Ark: Survival Evolved is a captivating game that offers a unique survival experience with its rich world filled with dinosaurs and other primeval creatures. While the game is often played in multiplayer mode, single-player mode provides a different kind of challenge and enjoyment. To make the most out of your single-player adventure, it’s crucial to adjust the game settings to enhance your gameplay experience. This guide will walk you through the best single-player settings to ensure a balanced and enjoyable experience.
Key Takeaways
- Adjusting the difficulty to 1.0 provides a balanced challenge, making the game neither too easy nor too hard.
- Increasing the taming speed to 5.0 significantly reduces the time required to tame creatures, allowing you to progress faster in the game.
- Enabling ‘Max Difficulty’ ensures that the highest level creatures spawn in your world, providing a more rewarding and challenging experience.
1. Difficulty to 1.0
Setting the difficulty to 1.0 in Ark: Survival Evolved is crucial for an optimal single-player experience. This setting ensures that the game remains challenging while not being overwhelmingly difficult. By setting the difficulty to 1.0, you allow dinosaurs to spawn at higher levels, up to 150, which is the intended cap for a balanced gameplay experience. This adjustment makes the game more engaging and rewarding as you encounter stronger and more formidable creatures.
Remember, this setting doesn’t make the game easier; it simply aligns the difficulty with the game’s design, providing a more authentic survival experience.
Benefits of Setting Difficulty to 1.0
- Higher level dinosaurs spawn, making taming and combat more challenging and rewarding.
- Better loot from supply drops and defeated enemies.
- More engaging gameplay as you face tougher adversaries.
How to Set Difficulty to 1.0
- Open the game settings menu from the main screen or in-game pause menu.
- Navigate to the ‘General’ tab.
- Locate the ‘Difficulty Level’ slider and set it to 1.0.
- Ensure ‘Max Difficulty’ is enabled for the highest level spawns.
- Save your settings and restart the game if necessary.
Additional Tips
- Pair this setting with ‘Max Difficulty’ to ensure the highest level creatures spawn in your world.
- Consider adjusting other settings like XP Multiplier and Taming Speed to balance the increased difficulty.
- Regularly save your game progress to avoid losing valuable progress due to unexpected challenges.
2. XP Multiplier to 1.5
Setting the XP Multiplier to 1.5 is a great way to balance the game for single-player mode. This adjustment ensures that you gain experience points (XP) at a faster rate without making the game too easy. By increasing the XP multiplier, you can progress through levels more quickly, which is particularly useful when you don’t have a team to help you gather resources and defeat enemies.
Benefits of Increasing XP Multiplier
- Faster Leveling: You’ll reach higher levels more quickly, allowing you to unlock advanced engrams and abilities sooner.
- Balanced Gameplay: While the game becomes slightly easier, it still retains its challenging aspects, making it more enjoyable.
- Efficient Resource Management: Higher levels mean better tools and weapons, which in turn make resource gathering and combat more efficient.
How to Adjust XP Multiplier
- Open the game settings menu from the main screen.
- Navigate to the ‘General’ tab.
- Locate the ‘XP Multiplier’ slider and adjust it to 1.5.
- Save your settings and restart the game for changes to take effect.
Adjusting the XP Multiplier is a simple yet effective way to enhance your single-player experience in Ark Survival Evolved. It strikes a perfect balance between challenge and progression, making your journey through the Ark more rewarding.
3. Taming Speed to 5.0
Setting the taming speed to 5.0 is a game-changer for single-player mode in ARK: Survival Evolved. This adjustment allows you to tame dinosaurs at five times the normal speed, significantly reducing the time and resources required. This means you can spend more time exploring and less time waiting around for your new dino friends to become tame.
Benefits of Increased Taming Speed
- Efficiency: Faster taming means you can quickly build a strong team of dinos to help you survive and thrive.
- Resource Management: You’ll save a lot of food and other resources, which can be crucial in the early stages of the game.
- Gameplay Experience: A faster taming process makes the game more enjoyable and less tedious, allowing you to focus on other aspects like building and exploring.
How to Adjust Taming Speed
To change the taming speed, follow these steps:
- Open the game settings menu.
- Navigate to the "General" tab.
- Locate the "Taming Speed" slider and set it to 5.0.
- Save your settings and restart the game if necessary.
Adjusting the taming speed can make a significant difference in your gameplay experience, making it more dynamic and less time-consuming.
Things to Consider
While increasing the taming speed has many benefits, it’s essential to balance it with other settings to ensure a well-rounded experience. For example, you might want to adjust the XP Multiplier or Harvest Amount to match your faster taming speed. This way, you can maintain a balanced and enjoyable game environment.
4. Harvest Amount to 1.5
Setting the Harvest Amount to 1.5 is a great way to increase the amount of materials you gather with each strike. This setting adjusts the scaling factor for the "health" of items that can be harvested, such as trees, rocks, and carcasses. Higher values mean these objects can withstand more strikes before being destroyed, resulting in higher overall harvest yields.
Why Increase Harvest Amount?
Increasing the Harvest Amount multiplier makes your gameplay more efficient. You’ll spend less time gathering resources and more time building, crafting, and exploring. This is especially useful in single-player mode where you don’t have a tribe to help you gather materials.
How to Adjust the Setting
To change the Harvest Amount, follow these steps:
- Open the game settings menu.
- Navigate to the "General" tab.
- Locate the "Harvest Amount" slider and set it to 1.5.
- Save your settings and restart the game if necessary.
Benefits of Higher Harvest Amount
- Efficiency: Gather more resources in less time.
- Sustainability: Resources last longer before depleting.
- Gameplay Balance: Makes single-player mode more manageable.
Adjusting the Harvest Amount to 1.5 strikes a balance between resource availability and gameplay challenge, making your single-player experience more enjoyable.
5. Dino Character Recovery to 2.0
Setting the Dino Character Recovery to 2.0 is crucial for maintaining the health of your tamed dinosaurs. This setting doubles the healing speed of your dinos, making it significantly faster for them to recover from battles and other damage. This is especially important for larger dinos with higher health pools, as they can take a long time to heal at the default rate.
Why Increase Dino Character Recovery?
- Faster Healing: Your dinos will heal twice as fast, which is essential for keeping them in fighting shape.
- Consistency: The increased recovery rate ensures that your gameplay pace remains steady, without long waiting periods for dino recovery.
- Survivability: Higher recovery rates can be the difference between life and death in critical situations.
How to Adjust This Setting
- Open the game settings menu from the main screen or while in-game.
- Navigate to the ‘Advanced’ tab where you will find various sliders for different settings.
- Locate the ‘Dino Character Recovery’ slider and adjust it to 2.0.
- Save your settings and return to the game.
Adjusting the Dino Character Recovery setting is a simple yet effective way to enhance your single-player experience in Ark: Survival Evolved. It ensures that your tamed creatures are always ready for the next challenge, without unnecessary downtime.
6. Disable Your Crosshair
Disabling your crosshair in Ark: Survival Evolved can significantly enhance your gameplay experience. It is highly advised to turn off the crosshair for a more immersive experience. The game provides various attachments and iron sights that serve as crosshairs, making the in-game crosshair redundant. By disabling it, you can fully utilize these in-game items and maintain the immersion aspect of your single-player run.
7. Enable “Max Difficulty”
Enabling Max Difficulty in Ark Survival Evolved is crucial for those who play with "single player settings". This setting ensures that all the dinos on the map spawn at the highest possible level, which is 150. This not only makes the game more challenging but also enhances the quality of loot you can find. The difficulty affects dino level and boss level and in turn, boss difficulty. Everything is on a scale of 1-30, so with maximum difficulty, you get the most out of your single-player experience.
8. Use Single Player Settings
When playing Ark Survival Evolved solo, you should definitely consider enabling the Single Player Settings option. This configuration is found in the General tab of the Host/Local dialog. Activating this option optimizes various settings, such as difficulty, to better suit single players and small groups. This feature was introduced in patch 259.0 and has been a game-changer for many solo players.
Benefits of Single Player Settings
- Optimized Difficulty: The game adjusts the difficulty level to make it more manageable for solo play, ensuring you don’t get overwhelmed by the challenges.
- Balanced Resource Gathering: Resource gathering rates are tweaked to be more forgiving, allowing you to progress without the grind typically associated with multiplayer settings.
- Improved Taming and Breeding: Taming and breeding times are reduced, making it easier to build your dino army without spending countless hours.
How to Enable
- Go to the main menu and select "Host/Local".
- Navigate to the "General" tab.
- Check the box labeled "Use Singleplayer Settings".
- Start your game and enjoy a more balanced solo experience.
Many players advise changing the settings in single-player for a more user-friendly experience. A lot of these setting changes focus on increasing certain speeds. Don’t feel like you’re cheating, as the default speed didn’t have single-player games in mind.
Customizing Further
While the Single Player Settings provide a great starting point, you can still tweak individual settings to better suit your playstyle. For example, you might want to adjust the XP multiplier or taming speed further. The key is to find a balance that makes the game enjoyable for you.
Conclusion
Using Single Player Settings is a fantastic way to tailor Ark Survival Evolved to your solo gaming needs. It simplifies many aspects of the game, allowing you to focus on exploration and adventure rather than tedious tasks. So, don’t hesitate to enable this feature and make the most out of your solo journey on the Ark.
9. Use Corpse Locator
When you die in Ark: Survival Evolved, it can be incredibly frustrating to lose all your hard-earned items. Using the Corpse Locator setting can save you a lot of time and effort. This feature places a green light beam at the location of your death, making it much easier to find your body and recover your items. This is especially useful in dense forests or underwater areas where visibility is low. The Corpse Locator was introduced in patch 218.3 and can be enabled in the settings menu. By default, this setting is turned off, so make sure to activate it before you start your adventure.
10. Disable Structure Placement Collision
Disabling structure placement collision is a game-changer for building in Ark: Survival Evolved. When this setting is enabled, you can place structures without worrying about environmental obstacles. This means your floors, walls, and other building components can intersect with natural elements like rocks and trees, making construction much more flexible and less frustrating.
Why Disable Structure Placement Collision?
Building without collision allows for more creative and efficient base designs. You won’t have to spend time clearing out every little obstacle in your building area. This is especially useful in dense environments where space is limited.
How to Enable This Setting
- Open the game settings menu.
- Navigate to the "Advanced" tab.
- Find the option labeled "Disable Structure Placement Collision."
- Check the box to enable it.
Benefits of Disabling Structure Placement Collision
- Easier Construction: No need to clear out every rock or tree in your way.
- Creative Freedom: Build more complex and aesthetically pleasing structures.
- Time-Saving: Spend less time on preparation and more on actual building.
Activating this setting can make building much easier. If not checked, building stuff (floors, walls) won’t go through anything in the environment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, optimizing your single-player settings in Ark: Survival Evolved can significantly enhance your gaming experience. By fine-tuning various parameters such as difficulty, taming speed, and resource gathering, you can create a balanced and enjoyable environment tailored to your playstyle. Whether you prefer a more challenging survival experience or a relaxed exploration, the right settings will allow you to fully immerse yourself in the world of Ark. Remember, these settings are flexible and can be adjusted as you progress, ensuring that your adventure remains engaging and fun.
