I’m not sure what game is going to unseat Ark as my go-to. There was a while where Stardew Valley ruled my life, but now I am a servant of the dino lords. Things have changed drastically and that’s because I discovered I can modify my server settings. I have no shame in admitting this. I have been playing it under normal circumstances for a while now and I just could not get far without fearing the consequences of one bad move. Now, I am an invincible cave lady and I can explore everywhere… except, I still don’t want to go into the pits of the ocean. That ish freaks me out.

Now that I can actually go places without fearing that I have to start over, I’ve been able to explore the far reaches of the map. New bases have been established, I’m a Spino and T-rex hoarder, and I’m exploring terrains I would have never dared to before. Something weird happened though that I did not expect. One day, we are running around the swamp near our initial spawn point, we are headed to camp so that we can start disconnecting and all of a sudden, a guy comes running up to us. I freaked out! He is attacking us, he has stolen our stuff, and he gets one of my dinos killed. I didn’t know what to do! I thought it was a private session so I immediately disconnected the game.

Since I’m the admin, everyone auto-disconnects when I do that. I sign back in, the guy is “asleep” where he stood, and I take all of my stuff back. I have no idea how to remove people so I build a cage, put it underwater, and stick him in it. I then lock it, put a pin on it, and make it so only admins can open it… Then, I block him. He died. Obvi he could respawn if he was able to join my game and start the mayhem again, but in my moment of panic, I went full overboard. That is when I learned that even non-dedicated sessions show up in the queue and someone could join if they wanted to. Not sure why someone would want to, but thankfully, we were in the right place at the right time to get our stuff back and now I know to check how many survivors are connected on a regular basis.

Things have been otherwise exciting. I discovered “Death Island” aka the island loaded with carnivores and the death island name makes sense. Every time I go over there, there is an absolute bloodbath of animals fighting on the beach. It’s a great place to farm for meat since I have so many dinos to feed, and a place where… well, I want to catch everyone and take them home!

I have caught four T-rex over there and was wondering how I’d get them back home until I realized I was able to craft Crypods. Now that I have a flying mount, I can fly to an Obelisk to craft this super useful item. My joke about making Ark into my own version of Pokemon came full circle. I pop my dinos into a Cryopod and release them at the base when I get back. They all poop right when they come out too! No worries about if a T-rex can swim across the ocean safely and lots of fertilizer for our plants. Win-win!

The one thing that continued to elude me was the Gigantosaurus. I searched high and low, but I never stumbled across it. I found some crazy feathered dinos called Yutyrannus that are absolutely chaotic monsters, but no Giga!

One day, I am flying around collecting resources when suddenly I see something really big. It does not look like a T-rex, it is fighting several Carnotaurus and a Yutyrannus (they run in packs which is why I call them chaotic), and it is winning. I land on the side of a mountain so that my eagle is safe and confirm what I suspected: GIGA! I am READY! I go to pull out my crossbow to tranq this full and… I don’t have it. I’ve decided I will try to punch him unconscious with my new god-like powers. My boyfriend stops me, flies a crossbow out to me, and the battle begins! My monkey on my shoulder is throwing shit and the Giga gets caught on a rock… Victory is mine!

He makes T-rexes look like babies and he is so cool! I got a saddle for him and he’s an absolute tank. I am loving the world we are building, but I am curious about all these other maps… So, we started new characters on another map: Ragnarok. We’ve barely just begun, but we will be taking our experience into new terrain and I’m excited to see how it differs! I just need to get used to having no stamina and being slow. Note to self: If the game says you’re tired and need to stop, just stop.

Anyway, in all seriousness, not even the new Destiny season is tempting me. Ark is life! I think the next game to pull me away will be the new Plague Tale game. The first Plague Tale was a game-changer for me. In the meantime, you’ll have to deal with my incessant dino posts for a while.