and that the green outline is stable and not jumping around. Keep some extra raw materials handy just in case you need to make a few extra segments to replace anything that ends up badly placed.

The foundation will be the first part that you must install. You'll want a flat area so that you don't run into problems requiring additional Engrams, such as posts to support the structure, at least for your first base. A 3 by 3 or a 4x4 set of foundations is more than enough room for a starter thatch home. Simple Thatch walls and at least one Doorway and Door should be made. The Cheapest roofs are just flat ceiling tiles. But you do have trouble with stooping inside then. Roofs can be made with the sloped pieces. But you will need two Right and two left sloped walls to enclose the end walls of the build.

Limitations of a Single-Foundation Sized House

The advantage to a single-foundation house is that it is easy to build resource-wise, and will fit into a small place. It also provides some protection and will let you have, for example, at most, two storage boxes or one sleeping bag. Possibly a bed. And it is a safer place to logout than in the bushes (usually!).

But the disadvantages are many. For one, it's a pain to place anything inside, because its too small. And if it's only one wall segment high, you can't place a large storage unit inside, because these are at least one and a half wall segments tall.

Defensive Walls & Dino Gates

It is often easiest to start by placing the Dino gateway and gate. Make sure the outline is facing the direction you want before placing it. That is an expensive part to demolish. I have found that standing where you want the inside to be, and looking out, is the best way to get the gate placed correctly. Using a Behemoth gate instead of the Dino Gate: Because of the way the snap points work, you really need to place fence foundations first - before you place the Behemoth Gateway. This is the only way you can be sure that it will line up with your walls. Otherwise you can end up making quite a mess trying to close off your walls completely.

Once you have the gateway in place, the gate itself will just snap right into the gateway. That part, at least, doesn't usually cause a problem. These gates are supposed to be usable while mounted. In practice, however, I often find that I must dismount to close the gate after exiting. Opening the gate to come in or go out is usually not a problem.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you may want to install the actual gates into the gateways as your last step. Should you run into problems building the walls, and then need to move that gate, it's expensive enough without having to demolish both parts. I've taken the habit of putting the gates into the gateways only once everything else is done.

Next you'll want to install the fence foundations, and then the walls. Because of the rather unstable placing mechanism at this time, I recommend that you only place one foundation segment at a time. Be very careful to make sure they all line up. I've had them 'snap' into place but in reality they were just a bit off being lined up and that caused a big section of my wall to be out just a little.

Upgrading Your Base

Woot you have enough wood or stone to choke a paracer! Now you can finally upgrade that ragged old thatch hut into a nice wooden cabin! Or that fabulous Stone castle that you saw in that one video!

The process for upgrading a base is pretty much the same as building it in the first place. For example, you can place a new wall exactly where the old wall was, and when you click to place it, the old wall will be demolished as the new wall is placed. You are, of course, refunded your materials for the old wall, though as with all demolishing, you don't get everything back. This should not harm anything you have built or placed inside a structure, unless you run into a glitch.

When upgrading your base the best place to start is with the foundation. In most cases you'll find that you don't need to demolish anything that you have built on the floor. I have run into a few bugs where I did have to do so, but I am sure that those are glitches.

Depending on how your base is built you may find that you have to do some of the upgrading from inside, though for smaller buildings the foundation is easier to replace from the outside as you can clearly see it. If you run into a glitch and you are forced to demolish an object built on the floor, make sure you have storage nearby for the materials refunded by demolishing them. Also keep in mind that when you demolish an object and its inventory is dropped to the ground it will de-spawn very quickly. Picking up the items and dropping them can be a way to buy yourself time. It is also a handy method by which you can move large numbers of items over to nearby storage containers.

Special Building Circumstances!

RUINS

You will need a Fence post, a wall, a ceiling, a few foundations, and the Pick up Gun.

1. Place the fence post in the corner of the room lining up the center of the top with the wall, and the end notch with the back wall.

2. Snap the Wall to the post, then the ceiling to the wall.

3. Now snap the foundation under the ceiling. And place one to the back or the side of the first foundation. This second one will snap in line with the bottom of the first one under the ceiling. You now have your floor established. Pick up the fence post, wall, 1st foundation, and ceiling. You will be able to build a wall inside the build up one side of the ruins to allow you to build floors. If you find the door is off-center. Go to the outside and snap a fence post to the inside edge of the Ruins door. Then snap your Doorway into the wall there.

OCEAN PLATFORMS

You will need a stack of ceilings, a couple of ramps, and if you choose a few moonpools.

1. Run to a corner of the Platform, look for where you can snap on a ramp.

2. When you snap the ramp you can then attach a ceiling to the top of the platform to start your floor.

3. When you reach the center area. You can then attach a moonpool to the outside edge of your ceilings. Creating your water pen walls is then easy, just open that and snap two more going to the front edge of the Platform then go down. These can be opened up and flooded to create a pen.

Saddle and RAFT Building

You will need a S+ conversion table to convert one S+ foundation and one wooden ladder to Vanilla.

1. RIDE the Saddle or Raft and dismount. Walk Straight back from where you dismounted.

2. Place the Ladder at the edge of the saddle platform.

3. Climb the ladder and put the vanilla foundation down at the spot directly in line with the ladder on the front edge of the saddle.

4. Then lock it to the platform and then you can use S+ regular structures from there to keep it all connected.

Ladders act as Elevators: Our S+ ladders will teleport you to the top of the section they are attached to.

S+ Internal Pipes & Wires

• Exactly like normal pipes and wires except that snap to foundations, ceilings & walls

• After placed, you can then attach normal pipes, wires, outlets, water tanks, cooking pots, generators, etc, they merely transmit just like vanilla pipes & wires and you still need to place an outlet to power nearby electrical structures

• To get a source of water or power, clip just a intake to the outside wall on one of the pipe ends that show. For Power place a + shaped one under the Generator BEFORE you place the generator. Then place a fuse box into the edge of the Foundation wiring.

• NO PIPELINES TO WATER NEEDED: We have set S+ to have an endless water supply. Just put your water piping together in your base, no clip an S+ intake to the end piece (NO IT DOES NOT NEED WATER) and you will be fully irrigated. You can also use S+ Beehives to water crops in a 50 Foundation ARC around them.

Floating Bases Setup

FLOATING CEILINGS: We have a setting turned on where our Ceilings will float with out support in the game. Hence the Many floating bases you see here.

To start a floating base.

1. Get to your desired height with a foundation and walls.

2. Place a single ceiling. This begins the floor of your base. Or you can now attach a s+ wedge to this. And create a circle.

3. Use your pick up tool to remove the wall and place a S+ elevator square on the foundation and the first ceiling you placed.

S+ Fuel Consumption Rates:

Fuel Consumption Rates Gas • Industrial Cooking Pot - 15 min • Industrial Forge - 15 min • Industrial Grill - 20 min • Industrial Grinder - 1 hr • Fabricator - 1 hr • Chemistry Bench - 1 hr Element • Tek Shield - 1 hr • Tek Replicator - 1 hr per element (36 sec per shard) • Tek Generator - 6 hrs per element (216 sec per shard) Assorted • Animal Tender - 6hrs • Bee Hive - 1 hr • Farmer - 3 hrs • Gardener - 6 hrs • Hatchery - 6 hrs • Item Collector - 6 hrs • Nanny - 6 hrs • Sheep Herder - 1 hr