ARK is made far too easy by flying animals – that’s why the successor has to do without it
Survival games have established themselves as a popular genre on the gaming market. The challenge of survival is particularly appealing to players. MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller, however, finds that ARK: Survival Evolved lacks the challenge due to the use of flying animals and says that ARK 2 should do without the popular creatures.
As a survival game, ARK relies on challenging players to survive in a dangerous world. But what if survival is no longer a challenge because you can fly above all dangers?
Undoubtedly, getting started with ARK is not easy. Even if you’re already an experienced ARK player, the first few hours on a new map may be plagued by in-game deaths. But after a certain point, the challenge for players decreases rapidly.
That time comes when you can ride pterosaurs and other flying creatures to explore the map, tame other animals, or transport resources. Almost every flying animal has a special ability that makes complicated or difficult gameplay mechanics easy to master.
Below I will list four problems that flying animals create in ARK that I consider to be serious. I also explain to what extent said problems make the game too easy and why, based on this, I think that ARK 2 should do without flying animals.
1. The avoidance of uncertainty by the flying scout
The myriad dangers of the different maps not only appear insignificant and small from the air, they are. No matter what would normally await us, we are usually safe in the air.
At level 38 it is possible to craft the saddle for the Pteranodon. Colloquially, the pterosaur is often called Petry. Level 38 sounds high, but is reached comparatively quickly. Leveling up your own character only becomes exhausting for experienced players from level 60 – 75.
So far, reaching the next level hasn’t been very long and can be easily achieved through simple farming, crafting or the necessary construction of the base. If you have the saddle for the Petry available, the first big danger is averted: the unknown.
The Petry cannot haul large amounts of resources, but is very useful for exploring the map. He’s a classic scout that lets you explore an uncharted territory without taking a huge risk. You can even escape the dangerous wyverns with the little plane.
The Petry allows players to find excellent resource spots, seek out danger, or reach high-altitude safe locations. He makes all this possible at a time when you have not even reached 40% of the maximum level.
For comparison: The shotgun, which is essential in ARK, is unlocked at level 35 – just a few levels away from the Petry saddle.
2. Breeding dragons made easy
The Petry has another use besides scouting: theft. The pterodactyl is very easy to tame, just as easy to breed, and can be found almost anywhere on the map. In the air it is fast and agile.
Many players use the Pteranodon to steal Wyvern Eggs or something similar. This is very dangerous due to numerous malicious creatures. The Wyvern themselves are also extremely aggressive and strong opponents. In ARK, wyverns are dragons or at least dragon-like flying creatures that spit fire, ice or poison, among other things.
Without a flying animal, stealing wyvern eggs would be a challenge for the endgame of the survival title. With the Petry this is not a problem and involves little risk.
If the venture goes wrong, you can tame or breed a new Petry and try again. If you succeed, you have the egg of one of the strongest and most popular creatures in ARK.
1. Level 38 for the Petry Saddle, plus a Petry to lure the Wyvern
2. A bow or shotgun and accompanying tranquilizer darts or tranquilizer darts
(you can craft the tranquilizer darts from level 21)
3. A Behemonth stone archway and gate (manufacturable at level 31) as well as stone foundations, pillars and ceilings
Powerful Creatures: If you manage to get the Wyvern Milk and successfully raise a Wyvern, not only the skies are yours.
Even on the ground, very few creatures can pose a threat to you when you ride a wyvern. Wyverns are very strong and don’t require a saddle, allowing them to be mounted with no minimum level.
At least now almost every danger for you has disappeared. Whether on the ground or in the air – the Wyvern can take on almost any opponent. Even if you could lose a fight with the Wyvern, it’s fast enough to fly away from most dangers.
3. Taming from the Air eliminates the need for gameplay mechanics
Some animals are difficult to tame because of their agility or behavior. But at level 50 you unlock the saddle for the pterodactyl Tapejara. This can carry up to three players at the same time.
From the Tapejara’s back, the two non-steering players can shoot tranquilizer ammunition with the bow or the shotgun. One player shoots forward, the other backwards.
The Tapejara itself is very agile and can be maneuvered like a helicopter. This allows you to tame dangerous and fast creatures from the air.
Fast movement, anticipatory positioning or building traps is no longer necessary. Many aspects of taming, and accordingly ARK, are rendered redundant by the Tapejara.
4. A bird for all occasions
There is also a flying animal that removes any complication from resource farming: the Argentavis.
The Argentavis is considered an all-rounder and simplifies farming immensely. It has an enormously high payload, is a flying workbench and a solid fighter and also halves the weight of numerous resources. These include metal ingots, obsidian, black pearls, raw metal, and crystal.
By halving the weight of resources and the generally high payload, the Argentavis is part of almost every farm tour. Few creatures can carry comparable amounts of heavy resources like metal and obsidian, and no other can do so while flying.
With the Argentavis, players can avoid any danger on the ground and combat many dangers through the all-rounder’s combat abilities. In addition, you don’t have to walk any complicated paths, but can fly cross-country without any problems.
With the Argentavis, there is rarely much risk involved in farming. It can even carry numerous creatures needed for farming. These include the Doedicurus (stone farmer), the Castoroides (wood farmer) and the Ankylosaurus (metal farmer), three of the most important farm animals.
Needless to say, the Argentavis also heals itself for all of this when it eats the corpse of a defeated creature. The Argentavis makes most of the creatures unnecessary. The all-rounder compensates for the lack of speed with its flexibility.
Conclusion: ARK 2 has to do without flying animals!
Flying animals make far too many excellent game mechanics obsolete and many aspects far too easy. Exploring the map, farming resources, taming and stealing wyver eggs or similar loses all difficulty.
A map full of hazards isn’t dangerous if I can fly over it a majority of the time. Survival is no longer a challenge and the developers know that too. In the past they published maps where it was not possible to fly.
Along with Genesis Part 1, Aberration also appeared with a ban on flying. Especially the latter stood out at release because flying was not possible. ARK seemed harder on the map and that was good. The gameplay seemed to stay exciting much longer.
Aberration and Genesis showed that being grounded in ARK is not gameplay impossible and even has a positive impact on the longevity of the game and the experience.
ARK 2 should do without flying animals! The fly ban would finally give experienced players the challenge they need again. Either the flying animals have to be removed or players on both official and private servers have to be given the opportunity to choose between servers on which flying animals can be used or not.
An alternative would be to increase the level players need to craft the flying animal saddles. The problem, however, is that increasing the minimum level might not change anything.
You can reach almost every level without leaving the vicinity of your base. It is possible to avoid the numerous dangers of the game until you unlock the flying animal saddles. It is sufficient if only one player in the group reaches the required level and makes the saddles for everyone else.
Many private servers even go a step further and give new players an Argentavis or other flying animal as a jump-start or welcome gift. Even if it is of course up to each player and each server to decide whether this makes sense, this measure means that a good part of the challenge is lost right at the beginning of the game.
Of course, there are also arguments in favor of flying animals. They are popular and add to the gaming experience in their own way. Flying is fun and practical. Losing a certain amount of difficulty as a result is more than just a side effect, however.
Because of this, I think ARK 2 would be more difficult without flying animals and therefore better for any player looking for a challenge in survival games. Furthermore, I think it is a very special experience when players form a huge column with their creatures to go farming together.
Dariusz Mueller
Freelance author at MeinMMO
Do you think ARK 2 should keep the flying animals or do you wish for more experiences like on Aberration?
ARK: Survival Evolved is still a popular survival game years after its release. The dinosaur adventure has known how to assert itself in a highly competitive genre for years.
In order to be able to keep track of the best survival games in 2022, MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has compiled a list of the 24 genre representatives for you: The 24 best survival games 2021/2022 for PlayStation, PC and Xbox
Reference-mein-mmo.de