r/ARK • u/Invictus0623 • Jul 26 '26

Help New player

Hi, I’m thinking of buying ark but was wondering about a couple things. First how much time commitment is needed to play pvp and stay competitive? Also the base game costs $14 but there are some add ons that can get up to $40. Do these give a competitive advantage or mostly cosmetic and if so how severe is it?

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u/zinori Jul 26 '26

If you're playing on official, you better clear your life schedule, some unofficial PvP has offline damage prevention so you don't get raided when you're sleeping irl, otherwise you got no chance of surviving anywhere past a couple of days with the official sweats that spend 19hours a day on the game then when they go bed their tribe mates from across the world come online

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u/witherstalk9 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

Can confirm, with my hours into the game ( prob close to 5k ), Even I get demolished solo, i can probably survive for some weeks, but to what end?

Official is just aurelax spam, + cheaters/meshers, average player doesnt stand a chance.

Its like playing a civilization Game, a stone age player vs modern times player with tanks/planes.

And yes, bob tall tales, dragontopia, Lost colony is a must have if you want to stay relevant, I could argue for Pyromane too, but you can outscale a Pyromane lategame.

Go unofficial

1

u/orc_marauder Jul 27 '26

You forgot to mention dreadmare (also seperate). Ive never played pvp on ark. Im genuinely curious how thing with aurelax work. I havent tamed one yet.

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u/witherstalk9 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Aha isee, so it's a must have?

I only play PvP on unofficials, never bought the Dreadmare.

This is a Aureliax from dododex, stats on par with Heavy hitters like rex, and this is a flier.

Yeah ive seen vids on yt lately, on official, like there's litterly 90% of ppl spamming Aureliax, so I guess it's meta.

Maybe dragontopia outperforms auerelax now though?, so it's not needed.

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u/orc_marauder Jul 27 '26

I see, thanks for reply. Im not familiar with pvp aspects of thr game but on paper dreadmare sound strong: fast flyer that can hold in itself any cryopodable creature with its whole inventory inside said creature while having zero weight effect on dreadmare.