Ark Survival Ascended: How To Build Sideways Guide

ARK: Survival Ascended has a very in-depth building system, but it has a lot of limitations such as not allowing you to build sideways.

This limits players’ creativity, but it does make it more impressive when players manage to exploit the mechanics to overcome the limitations!

In this guide, we’ll help you break free of ARK’s building limitations by telling you how to build sideways.

How to Build Sideways in ARK

The trick to building sideways in ARK is fairly simple, but it can be a bit finicky. Once you get that hang of it, even the most dangerous dinosaurs will think twice about messing with your base.

The basic idea is that we will be exploiting the build-snapping points created by Spike Walls.

To do so, you should first build a set of stairs. Any stairs will do!

Then, build a Spike Wall atop the stairs. You have to make sure that the Spike Wall is titled.

Spike Walls have snap points on their sides, as they’re meant to be used in conjunction with other buildings. But, using a tilted Spike Wall like this will mean that attached buildings will also be tilted!

Ideally, you should use a building such as a Gateway now. Build it so that it sticks to the Spike Wall’s snap point and you will have a tilted Gateway, which you can use as a base for future buildings.

But, this is just tilted! “How do I get it to be fully sideways!?”, you ask.

Well, you just have to repeat the trick by building tilted Foundations adjacent to the Spike Wall.

Then, build another set of stairs atop the foundation. Make it so that the staircase is fully vertical when you place it down.

Next, try to build another Spike Wall on the stairs. It can be really finicky to get the game to accept your building here, but it’s definitely possible!

You’ll have to move around until you find the proper snap point that allows you to build the Spike Wall.

Now that the second Spike Wall is set, you can just use it as a base! Anything you build next to this second Spike Wall will be fully sideways.

You’re now free to build anything you want sideways, vastly expanding the possibilities for unique buildings in ARK!

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