ARK: Survival Ascended

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This article is about the 2023 remaster for PC, Xbox Series and PS5. For the 2015 game on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch, see ARK: Survival Evolved. For the game on iOS and Android, see ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile.

ARK: Survival Ascended
ASA Logo transparent.png
Game
Authors
Studio Wildcard
Grove Street Games
Publishers
Studio Wildcard
Snail Games USA
Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. (PS Asia)[1]
Price (USD)
Steam: Steam.svg $44.99[2]
Xbox Series X|S: Xbox Series.svg $44.99[2]
Playstation 5: PS.svg $44.99[2]
Epic Games Epic Games.svg $44.99[2]
Release
Steam Steam.svg
October 25th, 2023[3]
Xbox Series X|S Xbox Series.svg
November 21st, 2023[3]
Playstation 5 PS.svg
November 30th, 2023[3]
Epic Games Epic Games.svg
October 22nd, 2025[2]
Spotlight

ARK: Survival Ascended is an Unreal Engine 5 remastered version of the original ARK: Survival Evolved game. It was announced on March 31, 2023 on survivetheark.com,[4] and was released on October 25, 2023 as an early access title on Steam,[3] with DLC content to be released over time.

Summary

Respawn into a new dinosaur survival experience beyond your wildest dreams… as ARK is reimagined from the ground-up into the next-generation of videogame technology with Unreal Engine 5! You awake on a mysterious island, your senses overwhelmed by the blinding sunlight and brilliant colors bouncing off every surface around you, the azure waters of a verdant Island lapping at your bare feet. A deep roar echoes from the misty jungle, jolting you into action, and you stand up – not afraid, but intrigued. Are you ready to form a tribe, tame and breed hundreds of species of dinosaurs and other primeval creatures, explore, craft, build, and fight your way to the top of the food-chain? Your new world awaits... step through the looking-glass and join it!
~ Steam description

Features

  • Unreal Engine 5 overhaul with Nanite, Lumen, and NVIDIA's RTXDI
  • Cross-platform multiplayer
  • Cross-platform modding
  • New content
  • Dynamic water using FluidNinja
  • Interactive foliage
  • Cutscenes
  • Unreal Engine 5 performance gains: instanced rendering (higher performance when drawing large bases), threaded server networking, and UE's custom physics engine
  • Dynamic navigation mesh and creature path-finding overhaul
  • Cross-platform anti-cheat
  • Updated mini-map (pan, zoom, pings, etc – similar to the TSotF mini-map)
  • Queueing system
  • New third-person camera (with the option to opt out)
  • Directional sprinting and walking
  • Ping system
  • Gamepad cursor
  • Chibi slot and skins tab
  • Nvidia DLSS Support
  • Photo Mode
  • Dino/baby management QoL
  • Wild babies
  • Traits for creatures
  • Snap point improvements (new snaps, logic improvements)
  • Character creation & customization improvements
  • Tek Binoculars rework
  • An updated control scheme on controller
  • Numerous bug fixes

Gameplay changes from ARK: Survival Evolved Survival Evolved

General

Inventory/UI

  • Overall menu rework.
  • New Ping System, similar to that of Survival of the Fittest.
  • New menu icons.
  • New photo mode.
  • Better map, now showing coordinates and allowing zooming in and out.
  • Better dino tracker, allowing to track tamed creatures and see their location on the map.
  • Configurable third-person camera distance by holding Left Alt.
  • Quick-inventory feature by holding Q, allowing the player to navigate around all their inventory on their hotbar, use 9 and 0 to navigate.
  • Quick-transfer between inventory and hotbar by clicking the slot number on the keyboard when selecting a valid item from the inventory, it will instantly transfer to that hotbar slot.
  • Quick access to the shoulder pet's inventory that the player is carrying on his shoulder by holding R.
  • When holding items that use ammo, such as the  Longneck Rifle and  Crossbow, R can be held down to display a radial wheel that allows you to change between different ammo. This also allows the player to craft ammo by clicking Right on the ammo in this menu.

Structures

  • Complete construction rework.
  • Improved the process of picking up and demolishing structures, picking up or destroying all the structures that the last one had supported.
  • Decreased the number of construction engrams, allowing the player to modify, for example, a wall to be a door frame.
  •  Electrical Generator no longer requires cables, instead wirelessly powering any electric or gasoline-dependent appliance within a certain radius.
  • Any Appliance that previously required  Gasoline, such as the  Fabricator, may also be powered by the generator.
  •  Tek Generator now gives power to the  Tek Replicator.
  • All crafting stations now have a "Wireless" resource pulling option that uses resources from all the  Tek Dedicated Storages nearby.
  •  Chemistry Bench now only requires electricity.
  •  Tree Sap Tap now produces  Sap respecting the server stack multiplier (30 by default).
  • Irrigation now only requires an intake pipe, wirelessly irrigating within a fixed radius, which can be extended to a certain area by placing a reservoir.
  •  Stone Fireplace now can cook meat.
  •  Toilet now spoils all meat inside its inventory whenever a player flushes.

Items

Creatures

  • Because  Movement Speed is no longer improvable by levelling the stat, all creatures do not increase the speed stat, neither wild nor tamed.
  • Humans can now have blood damage
  • Occasionally, wild babies may be found with their respective parents, and may be claimed by slaying or taming the parents.
  • Ragdoll physics rework, they are now rebalanced and improved, especially for killing, which is implemented by using a low gravity state and restrained body fracture that the creature will slowly collapse through the ground.
  • Traits, additional, passive modifiers for creatures that can have a wide variety of both positive and negative effects.
  •  Ankylosaurus,  Doedicurus, and  Dunkleosteus now have a harvest only mode.
  •  Basilisk's,  Griffins, and  Karkinos's are now breedable.
  •  Dung Beetle rework, now it auto-collects  Feces that it has in range.
  •  Equus's kick attack now penetrates armor more effectively.
  •  Gacha pairs can be stationed closer together without becoming unhappy.
  •  Griffin's are now breedable.
  •  Ice Wyvern now acts as a portable refrigerator.
  •  Jerboa is no longer capped to spawn at level 1, spawning now as a normal creature.
  •  Megalania,  Ravager, and  Rock Drake riders can no longer wield weapons when mounted.
  •  Morellatops adjustment, now it has a  Water stat to improve its water storage capacity, also it can water crops.
  •  Onyc has a new land mechanic and its corresponding animations.
  •  Oviraptor rework, now it auto-collects  Eggs that it has in range.
  •  Pegomastax now have a toggleable ability to automatically pick up  Gacha Crystals in a radius that scales with its level.
  •  Phoenix has a new land mechanic and its corresponding animations, also it can spawn with more color variations, including: orange, red, blue, green, and pink.
    • They are also now breedable.
  •  Reaper King will now scale with player levels.
  • Significant Increase in natural color palette variation of different mapped areas in creatures.

TLC

As of Community Crunch 473, it has been announced that 2025's Extra Life charity campaign will unlock a Dino TLC pass, breathing new Ascended life into one of ARK’s classic creatures, up to a maximum of 5 creatures (via donations) delivered throughout 2026.

New additions

Creatures

Each remastered DLC map will be brought back with brand new creatures to be found and tamed in the landscape. a free community-chosen creature and a paid creature from the Adventure Packs or Fantastic Tames of each DLC map. Additionally, ten creatures from the mod Additions Ascended, will be added to the base game.

Resources

Consumables

Trophies and tributes

Weapons, armor, and tools

Structures

Saddles

Cosmetics

Other

Data maps

  • Level 55.jpg
    Exploring the map

Public Test Realm

On December 5th, 2023's experimental patch 32.4, a Public Test Realm (PTR) was launched. It allows players to try work-in-progress future updates to the game, allowing issues to be reported in advance before reaching the live game. These versions may be less stable than the live builds, and as a result it is recommended to back up any savefiles before using them with the PTR version.

Roadmap

The Roadmap of the different Maps for ASA Goes as Follows (May Change with Future Roadmaps):

Club ARK

Club ARK, is a social hub where survivors can chat, relax, and have fun in a variety of activities, mini-games, and missions to earn prizes to take back "home" with you. Club ARK can be joined from the in-game Pause Menu on the Official Network at any time. ‘Custom Cosmetic’ mods – including costumes, items, and even functional structures – will be automatically downloaded in the background while you play. This is a toggleable option.

DLC

Story maps

  • ASA LC logo back.jpg
    Lost Colony
    $29.99
Available on
Steam.svg
Xbox Series.svg
PS.svg
Epic Games.svg

Mod maps

  • Astraeos official.jpg
    Astraeos
    $14.99
Available on
Steam.svg
Xbox Series.svg
PS.svg
Epic Games.svg

Bob's Tall Tales

Bob's Tall Tales is an optional paid season pass with optional paid "Adventure Packs" with new cosmetics, creatures, building items, weapons, and more for story maps (excluding the Island). It also has animated Explorer Notes with the voices of Karl Urban and Auliʻi Cravalho. The first three original DLC maps, Scorched Earth, Aberration, and Extinction each have an "Adventure Pack"

  • ASA Oasisaur CC22Mar Wallpaper 2560x1440.png.dadc2f45843924bca4f501288a5d5d24.png
    Frontier Showdown Scorched Earth
    $29.991
Available on
Steam.svg
Xbox Series.svg
PS.svg
Epic Games.svg
  • ARK SIR.png
    Steampunk Ascent Aberration
    $29.991
Available on
Steam.svg
Xbox Series.svg
PS.svg
Epic Games.svg
  • ASA BattleRigs.jpg
    Wasteland War Extinction
    $29.991
Available on
Steam.svg
Xbox Series.svg
PS.svg
Epic Games.svg

1 Frontier Adventure Pack, Steampunk Ascent and Wasteland War are only available as part of ARK: Bob's Tall Tales and are not sold separately.

Bob's True Tales

TBA

Skin packs

  • Animated Series Costumes Pack.jpg
    ARK Animated Series
    109 Costumes Pack
    $14.99
Available on
Steam.svg
Xbox Series.svg
PS.svg
Epic Games.svg

Collaborations

ARK: Survival Ascended has introduced several collaborations with other franchises in the form of paid DLCs. The first with "Power Rangers", the second with "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".

  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Wave 1.jpg
    Mighty Morphin Power
    Rangers
    $14.99
Available on
CurseForge.svg
  • ASA PowerR 2.jpg
    Mighty Morphin Power
    Rangers Skin Wave 2
    $14.99
Available on
CurseForge.svg
  • Tmntkeyart-jpg.jpg
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    $14.99
Available on
CurseForge.svg

Spotlight

History

  • On March 31st 2023, Wildcard officially announced the successive UE5 Remaster to ARK: Survival Evolved, expected to replace its predecessor upon release. Initially believed by some to be an "April Fools" reference, the original "ARK: Respawned" bundle was to be priced at $60, packaging ARK 2 along with the remaster. This was met with heavy controversy from the community. In response to this, Wildcard instead decided to release ARK: Survival Ascended as a standalone game at $60 with all existing ASE DLC included.
  • Upon the reveal of the new revised roadmap from the original as well as the confirmation of ASA being an early access title, the price of ASA was subsequently reduced to $45, as well as being delayed from the original August 2023 Date. Instead, it launched without Scorched Earth, Survival of the Fittest, or any other on-launch additions as suggested by the revised roadmap.

Notes

  • Nitrado has been chosen as an exclusive commercial server host.[14]
    • At launch, the server license permitted only non-commercial, personal use, required a valid Steam game license, and allowed only one server to be hosted on a single machine at a time. This license has been replaced.
    • Current dedicated server license only permits non-commercial, personal use, with remaining clauses removed.
  • As of launch, the game appears to be extremely intensive, often requiring console commands to reach playable framerates on medium end hardware.
  • The game was originally scheduled to launch in August 2023 with Survival of the Fittest and Scorched Earth being available at launch, but was later delayed to October 2023.
  • The game was originally scheduled to launch simultaneously on all platforms, however the console releases were delayed. The Xbox Series S and X release was delayed until November 14th, 2023. It was then delayed for a second time and released on November 21st, 2023. The Playstation 5 release came on November 30th, 2023.
  • The game launched on Steam with a limited early access price cut that was promised to also come to the console releases. However, this never happened and has not been mentioned since.
  • After the Original Delay, the game was scheduled to launch in October 2023 Without any on-launch Additions as on par with the stated roadmap, but the game’s DLC Content has since been delayed again in December 2023 with a new Roadmap With The Base Game and SOTF Being unaffected by this.

Gallery

External links

References