‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ The Center Map Arrives For Xbox One In Huge Update [New Info]

The biggest update to ARK: Survival Evolved on the Xbox One since the release of split-screen play arrived on the console Tuesday. Players of the open-world dinosaur survival game now have an all-new world to explore with the release of The Center map. There are also a ton of other additions, including five new creatures, two new bosses and arenas, and more included with update 734.0.

The Center

Studio Wildcard has set up around 60 new official servers featuring The Center map, so be sure to check out the guide for full details. As previously covered, these servers have been expanded to hold 100 players. This is due to the new map being larger than The Island and better optimized than the original map for the game. The Xbox One may require a complete reboot to find the new servers once the 10 GB update download is complete.

Update: The game client may have been patched, but the servers are not live yet. Studio Wildcard is upgrading them to 734.0. This article will be updated to note when they are live. Local play is still available.

Update 2: The release of The Center servers has been delayed while Studio Wildcard fixes an issue discovered with some flying animals. Unfortunately, tamed flyers have had their inventories destroyed and some fell through the map, per a Twitter post from Community Manager Jen.

Update 3: The Center servers are now live as of about 8:30 pm ET. Search for “thecenter” in the server browser to pull up the servers for the new map.

Update 4: The approximately 60 new servers have filled up quickly. Players may get a “Room is full” or “Unable to connect” error message when trying to join an official server. Studio Wildcard will likely be adding more servers for The Center, it is just a matter of when.

Update 5: Part of the reason the new servers filled up so fast is because they have maxed out at 70 players per server instead of 100. Community Manager Jat Karunakaran shared a Twitlonger post explaining Studio Wildcard is investigating a fix. Additionally, a new patch will need to be released before more servers can go online.

Those who prefer to play ARK: Survival Evolved locally can switch between The Center and The Island. Both maps are stored on the Xbox One as separate save files. Additionally, The Center will be available for those who wish to host their own Xbox One servers.

New Creatures

The Arthropluera (Guide) is a giant millipede-type creature that can be tamed and turned into a war mount. The creature crawls somewhat creepily along the ground. It also prefers raw meat, according to its dossier, for those who want to get a jump on taming it. It comes with some unique defenses. The giant insect has acidic blood that can damage attackers and can also spit acid blood, perfect for wearing down the armor of enemies

The Lystrosaurus (Guide) falls into the cute and useful categories in the world of ARK. The four-legged herbivore is quite docile but resilient. The animal not only can gain experience quickly for itself, it also gives nearby tamed animals an experience bonus too. Plus, it can do backflips.

Sabertooth Salmon cannot be tamed, but they do introduce a new resource into ARK: Survival Evolved – Fish Meat. These fish are larger than Coel and Mega Piranha but will not attack unless provoked. This can attract an entire school to lock on to the offending party with their long teeth to drain speed and stamina, which can be dangerous when swimming underwater.

The Direbear (Guide) is primarily located in the northwest snowy portions of The Island along with some of the mountainous areas. The bear has a huge health pool, good speed, and puts out a tremendous amount of damage, which makes it an excellent mount to bring into battle.

The final new creature is the Manta (Guide). This rideable ocean-going creature is a somewhat unique tame that requires Angler Gel. They are also quite fast and can jump out the water and have been compared to ARK: Survival Evolved’s version of the jet ski or waverunner. They also have a surprisingly strong bite.

Higher level players who have tested their mettle against the Brood Mother face new challenges with the ARK: Survival Evolved update 734.0 for the Xbox One.

The Broodmother Arena is a new addition to ARK: Survival Evolved with this update. The boss was previously summoned at the Green Tower, but now Survivors are summoned to her home to face her and her brood.

The Megapithicus boss and its arena have also been added. Survivors will need to venture to the obelisk at Whitesky Peak and perform the ritual. This will transport all involved to the new arena to battle the giant gorilla and his monkey minions.

Higher level players will welcome the addition of the Chemistry Table crafting station. It provides a huge upgrade to the Mortar and Pestle. Items crafted with the Chemistry Table will be produced in half the time it takes with the Mortar and Pestle and will produce bonus items. For example, making 6 Gunpowder with 4 Charcoal and 4 Sparkpowder at the new crafting station will generate 2 additional Gunpowder. The tables also require power from a Generator, and it requires Gasoline in its inventory to use. It is also quite expensive to unlock at 65 engram points once level 85 is reached.

The Primitive Cannon looks like it came straight off of a pirate ship and requires players to unlock the Cannon Ball as well to use. These can be unlocked at level 40 at a cost of 25 and 5 Engram Points, respectively. Using the cannon is handled by using the action key to bring up a radial menu to aim it up, down, left, and right and to fire it. Each aiming movement is very slight, so it may take several trips through the menu to get it adjusted properly.

Those tired of chasing fast creatures around The Island can rejoice at the addition of the Primitive Bola. This weapon can be thrown at smaller creatures in ARK to ensnare and stop them from moving. It is even capable of bringing down some flying creatures, such as the Pteranodon, and other players too.

Meanwhile, Tribe Member Rankings have finally made it into ARK: Survival Evolved. This allows Tribe leaders to set up different ranks and assign custom privileges.

“This enables Tribes to create arbitrary ‘Sub-Groups’ within their Tribe, name them, and give them all kinds of detailed rank-based access privileges on your structures, inventories, and creatures. Effectively you can now create your very own caste-based society, with Kings, Nobles, Lords, and Serfs, etc!” Studio Wild Card Community Manager Jat Karunakaran explained.

Here are the official patch notes for ARK: Survival Evolved update 734.0 on the Xbox One.

• Added all content up thru PC patch v240 (includes such things as Broodmother Arena, Megapithecus Arena, Direbear, Manta, Chem Table, Prim Cannon, Lystrosaurus, Arthropluera, Sabertooth Salmon, Primitive Bola, Tribe Rank Management, and more!)
• ADDED THE CENTER Official Mod Map! Doubles the playable game area of ARK, with all new adventures — added Official The Center servers supporting up to 100 simultaneous players!
• Fixed memory/crash issues, massively reduced game memory overhead
• Improved rendering performance by approximately 10%
• Fixed the huge stall/lock/crash when you “Transfer” a bunch of items at once
• Spawn-In First Person Animations are now playing properly once again

[Image via Studio Wildcard]