To start off just spawn in west zone 2, do a note run till you hit level 70+ then build a refinery outpost near a metal spawn. Farm metal, probably get 300 raw metal into each forge, get about 20 forges with this 300 metal each, then smelt. You can easily bomb rush an industrial forge worth of metal. While all of that is smelting Kill stuff with a cross bow( you can also tame a sabertooth or some other carnivore that isnt too time consuming to get. Then spam craft rafts while you still have your xp boost till you are high enough to unlock the industrial forge engram, or go the extra mile and get higher to unlock chem bench. Then you can use one of the crafted rafts to travel to the oasis(northzone 2) and get cementing paste from dams, go grab oil from the ice burgs. Once you have 700 and 800 organic poly you can go back to your base, you dont need this much oil or poly but it will be helpful to have spare resource later. once you are back at your base you can craft an indi forge, should take a total of 3 to 5 hours to do all of this. Easy way to get indi day one and be set. Ark is too easy now and most of this guide is completely obsolete.

Ok to start off. Ark is can be a very fun game, but it is also a very grindy game, and can be an ass pain(alot). The game it self is fun and the map is amazing to explore. The players can be very toxic though, similar to rust and other games. I have had my fair share of laughs and cries from this game. Because my total play time is around 8.5k hours. Sad but, I know a thing or two.

The first very important thing that you need to remember. Is your computer probably cant handle running this game at max. If you have 16 gigs of ram and a 2060 graphics card. I would recommend these settings. https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2124638297
the audio settings depend on you. I would also suggest the camera shake to be lowered because it will get very annoying once you start having larger dinos at your base.

Edit your keybinds similar to other games you play, I know that sounds obvious, but sadly I've seen so many people choose to leave the keybinds as default. Also use the mouse4 and mouse5 buttons if you have them on your mouse. They are extremely helpful. ( I personally like to have mouse4 be my invintory and mouse5 be the target inventory. https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2124644647

I would 100% recommend having good friends play this with you. That way you can trust that they wont inside raid you( which is stealing all of your stuff and dinos and leaving the tribe. The other reason that it is good to have good friends play this with you is because you probably wont have to argue about much stuff concerning to the tribe, loot, and dinos. Beaver dams give you cementing paste(CP) which is a very valuable resource

This is probably the golden rule of multiplayer ark. DO NOT LET RANDOM PEOPLE JOIN YOUR TRIBE: this mainly concerns mid to late game. Because you either wont get along too well with the random, or they will have other motives besides success for your tribe. (I have tested this theory many times, it proves to be true. Time and time again they you will be inside raided. This also goes for actual ingame alliances, you should always make verbal alliances with people(but always be suspicious about them, never trust them to base bass codes or knowledge of loot you may posses.) People have sticky fingers about things like good blue prints and or cryo.

The following sections have to do with pvp and their aspects

A good idea to follow when playing online multiplayer, you need to level up to level 60 before you do anything major. A good tip depending on how you plan to play the game is know your build. You will need good carry weight on any character build you do(except for crafting_characters). Your best bet for starting out is on a low ping The Island server.(The Island has the easiest to collect explorer notes) Explorer notes will give you a multiplier boost to your xp collection. The boosts that you can get can be either 2x or 4x, depending on the note. TO start off, spawn in West Zone 2. There are 6 explorer notes with in walking distance there. There is also few hostile dinos there( alpha raptor, alpha carno, therazino, trodon, raptor, dilophosaurus, and itchagornis) These are everywhere, but there they are a less of a problem here. You should not go for explorer notes during the night, because trodons have a higher aggro range and are stronger at night. Trodons will knock you out if they bite you, so make sure to have stim berrys in your hot bar. FOR the speedy character build. You should get your speed to hp to 150, your stamina to 150, and your 115, before going on. After you hit that, get your health to 200 and your stamina to 200, then get your weight to 200. Once you have these stats, you should try to build a raft( if you still have the xp boost) Rafts give the most xp early game and mid game.( do not listen to people who say build cloth hats and storage boxes: it isnt as good) What you will want to do now is go on and look for other explorer notes, these will only help you get more xp, because you get a chunk of xp every time you collect one. You should attempt to get your movement to 130, then focus only on your weight after that, once you hit lvl 70ish, you should get at least 10 fortitude, this will save you from being knocked out as easily from trodons, and other players with tranqs and or a melee build. after you get 200 hp, 200 stamina, 400 weight, and 10fortitude. it is up to you what you wanna upgrade next, I would suggest 500 weight 200 stamina and 250 hp, and then 28 fortitude. After that you should have a good idea on what to put your levels into. Try to get the tex notes, as they will give 4x xp. then make sure you have supplies to make abunch of rafts, and or a good dino that can kill alpha dinos, because those will give you alot of xp.

DO not ever build your base out of thatch, adobe, or wood. If you live on scorched you should build your inside out of thatch and or adobe. But then quickly build the outside layer out of stone or metal. Now that you know how to build a base, remember to never build on a beach, as you will be an easy target for being raided. I would suggest building in an area that is near, but not too close to spawn to start off. You should build in the forest and ,make sure you are near important resources, such as Metal, crystal, and silica pearls, as these are all mid and late game resources that you will need for a metal base and for advanced crafting. Next I would suggest you invest in some crops early on. This will be a world of help and will save you time later. What you will want to do is make 4 large crop plots, and 8 small crop plots. For the 4 large plots, you will want to put( Citronal, Longrass, Rockarrot ,Savoroot) one seed per plot. Then for the 8 small plots, you will want to put narrco berry seeds in them. This will help you for making narcotics, so you can knock out dinos and tame them. You should also have refining forge outpost near your base (this should be in between your base and a metal spawn) Then after you get a forge, you can make a smithy in your base. you should also have 6 beds there as well( you can place beds inside one another. DO this to save space) Then you will want to make at least 4 mortar and pestles, this is where you will make narcotics and gunpowder.

I would highly recommend that you make a 2 by 1 (base at least) before you try to go out and tame a dino. Starting dinos that you will want to go for would be a parasaur or a mosachops, then you will want to upgrade to a trike, just to produce narcs and berrys on a much larger scale. What you will do when taming a herbivore is to feed them either kibble( which will be expounded on later) or mejo berrys, which will tame the herbivore at a higher rate and higher level. The most efficient way to tame a dino early game is to make a cross bow, this will be crafted in a smithy. You should go out and find the dinosaur you will want to tame, remember where it is, and have a friend stay near it if you can, so it doesnt despawn. What I would suggest for you to do, which has been a huge help for me, is to download the SA companion app on your phone. It gives very accurate times and requirements for the dino and the level that you are trying to tame it at.(this app will give you the amount of narcotics that you will need, as well as the amount of tranqs that you will need for the weapon that you are using. You then will want to get about 20 more tranqs( atleast) and go try to knock out the dino that you will want to tame. I suggest you bring extra because sometimes the tranqs may not render when hit and or you might miss your shot. You will then want to not feed the dino untill about 4/5ths of the time that it takes to tame the dino is over. That way if something hits the dino, it wont lose effectiveness, and if it does lose effectiveness, you can let it wake up and knock it out again. The food will be down, and it will be a fast tame. One way to avoid it getting hit while it is knocked out, is by building spiked walls around it, so

Other players on ARK are unpredictable and can be excruciatingly annoying. DO NOT EVER TELL PEOPLE WHERE YOUR BASE IS. Other players usually have three ideas in their mind when they meet you:1. Can I take him?( which leads to 2) 2. What loot would i get from?(this is not always a thing but)3. How will this effect my future in the server. You should never carry your good loot or cryos out of your base without proper reason or protection, you should have most if not all your tribe on when moving, to keep defenses high so you are less of a target. If you have a good item on you. For example: you have your good crossbow on you, and someone attacks you. And either knocks you out or kills you, you should stay on high alert for the rest of the day, and keep an account logged in. This is because people will raid you for more potential good loot, People mainly will wait for you to go offline to raid you, because it will be easier to raid you then. And the timer that is on your base does not help the situation.
You also may have noticed that this should be number 9, this was to annoy you ocd people, This is what ark is, there is almost no organization in it. This also may piss you off. REMEMBER that other players love to troll and piss people are well, and you are always a possible target.
If you are ever in another server, you should take precaution when going around on a dino. This is because you dont know the players or the base locations, you should also be careful when cross raiding. This is when you go to another server to raid someone, When doing so, there will be a display on your dinos body that says what server it was tamed on. So you are not safe cross raiding. So make sure to not get your dinos killed. Cuz it may cause more problems than just getting counter raided. It may cause your server problems. And you do not want your neighbors to hate you, because that will just be asking for more crap.
DO Not spam in chat or cry if something happens that you do not like, because others see the chat and it may not end well.
You can try to trade with others, which is nice. BUT do keep in mind that this will let the person that you are trading with know what goodies you might have.

Always maintain a good friendship with other people in your server, you can always try to make a server discord, this will help with strength against cross raiders and make it less likely for you to be raided by the inhabitants of your server. Keeping a healthy relationship with every one by helping out the other players may benefit you in the future.
Do not block metal spawns, that is one of the major things that piss off people in your server. And it might cause you to be raided.
Another thing to remember is to drop all the wood from beaver dams when taking the loot from them, this will let them to respawn and people wont get mad that there is wood dams.