ARK Ascended Aberration DLC Release Date, Content, New Dinos And More

With ARK Survival Ascended receiving positive feedback from fans post-release, players are now turning their attention to the future, eagerly awaiting upcoming DLCs and expansions. One such highly anticipated expansion is Aberration, a favorite among many players. If you're one of them, this guide is tailored for you.

In the following sections, we will delve into everything known about the Aberration DLC expansion for ARK Survival Ascended, covering details such as the expected release date, content additions, introduction of new dinosaurs, and more. Let's dive right in.

Latest News

If there's any news, leaks or updates on the state of ARK Survival Ascended's upcoming 'Aberration' DLC, we'll drop it just below:

18 March 2024 - Studio Wildcard Reveal 'Bob's ARK Tall Tales'

Studio Wildcard's latest Community Crunch blogpost has announced 'Bob's ARK Tall Tales' which looks like it's going to act as some type of new content intended to tease the upcoming ARK 2 game.

According to the blog post: 

"Legendary ARK veteran Bob -- voiced by Karl Urban -- is ready to share his incredibly true adventures with you for the first time! Nothing can prepare you for the wonder and two-fisted action of Bob's Tall Tales!

"Piece together Bob's larger-than-life ARK saga by recovering his animated Explorer Notes! You’ll feel like you were right there with Bob from the beginning, as he describes his pivotal role in ARK’s history to young Meeka -- voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho."

Meeka, is the young girl seen in the ARK 2 trailers, but the artwork for Bob's Tall Tales' appears to be related to the upcoming map expansions in ARK Survival Ascended. 

As you can see from the artwork below, there are references to ARK Scorched Earth, Aberration, and Extinction.

So it's possible we're going to see new content - intended to tease ARK 2 - in these upcoming map expansions. For now, it's still quite unclear what this is and how it will work. That said, perhaps we'll learn more once the first animated Explorers Notes are released on March 31 (pending certification).

When will the Aberration DLC be released in ARK Survival Ascended?

At the current time of writing, we don't have a concrete release date for the Aberration DLC for ARK Survival Ascended; however, we do have some indicators that can give us a general window for its release. Based on the roadmap that's been given to us by the developers, as well as confirmed in past developer streams, we expect the Aberration DLC to be released in Q2 of 2024 (roughly around May).

Based on this, Aberration will arrive just a little bit after the release of the Scorched Earth DLC and The Center map, which will be arriving soon. As a quick refresher, Aberration sees players enter a damaged ARK that forced its inhabitants to survive in large tunnel and cave networks due to radiation on the surface. 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.

Will the Aberration Map Be Free for ARK Survival Ascended?

Yes, the Aberration DLC will be free for ARK Survival Ascended players. The reason for this is that the developers have chosen to reward all players for coming over from Survival Evolved to Ascended and thus have access to all the base DLC content for free once they are released. There will still be some purchases, but those will extend only to additional features such as cosmetics or item packs (for instance, Scorched Earth's Frontier Adventure Pack).

Now, while we don't know what type of content might be paid for in the Aberration DLC, we suspect that it will also feature its own cosmetic and item packs. But for now, we'll just have to wait and see.

What to Expect from Aberration in ARK Survival Ascended

As previously mentioned, Aberration takes place on an entirely new ARK, and we expect that the creatures, items, and mechanics we've seen in the DLC for Evolved will make their way into this DLC in Ascended (just with a fresh coat of paint). We expect the return of dinos such as the Rock Drake, Karkinos, and Reaper, as well as items unique to the map such as cave climbing picks, ziplines, and charge lanterns, specifically tailored to survive the harsh environments of the cave systems that make up the map of Aberration.

Variants of The Island dinos will also appear in the Aberration DLC, known as Aberrant Creatures, and are essentially just Aberration variants of their Island counterparts. Items like metal structures, weapons, and other items will also carry over from The Island map and should result in quite a varied array of content to enjoy. Of course, we still need confirmation before we make any definitive statements, so we'll update you once we know more regarding what's to come in Aberration.

ARK Survival Ascended Aberration Creature Vote Winner

Aside from the dinos that will be returning from the previous iteration of Aberration, we will also be seeing a brand new dino hit the ARK called the Yi Qi (image below), the official Aberration Creature Vote winner back in 2023. Rumored to be spooky and flightless, much like many of the denizens of the area, the Yi Qi appears to have some unique abilities up its sleeve, and we will be waiting with excitement to hear more about this beautiful-looking dino in Aberration.

Will Aberration's New Dinos Come To The Island?

As we mentioned earlier, Aberration versions of The Island creatures will be present in Aberration, and these dinos will likely be transferable, either via Obelisks or spawn commands, to the original Island map for those looking to make these Aberrant creatures at home on a map that's less irradiated and underground. We are still uncertain, however, as to whether DLC-exclusive creatures will be transferable, or if players will need to spawn them with some trickery, but we'll be sure to keep you up to date on this specific topic.

So there you have it, everything we know so far regarding the Aberration DLC in ARK Survival Ascended. All of this information is still quite subject to change, so take it with a grain of salt for now, and we'll be sure to update you with the latest official Aberration DLC news as soon as it becomes available.