Community Crunch 489: Naughty, Nice, or Eaten, Raptor Claus Returns!

Hear that jingle? That’s not your Parasaur. RaptorClaus is back at midnight, dropping gift boxes packed with juicy loot… plus Mistletoe for the nice and Coal for the naughty. Survey the skies, claim the drops, and don’t trust anyone “just watching.” Winter Wonderland is live, Survivors!

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Deck the halls with boughs of holly! Winter Wonderland returns with new presents and goodies for ARK survivors. The epic winter-themed holiday event begins on December 19, 2025 and will be live until January 5, 2026 on Official Servers.

Dec 19th to Jan 5th

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

RaptorClaus

Appears at midnight (game time) on all maps

Jerboa Sleigh

Santa’s Big Helper Yeti

Drops Coal and Mistletoe.

Abominable Snowman

Drops Coal and Mistletoe.

Pegomastax Grouch

Drops Coal and Mistletoe.

Steals Gift Boxes in return for a special reward.

Wild Rideable Reindeer

Drops Coal and Mistletoe.

Can be fed Rockarrot and ridden for additional drop amounts.

Gacha Claus

RaptorClaus

Hyaenadeer

Chibi-Festive Bulbdog (Green)

Chibi-Festive Bulbdog (Red)

Chibi-Festive Featherlight (Green)

Chibi-Festive Featherlight (Red)

Chibi-Festive Glowtail (Green)

Chibi-Festive Glowtail (Red)

Chibi-Festive Shinehorn (Green)

Chibi-Festive Shinehorn (Red)

Chibi-Gacha Claus

Chibi-Reindeer

White-Collar Kairuku Chibi

Mistletoe Emote *NEW*

Holiday Kiss Emote *NEW*

Happy Clap Emote

Nutcracker Dance Emote

Shiver Emote

Snow Angel Emote

Jolly Jump Emote

Caroling Emote

Gingerbread Structure Tileset *NEW*

Structures

Seats *NEW*

Gingerbread Chair *NEW*

Gingerbread Bench *NEW*

Gingerbread Table *NEW*

Festive Decorations

Gumdrop *NEW*

Snowflake *NEW*

Snowman *NEW*

Gingerbread man *NEW*

Gingerbread Sleigh *NEW*

Gingerbread Tree *NEW*

Dino Cookie *NEW*

Candy Cane *NEW*

Lolipop Prop *NEW*

Candycane Lamp *NEW*

Gingerbread Storagebox *NEW*

Peppermint Rug *NEW*

Hot Cocoa Beer Barrel *NEW*

Gingerbread Tribe Tower *NEW*

Christmas Tree Ghillie Suit Set Skin *NEW*

Blue-Ball Winter Beanie Skin

Candy Cane Club Skin

Christmas Bola Skin

Dino Ornament Swimsuit Skins

Felt Reindeer Antlers Skin

Gray-Ball Winter Beanie Skin

Green-Ball Winter Beanie Skin

HLN-A Winter Beanie Skin

Jerboa Wreath Swimsuit Skins

Megaloceros Reindeer Costume

Noglin Regift Winter Beanie Skin

Noglin Swimsuit Skins

Nutcracker Slingshot Skin

Purple-Ball Winter Beanie Skin

Purple-Ball Winter Beanie Skin (Winter Wonderland 5)

Raptor Sleighing Winter Beanie Skin

Red-Ball Winter Beanie Skin

Santa Costume Skin

Santa Hat Skin

Snowy Winter Beanie Skin

Ugly Carno Sweater Skin

Ugly Chibi Sweater Skin

Ugly Bronto Sweater Skin

Ugly Bulbdog Sweater Skin

Ugly Caroling Sweater Skin

Ugly Noglin Regift Sweater Skin

Ugly Raptor Claws Sweater Skin

Ugly Rockwell Sweater Skin

Ugly T-Rex Sweater Skin

Yeti Swimsuit Skins

Full-body Krampus Costume Player Character Skin/Cosmetic

Santa’s Workshop Smithy Structure Skin

Festive Forge Structure Skin

Gingerbread Person Costume

Snowman Hat

Winter Gloves

Candycane Pike Skin

Candycane Spike Wall

Coal

Festive Dino Candy

Gift Box

Holiday Lights

Holiday Stocking

Holiday Tree

Mistletoe

Snowman

Wreath

ActualBlack

Cyan

DeepPink

Dino Dark Purple

Mint

Lavender

Dino Light Purple

Dino Light Blue

DragonGreen0

Jade

PineGreen

SpruceGreen

DarkMagenta

Glacial

PowderBlue

Teal

DarkViolet

Red

Green

Light Grey

Light Red

Dark Red

Dino Light Red

Dino Light Green

Dino Medium Green

Dino Albino

NearWhite

Yellow

From the Main Menu, select the mod tab.

Search for Winter Wonderland in the ARK Mod list and install it. Mod ID: 927090

After it’s installed, go back to your game setup screen and select ‘Mod Settings.’

You will see Winter Wonderland and any other mods you’ve downloaded in ‘Available Mods.’

Select Winter Wonderland and activate it.

If you would like to enable Winter Wonderland on your private servers, please add the mod ID to your server command-line launch arguments (-mods=modID). No other changes should be necessary to activate the event.
Mod ID: 927090.

Survivor, the sun is setting on Arat Prime, and the war for the city has begun.

This is no longer just about survival. It is about dominion.
Three forces now clash for control of the Necrocene.
We want you to bring that conflict to life, through the lens of your chosen faction.
The Faction Art Contest begins.

Pick your side, draw your allegiance, and help your faction conquer the Lost Colony.

Entries Open: Friday, December 19th

Entries Close: Monday, January 19th

Finalist & Voting Announced: Friday, January 23rd

Winners Announced: Friday, January 30th

Choose your muse carefully. Each faction carries its own visual identity.

The Vibe: Scrappy, defiant, warm.

The Lore: You are the survivors. You do not belong here, but you refuse to die. You bring fire to the ice and technology to the ruins. You are the spark in the dark.

The Vibe: Cold, regal, gothic.

The Lore: The Lost King’s eternal army. They are the statues that watch you, and the guards that hunt you. Woven into the architecture itself, silent and deadly.

The Vibe: Twisted, alien, neon.

The Lore: Rockwell’s nightmare has leaked into the city. Spikes, tentacles, madness. They are the chaos devouring all remaining order.

Create an original piece of art representing one of the three factions

Submit your work in the #lostcolony-submissions thread on the ARK Discord

CRITICAL: Your post must begin with the faction tag

[TRESPASSER]

[DAMNED]

[CORRUPTED]

We will select a shortlist for each faction, then open voting to the community to determine:

Best in Class

The best artist for each individual faction. All Best-in-Class winners and runners-up will receive Lost Colony keys.

The Grand Victor

The single artwork with the most votes overall decides which faction claims the Discord.

Grand Victor rewards include:

Server Banner: The winning artwork becomes the faction’s pinned banner for the week.

Exclusive Role: The Grand Victor receives a unique “Champion of the Lost Colony” role.

The Grand Prize:

TOTAL DISCORD SERVER TAKEOVER!

The winning faction will conquer this Discord for a full week.

Your submission must be on theme.

You need to have the rights to the image you submit. No copyrighted material or artwork made by others without consent.

One submission per user. No multiple submissions or submissions across multiple categories.

Content must follow server rules:

No NSFW, derogatory, discriminatory, or disrespectful content.

PG-13 only.

No AI-generated content.

Not an artist? You can still fight for your side.

React to this post with the emoji of your chosen faction in the ARK Discord to gain a special role.

The faction with the most pledges at the end of the contest will receive a special community reward.

We’ve just rolled out a major version update alongside Lost Colony, so be sure to check out the full patch notes.

We’ve identified a memory leak on Lost Colony and the team is actively iterating on a fix, with a patch coming soon. Our LiveOps crew is closely monitoring things post-launch and working through player reports to address bugs and other issues.

Your reports are helping us prioritize fixes and improvements, and we appreciate everyone who continues to share feedback.

We’re aiming to roll out a second wave of mixed Official Lost Colony servers later today, alongside a deployment to address a crash. We’ll aim to give at least thirty minutes’ notice, so keep an eye on the announcements in our Official Discord if you’re waiting on the server drop.

We’ll continue actively monitoring performance and stability, with ongoing updates aimed at improving the overall experience for players.

To meet demand for Lost Colony, we will have temporary “Expires” Official servers. These Expire servers will be online until March the 2nd 2026.

We’re hosting some additional sessions that players can travel onto to farm, tame, and experience the Lost Colony 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 Lost Colony temporarily.

Please note that these servers will no longer exist after March 2nd, 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.

Plunge through the icy heart of darkness as you reunite with old legends, while rekindling hope for the next generation. ARK: Lost Colony bridges the gap between Extinction and ARK 2 with the most ambitious narrative experience in the franchise’s history.

Find out all the details here!

The Official Network will be receiving bonus rates! It will be active until Monday, January 5.

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 | Screenshot Gallery | Artist Feedback Form

Creator: Serekai Survives

Serakai made a comprehensive overview to help you on your way to tame the new Lost Colony creatures, find the Lost Colony armor cosmetics and how to deal with all of the new mechanics.

Creator: The AxeMan

Axeman shows how to tame the Aureliax!

˗ˏˋ ✸ ˎˊ˗ by @WolfTek7

Krampus by @falco_luna

Ark Lost Enforcer by @StudiosGoji

The Auditor by @TekARK_01

I kept wondering about that Gloon’s ability in Lost Colony by @zondeeee730

Merry Christmas by @ohatumuu

Photo Mode by .missowl.

Let’s have fun at the Christmas carousel by bubu_0815

It’s not snowy everywhere at Christmas! by lolsatlance

Photo Mode by the.handyman.builds

Photo Mode by undead.kitten

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: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Threads: threads.net/@survivetheark
Official Wiki: ark.wiki.gg