Are you into survival games? Which is the better game between ARK vs Conan Exiles? Here we compare all the factors that may help you decide what the better game is!
Platforms available
Ark: Survival Evolved is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, Microsoft Windows, Linux as well as the MacOS. The Xbox One and Windows Store version of the game supports cross-platform as well as the steam version where the versions of game from PC, Linux and macOS are supported.
Conan-Exiles is available on just Windows 10, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. The game does not support any kind of cross-platform play hence you can’t play with your friends who have PC if you have Playstation or Xbox, but you can play with friends having the same kind of device as yours.
Users
In 2020, Ark is clearly the more popular game with peak player count on steam in a day of 157k whereas Conan Exiles had just 23k players in a day.
As of writing this article, there are 34k players playing ARK and just 6k players playing Conan Exiles through steam.
From our experience, players in most ARK: Survival Evolved servers are less friendly than in Conan Exiles servers. Unneccesary griefing or blocking pathways open to all are common in ARK. Conan Exiles players are rather friendly and inviting.
Graphics
Both games look absolutely gorgeous when the video settings are cranked up but Conan has slightly better player models. The examples are clearly shown in the pictures below.
Building System
The building system is similar in both of the games as you need to collect raw resources from your surroundings or your friends and manage them. ARK has recently released a triangle base building system that will cost less resources if you don’t want to build a square base. Conan Exiles had this feature from the beginning. Conan Exiles is rather more flexible in building anything anywhere. Conan Exiles is well optimized which makes it one of the best building systems. Ark falls behind on this.
Tribes and Clans
Conan Exiles has Clans whereas ARK has tribes. Both function the same way as they are a group of players helping each other to meet a common goal. The members can help by collectively building structures and/or sharing resources. To succeed in the games, a good group is a must.
Content
In terms of content, ARK has more content.
You can tame dinosaurs and make them yours. This is the main reason ARK has been successful even if the game is relatively unstable. ARK also contains many DLC maps which contain new explorable content and new dinosaurs exclusive to these unlike Conan Exiles which has only one map to play on. Conan Exiles is in no way inferior but ARK just has more. So, in the content department, ARK is better than Conan Exiles.
Ark vs Conan Exiles – PvP
PVP which means player versus player is a must have feature in survival games. There are servers on both games which have PVP. ARK has hardcore PVP because at any time any other player can raid you which means you have to created impenetrable bases and be constantly active everyday without break. This can be time consuming and a let down to some players. Worry not! Conan Exiles has introduced a system of players being able to raid only at certain times so that you can still enjoy your holidays outside the game and come back to your base completely safe. Talking about PVP, it’s important to have a decent amount of players to play against, in this case Conan Exiles is lacking a bit compared to ARK. This can be viewed as a let down or a good thing. You choose!
Ark vs Conan Exiles – PvE
PVE or player versus environment is an important factor to a survival game because not everyone will like to play against other players, many players will just like to defend against the environment. This is the most important aspect because people might just want to play solo which means PVE is needed. The PVE content in ARK is massive due to the large variety and quantity of different types of dinosaurs and dungeons. Whereas Conan Exiles is certainly not lacking but is nowhere close to ARK. Conan Exiles have certainly released dungeons with boss fights which certainly help the PVE aspect of the game. ARK wins the PVE battle!
Taming
Since ARK’s main attraction point is the Dinosaurs, you can tame Dinosaurs which can be used in farming, flying, raiding, mutation and exploring. In Conan Exiles, you can tame thralls which are basically NPC slaves. The thralls still have limited options and can only do so much. Conan Exiles also has the ability to capture children of animals which can be raised to be kept as guards or pets. This sounds just like ARK but it is not because Conan Exiles only supports the mounting of horses. In terms of the flexibility and content of taming, ARK’s dinosaurs can do so much more than Conan Exiles animals and thralls, it’s not even a contest.
Server Transfer
ARK has the function to transfer your character, equipment and dinosaurs across different servers which is good but has also created bugs which can be exploited. Conan Exiles has yet to introduce server migration because the player base in many servers are low. With server migration, players in deserted servers can move on to a more populated server. ARK certainly takes it away with this mechanic.
Ark vs Conan Exiles – Mods
The game release of Conan Exiles and ARK have been 2 years and 5 years respectively which obviously means that ARK has more mods available for players to enjoy. Conan Exiles has a very limited amount of mods, possibly due to large size and heavy PC requirements. If you are looking to compare mods, then ARK has more mods than Conan Exiles.
Bugs, Fixes, Cheaters and Stability
ARK has just released part 1 of Genesis which is a new DLC which promised new dinosaurs to tame, areas and weapons. This was a huge failure because of the amount of bugs present in the game. It showed that it was all rushed with unplayable bugs just like the Extinction DLC. ARK still has to fix duping and meshing in their official servers. Meshing is the ability to glitch and go under map to take advantage of open bases from underground. Duping is the duplication of items. These are bugs of ARK which caused players to exploit it which completely broke the system in ARK. They need to implement banning players exploiting these or fix it themselves!
Whereas Conan Exiles, they have started to release new dungeons and DLC content for the players. They have not covered the bugs to the player base showing off a new DLC like ARK. Funcom have actually fixed bugs relatively faster. They have focused on stability and quality rather than quantity. The gods in Conan Exiles have been glitchy, therefore, they disabled them in official servers until they are fixed which is the best solution. The thrall system is still broken but they have made the game better. Overall, Funcom, the company behind Conan Exiles have been the better support in terms of fixing bugs and giving out stable releases unlike Wildcard, the company behind ARK.
Conclusion
ARK and Conan Exiles are both amazing open-world, sand-box, MMO survival games. They are beautiful in their own aspects. ARK certainly has more of everything but this does not mean Conan Exiles should be looked down upon. Conan Exiles has been in the business for less compared to ARK, so, it is a bit unfair to compare on contents. However, with the rapid growth of Conan Exiles, it will certainly become as good or even better than ARK.
Further Reading
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Co-owner of Technoloxy. Love tech and football. Also don’t mind some basketball. Also, tech.
Did I mention tech?
Conan has way more things to craft in terms of armor and building