In the game survivors wake up stranded, naked, freezing, and starving on a mysterious island where they must hunt, harvest, craft items, grow crops, and build shelters to survive in every biome. Survivors will tame, train, and ride more than 100 stunning dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, including gargantuan creatures on a scale never before seen in video games! In every available biome -- Jungle, Snow, Swamp, Redwood, and Desert -- you’ll be able to fly an armed Pteranodon squadron over the snow-capped mountains, race through a thick jungle with your pack of trained Raptors, tromp through a fortified enemy base with a convoy of gigantic Brontosaurus, or chase down prey on the back of a raging T-Rex.

Use cunning strategy and tactics to tame and ride the many dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the dynamic, persistent ecosystems across land, sea, air, and even underground. Build your character’s strengths and gain items, skills, and pet creatures using in-depth role-playing systems. Start a tribe with hundreds of other players to survive and dominate competing tribes...and ultimately discover the ARK’s true purpose.

The base game will include The Island, a revamped Survival of the Fittest, and all the “Non-Canon” DLC maps (which will be added over time).

At ARK: Survival Ascended’s launch, players will have access to The Island, Scorched Earth, and the new revamped game mode, Survival of the Fittest.

Studio Wildcard is hosting a Steam free weekend for ARK: Survival Ascended.

From today until 10:00AM PST on Monday, April 8, ARK: Survival Ascended is free to play for all Steam players. Come try out the newly launched Scorched Earth expansion map, a free download for all ASA owners, that is filled with six desert-themed biomes teeming with dangerous new creatures including Deathworms and the ultimate desert steed: the Fasolasuchus.

ARK: Survival Ascended is now on limited-time sale for Steam and PlayStation players at 20% off while Xbox Game Pass players can play for free.

Additionally, Bob’s Tall Tales expansion pass is now available adding new gameplay features to each main map and four larger-than-life stories of the legendary “Bob” – voiced by Karl Urban (The Boys) — sharing his absolutely pivotal, undeniably central role in ARK’s history to young Meeka, voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana).

In Bob’s Tall Tales, experience the thrilling wonder and awesome spectacle of ARK veteran Bob’s epic adventures across The Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration, and Extinction! Each Tall Tale delivers unique and helpful creatures and vehicles like the monolithic Oasisaur & Trains on Scorched Earth -- with more to come in Aberration and Extinction. Play the Frontier Showdown now to saddle up and stake your claim on the Scorched Earth!

Finally, Survivors are able to unlock ARK: The Animated Series costumes in-game. Find ‘Dear Jane’ notes scattered throughout the map to unlock show favorites including Helena, Bob, Dodo, and Scary the Parasaur! Over 20 costumes are currently available and more will be added every Tuesday and Thursday until April 11th.

ARK: Survival Ascended will also feature the following improvements and enhancements:

• Unreal Engine 5 Overhaul with Nanite, Lumen, and RTXDI
• Dynamic Water and Interactive Foliage
• Cross-platform Multiplayer
  • This includes cross-platform accounts and cross-progression, cross-voice chat & friends, etc. No matter what platform ASA is started on, access is available to each account, character, dinos, and items on a different platform.
• Cross-platform Modding
  • Studio Wildcard has chosen to partner with Overwolf, the modding platform leader, to introduce an industry-first cross-platform modding experience where mods created on PC are delivered directly to end-users’ consoles from a custom modding backend.
  • Premium Modding Market: Mod creators will optionally be able to specify price points for their Mods (with 50% of the price point going to the Mod author). All mods will be reviewed by Overwolf and Studio Wildcard for quality control and value. The remainder pays for the custom infrastructure required for Overwolf to support, administrate, and deliver Mods to the console.
• Survival of the Fittest
  • SOTF will be integrated into ASA as a new fully-supported game mode. It will have a dedicated development team that will continue to work on gameplay changes, mechanical improvements, quality of life, maps, and balance adjustments. The mode will be revamped with an exclusive ARK: Survival Ascended update, including:
    • Upgraded to UE5 with complete cross-platform and cross-modding support
    • Scorched Earth SOTF map
    • Matchmaking queue
    • Character and creature customization with cosmetics
    • Lots of bug-fixes and balance and functionality improvements
• Upgraded art assets throughout the entire game.
• Newly-designed holiday events released as mods so they’re always available to play!
• New content, QoL improvements, balance, and gameplay changes.

RK: Survival Ascended is available for PC (Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.