ARK: Survival Ascended Complete Guide
Tame, Build, Survive.
Master the prehistoric wilderness. Complete bestiary with taming guides, base building defenses, breeding for mutations, and step-by-step strategies for defeating the Guardians of the ARK.
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Interactive Tools
Taming Calculator
Interactive tool to calculate required food, narcotics, and time to tame any dinosaur instantly.
GuideBreeding Calculator
Work out imprint timers, mutation odds and stat inheritance before you commit an egg.
GuidePvP Raid Calculator
Calculate the exact amount of C4, Rockets, and raw materials needed to wipe an enemy base.
1229 · TrackerExplorer Notes Tracker
Interactive checklist to track your collected Explorer Notes, map by map. Saves your progress locally.
12 · TrackerBoss Tracker
Track the 12 bosses this guide covers and sync your ascensions to Game Memory.
30 · TrackerEssential Tames Tracker
Check off the 30 must-have creatures to tame and sync them to Game Memory.
29 · TrackerArtifact Maps
Real maps and real coordinates for the artifact caves of 7 worlds — The Island's ten in full, the rest a verified selection. Click to log, synced to your Vault.
GuideInteractive Resource Map
Toggle resource layers to find in-game coordinates for the marked locations across seven maps.
GuideEngram Crafting Calculator
Calculate the total raw materials (Metal, Polymer, Paste) required for your base and structures.
Map Guides
The Island
The original map. Discover all artifact caves, explorer notes, and how to conquer the Overseer.
GuideThe Center
Navigate the floating island, deep sea trenches, and the dual boss arena (Broodmother + Megapithecus).
GuideScorched Earth
Survive the harsh desert heat, tame Wyverns, and defeat the Manticore.
GuideAberration
Navigate the radioactive underground, steal Rock Drake eggs, and tame Reapers.
GuideExtinction
Survive the corrupted Wasteland, defend OSDs, tame Titans, and defeat the King Titan.
GuideThe Island — Marked Locations
The ten artifact caves with in-game coordinates, plus the obelisks, deep sea crates and a selection of resource nodes.
GuideRagnarok
Griffins, Ice Wyverns, and a massive 144 sq km open world.
GuideFjordur
Nordic realms, Runes, Desmodus, and the legendary Fenrir.
GuideLost Island
Ruins, Sinomacrops, Dinopithecus, and Amargasaurus.
Survival Systems
Taming & Kibble
Learn knockout taming, passive taming, trap designs, and the complete Kibble chart.
GuideBestiary & Tier List
The best dinosaurs for gathering, combat, and travel. Stats and abilities explained.
GuideBreeding & Mutations
How to hatch eggs, raise babies, and stack mutations for boss-killing super dinos.
GuideBase Building
Best base locations, structural integrity, and defense setups for PvE and PvP.
GuideFarming & Cooking
Greenhouse mechanics, fertilizer generation, and essential custom recipes.
GuidePvP & Raiding
Advanced strategies for soaking turrets, explosive damage, and FOB construction.
GuideTek Tier & Element
Unlock the Tek Suit, farm Element efficiently, and build the ultimate base.
GuideColors & Dyes
Dino color regions, rare event colors, and recipes for all 25 custom dyes.
GuideThe Taming Compendium
A massive A-Z database of every creature in Ascended. Spawn locations, taming methods, and foods.
GuideBeginner's Guide
Advanced & Extras
Bosses & Ascension
Recommended armies, artifacts, and strategies to defeat the Guardians and the Overseer.
GuideFarming Routes
The best locations and dinosaurs to efficiently harvest Metal, Obsidian, Polymer, and Pearls.
GuideCave Walkthroughs
Locations and required gear for surviving the artifact caves without losing your tames.
GuideBob's Tall Tales
Learn to build trains, pilot airships, and dig up buried treasure in the new DLC.
GuideAchievements & Trophies
Why nothing is missable, what Alpha Ascension actually takes, and the achievements that take the longest.
GuideConsole Commands
The most useful admin commands for single-player, debugging, or hosting a private server.
GuideBest CurseForge Mods
A curated list of the best cross-platform Quality of Life mods available for consoles and PC.
GuideFAQ
Quick answers about this guide, its checklists and how progress is saved.
The Maps
The Island
The original map. Discover all artifact caves, explorer notes, and how to conquer the Overseer.
Base game · 25 October 2023The Center
Navigate the floating island, deep sea trenches, and the dual boss arena (Broodmother + Megapithecus).
Free update · 4 June 2024Scorched Earth
Survive the harsh desert heat, tame Wyverns, and defeat the Manticore.
Free update · 1 April 2024 Bob's Tall Tales (DLC)Aberration
Navigate the radioactive underground, steal Rock Drake eggs, and tame Reapers.
Free update · 5 September 2024 Bob's Tall Tales (DLC)Extinction
Survive the corrupted Wasteland, defend OSDs, tame Titans, and defeat the King Titan.
Free update · 20 December 2024 Bob's Tall Tales (DLC)Astraeos
The Greek-myth partner map, 264 sq km of marble cliffs and cherry blossom. The Heaven & Abyss update completed it with two regions — Helianthos in the sky, Abyssanthos in the deep — the Trireme warship, the Boaratos, and the Kraken ascension fights against Abyssalus and Shallocis.
Paid DLC · 14 February 2025 Heaven & Abyss · 27 August 2026 No page here yetThe Island — Marked Locations
The ten artifact caves with in-game coordinates, plus the obelisks, deep sea crates and a selection of resource nodes.
Ragnarok
Griffins, Ice Wyverns, and a massive 144 sq km open world.
Free update · 19 June 2025 Our page is still a stubFjordur
Nordic realms, Runes, Desmodus, and the legendary Fenrir.
Not in Ascended yet · no date announcedLost Island
Ruins, Sinomacrops, Dinopithecus, and Amargasaurus.
Not in Ascended yet · no date announcedCross-checked
Map status cross-checked on 22 September 2026 against the ARK Official Community Wiki's Ascended roadmap and its Astraeos page, the Steam store pages for each Ascended map, and the launch-day coverage of the Heaven & Abyss update (Studio Wildcard's own Steam news announcement, COGconnected); where two sources give different days, both are shown — Ragnarok is 19 June 2025 on Steam against 20 June on the wiki, and Astraeos is 14 February 2025 on its wiki page against 13 February in that same wiki's roadmap. Valguero (7 October 2025), Lost Colony (19 December 2025) and Genesis: Part 1 (3 July 2026) are in Ascended as well, but have no page here yet. The map list is a reading of those sources, not from a playthrough: nobody here has played every Ascended map, and a map with no page here is named rather than described.