Giant ‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Patch Fixes Tons Of Issues Before Official Release
Studio Wildcard is gearing up for ARK: Survival Evolved‘s exit from Steam. The developer dropped a massive PC patch Thursday containing nearly 200 fixes and improvements to the open-world survival game, which comes with a respec of all characters, new music, and a huge host of animal tweaks.
ARK: Survival Evolved patch 259.0 is available to download now from Steam. There is no word on when the same patch will make its way over to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Community Manager Jat said via Twitter that Studio Wildcard plans to get it onto the consoles by Friday evening.
Studio Wildcard’s schedule does not always go as planned. ARK Survivors on the console should probably plan on a weekend release or into early next week.
ARK Patch Highlights
The number of changes and fixes in this PC patch is nothing short of massive and addresses many issues players have had with the game since it first launched in Early Access. This includes a beam of light to mark a player’s fallen corpse when they die. This is enabled by default on all official servers, and player-run servers will need to turn the feature on deliberately.
The music of ARK: Survival Evolved received a significant refresh. Studio Wildcard re-recorded the game’s soundtrack, composed by Gareth Coker, using a live orchestra at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London, England.
The Tapejara is the latest dinosaur to receive a Tek saddle with this patch. The sci-fi saddle will require players to gather the Element material to craft, but it will allow the bird to shoot lasers from its head.
Time to light up the sky. #tektier #playARK
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Other significant changes include days lasting 25 percent longer, Tek rifles not working during thunderstorms, fishing rod effectiveness dropped by 35 percent, and single-player specific difficulty settings. Single players and player-run servers also have a new option to disable structure placement collision. This will allow structures to “clip” into the ground and elsewhere where they previously could not.
Major dinosaur changes include wild dinos no longer fleeing into walls or water. Studio Wildcard also re-balanced the speed gained per level for all creatures. Meanwhile, the Therizino sees its gather rate reduced, Dimetrodon’s insulation ability gets a buff, and Gigas see a base damage nerf.
The list of change is truly lengthy and far too much to share here. Please refer to the official patch notes on the game’s forums for additional details.
ARK Official Launch
As previously covered, ARK: Survival Evolved will officially launch on August 8 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The prices of the console version of the game have already been increased to $60 while the PC version will see a price increase in July.
ARK will receive a $170 Collector’s Edition exclusive at GameStop that comes with the game, plus the following in a faux-wooden chest packaging:
- Season Pass with all 3 Expansion Packs
- Handcrafted leather-bound Explorer’s Notebook featuring the Dossiers of every creature you’ll find in ARK: Survival Evolved
- Official ARK necklace
- Cloth map of the ARK island
- Development team poster
Existing ARK: Survival Evolved owners don’t have to run out and purchase this Collectors Edition. Studio Wildcard plans to make the extras available for sale separately once the initial run of the Collectors Edition sells out.
[Featured Image by Studio Wildcard]
