Aberration is an Expansion Pack for ARK: Survival Evolved. It was released on December 12, 2017 for PC, Xbox One and PS4 at the initial price of $19.99 USD.[1] It is also available for purchase through the season pass.
Any creatures tamed and items received can be brought to the vanilla island and used by people with and without the expansion. Items from the DLC can also be spawned manually if you don't own the expansion pack.
Aberration places survivors on a damaged ARK: its internal atmosphere has leaked away, resulting in a harsh surface with intense radiation, and a plethora of lush biomes underground. With the maintenance systems of this ARK malfunctioning, the many hazards, creatures, and nature of the environment present a thrilling new world to explore and master.
The intense radiation of Aberration has led to incredible genetic mutations, resulting in new creatures with amazing abilities! Among others, clamber up walls & glide through the air on the back of a camouflaging chameleon-like ‘Rock Drake’, keep the dark at bay with a friendly ‘Bulbdog’, grab and toss multiple creatures simultaneously with a massive ‘Karkinos’, or—if you are talented enough to tame one—command the vile ‘Reaper’ by being impregnated with a horrifying reproductive chest-burster!
Earthquakes, radiation exposure, gas leaks, and Element chambers are among the many hazards that survivors will learn to grapple with Aberration’s varied biomes, both aboveground and below the surface. But among the greatest challenges on this ruined ARK is the hierarchy of unrelenting Nameless, requiring constant vigilance & Charge Energy to defend against!
And in the deepest depths of Aberration, their terrifying — yet somehow familiar — master awaits… will YOU be among the survivors powerful enough to face him?
The Underground Map
Regions of Aberration
The map is the underground of a damaged ARK. Most of the features are related to underground, where new Resources exist, such as Fungal Wood and Gems. Rather than being an island, the majority of the map is enclosed underground biomes, making it especially advisable to carry a Compass or GPS to not get turned around in the dark twists and turns. Radiation seeps in at specific locations of the map, causing exposed players not wearing Protective Gear to take damage over time. Other new strange effects are also a feature.
There are three main regions, excluding the surface: The green region being the Fertile, the blue region being the Bio luminescence, and the red region being the Element. Fertile Land do not have any negative effects, Bio luminescence is cold, and Element contains radiation, inflicting both survivors and tamed dinos with Radiation sickness over time without protection.
Oil is harder to get, since other than the Trilobite, Dung Beetle, Lamprey and rare Seeker drops, the only other natural source of Oil is at the Surface or in the much more difficult area beyond The Spine. But It can be dropped by Tek Dinos.
Like the other maps, Supply Crates only spawn on the surface, but unlike other maps, crates can still be found below the surface, outside of artifact caves, in the form of Loot Crates.
New Resources
A new and fairly vital resource to the game is the Gem, which has three color types found in areas of varying difficulty. Green Gems are found almost immediately upon spawning in the Portal and are found further on in the Fertile region. Blue Gems are found within the Luminescent Biome. Red Gems are found in the more difficult depths of Aberration, in The Spine, Lost Roads, and Element Falls regions.
A lesser vital resource Fungal Wood is gathered like regular Wood but from the larger mushrooms scattered around the underground. It substitutes for Wood in recipes, but is explicitly required for making the new structure Shag Rug.
Mushrooms appear around the map as a harvestable resource, similar to the bushes found for Berries. However, be careful to avoid the Blue or Red mushrooms found across the map, as these are harvestable but dangerous. Blue mushrooms inflict instant Hypothermia. Red mushrooms inflict hallucination, which can be deadly: side effects other than colorful vision include uncontrollable direction change, constant defecation and its attendant increased hunger, and forgetfulness of breathing - better known as Suffocation, but it ignores Oxygen level of the player as it automatically registers as if the player has 0 Oxygen. Any of these side effects could kill unprepared players. These effects can also harm shoulder-mounted dinos, so be careful. However, eating the Aquatic Mushroom provides temporary immunity to the Freezing Debuff or Luminous Poisons, and eating the Aggeravic Mushroom provides temporary immunity to the Hallucinating Debuff or Fertile Poisons.
New Features
As the map is mainly underground, Earthquakes often happen which drop random items including Wood, Flint, Rare Mushrooms, Stone, Gems, Obsidian, and Crystal. They also randomly move sleeping survivors that are not anchored to their beds, and cause survivors using a zipline or climbing pick to fall.
There are also locations where Element can be crafted, called Charge Nodes. These require resources to craft, and one of the main items needed is Element Ore which is found on The Surface or in The Grave of the Lost.
New Creatures
Two new Creatures, the Nameless and the Reaper, emerge with differing frequencies within areas of both the Bio luminescence and Element Regions, in the absence of Charged Light, including inside player-made structures. It is well-advised to keep sources of Charge Light around the base as regular light sources do not prevent them from emerging. Charge Light is usually best provided by the new creatures: Featherlight, Bulbdog, Glowtail, and Shinehorn.
Another new creature, the Ravager quickly becomes a survivor favourite as the melee animal of choice, as their damage rapidly stacks with their pack bonus.
Black clams that can be harvested for Black Pearls.
Regions
Nameless and Reaper never spawn here, if they follow you from a surface entrance or other region, they will remain until they lose aggravation, then immediately burrow underground out of sight (possibly) when they reach this region.
Dizzy Spores most often happens around this region.
Red-Capped Red-stemmed Mushroom and Green Gem cluster are present around the region.
Brown-stemmed stalk Mushroom and Red Gem cluster are present around the region.
Radiation occurs around certain parts of this region.
The liquid Molten Element found within this region damages anyone (and anything on the shoulder) who touches within (excluding wild creatures). Wearing a full Hazard Suit Armor does not negate this, but a full Federation Exo Armor or Tek Armor negates the damaging effect on survivors (but damages the armor in the process), and also charges up their armor.
1 Despite being labeled easiest, this is one of the more dangerous spawn points on the map. 2 Despite being labeled hard, this is one of the safest spawn points on the map (when you go north).
Additionally, ARK: Survival Ascended's release of Aberration will bring the Yi Ling and a yet to be announced creature.
Other Spawns
In addition to the DLC-exclusive Creatures, the map is also comprised of mostly new variants of creatures called Aberrant Creatures and 4 other Non Aberrant Creatures, the following creatures spawn on the map:
Compared to their standard versions, Aberrant Creatures have 4% less health, deal 6% more damage and glow in the dark.
Aberrant Dimorphodon was previously thought to not spawn, but has now been found in some regions of the map.
Aberrant Araneo has been known to be sighted around Grave of the Lost and Rockwell Terminal, but much like Dimorphodon, are a rare sight.
Unknown Spawns
Data containing Aberrant Megalania exist within game files, but does not spawn on Aberration. This is due to a design choice in favor of Rock Drakes.[2] It was later added as tamable creature in Fjordur DLC expension map.
Radiation Immune
Radiation is a new hazard introduced on Aberration that deals continuous damage to vulnerable targets that rapidly stacks-up, and cannot yet be cleansed. They are mainly found within Element Regions.
The following native creatures are immune to radiation damage:
All imported creatures without the Aberrant mutation and all Aberrant Creatures not included in the above list of those immune, as well as Tek Creatures, are also vulnerable. The most notable aberrant radiation-vulnerable creatures are Aberrant Ankylosaurus and Aberrant Doedicurus, due to their high utility in mining. You will need to feed them Mushroom Brew every 120 seconds to keep them from suffering the effects of Radiation. Finally, another noteworthy radiation-vulnerable creatures is Shadowmane: although immune to Fjordur's radiation it is not on Aberration.
As Aberration is part of the story of the ARKs, Explorer Notes can be found across the map. These Explorer Notes document the ARK lore. For more in-depth information, see Explorer Notes.
Dossiers
In addition to the Explorer Notes, Dossiers can also be found on Aberration, written by Helena Walker to document the research of Aberration's creatures. For more in-depth information, see Dossiers.
Though not recommended, the element infused water found in the radioactive zone will charge TEK armor and Federation Exo armor if one jumps into the water while wearing it. However, note that this charge will last for a significantly shorter amount of time compared to if you had used element to power your armor. The armor will otherwise protect you from the harmful effects of the water.
Similarly to Scorched Earth, Aberration never shows all of its Guardians.
However unlike Scorched Earth it doesn't show any Guardians at all.
In lore it was confirmed that there were once Guardians as the old Overseer of Aberration was mentioned in explorer notes to transform into element versions of its Guardians similarly to the Overseer on the Island and presumably the Overseer on Scorched Earth could probably do the same as well transforming into a element version of the Manticore and the other 2 Guardians.
The Broken ARK, which is the setting for this DLC, is visible during the Ascension cutscene of the Island if one looks out the windows.
According to the end video after defeating Rockwell, it appears you are sent through portal frames in the Element Falls shaft, through the Portal, across space then arriving on what looks like a ruined earth, which is the setting for the DLCExtinction.
With the information gathered from the dossiers and explorer notes, it's discovered that Diana (a former survivor of Aberration) is responsible for the scorched Surface, dysfunction and instability of the Obelisks, and the rise of Rockwell as the Overseer of Aberration, when her group destroyed the original Overseer. In the life on Aberration before the damage, it seems the Overseer would have spawned and been located in the same manner as on The Island. However, with the destruction of the Overseer and apparent control center for the ARK, the shields fell as earthquakes began.
If you stand near those large crystals sticking out of the roof of some regions, you can hear strange humming.
Aberration is currently the only map that allows any creature within an Artifact cave to be tamed. Other maps with caves have at least one cave which contains creatures that aren’t able to be tamed.
Prior to Patch 282.102, Tek Teleporter couldn’t be built anywhere within Aberration.
Though it is sometimes thought to be molten, the purple liquid in the Red zone cannot be in any way molten or hot, as creatures such as Aberrant Cnidaria and Lamprey can live in it. It is far more likely that it is element-infused, poisonous water that can only be tolerated by few organisms.
While most of the creatures found on Aberration are fantasy creatures it is possible like most other creatures the animals found on Aberration could have come from a fantasy world in Ark that no longer exists, because most of the creatures kept in the Arks are creatures that come from a world that can't support life anymore.
Astrodelphis were also reported to be found in outer space and not created by people, proving that alien life exists in this universe.
Additionally for a very long time there was a underwater obelisk planned for Ark and the Kraken boss in Atlas is essentially a Reskin of the Rockwell boss battle in Aberration.
Prior to the release of Genesis, players who logged their survivor out from Scorched Earth had the same title screen as if players logged their survivor out of Aberration.
Besides its formal definition, the level design and name of Aberration might possibly be inspired by the optical effect of chromatic aberration. Chromatic aberration is caused when color wavelengths fail to align on the same focal plane which then separate into the three primary colors of white light: red, green and blue.
Aberration was also the first map to have a generated structure that is interactable found on ONLY that map other than the terminals and obelisks being the Charge node (You can also find charge nodes on the Crystal Isles map), Extinction having the City Terminal, and Genesis part 1 having the Mission Dispatcher.
Aberration is the first map to have two tamable creatures that are only tamed by raising them on birth, which are Rock Drake and Reaper.
Aberration had been available on Google Stadia from Sep 1, 2021 until Dec 14th, 2022 due to the platform shutting down.
Announced in the Community Crunch 355 on March 31st 2023, Aberration should be included in Ark: Survival Ascended, the UE5 remaster of Ark: Survival Evolved, and is expected to debut in Q4 2023. In the following Community Crunch 356 on April 7th 2023, it is mentioned that it should be included in the normal game purchase, without needing extra DLC purchases.
Opened up transfers for the non-aberrant version of creatures to be transferred onto Aberration. For example, both Paracer and Aberrant Paracer can exist on Aberration
Major Primitive+ update with a number of fixes, incorporation of major base game patches, as well as full Total Conversion functionality, including engrams, on Aberration and Scorched Earth
Server config value: "AllowCaveBuildingPvP=false" now supports blocking building in caves on Aberration, Extinction, Genesis Part 1, and Crystal Isles in preparation for Conquest server launch.
Enabled creature downloads on Aberration for the Genesis Part 2 permitted creatures, including Stryder, Maewing, Shadowmane, Noglin, and some R-variants.
Nameless and 
Reaper never spawn here, if they follow you from a surface entrance or other region, they will remain until they lose aggravation, then immediately burrow underground out of sight (possibly) when they reach this region.
cave-climbing picks, 
gliding wingsuits, and 
ziplines. Learn advanced Engrams to dominate the harsh environment, protect yourself with Hazard Suits, 
Charge Lanterns, 
Batteries, 
Glow Sticks, and much more. Thrive by gathering new resources, using 
fishing baskets, 
Gas Collectors, fortify your home within the caverns using 
cliff structures, and much more!
Fungal Wood and 
Gems. Rather than being an island, the majority of the map is enclosed underground biomes, making it especially advisable to carry a 
Compass or 
GPS to not get turned around in the dark twists and turns. Radiation seeps in at specific locations of the map, causing exposed players not wearing 
Protective Gear to take damage over time. Other new strange effects are also a feature.
Oil is harder to get, since other than the 
Trilobite, 
Dung Beetle, 
Lamprey and rare 
Seeker drops, the only other natural source of Oil is at the Surface or in the much more difficult area beyond The Spine. But It can be dropped by Tek Dinos.
Supply Crates only spawn on the surface, but unlike other maps, crates can still be found below the surface, outside of artifact caves, in the form of 
Loot Crates.
Green Gems are found almost immediately upon spawning in the Portal and are found further on in the Fertile region. 
Blue Gems are found within the Luminescent Biome. 
Red Gems are found in the more difficult depths of Aberration, in The Spine, Lost Roads, and Element Falls regions.
Wood but from the larger mushrooms scattered around the underground. It substitutes for 
Shag Rug.
Mushrooms appear around the map as a harvestable resource, similar to the bushes found for 
Berries. However, be careful to avoid the Blue or Red mushrooms found across the map, as these are harvestable but dangerous. Blue mushrooms inflict instant Hypothermia. Red mushrooms inflict hallucination, which can be deadly: side effects other than colorful vision include uncontrollable direction change, constant defecation and its attendant increased hunger, and forgetfulness of breathing - better known as Suffocation, but it ignores Oxygen level of the player as it automatically registers as if the player has 0 Oxygen. Any of these side effects could kill unprepared players. These effects can also harm shoulder-mounted dinos, so be careful. However, eating the 
Aquatic Mushroom provides temporary immunity to the Freezing Debuff or Luminous Poisons, and eating the 
Flint, 
Rare Mushrooms, 
Stone, Gems, 
Obsidian, and 
Crystal. They also randomly move sleeping survivors that are not anchored to their beds, and cause survivors using a zipline or climbing pick to fall.
Element can be crafted, called Charge Nodes. These require resources to craft, and one of the main items needed is 
Element Ore which is found on The Surface or in The Grave of the Lost.
Featherlight, 
Bulbdog, 
Glowtail, and 
Shinehorn.
Ravager quickly becomes a survivor favourite as the melee animal of choice, as their damage rapidly stacks with their pack bonus.
Organic Polymer.
Black Pearls.
Federation Exo Armor or 
Tek Armor negates the damaging effect on survivors (but damages the armor in the process), and also charges up their armor.
Surface Reaper Kings, and 
Rockwell can be fought here.
Elemental Reaper Kings and 
Alpha Basilisk
Alpha Karkinos
Alpha Surface Reaper King
Bulbdog
Elemental Reaper King
Featherlight
Glowbug
Glowtail
Lamprey
Nameless
Ravager
Reaper King
Rock Drake
Rockwell
Roll Rat
Seeker
Shinehorn
Subterranean Reaper King
Surface Reaper King
Yi Ling and a yet to be announced creature.
Aberrant Carbonemys
Aberrant Coelacanth
Aberrant Diplocaulus
Aberrant Dire Bear
Aberrant Dodo
Aberrant Doedicurus
Aberrant Equus
Aberrant Gigantopithecus
Aberrant Iguanodon
Aberrant Lystrosaurus
Aberrant Manta
Aberrant Meganeura
Aberrant Moschops
Aberrant Otter
Aberrant Ovis
Aberrant Paraceratherium
Aberrant Parasaur
Aberrant Piranha
Aberrant Raptor
Aberrant Sarco
Aberrant Stegosaurus
Aberrant Triceratops
Aberrant Trilobite
Giant Bee
Aberrant Achatina
Aberrant Anglerfish
Aberrant Ankylosaurus
Aberrant Arthropluera
Aberrant Baryonyx
Aberrant Beelzebufo
Aberrant Cnidaria
Aberrant Dimetrodon
Aberrant Diplodocus
Aberrant Dung Beetle
Aberrant Electrophorus
Aberrant Megalosaurus
Aberrant Salmon
Aberrant Titanoboa
Aberrant Araneo
Aberrant Dimorphodon
Aberrant Purlovia
Aberrant Dimorphodon was previously thought to not spawn, but has now been found in some regions of the map.
Aberrant Araneo has been known to be sighted around Grave of the Lost and Rockwell Terminal, but much like Dimorphodon, are a rare sight.
Aberrant Megalania exist within game files, but does not spawn on Aberration. This is due to a design choice in favor of Rock Drakes.[2] It was later added as tamable creature in Fjordur DLC expension map.
Aberrant Carnotaurus
Aberrant Megalania
Aberrant Pulmonoscorpius
Aberrant Spinosaur
Aberrant Ankylosaurus and 
Aberrant Doedicurus, due to their high utility in mining. You will need to feed them 
Mushroom Brew every 120 seconds to keep them from suffering the effects of Radiation. Finally, another noteworthy radiation-vulnerable creatures is 
Shadowmane: although immune to Fjordur's radiation it is not on Aberration.
Bunny Oviraptor
GachaClaus
Super Turkey
Blue Gem
Charge Battery
Congealed Gas Ball
Element Ore
Fungal Wood
Gasoline (Gas-Crafted)
Green Gem
Red Gem
Aggeravic Mushroom
Aquatic Mushroom
Ascerbic Mushroom
Auric Mushroom
Basilisk Egg
Featherlight Egg
Glowtail Egg
Mushroom Brew
Nameless Venom
Plant Species Z Seed
Reaper Pheromone Gland
Rock Drake Egg
Alpha Basilisk Fang
Alpha Karkinos Claw
Alpha Reaper King Barb
Basilisk Scale
Rock Drake Feather
Rockwell Flag
Rockwell Trophy
Charge Lantern
Climbing Pick
Glider Suit
Glow Stick
Hazard Suit Boots
Hazard Suit Gloves
Hazard Suit Hat
Hazard Suit Pants
Hazard Suit Shirt
Plant Species Z Fruit
Pliers
Tek Railgun
Zip-Line Anchor
Zip-Line Motor Attachment
Fish Basket
Gas Collector
Large Wood Elevator Platform
Medium Wood Elevator Platform
Metal Cliff Platform
Portable Rope Ladder
Shag Rug
Small Wood Elevator Platform
Stone Cliff Platform
Tek Sleeping Pod
Wood Elevator Top Switch
Wood Elevator Track
Basilisk Saddle
Karkinos Saddle
Ravager Saddle
Rock Drake Saddle
Rock Drake Tek Saddle
Roll Rat Saddle
Aberrant Helmet Skin
Aberrant Sword Skin
Bulbdog Mask Skin
Chili Helmet Skin
Cute Dino Helmet Skin
Decorative Ravager Saddle Skin
Otter Mask Skin
Reaper Helmet Skin
Scary Skull Helmet Skin
Explorer Notes can be found across the map. These Explorer Notes document the ARK lore. For more in-depth information, see Explorer Notes.
Dossiers can also be found on Aberration, written by Helena Walker to document the research of Aberration's creatures. For more in-depth information, see Dossiers.
Main article: 
Artifacts
Rock Drake, 
Basilisk, and 
Karkinos.
Tek Parasaur, 
Tek Raptor, 
Tek Stegosaurus and the 
Giant Bee.
Overseer would have spawned and been located in the same manner as on The Island. However, with the destruction of the 
Tek Teleporter couldn’t be built anywhere within Aberration.
Aberrant Cnidaria and 
Aberrant Megalosaurus does not stay awake when transferred to other maps such as Valguero or The Island.
ARK: Survival Evolved Changes
Structures
Tek
Other
Crafting Ingredients
Tribute Items
Mushrooms
Eggs
Other Consumables
Weapons
Saddles
Skins
Adventure Packs
