Ark Nova | 5 Beginner Mistakes

Today we look at some common mistakes that beginners or lower rated players make in Ark Nova.
0:00 - Intro
0:17 - The Break
1:51 - Hurry Up!
2:46 - Building
3:49 - Donating
5:17 - Strategy vs Tactics
Ark Nova Top 20 Stats - • Top Ark Nova Players D...
Strategy Advisor's How Is Ark Nova Balanced - • How is Ark Nova balanced?
Check out the full Ark Nova playlist for more replay analysis and strategy videos!
• Ark Nova

[@BackinPoint]

Hey Sam! Good victory. Appreciated the tip about triggering the break.

[@loloverlord1664]

Quick, simple and effective: thanks!

[@nicorimo]

I think my biggest mistake is the donation. I'm donating too much and all the time XD. Now I'll weigh the pros and cons before making a donation. I hope my English improves a bit. And i love ur video, i learn a lot !

[@markanderson100]

I think one of the most important things you often say in your videos is the phrase, "the commitment to earn points" (and its variants). I've heard you say this particularly in your analysis videos of the top players and it keeps echoing in my mind. I've tried cultivating the commitment to earn points and I can already see the difference. So, thank you, Sam.

[@vesanius1]

I'd call myself an average Ark Nova player and your videos are really helpful. Some tips are obvious, but somehow still overlooked sometimes and some tips are completely eye opening. I'm glad I found your channel a few days ago.

[@jankogo]

Nice video, Sam! I think I got those covered mostly by now. I think when to trigger the end can be a hard thing to master as well. I have been taken by surprise many times and was short of one action or one X token.

[@NoWondersTV]

It's an area I still get very wrong in some games. In close games it can be wise to let your opponent cross first so you get the extra turn. But it can also backfire if they manage to get closer to 99 before crossing or have sponsors with end game points. And yes, if you can end the game when your opponent's association action is at 1 it's usually a good idea!

[@lordgrok]

Thanks Sam, more great content. The number 1 rule for me is to assume that the worst will happen. If there is a chance your opponent might cause a break or take the card you or they “need”, then you should assume that they will, and play accordingly. Wishful thinking loses games.

[@NoWondersTV]

Very true. Playing against lower rated players it's easy to get complacent and assume they will not do certain good moves. It can be a bad habit.

[@ABomm]

One thing that took me a while to understand was making sure i was ready for a break at anytime. With the break at 2/9 using a 5power draw may help a lot but it also leaves you vulnerable to a 5power sponsored-break. In those cases it might be better to use an x token to play 2 animals or perform an association before setting up for a potential break.

[@NoWondersTV]

Very important awareness to have! If your opponent is able to trigger the break then get your important moves out of the way first.

[@shaldengeki]

These are great points Sam! I've had to learn a lot of these the hard way, especially re: building too much. :) I feel like I'm not fantastic at putting together an endgame plan - would be interested in tips or thoughts around how you go about it.

[@NoWondersTV]

I think the next few videos will be around early game, mid game and late game. The generic "plan" is to support 1-2 projects and play some big animals in the last break, maybe get that 3rd uni or 4th partner zoo for some bonus points. Sometimes you don't find those animals, sometimes the projects aren't there. Games can be scrappy! I find I tend to do better when I carry a big animal with me through the mid game so I have a guaranteed way to convert all my money to points later. Elephants, Rhinos, Eagles, Tigers are good candidates.

[@shamelesch]

The best thing that i learned from your videos is early conservation. Me and my friends just always went for 2 partners or 2 uni's. But when it hit how efficient that early extra worker is it made my winrate skyrocket. The thing i noticed was my very strong early game but a really weak midgame. I now know this is because i build too much. I'm really guilty of multiple turns building only 1 or 2 sized enclosures.

[@NoWondersTV]

It's really common, right. I didn't look to support projects early when I first started, and now that I'm teaching my friend group a lot of them show the same tendency. Glad the videos are helping!

[@JDSecretPolice]

I think point 1 isn't something generally applicable to newer players. In general, being the breaker is bad. It is not always as obvious as the example provided.Figuring out when the break is good for you and bad for your opponents takes a lot of games. Good advice for bad/good breaks, though I'd also add how your actions line up for next round and what your plan for it is. The reason top20 has a lot of breaks triggered is they know when it's "on them" to be the breaker

[@NoWondersTV]

Usually for me the biggest tell whether someone is a good player or not is how they approach the breaks. There are a subset of players that will just refuse to break and instead build 1 kiosk or pavilion at a time. I think causing the last break is usually bad but I'm quite indifferent to the first 3-4 breaks.

[@arjanang]

Hello Sam, thank you for your video's on Ark Nova. I was wondering if it would be an idea to do an analysis of a lower ranked game to point out the mistakes. I think it could be very educational.

[@NoWondersTV]

I've thought a lot about it. My concern would be getting to move ~400 and being like... well yes playing the Crocodile now is the right move, but going for Reptiles was the wrong strategy in the first place. At some point the games would look completely different to how I would play them and it's hard to pinpoint what exactly the problem was. But I'm coming around to the idea. Maybe I could look at the first break of a few games and point out obvious opening errors that can be fixed.

[@marksilverman]

You imply at that end that the main reason you want to support an early conversation project is just to get a second worker. Sometimes the worker is worth taking, but the other bonuses (like five dollars) are often a better choice.

[@NoWondersTV]

Very true, sometimes you just need the money more. If I'm close to 8 reputation for whatever reason, like Spokesperson, then I'd nearly always take the money.

[@Rhajalob]

So the worker is better than upgrading the card?

[@curtisclayton8023]

I have two weaknesses that I can't seem to shake; building a steady income and setting up badly at endgame, especially with objective cards and sponsors with a post-game reward

[@NoWondersTV]

Tough to give specific advice in such a dynamic game. Some games you will have a ton of money and some games you won't have much. Will depend on the map you're on and what sponsors you have. General tips to improve your income: Upgrading build early to get those first kiosks and pavilions (and placing them optimally). It's usually my 1st or 2nd upgrade. Prioritising and snapping good sponsors. Side Entrance and Federal Grants are obvious ones. Players can underestimate cards like Native Lizards giving 7-9 appeal in the mid game or a Sponsorship Vultures giving 1 appeal and 3 income. Early releases can get you in money trouble, it can be a good idea to take 5 income as a first project reward. When you're out of money - just make a break happen. I have had games with 0 sponsors played, you can win with just animals and projects.

[@curtisclayton8023]

@@NoWondersTV I appreciate the response, thank you. I'm looking for ways to improve. I lose so many games under seven points, it's irritating. All I keep thinking is I need just one more turn. I like the content and analysis you offer In another vid, you mentioned the Silver Lake Eagle Double Determination play. I got hit with that precise combo today. I went from 30 up to 30 down by the end of it 🥺🤯🤮💀🪦

[@NoWondersTV]

@@curtisclayton8023 It's always rough to play against that Lake combo :( The improvement will come though, keep at it! Losses don't matter as long as you learn from each game

[@godatuga]

Hi. In your videos/live you said that petting zoo animals are bad. But, what if we started with 3 in the initial hand. Would it make sense to invest in them?

[@NoWondersTV]

I don't think Petting Zoo animals are that bad. JDansp is a known Petting Zoo hater but even he plays them sometimes. There are plenty of players in the top 20 that regularly play them. If you start with 3 I would nearly always pick them. 2 I would pick some of the time depending on what else there is. 1 I would only pick if it was a Horse.

[@godatuga]

thanks for the feedback :)

[@JDSecretPolice]

It depends solely on the rest of your hand. If you start with 3 cards that doesn't work towards a conservation project and spending 27 money to get them out, you'll be lucky to support a project even round 3. Also, horse is op. Also, also: this jdansp sounds like a smart guy

[@NoWondersTV]

@@JDSecretPolice I think we're going to analyse a game tonight where this JDansp fellow started with 1 petting zoo animal actually 🤔

[@Leo-bz9xj]

Great video as always. I would list some intermediate / advanced mistakes that I see a lot of players doing: 1. Hate drafting. Hate drafting is usually very bad in AN because you're wasting action / bonus and you have a very limited number of them. A classic example is when someone take an upgrade sponsor only to deny it to their opponent when they have no intention of upgrading sponsor themselves or when someone takes a petting animal zoo just to deny it to their opponent. Hate drafting isn't so bad if you're drawing with the upgraded action card or getting it from a map bonus, especially if you didn't have any card to discard, but snapping just to hate draft is usually just very bad imo. On the other hand, contesting valuable cards is of course very good as long as you're being efficient about it (ie not using several X tokens to snap a card for example, usually that's not a good trade but of course exceptions exist). 2. Not contesting the Species Diversity and Habitat Diversity project when the 3CP option is not available. This is a mistake that I see a lot of players doing when either Species Diversity or Habitat Diversity come up with the 3CP being already taken leaving only the 2CP and 5CP option. When such situation happen, it seems clear to me that unfortunately a lot of the game is going to be about racing for that 5CP slot as getting it is going to be a 6CP swing in favor of whoever gets it (it's a bit more complicated than that since the player losing the race might get the 2CP first and get some value out of that) which is massive deal considering that completing those two projects happens with very low effort / luck. So here comes the mistake that I see players doing: they just complete the 2CP option asap even when they seem ahead in the race to complete the 5CP option and leave the 5CP option completely free to their opponent which is such a big advantage. Btw I only mention the 3CP option not being available because when the 2CP option isn't avaibable players usually understands that they should contest the 5CP one. 3. So that one might be a bit controversial, but the more I play the more I think it is bad to go for partner zoo first if you don't aim to complete a base conservation project round 2. If you aim to complete a conservation project round 2 then taking a partner zoo is completely fine and even usually very good since you can do the strong move of taking a second worker as bonus and then getting your second partner zoo round 2 / upgrade as it's usually extremely hard / impossible for your opponent to break before that. On the other hand and as I said, if you don't aim to complete a conservation round 2 (which often happen if there are no continent base project or if the one available has no 2CP option or simply if you opponent takes the needed partner zoo before you because he started first / he could play association action for 3 faster) then I think that taking university first should be the move 95% of the times (usually max hand though 2rep + 1 research can also be very good). Taking uni first allow more flexibility with hand space and more importantly you'll usually get that second upgrade round 2 with 5 rep. And also which is very underrated is that earlier rounds are usually slower so it's better to spend 4 strength for uni rather than 3 for partner zoo since you'll have to get uni at some point anyway so better to do it when it's easy to match the required strength because later you might want to do 8 strengh asso + partner zoo or simply you have two or more workers and want to do as much asso actions before the round end which obviously is easier to do if you need partner zoo rather than uni. 4. Another one that might be controversial which is: don't play bad cards. Now I know that AN is a super well balanced game and that there are almost no bad cards, but still I think a few cards are close to unplayable if you're here to win (if you just want to play cute animals then that's another story :D). Honestly there are really very few true bad cards so I might as well list them: Baboon Rock / Proboscis Monkey / Mandrill / Saltwater Crocodile. Now I'm sure some people would be like "ahem actually in that one game I was able to make perfect use of those cards in my monkey masterpiece strategy" but really 99% of the times those cards are just bad plain and simple (and yes monkeys cards are pretty bad in this game, except the Pifering ones and Horsfield's Tarsier / Cotton-Top Tamarin). There are a few others that are really bordeline (for example a lot of reptiles and reptile house is almost always bad), but for all of them I could easily think of a situation where you can find value out of it (usually related to conservation projects) and it would be too long to explain which cards are mediocre enough that you need certain conditions to play them. And regardless, as I said AN is well balanced enough that truly 90% of cards can easily be played often though some are obviously much better than others (New Zealand Fur Seal round 2 is pretty brutal and one of the only card that I consider bordeline OP). 5. Alright one last to make it to five: ending the game too early. So that one I think every AN player makes it when they start playing the game. The game is a race, it makes sense that you'd want to finish as soon as possible, right? Wrong. It can be better to stop as close as possible to the 100 points mark and then have another big turn. So for example you're at 80 points, you support an association project for 15+ points and then the turn after you play two animals (or support another association project) for an additional 15+ points. Of course this isn't always possible nor good in every game and sometimes it's good to finish asap, it completely depend on the state of the game and what your opponent is doing, but the point is, it is sometimes (and not in like 1% of games) better to, for example, not do that donation that would make you pass the 100 points threshold and instead hold on for one more turn to score a lot of points!

[@NoWondersTV]

I agree with some of these and disagree with others. The more I play the more I am realising just how many different approaches you can take to this game and still be successful. For example I almost exclusively started with a University, but now as I am climbing I find myself starting with Partner Zoos more often than not. That's the opposite of a player like BDW who will almost never start with a Partner Zoo! But I agree you would need a reason to start with a Partner Zoo, either for a good opening animal like the Scarlet Macaw or Tarsier, or for a project in round 2. I also think it's more important to know the good animals rather than the bad animals. Most bad animals are "bad" because they have awkward requirements. But if you meet those requirements already, like having 3 Primates for the Mandrill, then they are a good conversion of money to points. But you will always see the same animals showing up on strong players' boards. Eagles, Rhinos, Bears, etc. It's a topic I will certainly cover in a future video. Thanks for your input! 🙂

[@AdahyCseti]

Sorry, I can't really follow as you talk much faster than showing things on the screen. It would be better to highlight the areas you're showing because on a phone screen it's impossible to see. I'll watch it again on a bigger screen later.. the idea of the video is good though. Thanks

[@NoWondersTV]

Thanks for the feedback, I'll slow myself down a bit for future videos

[@robertbrickland2610]

Stop making these videos Sam. You're making it harder for me to get free elo. Jk. Even now I still think finding the right balance for build action is one of the hardest thing to do in Ark Nova. I agree that people tend to overbuild. It seems that their mindset is to fill out the zoo. But at the same time, I think many beginners tend to underbuild in the mid/late game. Like you said, many beginners don't realize how many turns they have left. At this stage, building size4/5 is not so simple and they think they can cycle through the actions easily. I'm also still guilty of this over/underbuilt thing, but I think it's important for beginners to consider whether they underbuild or overbuild at each stage of the game.

[@NoWondersTV]

When I first started I was filling my zoo nearly every game. It made sense to me as building gets you all these rewards on the floor and you get 7 points for it. But it is so expensive! I agree a lot of players don't build enough large enclosures and then struggle to get points in the last round because most small animals don't cut it. That was my mindset too. I want to build a kiosk and pavilion, so I guess I'm also building a size 2 and 1? Throwing down random size 4 or 5 enclosures has legitimately improved my game!

[@robertbrickland2610]

​@@NoWondersTV​Yeah, same with me. Kiosk pav size2 size1 all the way and then by round4 I came to the realization that those empty size1's are gonna stay empty forever.. Another thing that I just remembered, many beginners pay too much attention to the final scoring end game goal. The most egregious example is if they get naturalist zoo. Rather than fixated on those goals, it's better to only get 1cp from it but their game went smoothly.