Raiding is the payoff of ARK PvP — and the fastest way to lose everything if you go in unprepared. A successful raid is mostly planning. Here is the playbook.
Phase 1: Scout
You cannot raid what you do not understand. - Identify the target's base, its material tier, and its turret coverage. - Find the offline window — the hours the defenders are reliably asleep. Use WarRoom's offline ranking and population chart to time it. - Note approach angles, escape routes, and where their dinos are parked.
Phase 2: Prep your kit
Gather everything *before* you commit. A raid that runs out of explosives halfway is a donation to the enemy. - Explosives: C4 for surgical wall breaks, rockets for range, grenades for cheap chip damage. Stockpile gunpowder, polymer, and metal in advance. - Soaking dinos: high-HP, imprinted tanks (like Rexes) to absorb turret fire while you push. Keep them in cryopods until go-time. - Weapons: compound bow, a good firearm, and a Tek rifle if you have it. - Consumables: medical brews/soup, stimulants, and extra armour sets — expect to die and re-kit.
Phase 3: Beat the turrets
Turrets are the real wall. Two main approaches: - Soaking: ride or send a high-HP dino into turret range to drain their ammo, cycling tanks until the turrets run dry. Then push. - Sniping/peeling: destroy or disable turrets from outside their range with rockets where the terrain allows. Combine both: soak to empty the magazines, then breach while they are dry.
Phase 4: Breach
- Open the shortest path to loot, not the front door. Honeycomb layers are designed to waste your explosives — find the thinnest line to the vaults. - Bring more explosives than you think you need; metal eats C4. - Move fast. Every minute increases the chance a defender logs in.
Phase 5: Extract
- Grab the highest-value loot first: blueprints, element, tek, breeding lines, explosives. - Carry it out on a flyer or argy and scatter it across your hidden stashes — never haul a full raid's loot into one base. - Leave before prime time returns.
Raiding etiquette and risk
- Expect retaliation. Raiding makes enemies; keep your own base hidden and defended first. - Don't raid above your weight. Hitting a mega-tribe with a starter kit just funds their war chest. - Counter-raids are real: don't leave your own base undefended while you are out.
The information edge
The best raiders win before the first C4. They know exactly when the target is offline, how their population trends, and whether the server itself is worth the effort. That is what WarRoom's surge, offline, and population tools are for — turn data into the timing that decides the raid.