Contents
When it comes to Ark:Survival Evolved it pretty much does what it says on the tin. It’s a survival game that is heavy on the action and adventure. While it might not be the most popular game out there it still has a steady and dedicated following of potentially over 5 million players. It’s not just about the multiplayer with Ark either. It gives players the opportunity to play single player modes too. This means that there is plenty of scope for many different types of players.
Ark is available on a number of different systems. This means that there is a wide range of players out there. Despite it not being a brand new game, there are still beginners to Ark every day. These players shouldn’t be discounted, remember we were all beginners once.
Ark offers an almost complete survival experience in the midsts of a dinosaur inhabited land. The Eden like setting shouldn’t be confused for a walk in the park. It provides plenty of difficult moments. How can you cater the game experience to your own needs perfectly? Is there a way to do this in Ark? The short answer is yes.
The long answer is that one of the best things about Ark is that the ability to maniulate the settings. The settings of the game can be set to pretty much cater it completely to your own desires. Which leads to the question, what are the best settings for Ark:Survival Evolved? The answer to that question certainly isn’t straight forward. It depends on many things, one of which is personal preference. However, we’ve consequently worked out some settings for a few scenarios that should satisfy almost every type of player.
Beginner/Experimenting: Single Player
These settings are perfect for those players who are just getting to grips with Ark or for people who want to try out some new things. When you’re first getting to grips with a game like Ark, it can be counter productive to jump right into hard mode. Likewise, when you want to try out something new, it can make you worse at the game for a while. An easier mode will help fix those issues and allow you to get to grips with your new skills. It’s always best to set easy modes for single player, no-one wants to be on an easy mode server, you may never live down the shame.
There are a whole host of different aspects that can be chopped and changed in ark. These are the ones that should impact on your game the most.
Generic Settings
XPMultiplier requires a value of 10. This will increase the speed that you gather experience, due to the higher the number increasing the experience gained. This means that it will be nice and easy to get up to a level where your stats are high enough to carry out any task with relative ease. With a multiplier of 10 it should take no time at all to reach a level of 70. This will make things much easier when it comes to carrying out tasks. This could be changed with the ExperiencePointsForLevel[]= command, but this is much more long winded to do.
MatingIntervalMultiplier requires a value of 0.1. This will increase how quickly dinosaurs can mate with each other. The lower the setting the sooner that happens. This means that it will only take 10% of the time for dinosaurs are able to mate with each other. This means no waiting around, which makes the game move a lot faster.
MatingSpeedMultiplier requires a value of 15. This will increase the speed that the dinosaurs mate at. When combined with the increase in mating interval this will severely decrease the length of time that it takes for mating to occur, which means that there will be a much more plentiful supply of dinosaur eggs.
EggHatchSpeedMultiplier and BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier requires a value of 15. This will cut down how long it takes for eggs to hatch and baby dinosaurs to grow up to maturity. This makes it a lot easier to breed dinosaurs for whatever purpose you may like.
CropGrowthSpeedMultiplier requires a value of 15. This ensures that there isn’t a long wait for crops to grow. This speeds up the ability to use the crops in whatever way you may wish. Not only does it save time, but it also allows for experience to be earned at a much faster rate if you use the crops to craft items.
Battle Settings
PlayerResistanceMultiplier requires a value of 0.1. This allows players to take 10% of the usual damage that they would take from attacks. This means that it is a lot easier to go around the map. This makes the game significantly easier for beginners who are trying to get used to the game, as well as ensuring that players who are trying out new tactics are at a smaller risk of dying at the wrong time.
PlayerBaseStatMultipliers[] requires a value of 5 for the weight and oxygen attributes. In order to modify these two attributes replace with 3 for oxygen and 7 for weight. The oxygen attribute will make it easier to breathe underwater as the oxygen meter will recharge faster. The weight attribute means that you can carry more, which as it is a single player game could be vital.
Running an Intermediate Server: Multiplayer or Single Player
The intermediate server will use mainly the same level of settings that the game supplies by default. There will however be some slight changes to various settings in order to improve the mechanics of the game. This is perfect for intermediate players who want to ramp up the challenge of Ark, without making it too difficult.
Generic Settings
XPMultiplier requires a value of 1.5. This will increase the speed that you gather experience but not to the extreme rate that the beginner settings would. While this does mean that it will be slightly easier to reach higher levels than on the default setting, it doesn’t make it so easy that the challenge is removed from the game.
MatingIntervalMultiplier requires a value of 0.5. This means that it will take half of the time it usually does for dinosaurs to mate again. This increases the speed for mating to occur without making Ark way too easy.
MatingSpeedMultiplier requires a value of 3. The mating speed multiplier being set at this level means there isn’t too long a wait for mating to take place. It also doesn’t gives players enough time to carry out other tasks instead of just entering into an endless cycle of mating.
EggHatchSpeedMultiplier and BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier requires a value of 3. This makes sure that eggs hatch a little faster than default and dinosaurs mature slightly faster too. The increase in speed of these tasks makes sure that farming dinosaurs doesn’t become a grind. It also ensures that it doesn’t feel like a cheat mode where you instantly have new dinosaurs as soon as you have eggs.
CropGrowthSpeedMultiplier requires a value of 2. This speeds up the growth of crops without making them instant. You won’t have to worry about waiting around forever but you also won’t be in a sandbox.
Battle Settings
PlayerResistanceMultiplier requires a value of 0.8. This is slightly above the default setting and will make sure that players are not overpowered, but still allow for some leeway in terms of hunting. The 80% damage from attacks means that it allows for small errors that intermediate players might still make.
Running an Advanced Server: Multiplayer or Single Player
An advanced server offers a new set of problems. Players who play on advanced servers want a challenge. They don’t want things to be easy and they certainly don’t want things to be quick. This doesn’t mean that it should be turned into a dull, snail paced grind though. The settings for an advanced server are the most difficult to get right.
This means that it isn’t a case of just making everything super hard. There is some nuance required to make it a difficult Ark experience as well as being a fun one.
Generic Settings
XPMultiplier requires a value of 1.3. This keeps things slightly above the default level. It means that it won’t be a simple jump to the top, but it does mean that the later levels don’t require as much of a grind to reach. As players should already be advanced when they begin playing on an advanced server skipping through the earlier levels a little faster shouldn’t be an issue. The removal of some late level grinding means it keeps Ark as a more enjoyable experience. If you want to set the XPMultiplier to 1 and just edit the later level XP requirements using ExperiencePointsForLevel[]= you can do that too. It does take slightly more work to do it this way though.
ResourcesRespawnPeriodMultiplier requires a value of 2. This means that there will be a limited amount of resources. It means that players must be sensible with how they use their resources. It removes players being wasteful. Players need to have more skills than just combat and a reduced resource respawn rate ensures this.
Battle Settings
DinoResistanceMultiplier requires a value of 0.8. This means that dinosaurs only take 80% of the usual damage from attacks. This means that players need to work harder to beat dinosaurs. It adds to the difficulty of battles, without taking away from the skills required.
PlayerResistanceMultiplier requires a value of 1.3. This means that players will take 30% more damage from attacks. This ensures that fighting and traversing dangerous terrain requires more skill and more care. It means that players must have high quality skills to engage in battle. Players also need to have excellent battle tactics to know when to engage in battle and when to run away.
PlayerBaseStatMultipliers[] requires a value of 0.8 for the health, stamina and MeleeDamageMultiplier attributes. In order to modify these three attributes replace with 0 for health, 1 for stamina and 8 for MeleeDamageMultiplier. This means that it becomes much harder to engage in battles. Players will not be able to take as much damage, fight as hard as usual and won’t give out as much damage. This means that fighting is a much more difficult task. Due to this players will have to either pick their battles wisely or have far superior skills to usual.
PlayerCharacterHealthRecoveryMultiplier requires a value of 0.8. This makes health recover at a slower rate. Players need to have a better understanding of tactics after this, it removes the ability to enter into consecutive fights. The small amount of reduction in speed means that it doesn’t force players into hiding for long periods either.
Conclusion
All of these settings ensure that any type of player can get what they need from Ark. From beginners to experts there is a setting for you. It’s important to remember that they are not set in stone though. You can always make slight changes to cater the game more to your own tastes.
For example, if you’re not a fan of combat and find it difficult you can change the combat based settings to make it easier. Don’t forget if you find these settings too easy, they can be made harder as well. As is always the case with game settings your own desires can be taken into account. Hence these settings are just a guideline for ways that you can improve the Ark experience.
These settings are a fantastic starting point for players who want to cater their Ark experience to their own desires. If you feel like you aren’t getting everything you want from Ark, then changing the settings can give you some extra longevity from the game.
Don’t let the magic of Ark escape you. It has a lot more to it than you first thought. Above all these settings will allow you to unleash the full experience of Ark. Why not make it the game you always wanted it to be?
