When will ARK Ascended Lost Island DLC Release?

Studio Wildcard has a history of delivering impressive DLCs for ARK Survival Evolved. The Lost Island DLC was particularly noteworthy, originating as a player-created mod before developers transformed it into an official DLC in response to its growing popularity. Given its acclaim, it's understandable that players are curious about the potential return of Lost Island in the enhanced ARK Survival Ascended.

The good news continues, as it has been confirmed that Lost Island will indeed make a comeback in ARK Survival Ascended. For those eager to learn more about what to anticipate, read on. Below, we will provide a comprehensive overview of the Lost Island DLC for ARK Survival Ascended, covering its release date, additional content, introduction of new creatures, and much more.

When will the Lost Island DLC be released in ARK Survival Ascended?

Important Update - Do keep in mind that the release date listed here is most likely going to be delayed. For context, the ARK Survival Ascended Abberation DLC was scheduled to launch in July 2024, but was pushed back to September 2024. This will no doubt have a knock on impact for the remaining DLC maps schedule to launch in 2024 and 2025.

Although we don’t have an official release date, the ARK Survival Ascended roadmap - which is subject to change - expects the Lost Island DLC update to launch in August 2025.

Thankfully, there are quite a few DLCs that will be released between now and then, with Scorched Earth and The Center coming soon, then Aberration, Ragnarok, Extinction, Valguero, Genesis, and Crystal Isles, all arriving before Lost Island. So while the wait will be long, we'll have quite a bit of content to hold us over until then.

Will the Lost Island Map Be Free for ARK Survival Ascended?

Yes, the Lost Island DLC will indeed be free with any purchase of ARK Survival Ascended, and this makes sense since the Lost Island is simply an expansion map and not a story and narratively driven DLC. But also because the developers have stated plenty of times that they want to ensure all players who came over from Evolved to Ascension don't have to pay twice for a DLC they already owned.

In terms of paid content, you can expect there will likely be some cosmetic items for sale, either via an in-game store or as an add-on for the DLC itself, similar to the Frontier Adventure pack that comes with the Scorched Earth DLC. For now, we still don't know which other paid-for content features might come, but we'll be sure to update this section once we do.

What to Expect from Lost Island in ARK Survival Ascended

Lost Island offers a huge selection of biomes and locations to explore, and this makes sense since the map is massive. It's about 150 square kilometers, which makes it larger than The Island, Scorched Earth, and The Center put together. This large land map gives rise to tons of creatures as well, with the unique feature of being the first DLC to have three unique creatures that can’t be found anywhere else – the Amargasaurus, Dinopithecus, and Sinomacrops.

This means that while we will be having a long wait before the arrival of Lost Island, there's tons of content to come when it does arrive, making it quite worth the wait. Of course, new dinos and areas or even new mechanics could be added with the time the developers have to work on it, so once we get more details, we'll be sure to let you know by keeping this section updated.

ARK Survival Ascended Lost Island Creature Vote Winner

Given that Lost Island is one of the most recent DLCs added to ARK Survival Evolved, and will be the second latest DLC addition for Ascended, no community creature vote winner has yet been declared for this DLC. The most recent additions were the three creatures mentioned before, the Amargasaurus, Dinopithecus, and Sinomacrops, so creature voting will likely begin as we get closer to the release of Lost Island, for now, we'll have to wait patiently for the polls to open up.

Will Lost Island's New Dinos Come To The Island?

Based on how the previous DLCs worked with their exclusive creatures, it's likely that we won't be able to spawn in or transfer (using Obelisks or TEK Transmitters) DLC exclusive dinos into the Island without the use of mods or tweaking some game files. The base creatures are likely to be transferrable or spawnable using console commands, but we still need more information to confirm, so once the other DLCs are released, we'll be able to confirm how creature transfers will work between the DLCs and the base game of The Island map.

So there you have it, a comprehensive breakdown of everything we expect to see regarding the Lost Island DLC coming to ARK Survival Ascended, including its release date window, content additions, new dinos, and much more. We will endeavor to keep this article updated with the latest official news, but since we're still some time away from the release, we suggest all readers take this information with a grain of salt and stay tuned for more official updates.