ARK: Survival Ascended — Community Crunch 505: Deep Dives & Technical Strides. What’s Surfacing Next!

This week’s a big one. We’ve just rolled out a major version update for Lost Colony, packed with a mountain of fixes, improvements, and under-the-hood tuning. A lot of what you’ve been flagging, reporting, and asking about has been front and center for us, and this update is a direct result of that ongoing back-and-forth. Keep it coming, it’s making a difference.

Just as importantly, existing content, systems, and long-standing issues are still very much in our sights, and this update continues that work. We’re committed to refining and improving the live game alongside new content, with more fixes and improvements planned as we move forward.

We’re also looking ahead with a refreshed roadmap for the rest of the year, giving you a clearer picture of what’s coming next.

But before we dive into all of that…

Let’s take a closer look at the Palaeoctopus.

Thought you were safe on that cliffside? Think again.

The Palaeoctopus is officially joining the roster for Genesis Ascended Part 1, and it’s bringing a whole new level of 'nope' to the ocean.

Outmaneuvering it is a losing game. This calculating cephalopod uses the environment as a weapon, dragging its weight across the verticality of the map to corner the unsuspecting. It thrives on chaos, seizing and holding anything within reach until the battlefield is under its complete control. If you’re near the water, you're on its turf.

Prepare yourselves. The community’s choice enters the fray in ARK: Survival Ascended with the arrival of Genesis Ascended Part 1.

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Species: Palaeoctopus aquacaptor Time: Late Cretaceous Diet: Carnivore Temperament: Mercurial and acquisitive

It seems we Survivors have delved too far, and roused a phantasmic new sea-monster from the depths. Paleoctopus aquacaptor uses its chromatic camouflage to strike from out of nowhere, seizing the unwary in its crushing tentacles, two at a time. Its fearsome beak can crack the toughest shell or armor to devour the soft innards of its captives.

In the rare event it needs to retreat underwater, Palaeoctopus can use its siphon to blast a threat backwards and jet away with surprising speed. Those tentacles let Paleoctopus scale sheer cliffs to drag itself out of the sea, though it’s understandably much less agile on land.

Its natural toxicity makes Paleoctopus especially difficult to tranquilize and tame, so sedating one isn’t for the faint of heart… You have to let it drag you in close for a crushing bite, and feed narcotics into its maw while keeping clear of that deadly beak.

Manage to tame a Palaeoctopus, and you’ll never want for ink again. Your new cephalopod supplier can be gently coaxed to provide any color of ink your heart desires.

While it may not set any land speed records, Palaeoctopus can get you up cliffs and over walls… or onto a moving Ship or platform saddle. Above or below the sea, this formidable mollusk can take a lot of punishment. Just make sure to hold on tight if it uses its underwater jet-propulsion.

The Lost Colony major version update is now live! This patch focuses on tightening up several key areas of the DLC, with specific critical bug fixes to the boss fight, thralls, outposts, and performance. We also included a range of general fixes affecting various gameplay systems and stability improvements.

Gameplay Changes, Balance & QoL

• On Lost Colony: Ruins of the Ascendant Cavern, Cavern of the Whispering Needle and Cavern of the Sapphire Cascades have had their entrances reduced in size

• Note: These entrances were very open and easily accessible, particularly for larger creatures, so this change is intended to improve PvP viability and make them more defensible

• Equipment Traits can now be upgraded in the Megalab:

• 10 lower-tier Equipment Traits can be combined to create 1 of the next tier

• Note: We’ve seen that lower-tier traits were not particularly valuable on their own, so this change allows them to build toward something more meaningful

• Added Repeatable Global Milestones after completing all standard Global Milestones:

• These provide an ongoing source of XP for players who have completed all Milestone progression

• A rotating selection of higher-tier Milestone tasks can now be completed repeatedly

• XP rewards scale with player level to remain relevant at higher levels

• Completing a Repeatable Milestone while mounted will also grant a portion of the XP to the ridden creature

• Gigadesmodus can now walk backwards

• Note: As it functions as a semi-ground mount during ability use, it felt unnecessarily clumsy to control without this, so this should make handling feel much smoother

• Malwyn now has access to a traversal teleport ability

• Note: Malwyn was feeling noticeably immobile compared to other creatures in its size bracket, so this should help it better keep up

• Solwyn’s Ice Bridges can now be placed near enemy structures

• On PvE, Ice Bridges can be destroyed via the MUW to help prevent griefing

• Note: Placement was feeling overly restrictive, especially on PvE servers with dense structure coverage, so this should open up more practical usage

• Ossidon Taming: Reduced number of creatures required to roll up during taming by approximately ~30% (greater reduction at lower levels)

• Note: Taming required too much setup and area clearing beforehand, so this should make the process more approachable without removing the challenge entirely

• Player characters can now perform a larger jump while stuck or sliding on an incline, to help get unstuck in certain situations

• Note: Getting stuck in terrain has been a long-standing frustration, so this should help resolve some of the more common cases where players get trapped

• Gloon’s chargelight can now be toggled remotely using the player “Clap” emote, similar to other charge pets

• Added Boss Teleporter crafting functionality to Lost Colony loot crates as an alternative way to start the boss fight

• Added the option to disable custom proportions when wearing cosmetics

• Tribe Tower Element bonus now correctly applies during the Lost Colony boss fight

• Prevented Template Building on Platform saddles with the Clipboard & Hammer on Official PvP Servers

• Unofficial server owners can toggle this in GameUserSettings.ini with PreventTemplateOnSaddle=True

General Bug Fixes

• Fixed cases where Milestones could become stuck in a completed state

• Fixed cases where Milestone cosmetics would not remain unlocked

• Fixed an issue causing server transfers to fail after auto-dropping incompatible items

• Fixed an issue causing player profile data to bloat during server transfers

• Reduced the client stall when loading into a Lost Colony Outpost for the first time

• Fixed server stall when starting Lost Colony Outpost missions

• Fixed a large performance hit when destroying heavily snapped structure networks

• Fixed enemies becoming stuck inside structures during the Lost Colony boss fight

• Fixed erroneous anti-mesh triggers in parts of the Lost Colony boss fight arena

• Fixed a specific stuck spot in the Lost Colony boss fight arena

• Fixed being able to possess sleeping Thralls during the Lost Queen boss fight

• Fixed instances where Lost Colony Outpost enemies would get stuck or fall into the mesh during missions

• Fixed instances where Lost Colony Outpost enemies would fail to return to the mission area

• Fixed being unable to quick-mount a dino after placing structures in an Outpost Defense mission

• Fixed Lost Colony mission timers displaying incorrectly in SinglePlayer

• Fixed tamed Thralls reverting to “Follow” behavior on server restart

• Fixed Possessed Thralls using AI weapons when whistled to attack

• Fixed Veilwyns having difficulty pathing in water

• Fixed inability to use weapons correctly while grabbed by Aureliax

• Fixed an overspawn of Armadoggo on Extinction

• Fixed an issue where creatures would not die from blood loss if a Medical Stand was on their platform

• Fixed Scout not correctly consuming Red Element Dust when deployed

• Fixed losing the Scout when punching while using binoculars

• Fixed passengers occasionally falling into the mesh when dismounting a Grand Tortugar

• Fixed players getting stuck on top of Cryofridges when placed as flooring

• Fixed structures losing collision when applying steampunk cosmetics

• Fixed Titanosaur platform saddle displaying duplicate meshes

• Fixed Rhyniognatha force-landing after picking up structures inside a Vacuum Compartment

• Fixed Tek Replicator not being craftable within a Tek Replicator

• Fixed gamepad inability to toggle FPV/TPV on Gigadesmodus

• Fixed inability to toggle tooltips in the Garage UI

• Fixed gamepad input not correctly switching UI mode in the main menu

• Fixed Lost Colony Ceiling & Ground Lights casting light in the wrong direction

• Fixed Lost Colony Ceiling Lights floating after their supporting structure is removed

• Fixed respawn SFX not aligning correctly with respawn animation

• Fixed some sound effects failing to play after painting your character

• Updated Glider description to match its functionality as an accessory

• Fixed Pheromone Dart crafting only producing a single item when crafting multiple

• Adjusted HDR dropdown behavior in the UI on Steam

• Fixed ClubARK sometimes appearing as a Premium Mod

• Improved underwater detritus visuals across multiple maps

• Fixed Aberration ascension cutscene being overexposed

• Semi-translucent UI elements are now hidden when using AMD Frame Interpolation to prevent artifacts

• Fixed multiple mesh holes on Lost Colony

• Fixed trees visually respawning when leaving render range on Lost Colony (client-side)

• Added missing Lost Colony voice line when spotted by a Watcher

• Xbox:

• Fixed shadows behaving incorrectly on Lost Colony

• Fixed occasional player blinking issue

• Xbox/PS5:

• Fixed green overlay in Whisperwind Crag area on Lost Colony

• Fixed interactable snow VFX burst occasionally remaining on screen

• Fixed an issue that caused low FPS on Lost Colony when looking up towards the sky

• PS5:

• Fixed texture corruption on characters, creatures, and structures

• Fixed inability to delete structure templates using the Clipboard & Hammer

• Fixed a crash that could occur while dynamically downloading mods

• Fixed a client crash that could occur during Scorched Earth ascension in SinglePlayer

• Fixed several exploits

With this major version update in player’s hands, our broader development efforts are continuing to move toward the milestones ahead and the rest of our 2026 plans. Support for the live game, including Lost Colony, remains ongoing. Our Live Ops team will continue monitoring reports across the network, with additional fixes planned over the coming weeks as we keep tightening up key areas of the DLC.

We’re kicking off the series of community-voted creature TLCs on May 19th, starting with the Araneo. This first update gives one of ARK’s classic creepy crawlies some long-overdue attention, turning it into a vertical threat that dominates the high ground.

The Burrowbuck will also make its debut alongside this update as the first of three creatures in the Fantastic Tames: Season 1 pack, with the remaining two set to arrive throughout 2026. It makes for a creature-heavy start to the next stretch of updates, and we’re excited to keep revisiting more of your top TLC picks throughout the year.

Unreal Engine 5.7 is one of the biggest technical milestones ahead for ASA, so we wanted to give an update on where things stand. It’s a heavy lift, and we’re giving it the time it needs to ensure it lands as cleanly as possible. Engine upgrades, while introducing new technology and solutions, can also introduce a level of unpredictability; consequently, we have decided to prioritize stability over speed to protect the upcoming launch of Genesis Ascended Part 1 and ARK Tides of Fortune.

It’s important for our team that both these planned major content releases and the engine upgrade go as smoothly and effectively as possible. To support this, we’ve hired a number of talented senior Unreal Engine veterans to the team, deepening our core engine and graphics expertise. These engineers are here for the long term, so you’ll see them helping us improve the game with performance optimization, platform-specific bug fixes, and feature development. We’re very excited about their arrival!

With this expanded team and a commitment to a high-quality rollout, we are now targeting a late Q3 launch for the 5.7 upgrade, with a focus on delivering tangible performance gains.

We’re also planning to release World Creator alongside the engine upgrade. For those catching up: this mode brings map-building directly into the game, allowing for basic editing, creating entirely new maps, and features scripting on any platform without needing a high-powered PC or downloading our external devkit. It’s designed to be the easiest way for players to assemble their own environments; you'll be able to modify actors, add spawners, write your own functional Lua scripts in-game, and apply mods before publishing your work to the Mod Browser.

Genesis Ascended Part 1 arrives on June 25 alongside Tides of Fortune, bringing a major expansion to ASA’s world. Expect a shift toward large-scale ocean gameplay, with features like customizable ships, map-wide water systems, and new opportunities for exploration and combat at sea. We’ll have more to share as we chart the course toward launch.

Survival of the Fittest, a free mod for ARK: Survival Ascended developed by Studio Sirens, continues to take shape. The team has adjusted their internal timeline to ensure the next milestone lands correctly, and they are currently targeting July for the update.

From community-voted TLCs to the cinematic scale of Genesis Ascended and Tides of Fortune, ASA is entering a season of massive evolution. With the Unreal Engine 5.7 upgrade and World Creator redefining the horizon, and something legendary still breathing fire in the wings, the road ahead is electric.

We’re just getting started, and we can’t wait to bring you along as the final blueprints for this vision come to life!

Hey Survivors, after careful assessment, we've opted to begin the process of sunsetting a selection of our inactive official servers. Our goal is to ensure that we're always delivering the best experience possible, and official servers exist as a way for the community to play together without having to host their own. When we launch fresh content, typically, we put up more servers than we need in the long term to match the peak in user capacity; over time, these servers become ghost towns as players have dropped off and are waiting for the next major content release.

As part of this process, the servers will be renamed with the “SUNSET” prefix, following the same approach we’ve used in the past. Please note that once renamed, these servers will be removed from the in-game Favorites list, so you’ll need to search for them manually to reconnect.

On June 19th, we'll be sunsetting these inactive Island servers, click on Show More to see the updated detailed list.

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