Ark Survival Ascended

This wiki is a survey rather than a manual. Of the 264 pages in it, 246 are pinned to a specific map, and behind them sit 499 individual farming coordinates, every artifact cave on eleven maps, and the tribute list for every boss door. It answers where something is far more often than it explains how something works, and that is worth knowing before you start reading, because it tells you which question this site is good at.

The natural way in is therefore the map you are standing on. Below, all eleven, ordered by how thoroughly we have surveyed them, which turns out to be a decent proxy for how much time people actually spend on each.

The six guides

Resources is the largest by a distance, 124 pages covering 35 materials, and it is sorted by what you have to bring rather than by where things are, because turning up at the right rock with the wrong tool is the commonest way to waste an evening here. Creatures covers 71 animals split by the only question that matters at first sight: whether the game intends you to tame it or simply kill it.

Items is a catalogue of keys. Every entry unlocks something else, whether that is a boss arena, a creature you are not allowed to tame, or seventy-six explorer notes worth of experience. Bosses is where those keys get spent, sorted by what the game lets you walk away with, which for most of them is loot and for exactly two is the boss itself.

Locations ranks places by how often each one pays you, from obelisks that pay nothing through beaver dams that refill on a timer to thirty-five base sites that pay for as long as you hold them. And mechanics is the smallest bucket in the wiki, two systems that both exist to do a job while you are somewhere else.

Before you pick a map: the cross-map roundups

Nine of our pages ignore map boundaries entirely and answer a single question everywhere at once. These are the ones to read when you have not chosen where to play yet, or when you have just arrived somewhere new and want the short version.

Metal and obsidian are the two you will want first, since almost everything worth building runs through them. Chitin and sulfur follow close behind, and black pearls is the one that eventually stops being a diving guide and starts recommending you tame a Gacha instead.

The rest are the food and comfort tier. Rare flowers spans seven maps in one page and is the reference for taming the fussier creatures, cactus sap is what keeps you alive in the desert, and Rockarrot and Savoroot are the two crops worth farming deliberately, both of them best harvested with a Mammoth rather than by hand.

Artifacts, and the pattern behind them

Our artifact locations guide covers The Island's ten and maps each one to the boss it summons, which is the cleanest place to start understanding what artifacts are actually for. Ten keys open three doors, split three, three and four with no overlap.

Set that against the per-map counts in our items guide and something odd appears. Aberration, Extinction and Scorched Earth hold exactly three artifacts each. Every other map holds ten or more, and Crystal Isles holds eighteen. There is no middle ground anywhere, and the three-artifact maps are precisely the three story expansions, which build a small bespoke set around one boss instead of inheriting the Island's collection.

Playing it differently

If the base game has stopped surprising you, our best mods guide is the one page here that changes the game rather than describing it, covering quality-of-life additions through to the larger overhauls, with the usual warnings about the adult-oriented ones.

Frequently asked questions

Which map should I start on?

Ragnarok, on the evidence of this wiki. It is large, conventional and well surveyed at 29 pages, with beaver dams for cementing paste and a full set of ten artifacts, so nothing about it is a special case you have to learn separately.

Is this the same as ARK: Survival Evolved?

No. Ascended is the Unreal Engine 5 rebuild, and although the maps share names, the coordinates, creature rosters and boss rewards differ enough that they are documented separately. The original game has its own wiki here.

Which boss pays the most?

Two are tied at the top on 440 Element for an Alpha clear: Lost Island's Dinopithecus King, and Valguero's Dragon. Both also want character level 100 before they will let you in.

Where do I find Cementing Paste?

In beaver dams, or at a Mortar and Pestle. It is one of the materials our resources guide files under having no location at all, because in most cases you manufacture it rather than find it.