Your first outing in ARK: Survival Ascended is easier to manage if you give each resource a job. Start with the materials required for the Stone Pick, then keep enough fiber, meat and building supplies for survival and shelter.
Gather the Stone Pick’s 3 materials first
The first documented priority is the Stone Pick. Its recipe requires exactly 1 stone, 1 wood and 10 thatch. Small stones can be picked up from the ground, while wood and thatch are harvested from trees.
Getting started- Pick up 1 stone from the ground.
- Harvest a tree until you have 1 wood and 10 thatch.
- Open your inventory and check the learned Stone Pick recipe.
- Craft the tool as soon as all 3 materials are available.
- Keep a reserve of stone, wood and thatch instead of spending your entire stock on structures immediately.
This order applies to the opening craft, not to the whole progression. The documented starting priority does not establish comparative tool yields or the best use of resources for advanced equipment. Once the Stone Pick is ready, check what the next recipe requires before gathering again. If you have already spent a material, collect it first rather than beginning several crafts at once.
Save fiber and meat for the next survival needs
Fiber comes from bushes and vegetation and belongs in your early reserve. Meat has a different role: the campfire lets you cook it and keep warm, so it becomes useful when that survival need appears.
Keep these resources separate from the stock intended for tools and construction. Craft the item that answers your immediate need, then leave the remaining materials available for the next recipe. This makes shortages visible when you open your inventory and prevents an early craft from consuming supplies needed for the campfire or shelter.
The Note, Stone Pick and Torch are among the items already known to a beginner survivor. Before spending engram points, open the inventory and review the learned recipes, called Engrams, together with their material requirements. For any item whose cost is not listed here, use the value shown in the recipe instead of assuming that it matches another craft.
Turn the thatch reserve into a complete shelter
The suggested first shelter uses 1 foundation, 3 walls, a door frame with its door and 1 ceiling. This gives you a concrete construction target while you collect thatch, but it does not establish the optimal cost of every thatch structure.
Gather the components, place the foundation, close 3 sides, add the door frame and door, then finish with the ceiling. Building in that order produces a usable shelter instead of leaving isolated pieces behind. If you do not yet have the required materials, continue gathering stone, wood, thatch and fiber rather than starting several incomplete constructions.
The exact cost of each shelter piece must be checked in the inventory. The figures above describe the shelter’s composition, not a universal estimate for all thatch buildings. When a recipe differs, follow the number displayed for that specific piece and adjust your next gathering trip accordingly.
Put only useful items on the hotbar
On PC, the default commands documented on Controls are I to open the inventory, V to display craftable items, F to open the inventory of an applicable object and the 0 to 9 keys to use the corresponding hotbar slots.
Use those slots for the tools, food, water container and building pieces you need immediately. Keep the rest of your reserve in the inventory. The E key performs an object’s action, while H displays additional information such as the position, temperature, time and auto-decay timer of a targeted structure.
These are documented default commands for ARK: Survival Evolved and may differ by platform or configuration. Check the controls in-game before relying on a particular key, especially on console or after changing the settings. Test each relevant slot with its tool or item before leaving your starting point.
Use the priority only for the opening minutes
The Stone Pick, early fiber and meat, the campfire and the simple thatch shelter define this initial route. It does not rank resources for weapons, armor, taming or advanced construction, and it does not provide harvesting yields or detailed costs for later spending.
That limit is useful when deciding what to do next: use the known quantities to reach the first tool, use the shelter layout to organize your stock, then let each inventory recipe and immediate survival need set the following priority. A material is not permanently more important just because it appears in an early craft.
Steam presents ARK: Survival Ascended as a survival game built around gathering, crafting, building, farming, exploration and combat. The store page also states that the game is in early access and that its content may still change. Our ARK: Survival Ascended update calendar provides broader context, but it is not a list of costs or recipes.
The order to follow after spawning
Pick up 1 stone, then gather the wood and thatch required for the Stone Pick. Craft it immediately, gather fiber and meat, and prepare the campfire and thatch shelter when their requirements appear in your inventory.
Before each craft, check both the recipe and the amount you still have available. If the Stone Pick is affordable but the next item is not, keep your reserve and gather again instead of treating another expense as urgent. The concrete result is a crafted Stone Pick, basic materials still in reserve and a shelter made from the foundation, 3 walls, the door and its frame, and the ceiling.
You can also find our feature dedicated to ark-survival-ascended, the ARK: Survival Ascended game page and our article on [Guide] ARK: Survival Ascended progression: the order of.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Stone Pick remain the priority tool after the start of the game?
Official sources
Begin with the Stone Pick, then protect the fiber, meat and building reserves that support your first survival steps. Beyond that opening, the recipes in your inventory should decide what you gather next.
