Summary
- Leveling up in ARK: Survival Ascended is necessary to unlock stronger equipment and earn points to level stats. The late-game grind becomes more challenging.
- Harvesting materials and using the Industrial Grinder are effective methods of gaining experience in the early and late game.
- Killing high-level wild dinosaurs, finding explorer notes, clearing caves, and farming high-level dino-babies are other ways to gain experience and level up.
Leveling up in ARK: Survival Ascended is a natural but essential process that allows the player to unlock stronger equipment, weaponry, saddles, building blocks, and earn points to level stats. In ARK: Survival Ascended, the amount of experience necessary to get from one level to another is exponential, meaning the experience required to get from level 1 to level 60 is less than the experience required to get from level 90 to level 100.
Because of the exponential growth in experience required to get from level to level, progressing in the early game feels like a breeze, while the late-game grind becomes an arduous task. Thankfully, there are many methods of gaining experience which help reduce the overall grind. While some methods are more effective in the early stages of the game, they continue to lend a helping hand in the late game.
8 Gathering Lots Of Materials
Great In The Early Game
Harvesting materials is one of the main methods of gaining levels in the early game, when the amount of experience required to level up is very low. However, the later the game goes on, harvesting becomes a less effective method of leveling. Because of this, harvesting is the weakest method of leveling in the game.
Still, there is never a point in the game where gathering materials is unnecessary, and over time, the experience gained through harvesting accumulates and builds into a decent chunk of XP. Especially when paired with other methods of leveling, such as Crafting, or using the Industrial Grinder, harvesting materials provides a tiny but helpful amount of experience.
7 Using the Industrial Grinder
Turn Items Back Into Resources
The Industrial Grinder Engram can be unlocked relatively early at level 64. The primary purpose of the Industrial Grinder is to grind items back into resources, such as turning a Metal Pick back into Metal Ingots. Players often use the Industrial Grinder in the late-game to retrieve valuable resources from low-tier loot, but the Industrial Grinder has the additional benefit of providing 4 XP per grind.
When filled with stacks of materials, this XP slowly accumulates to a decent amount. By the time the player has crafted the Industrial Grinder, gathering simple materials such as wood and stone should be an extremely easy task, meaning there will be excessive stacks of each material that can simply be thrown into the Industrial Grinder for a small amount of easy experience.
6 Bulk-Crafting Items
Building Large Bases Accumulates XP Quickly
Crafting, along with harvesting materials, is a great way to earn levels in the early game. However, unlike harvesting, the experience gained from crafting grows depending on the item that is being crafted. Despite this, the experience gained from crafting is still relatively low, with the largest potential amount of experience gained from a single craft, the Bronto Platform Saddle, being around 1800.
Unfortunately, crafting items to gain experience can become quite an expensive way of leveling up. Even so, when building large bases the amount of experience earned from crafting each building block can be quite substantial in leveling.
5 Killing High-Level Wild Dinosaurs
When In Doubt, Go Hunting
Killing wild dinosaurs is a simple yet effective way of gaining experience for both the player and their mount. Each dinosaur will reward the player with a different amount of experience on a successful kill. Additionally, the higher the level of a dinosaur, the more experience the player will earn from killing it.
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The Spino is one of the easiest dinosaurs to kill, having a relatively common spawn along rivers, and will earn the player a base experience of 240 at level 1. The best dinosaur to kill overall (outside of Alphas) is the Titanosaur, which will earn the player a base experience of 80,000 at level 1.
4 Finding Explorer Notes
Double XP For 10 Minutes
Explorer Notes can be found scattered throughout The Island, in the various caves, or retrieved from completing Boss arenas. Stepping over an Explorer Note, the survivor will receive 100 points of experience, as well as an experience boost which increases all incoming experience by x2 for 10 minutes. This effect can also stack.
If walked over while mounted on a dino, both the player and the dinosaur will receive experience and an experience boost, effectively doubling the amount earned. Explorer Notes are an easy way to gain additional levels from other experience methods, although they are a limited resource and can only be acquired once per Note.
3 Hunting High-Level Alphas
The Most Dangerous Game Yields The Greatest Rewards
A better way of gaining experience than killing normal wild dinosaurs is killing Alphas.This rewards the player with a large chunk of experience points as well as potential high-tier loot. Killing an Alpha Raptor, the easiest and most abundant Alpha on The Island, will reward the player with a base experience of 1060 at level 1.
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The best Alpha to kill for experience points is the Alpha Tusotuethis, located deep within the sea, which will earn the player a base experience of 8800 at level 1. At higher levels, farming Alpha Rex for levels can be a relatively simple task, which will earn the player a base experience of 3540 at level 1.
2 Clearing The Island’s Caves
Repeatable Dungeons Filled With Dinos
Killing dinosaurs provides a nice amount of experience for both the player and their mount, especially in large amounts, and the various caves found throughout ARK: Survival Ascended's Island are filled with huge groups of high-level dinosaurs. Clearing The Island's caves will earn the player and their mount a nice chunk of experience and can be repeated as many times as necessary.
The Swamp Cave is one of the best caves to farm for experience. Mounted on a high-level Megatherium, clearing the bugs in the Swamp Cave will be an extremely easy task, and is a quick and easy way to gain experience. Once the cave is empty, the player can simply leave, wait for a few minutes a short distance away from the cave’s entrance, then re-enter the cave to clear it again.
1 Farming High-Level Dino-Babies
Become A Dino Breeder
Breeding high-level dinosaurs to produce babies for farming is the fastest and most efficient way of leveling in ARK: Survival Ascended. The Giganotosaurus is the best dinosaur to breed for this method, giving a base experience of 800 at level 1.
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While taming the legendary Giganotosaurus can be a little tricky and requires a lot of experience, managing to set up an XP farm is essential for the later levels, where the experience required to level up becomes extortionate. Alternatively, although each option grants much less experience, either a couple of Spinos or even a pair of Rexes can be used in place of Gigas to breed babies and create experience farms.
Ark: Survival Ascended
- Released
- October 26, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Studio Wildcard
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Survival, Open-World
