Starting with SOTF / Game Strategies

Overview

You can find some kinds of strategies here. All the standard things you should know about SOTF to play it well, and be able to compete with others. It is in some way a guide of how to win games in SOTF. ***SOME THINGS MAY HAVE CHANGED FROM THE TIME I PLAYED, I AM SORRY IF THERE IS A LIE SOMEWHERE IN THE GUIDE***

Getting Started With Survial Of The Fittest

Whether you play solo or with a friend, it is good to have a plan for your game.
The first decision is to go for middle, or not to. If you like some risk, of course you can.
From the boxes you can get:

• Hide Shirt
• Hide Pants
• Hide Hat
• Narcotics (i dont know what for)
• Slingshot
• Tools : Stone Picaxe, Stone Axe
• Cooked meat
• Stone Arrows/Tranq Arrows
• Stones

Whatever strategy you will decide to go for, you need to get basic equipment:

1. Picaxe
2. Cloth Hat, Pants, Shirt
3. Axe
4. 3+ Spears
5. Bow and about 25 arrows

When you do have your basic equipment, you can defend yourself from pve and other players. Thats the time you decide what to do next.

What statistic should i give points into?

Health
You still gain much less HP than in standard server (3 per level instead of 10 per level), but more hp = bigger chances of survival.

Weight
For me its best to have around 240-300 weight. Depending on your choice, its good to be able to carry more.

Movement Speed
The increase is 0,4%/lvl but it appears for me to be pretty a good one. I like it because at some point you want to have some other advantage over your opponent than HP only.

Stamina
Just to run more. Some people may like it.

Melee Dmg
Emmmmm…. I dont think it is usefull throught the game. Melee dmg doesnt apply to bow/crossbow/guns, so in late parts of game it appears to be useless. Of course unless you are chasing your opponent with a pike, but its your choice 😀

Fortitude
Mayyybeeeeee………. Only case if you just sit in the mountains whole game. I can’t see this in use in the game. I had never gave points into it, but there may be some cases. I dont know.

Oxygene, Food, Water, Crafting Speed, Torpor
Just dont. It’s better to have more hp.

The real fighting skills

I wanted to make this paragraph about all the fighting between 2 players – to look how much dmg does an arrow to a head, with or without armor. But this needs testing – and truly i need someone to test it with.

Anyone who is up to cooperate/ help me discovering exact numbers of dmg – add me 🙂

Anyway…
Ways to have advantage in fights:

1. Tames (dinosaurs) – Bigger tames = more advantage over others
2. Equipment (Guns, better armor, crossbow over bow etc)
3. Healing Potions (Cooked meat / Blood Packs)
4. More HP, better stats/ higher level
5. Better aim (Bow, Crossbow, guns)
6. More luck
7. Soups (From red drops)

Helpful Commands

“r.bloomquality 0” – deletes blindidng shines from everywhere. Very usefull command
“r.lightshafts 0” – Also makes something with the light, that it looks just better.
“r.shadowquality 0” – No shadows in woods, better vision overall

Tips and Tricks ( Taken from Twitch.tv/planktonsheep )

• It’s a SURVIVAL game, play to live, not to kill like CS:GO.
• Preparation is KEY in the late game.
• To fast transfer use ‘T’.
• To fast drop use ‘O’.
• Sometimes its better the tranq something and kill it after instead of giving chase (e.g. Parasaurs and Phiomias).
• Look up during Carno and Herbivore drops to see if people are near.
• If a dino is ridden, the rider will use up its stamina sprinting around, tranq it and they will torpor out trying to bite adding torpor themselves to aid you.
• To aim arrows, shoot where the person will be in a split second, not where they are.
• To aim guns, raise your mouse to the height of their head/chest, and strafe left and right until the cross-hair is on them, then pull the trigger.
• Berries stop you losing health from hunger, letting you regen normally, cooked meat gives you slightly faster regen, and cooked prime gives even faster regen! The foods only give you extra regen when you have food available to eat, so always keep yourself at like 0-20% food if you can so you can regen during a fight!
• Always keep an eye on the timer, the wall comes in fast! Is the metal you are mining going to be forged intime? is your rex going to tame in time? Make smart decisions based on time.
• Taming is powerful, I win with guns but thats my play style, if going taming, tame an army of everything! or take 1-2 big tames like rexes / spinos / brontos and power level them! One man with guns cannot kill a well leveled rex or spino with a shotgun, reload time is too long!.

The Miner’s Way

It is a pretty basic one, but still the strongest (i think).

1. ASAP go for the metal spot somwehere on the main island (There is no time in FFA to choose another spot)
2. Build yourself a base
3. Rush for forge(s) and smithy.
   First step is to gather all the forge resources and about 10 metal
   (you need 5 metal ores – 4 for smithy, 1 for metal pickaxe)
4. Gather more metal + more wood (you can also make more forges)
5. In meantime of cooking metal you can do whatever you want
6. Craft a weapon of your will (longneck, pistol, shotgun),
   but remember that you need to leave some ammount of metal ores for ammo crafting.
7. Prepare for moving out. Remember about death ring, try calculating when it appears.
8. Move out with your full equipment and go

This is a really stronk one. In the best scenario you can run around with shotgun, having about 15 shells killing everything u see.
Most of the dinos are dead after 1-2 shotgun shells. This weapon is deadly as ♥♥♥♥. The only problem is that it has only 2 shells inside. Just remember to keep a close range with everything you want to kill – and you are the boss in the fights.

Of course you may prefer using longneck, and it sure depends on your taste. In the very long game it is a pretty dangerous weapon, because you dont have nowhere to run. You need to keep distance with longneck, which is impossible on enclosed area. It’s a lot of fun anyway.

Third option is a pistol. Its cool, least metal needed. It is okay for every distance. Still weaker then shotgun on close range, and weaker than longneck on long range. It is useful in most of the situations, and still gives you advantage over most of players.

Mine example of this strategy played:

The Dodo Way

This tactic is all about taming, leveling up your tames, and letting them do fighting job for you <3:

1. ASAP get a bow with a ♥♥♥♥ tone of arrows
2. Gather much narcoberries for about 15-20 tranq arrows
3. Find a dino to tame, put it to sleep.
4. Gather raw prime to tame it faster.
5. I suggest getting chitin armour, just for personal safety in case something bad happens to your tames (to have any chances of survival)
6. Try killing someone, just to level up your tame. You can also try killing some dinos, but players are more profitable 😀
7. Make more people cry about the game being broken and dinos being too OP.
8. Wreck your enemies and drink their tears.
   
   Default Dino Commands:
   Command

   Default Key

   Reaction

   Follow All

   J

   All dinosaurs within a certain radius will follow you.

   Follow One

   T

   The dinosaur you are looking at will follow you.

   Stop All

   U

   All dinosaurs within a certain radius will stop following you.

   Stop One

   Y

   The dinosaur you are looking at will stop following you.

   Neutral

   –

   All dinosaurs within a certain radius will change their aggression level to Neutral.
   They will terminate all their current attacks but will continue to defend themselves if they are attacked again.

   Passive

   ;

   All dinosaurs within a certain radius will change their aggression level to Passive.
   They will terminate all their current attacks and will not defend themselves if attacked further.

   Attack My Target

   =

   All dinosaurs within a certain radius will change their aggression level to Attacking Your Target.
   They will terminate their current attacks and will defend themselves if they are attacked, but will prioritize attacking whatever you attack.

   Attack This Target

   .

   All dinosaurs within a certain radius will attack whatever target you are looking at.

   *Source[ark.gamepedia.com]

   Dinosaurs Tierlist

   1. Rex, Spino, Ape*
   2. Argentavis, Bronto, Carno, Sabertooth
   3. Raptor, Trike, Stego, Mammoth, Dilo, Dimorphodon, Pteranodon
   4. The Rest : Scorpio, Ankylo, Carbo, Dodo,

   * – If you want your enemies to cry like little babies, pick the ape.

   
   Proof of enemies crying like little babies: 15:30, 16:50.

The Warriors Way

The Strategy is pretty focused on having fun and competing with each other… whole game.
Whoever you meet – you kill him. The problem can appear at the end of a game, when someone could have some tames or good equipment.
You just need to be lucky to win/ have good bow skills (which also can be not enough).

FFA early game:

1. Craft a bow asap, get back to middle and shoot the ones who gone for middle.
2. Fulfil your warriors destiny, and wreck your enemies
3. Have fun
4. Die in process XD

FFA mid game :

1. Spears, Bow – 25 stone arrows needed
2. Run around with a bow and have fun
3. Die somewhere in process, but still have fun

OR

1. Spears, Bow – 25 stone arrows needed
2. Get a forge, get metal, build a smithy, get chitin armour or maybe a crossbow.
3. You can even think about crafting Medical Brews or making blood packs.
4. Run around and smash your enemies like a mad man (You have advantage over most of your opponents)
5. Have fun Smashing your opponents

Example ? Here !

All other strategies

I am just gonna point out all other ideas of strategies:

• Fabricator Rush (Doesnt work on solo, you cant craft fabricator there)
  
• Rex/Spino Rush
• Zoo