Survival takes a sharp turn this week as the community-voted winner sinks its claws into the spotlight! With its lightning speed and razor-sharp instincts, this prehistoric predator is set to shake up the ARK in ways we can’t wait to dive into! Meanwhile, on the LiveOps front, we’ve been kept on our toes. We’ll break it all down, along with the steps we’re taking to keep things running as smoothly as possible.


With over 32k votes, Megaraptor will be the new creature added to Valguero for ARK: Survival Ascended. We are looking forward to sharing its concept and dossier in the weeks to come!

If you are interested in seeing exactly how the voting went, check it out here[app.rankedvote.co].

* Note that we'll be reading through these threads and using them as inspiration for how the creature will be designed; aspects suggested may change.
Our hosting providers are facing a severe, ongoing DDoS attack, which has caused recent outages, including those over the past 48 hours. We're actively working with our partners to mitigate the issue, but as with these types of attacks, we don’t yet have an estimated resolution.

While our partners work on it, we've taken steps to protect player progress:

• Increased the upload timer to 72 hours (and we’ll extend it further if needed).
  
• Temporarily disabled decay timers to prevent loss of player progress.
  
• Taken certain regions offline to protect player data when necessary.
  
• Extending the time on Expire Servers to give everyone a chance to retrieve their characters and items. Once things are more stable, we’ll announce a date—don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of notice.

We're closely monitoring mitigation efforts with our partners, but please keep in mind that the situation may continue to evolve.

We’ll be holding on running an EVO event this week in light of the instability–we’ll look to do something nice for players in that regard when this is all resolved. 

Thanks for your patience and support while we work through this!

Download & play new custom content created by players, including new maps, creatures, items, and game modes, through a dedicated new Mod-browser directly within the game. Enjoy an endless stream of new ARK content as the creativity and talent of the community is fully unleashed for the first time across gaming platforms and stay tuned as we spotlight more Cross-Platform Mods each week!

This video features:

• Althemia Magic Ground[www.curseforge.com] by j26arkitecto
  
• Castles Keeps and Forts[www.curseforge.com] by ExileAcid
  
• Stylized Egypt Structure Skins[www.curseforge.com] by r0sered

Fan Art Gallery[survivetheark.com] | Screenshot Gallery[survivetheark.com] | Artist Feedback Form[docs.google.com]

Creator: Etholdir
Etholdir guides you a tour of his beautiful gardens on Astraeos!
Creator: JoeLaFritt_
*international corner* JoeLaFritt has a helpful guide to help you start right on the mod ARK Descended!
JoeLaFritt te guide afin de t'aider à partir du bon pied sur le mod ARK Descended!
Amidst the barren earth... by @ewo_zaur
Federation airborne by @TekARK_01
Fan Art by ._rosiiee_.
Mae-chan by @cat22nyaa
My fav yuty by widetyranitar
Fan Art by akeunyub
They're so silly and I needed to doodle by savvytabby
Photo Mode by godzilla402
Omg by tkgoji230
Juagku-style architecture by @oititukumono
A Greek Starter House! by lolsatlance
Photo Mode by targaryenreignn
Enjoy your weekend!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark

Discord: discord.com/invite/playark

Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark

Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark

Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark

Steam: steamproxy.net/app/346110

Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark

Threads: threads.net/@survivetheark

Official Wiki: https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/ARK_Survival_Evolved_Wiki

Survivors, we’re thrilled to see so many of you enjoying Astraeos! While we continue working on fixes to smooth out your adventures, we’ve got a little more love to share—Love Ascended will now run through Monday, giving you extra time to revel in the romance. And speaking of passion, we’ve got some words from Astraeos’ creator, Nekatus, about the journey so far…


I want to thank everyone for the support and love for Astraeos. I am very proud to bring another official map to the game and I am very excited to bring more content to Astraeos. Our journey has only just started! We are aware of the technical issues and we are very actively working on resolving them to bring you as bug-free a map as possible.

Thank you for your patience, your feedback, and for your reports! I also wanted to give you an idea about what to expect from the next major content update. Here are the details:

The conclusion of the Valguero Community Creature Vote is just around the corner, and the competition has been fierce! The submitted creatures have been nothing short of incredible. You still have the weekend to cast your vote and decide which creature will make its mark on Valguero in ARK: Survival Ascended!

• The second round of voting ends on Friday, February 28th at 1 pm Pacific.
  
• The winner* will be announced in the Crunch on the same day.

• Rank the creatures in order of most preferred to least preferred
  
• The vote is limited to 1 submission per person (duplicate entries will be discarded)

Below are the candidates that have made it into the final 10. Find out more information about the creature by clicking on the hyperlink attached to the name. Cast your vote here[app.rankedvote.co].

• Giant Stick Bug[survivetheark.com]
  
• Megaraptor[survivetheark.com]
  
• Xenoceratops Thunderus[survivetheark.com]
  
• Tanystropheus[survivetheark.com]
  
• Cryodrakon Chione[survivetheark.com]
  
• Desmatosuchus Gourmandi[survivetheark.com]
  
• Coelophysis[survivetheark.com]
  
• Pentaceratops Imperialis[survivetheark.com]
  
• Acinonyx[survivetheark.com]
  
• Aerotitan[survivetheark.com]

Overview of all the finalists here[survivetheark.com].

* Note that once the winner has been determined, we'll be reading through these threads and using them as inspiration for how the creature will be designed; aspects suggested may change.

Download in full resolution[drive.google.com]

Can you feel the love in the air? Love Ascended is now extended until Monday, February 24, 2025. This love-filled event, celebrating Valentine’s Day brings an array of enchanting new treats and delights!

To view all the event details, click here[survivetheark.com].

Download & play new custom content created by players, including new maps, creatures, items, and game modes, through a dedicated new Mod-browser directly within the game. Enjoy an endless stream of new ARK content as the creativity and talent of the community is fully unleashed for the first time across gaming platforms and stay tuned as we spotlight more Cross-Platform Mods each week!

This video features:

• Gigantoraptor Costume Skin[www.curseforge.com] by TeamMIROKU
  
• Cliffan’s Outfits: The Precursor Tek Suit[www.curseforge.com] by Cliffan
  
• Custom Cosmetic: Waggan[www.curseforge.com] by NiranV
  
• Paleo ARK Evolution | Apex Predators[www.curseforge.com] by Team Paleo ARK
  
• Scrapped Assets: Hiveopod Update[www.curseforge.com] by Armangamer777
  
• Ultimate Sign Collection[www.curseforge.com] by SnowyTrain (premium)
  
• Claystone Structure Skins[www.curseforge.com] by SnowyTrain (premium)
  
• Paleo ARK Evolution | Dangerous Depths[www.curseforge.com] by Team Paleo ARK
  
• Isle of Myths: Skyshroud Drakara[www.curseforge.com] by BlueSucho
  
• Random Configs[www.curseforge.com] by Hazearil
  
• MSVV Skjaldastordr[www.curseforge.com] by Deckard

Periodically we perform maintenance on our Official Server Network. During this time the servers will not be running therefore time will not progress.

Here are the dates for the upcoming maintenance:

• February 25th at 8:00AM PT / 11:00AM ET
  
• February 26th at 7:30AM PT / 10:30AM ET
  
• February 27th at 7:30AM PT / 10:30AM ET

To see if your server will be affected follow this page[survivetheark.com].


Expire servers are temporary servers across the network that will eventually be removed, and you can find them by searching for "Expire" in the session filter.

These servers will be online until 10 am PST / 1 pm EST on February 28th. We're preemptively using our allocation for future maps to host some additional sessions that players can travel onto to farm, tame, and experience the newest content Gameplay. The same transfer restrictions apply in that you are only able to download your character, but you can freely take anything off. This is to help reduce load off some of the other servers, or provide players an option for those who just want to jump onto a new map temporarily.

Please note that these servers will no longer exist after 10 am PST / 1 pm EST on February 28th, so if you intend to use them, remember to transfer your items/creatures/characters off before that date, as nothing will be saved beyond that time period.


Please note that some locations will be made non-buildable with the patch coming mid-next week. Inside the caves as well as the areas around the cave entrance will be affected. If you built in this area, make sure you move location before then.

This weekend, the Official Network will be receiving bonus rates! It will be active until Monday, February 24.

• PVP/PVE: 2x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience, and Breeding
  
• Small Tribes: 4.5x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience + 4x Breeding
  
• ARKpocalypse: 5x Harvesting, Taming and Experience, and Breeding

Fan Art Gallery[survivetheark.com] | Screenshot Gallery[survivetheark.com] | Artist Feedback Form[docs.google.com]

Creator: Savkyn
Build your very own Greek estate on a secluded island of Astraeos with this tutorial and tour!
Creator: BEYPlaysGames
BEYPlaysGames takes a dive into what are the best and most useful creatures to tame for beating Astraeos.
Metchup the Lystro by chepedukduks
Titan Trio by nezuyu
Maewing by @kinosei_x2
Maeguana by @SS38529630
Happy Valentine's Day by @falco_luna
Quetzalcoatlus by Snotty
Ark: The Animated Series, Wakíya Natá Ú by Tostín
This is where you came from lil guy! by lhannan
I Built a Giant Car by antoniopepperonio
Desolablue by acq.mp3
This thing's pretty neat by cosmicman5455
Photo Mode by frozen_soap
Enjoy your weekend!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark

Discord: discord.com/invite/playark

Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark

Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark

Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark

Steam: steamproxy.net/app/346110

Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark

Threads: threads.net/@survivetheark

Official Wiki: https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/ARK_Survival_Evolved_Wiki