We hope your year’s off to a good start, and that you’ve had a chance to spend some time recharging over the holidays, whether that meant catching up with loved ones, getting outside, or sneaking in a few extra gaming sessions. However you rang in the new year, it’s been great seeing players carving out their foothold in Lost Colony, sharing their stories, and pushing deeper into its frozen reaches.
As the team comes back together and this new year gets going, we’re turning our focus to what’s coming next.
Looking ahead, we want to share a high-level outline of what’s on the horizon for ARK: Survival Ascended.
Below, you’ll find an updated product roadmap highlighting major upcoming expansions and releases planned across 2026 and into 2027, giving you an overview of what you can expect in the coming year.
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Survival of the Fittest by Studio Sirens: A new vision for the free Mod within ASA, refreshed and improved with better mechanics, competitive matchmaking systems, and meta game reward loops. Being developed by the Studio Sirens team!
Bob’s True Tales: Tides of Fortune: Continue the journey of Bob and Meeka after the events of Lost Colony, as they seek out the Evercave where ancient secrets have been buried. Meanwhile, on a revamped Genesis Part 1, enjoy a rollicking maritime adventure over a map-wide Ocean biome with real water physics, customizable pirate ships, randomized semi-procedural islands & fortresses, and big naval battles across the high-seas!
ASA World Creator: Want to make maps but don’t want to learn the ARK Dev Kit, or don’t have a high-powered PC? With the ASA World Creator, you’ll be able to do basic editing of existing maps or even create whole new ones, entirely from within the game itself, on any ASA platform, and share them with other players via the Mod Browser, using a new “World Creator” mode. While you won’t be able to generate new art assets in “World Creator”, or do the deep construction associated with the full Dev Kit, you will be able to place and modify actors (and create reusable templates), edit their properties, edit overall world settings, add & configure volumes & spawners, apply mods and skin packs, and add simple functional text scripting. In other words, the “World Creator” will be the easiest and fastest way for novice and beginning creators to build a custom environment for their server or their friends, or for builders to assemble their ultimate visual showcase that other players can download & play in!
Dragontopia: A mythical world of fire, stone, and sky, this non-canonical expansion pack will revolutionize how taming and creature interactions can work within ARK. Answer the riddle of flame with us in December
Atlantis: From the dynamic rolling seas to the depths of the vast sunken city itself, the non-canonical map of Atlantis will build on the mechanics of Tides of Fortune, presenting Studio Wildcard’s ultimate vision for water-oriented ARK gameplay and world design.
Bob’s True Tales: Galaxy Wars: On the world of Arat, old legends never die, with all being revealed as Bob and Meeka’s journey reaches an end. While on a revamped Genesis Part 2, a new giant map-sized outerspace biome takes the battle outside the Seed Ship as starfighers, bombers, capital ships, and colonizable planetoids are up for grabs in a fight to control the fate of humanity.
Legacy of Santiago: Everything leads to this — after an unyielding power is unleashed across Arat, heroes old and new join the veteran survivors on a quest unlike anything seen before. Completely redesigned gameplay mechanics and features, coupled with a totally new way to enjoy living on this new world of ARK, in this standalone expansion series comprising the future of ARK.
Also in 2026-2027, Survivors can expect many new creatures, TLC’s, holiday events, QOL improvements, upgraded legacy maps, and other surprises for the game they know & love!
Performance remains a major focus for us this year, and a key part of that work is our upcoming Unreal Engine 5.7 upgrade, currently targeting April.
Compared to its October 2023 launch, ARK: Survival Ascended currently runs roughly 40–50% better on the same hardware, the result of ongoing optimization and engine improvements. The move to Unreal Engine 5.7 is expected to push that further, with an additional ~30–40% performance gain across both CPU and GPU.
Much of this comes from deeper engine-level changes Epic has made in recent Unreal Engine versions. Unreal Engine 5.6 introduced major improvements to how work is shared across the game thread, render thread, CPU, and GPU, allowing systems to run far more efficiently in parallel. Unreal Engine 5.7 builds on that with a new Nanite-based foliage rendering system that significantly improves performance in large, vegetation-heavy environments, which is especially relevant for ARK.
Internally, we’re already seeing meaningful gains on existing maps without sacrificing visuals or memory. This is about as close to a “magic bullet” as performance work gets, a rare case where it’s an unalloyed win.
There’s still work to do before release, including engine prep, testing, and recooking mods to ensure everything continues to run smoothly. But this upgrade represents the most significant performance gain ASA will see this year, and something players should feel directly and dramatically once it’s in their hands. It also, ahem, unlocks the potential for a certain portable console port of the crossplatform game…
We’re getting ready to roll out the first major update for ARK: Lost Colony this weekend, bringing balance and progression adjustments alongside a range of fixes and polish informed by early player feedback.
This update addresses a lot of pain points from the Expansion’s launch last month, and it sets the foundation for what’s next as we continue refining the Lost Colony experience. You’ll find the full patch notes below. As always, thank you to everyone who’s been sharing valuable reports, feedback, and suggestions.
We’ll continue polishing Lost Colony and iterating on improvements, and you can expect major updates with similar scope of improvement each week over the near-term.
Balance Changes
Resource Caches:
Reduced wave count from 5 to 3
Removed Neophytes
Increase XP awarded from spawned enemies by 5x
Restore 20% health to the Resource Cache after completing each wave
Increased the chances of getting Artic Armor/Fabricated Weaponry
Ossidon:
During Taming, Wild Ossidon heals back to 100% after dismounting the player
Ossidon’s taming time limit and num icicles/dino’s required now scales with taming speed multiplier config
Fabricated Crossbow:
Increased Fabricated Crossbow damage in Sniper mode by 33%
Increased Fabricated Crossbow base durability by 50%
Holo-Decoy
Reduced Holo-Decoy crafting requirements by approximately 30%
Removed Gunpowder as a Holo-Decoy crafting requirement
Bug fixes:
Fixed a case where a player inventory would visually disappear after teleporting away with a thrall
Speculative fix for players being unable to access terminals on LC map
Aureliax, Sky gate no longer blocks projectiles
Aureliax, Fixed a case were the entering render distance would change its head rotation
When Veilwyn transforms, it should now keep its spayed/neutered status
Fast traveling with beds, should no longer break Solwyn mini-game buff
Solwyn/Malwyn should now update Imprint bonus correctly
Fixed a case where Malwyn would rarely become invincible during missions
Fixed another Feline form exploit.
Beaver dams can now spawn on LC map
Desmodus Mini boss will no longer stretch dinos and thralls when picked up
LC Ambient sounds should no longer be stacking.
Maeguana, can now enable nursing while underwater
Fixed a zero gravity bug with a bison attack
When controlling a thrall, it will now return back to the player character when teleporting into the boss arena.
Fixed up some LC explorer notes, not being translated properly
Improved Lost colony spawn points
LC “City” Spawn will no longer be the default spawn location in the list
Fixed a case were Thralls could spawn inside of each other
Updated “Ambushing Strike” description to match its effects
Fixed a couple of LC map holes
Fixed some LC assets not having proper collision
Updated LC ascension explorer note icon
Added some missing audio from waterfalls on LC map
Fixed issue with TheCenter displaying the wrong textures, while on Epic graphic settings
Upsell for LC should no longer display incorrectly when set to chinese
Higher Quality Tek Armour should now cost the appropriate amount when repairing
Fixed a lighting issue with Character creator, on consoles
Client crash fix when users attempt to load into the game. While in proximity of a taxidermy equipped with a custom cosmetic
Fixed a Crash when attempting to ascend with a Thrall
Fixed a couple of Server Crashes
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.
ARKpocalypse servers have been wiped today!
What is ARKpocalypse?
ARKpocalypse are monthly-wipe servers with higher than usual rates and monthly curated mods.
Next wipe: February 6th, 2026
You can join them by typing “Arkpocalypse” in the server browser! Happy Surviving!
This weekend, the Official Network will be receiving bonus rates! It will be active until Monday, January 12.
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: Etholdir
A looming Gothic Vampire castle is slowly taking over the cliffs, casting shadows over the valley.
Creator: Raasclark
Raasclark goes over all the creature locations you need to know in Lost Colony!
Banish the darkness by @falco_luna
ARK Lost Colony, but it’s Antonblast by gman2006
Malwyn by @SS38529630
Unite the past, and the future by @TekARK_01
ARK Cryolophosaurus wandering through the snow biome by @rainesaur
Photo Mode by baha88
My new favorite dino by frozen_soap
Loving this city by nesvog
Photo Mode by catcatswaggin
Revenant Malwyn by anhagath
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
