ARK Survival Evolved: Rise and Fall of the Allagan Empire
Posted on October 11, 2022 by Aywren
A short while back, I wrote about how Syn and I decided to start playing ARK again after not having played it since 2015. I keep meaning to sit down and chronicle our gameplay progress because, as any of us knows, ARK can be very unpredictable.
Dawning of the Empire
We jokingly decided to create our characters as Amon and Scylla – based off the Spot of Mummery FFIXV story characters that we enjoy writing. So it was only logical to name our tribe the Allagan Empire.
At the time, we were running off a solo player game with Syn hosting. We didn’t know how long we’d stick with it – certainly didn’t forsee all the hours I’d be putting into it, for sure.
The game started off much like we remembered – making characters and choosing to start in the easy area of a south beach. Of course, we were welcomed by a swarm of Compies that we had to deal with almost out of the gate, and at only level one. We managed to fend them off by standing on rocks.
It didn’t take long to remember how to build foundations and tame smaller creatures on the beach. Just the usual dodo suspects.
And a few new dinos that we didn’t have back when we used to play. Meet Buddy and Betty. I eventually released them not realizing what their special ability was (boosting XP gain among other dinos you’ve tamed).
We learned about other new dinos – such as this little fellow. He tries to pick your pocket, but if you happen to have berries in the last slot of your hot bar, he auto tames. Had no idea how to get him off of her shoulder until I looked it up (press “F” twice). Had never seen a shoulder dino before!
We also ran across our first TEK dino, which I thought was super, super cool when I first saw it. I currently have a whole stable of them that I’m breeding right now!
Fall of the Empire
Things were going well. We were making tames, figuring out how to cook meat and gather hides for a bed – all the usual stuff someone new to the game would learn. That was until a brontosaurus decided to wander up the beach to our base location.
Now, the bronto is not aggressive, but it is super annoying to have hanging around a tiny starter base. It stomps around making all kinds of noise, for one thing. For another, it doesn’t mind stepping all over what you’re trying to build.
Not to mention, if something did accidentally agro it, the tail whip could likely take out the building and maybe even some of the dinos. We’d not gotten to the point where we’d set dinos to passive or flee.
Sadly, that’s exactly what happened. While I was trying to work on putting foundations for a wall down – hoping that would keep the bronto out of our hair – somehow it was aggroed. Before I knew it, dinos were dying and walls were crumbling.
When all was said and done, Syn was able to save a dodo, but I think we ended up losing the rest of them to the bronto attack. We had to run way down the beach to disengage with it.
But when we came back, the bronto reigned supreme – for now.
Seeing it wasn’t going to go anywhere anytime soon, I suggested we scout out a more defensible spot to make a second base. So, the Empire began the search for a new home.