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One of the first and most critical decisions you’ll face inARK: Survival Ascendedis choosing yourdifficulty setting. This isn’t just a simple toggle between “easy” and “hard” but an important decision that can reshape your entire experience. Your difficulty settings impact everything from the ferocity of the prehistoric creatures around you to the very progression of your character. This guide explains all three difficulty settings inARK: Survival Ascended, so that you’re able to choose the right one for your playthrough.
All Difficulty Settings in ARK Survival Ascended
ARK: Survival Ascendedhas three difficulty settings:Easy, Medium, and Hard. Here’s a quick explanation of how each of the difficulty levels influences your gameplay:
Easy
OnEasydifficulty, the world of Ark is generally more forgiving. The wild dinosaurs you’ll find are quite low-level and early survival would be less intimidating.Leveling up in ARK: Survival Ascendediseasier and more effectiveon Easy mode, which means you can rapidly increase your stats. For instance, you could quickly pump yourMelee Damageto over 400% with just a few stat boosts. Additionally, your need forfood and water decreases more slowly, andtaming dinosaurs becomes much more simple.
Medium
Medium difficulty marks the point where things start to get more challenging.Dinosaur levels are higher, making them tougher, and your level-ups aren’t as efficient as before. You’ll alsogain less per stat point invested.This combination leads to scenarios where it becomesquite hard todefeat dinosaursall by yourself.
Hard
Hard difficulty dramatically shifts the game’s balance. Wild creatures become incredibly dangerous, and you caneasily get defeated by most of them, even if you’re at a higher levelyourself. This unforgiving nature means you’ll likely have arough time getting started, with initial survival being a constant struggle. The upside is that you’ll find higher-level dinosaurs more frequently, making iteasier to tame creaturesover level 100.
After choosing a difficulty, you can adjust specific parameters like your character’s damage output, food and water drain, to either increase the challenge or make your survival journey a bit more forgiving.
Which ARK Survival Ascended Difficulty Setting Should You Choose?
Choosing a difficulty inARK: Survival Ascendedisn’t just about how hard you want the game to be. On Easy, the game can quickly become repetitive since you can defeat almost anything solo, making your tamed dinosaurs feel unnecessary. On the other hand, Hard difficulty can be incredibly punishing. Losing your carefully tamed dinosaurs to overpowered wild creatures is not only frustrating but can seriously slow down your progress.
If you’recompletely new toARKand want a more gentle introduction to its vast world,picking Medium difficulty for your first save is a solid compromise.Once you’re confident later on, you can always start a new game on a higher difficulty for the fullARKexperience.
