The ARK: Genesis expansion has a lot of new content to go over. It has things that have never been seen before in any other expansions from Wild Card. We’ve prepared these handy little ARK Genesis Tips filled with some things for you beginners to be aware of while you play, along with some useful tips to keep in mind.
ARK: Genesis Tips
Help From HLNA
When creating a new character or respawning, HLNA will greet you. She acts as your personal tour guide in this expansion and is with you every step of the way.
Interact with her when you want to teleport from one biome to another, or when you want to spend some of the hexagons you’ll earn for completing missions.
If you don’t want to see HLNA all the time, you can go into her settings and hide her. You can reshow her by holding down your emote button and selecting ‘show HLNA.’
Missions
This is the main feature of Genesis. There are roughly about 200 missions in the game that are scattered across the entire simulation.
There is a variety in the different missions you can tackle. These range from gathering, horde mode, hunt, race, retrieve, etc. There is a lot of content for you to have fun during group activities.
If you open the inventory at the top of the screen, you can see the mission groups. You can track all the missions in the game in each Biome and check your overall percentage completion.
If you’re on a mission that you don’t think you can complete, then you can cancel it from this same mission tab.
Hexagon Exchange
One of the features HLNA has is allowing you to exchange Hexagons. This is when you earn currency from doing missions on the map and then you can pass in these hexagons for resources, including Loot crates.
The more you spend, the better the gear you will get.
Start Off At the Ocean Biome
Regardless of your playstyle, we recommend starting off on the Ocean biome. This is because it’s one of the easiest ways to start your adventures due to a low number of threats in the area.
There are a few minor predators on land but nothing too difficult unless you go into the water. So if you want to practice safe and sound, definitely start off here.
Informational Scanner
If you look at a creature by hitting H on your keyboard, HLNA will scan it and display all the information you need to know about the animal.
Find The Glitches
These are the story aspect of the expansion and take the place of explorer notes. If you find one, it will give you some neat background stories of different survivors and different biomes.
Of course, finding these will also reward you with an XP boost if you click on them.
No Building Zones
Building is a big part of your gameplay but certain parts of the mission area do not allow this. You can enter these zones by holding H on your keyboard.
You can also go to a foundation from which you can see the different zones on the map. Interacting with HLNA also allows you to see them so you know where you can build.
Environmental Hazards
Each biome comes with its own set of dangers. The Arctic Biome has avalanches. Cyclones can be found in the Ocean Biome. Lava explosions from the volcano at the Magma Biome can be quite annoying too. Listen to common sense and avoid these.
