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Having a good start inArk: Survival Ascendedis pretty important. You probably don’t want to make your first base where the temperature’s bad, or end up in a place where wild creatures come killing you every few minutes. You also want to verify you’ve got resources within a good distance since your first tames won’t be that strong or fast.
Therefore, you’ll want to pick a good location for your first base when you start the game, even if you eventually move somewhere else. Having that first base means a safe place to store items, respawn if you die, a place for any creatures you tame, and a bit of a defense against other players.
Central South Crescent Coast
This southern section of the map not onlyprovides a large amount of spacefor a base, plenty of tames, and growing crops, but it’s also one of thesafest early-game spots.
It’s far enough from the mainland of The Island thatno Raptors or Therizinosaur spawnin this area, meaning youwon’t have to deal with them wandering onto your baseand attacking your creatures.
Dilophosaurs can still spawnin this area, butkeeping any nearby herbivores aliveandbuilding in the areawill pretty muchprevent them from spawning.
Besides beingsafe for you and your land-based tames, this area also offers afairly secluded water poolthat Megalodon and otherhostile aquatic creatures won’t spawn in.
You’ll still haveenough room for your aquatic tamesas well, as there’s aconnection to the wider oceanthat’sbig enough for Megalodon, and even a Plesiosaur to fit through. There’s alsoplenty of room for several aquatic tamesto fit comfortably as well.
Southeastern Jungle Cliff
If you’re looking for a bitmore of a scenic spot, thiscliff overlooking one of The Island’s southernmost riversmight be agood choicefor you.
Themain way to get up to this cliffis a nearbyslope with an overhangthat’s justthe right size for a regular Wooden or Stone Gateto fit comfortably, providing you with asafe and protected home entrance.
Creatures likeRaptors can spawn nearby, but they’ll reallyonly be able to reach you from the forest, and you caneasily block off this area with Wooden Spikesor even a whole fence.
Placing downFence Foundations and walls or regular Foundationswill helpprevent creatures like Raptorsand resources fromspawning in a radius around them, making your base safer.
Thislocation is smaller, but offersmore inherent safetywhile still giving youenough room for several early-game tameslike Triceratops and your own Raptors.
You’ll also beclose enough to the river to have irrigation accessfor a garden, and have aconvenient space to lift off and land with flyers.
Southwestern Shores
Offering anice flat area for buildingand plenty ofcover if you want to hide in the forest, this coastal spot alsokeeps you near a river and the oceanwhile still beingfar away enoughthatmore dangerous carnivores are extremely rare spawns.
You’ll haveenough room to have a decent sized base, and anearby cliff provides a natural walltokeep out hostile creaturesoutside the occasional Ichthyornis.
Since you’re alsonot directly on the coast, it’ll be a bitharder for any enemy players to spot your baseas well, especially if youchoose to go further into the forest, but itwon’t be difficult for you to find, since there’s asingle large rocknearby as aland marker.
If youdon’t have to worry about enemy players, thelarge rock also makes a fun spot for a taller basebuilding byusing a combination of pillars and ceilings.
Southwestern Coastal Cliff
This spotisn’t too far from the Southwestern Jungle Shores spoton the map, and it gives you apretty large area to build onand agreat view of the oceannearby.
You’ll need toclear out several large rocksto make the area flat, but this alsogives you a good stock of Stone and Flintfor building or as a crafting material at the same time.
Most importantly, there’sonly one way to reach it if you aren’t flying: itssingular connection to the rest of the islandthat it’s a part of.
This means all you’ll need isone large wall,a gate, and somesets of spikes to keep out wild creatures or players, and just some fences around the other edges so your own tames won’t end up running off the side.
One sideof this spot is alsolow enough to the oceanthat you canplace a Water Intake Valveonto one of the nearby rocks, andits range will reach up to the flat areaswhere you canhave a garden and a Stone Water Tanknot too far from your main base.
Alongside being safe, youaren’t too far from the Red Obeliskon the western side of the map, so if you want togo ahead and start getting some Cryopods, you aren’t going tohave a long journey to the Obeliskto do so.
Southern Jungle Coast
If you’ve chosen tospawn on the southwestern sideof The Island, youaren’t going to have as much landcompared to the southeastern side, but you’ve got access toone of the safest early game areasas far aswild creatures are concerned.
Thislong strip of beachis one of thefew areas where no major land carnivores will spawnexcept for Dilophosaurs, so you’llrarely deal with any hostile land creaturesunless one manages to wander out that far.
You’ll still have adecent area for building a small base, and even alarge one if you keep things narrow, and themainland is close enoughto allow you tomake a bridge from it to the southern end of the beach.
Forthose wanting a bit more space, theupper end of the beach gives you a larger area to buildwhile still offering thesame lack of carnivore spawns.
Whichever area you go to,both spots give you plenty of room for a gardenfor crops, andample room for any aquatic tameslike an Ichthyosaurus.
Tip Of The Northeast Shores
If you’rewilling to risk more dangerfor a location further in on The Island that’ll give youearlier access to the tundra areasin the north and the mountains, there’s asurprisingly safe spotin thenortheast corner of The Island.
This spot also lets youfind useful material collectors like Mammoths earlier, since theyspawn in less cold areas you can reachonce you’ve got a good tame.
This tip of The Islanddoesn’t have any Rex spawnslike some areas nearby, and it’sunlikely they’ll wander closeenough to be a problem.
Raptors and Carnotaurus don’t spawn near either, so theonly wild creature threatsare theoccasional Dilophosaur or Therizinosaur, but thewide building areamakes it possible toclear yourself a large safe zonewith buildings or acircle of wooden spikes.
Like many of the other early-game spots,having access to water for crops and yourself is pretty important, and this area offers asmall pond on land, and anice beach area for a garden and aquatic tamesthat’ll rarely have wild Megalodon or Manta come into it.
Once you’ve gotten more prepared, this spot alsogets you closer to several resource-dense areas, like either of thelarge, central mountains, andhigher level supply drops are more commonin this area too.
