ARK: Survival Evolved received a massive new update Thursday for the PC version of the game. It’s been a little over a month since the last content update to the game, and this one is packed with a large update to The Center, the official release of the Primitive Plus mod, new dinosaurs, crafting items, and more. Unfortunately, Xbox One Survivors will need to wait a bit longer.
As previously covered, ARK: Survival Evolved finally brings the Redwood biome to The Center map. Developer Ben Burkart has extended the map southward to make room for a massive new island to house the Redwoods and the Titanosaur. The island runs from almost the eastern edge of the map, past Skull Island and the Tropical South island, all the way to the waterfalls that go off the edge of the west side of the world by the Snow South biome.
A land bridge connecting the South Snow biome to the Redwood Island also was added. This bridge is past the location of the waterfalls that go off the edge of the world. It extends directly south before cutting east towards Redwood Island.
A new boss arena also added to the top of the gigantic cliffs that mark the end of the southern section of the ARK: Survival Evolved map. The arena is actually above the world, and players will only be able to reach it via teleportation using one of the three Obelisks on The Center.
Burkart has also added new caverns to explore, fixed various dino spawns, and added a deep ocean trench that will require ARK Survivors to use some additional lighting to see. Keep an eye out on the Inquisitr ‘s existing The Center guide as it will be updated to reflect all the changes.
Meanwhile, Primitive Plus is the official mod is now available to download from Steam . The free add-on started as a community created mod, as was The Center, before Studio Wildcard hired the creator.
Primitive Plus changes the ARK: Survival Evolved experience by completely removing the existing metal tier in the game and greatly expanding the number of items that can be harvested and crafted, such as Adobe-style buildings, floating bridges, honey from bees, fishing traps, and more.
Primitive+ also intentionally fosters a cooperative element between tribes by adding more than 40 different resources plus another 10 crops. This is too much for any one tribe to accomplish on their own so players can also build market stalls for trading with others.
A new fishing mechanic is also part of the ARK: Survival Evolved 245 update. There are benefits to crafting a Fishing Rod and catching fish as opposed to just killing them. Check out the full guide on fishing for more information.
On the creature front, the Allosaurus now stalks The Island and The Center maps in packs as another predator to be wary of. The alpha of the pack is noted by a slight orange mist along its back. It is joined by the Pelagornis, a rideable bird that can both fly and float on the water.
New structures in the game include an Industrial Grinder to grind out items into their simpler components as a sort of reverse crafting method. For example, a Pike could be placed into the grinder to return the one-quarter of the Metal Ingots, Wood, and Hide that was used to create it. A Spiral Staircase was also added to provide a more decorative approach to ascending.
Unfortunately, some planned updates like Dynamic-Length Bridges, Large Ceiling Dino Doors, and the third phase of the breeding mechanics did not make it into the release. Expect to see those in a later update.
Xbox One players should note they will not receive this new patch today. The ARK: Survival Evolved console update containing the new content, Primitive Plus, and The Center Redwood biome changes is a few weeks out per lead developer Jeremy Stieglitz’s Twitter post .
You can find the official patch notes for the ARK: Survival Evolved 245 patch via the game’s website below.
- TheCenter mega-update! (New Biomes, New Islands, New Caves & Creature Spawns, etc.)
- New Official Total Conversion: Primitive+, optimized, ‘completed’, and packaged as Free DLC
- New Creature: Pelagornis!
- New Creature: Allosaurus!
- New Item: Fishing Rod + Fishing Mechanic!
- New Structure: Industrial Grinder: grinds items into a portion of their crafting resources, converts resources into simpler resources
- New Structure: Spiral Staircase (Stone/Wood/Metal)
- New Mechanic: Optional Hitmarkers for ranged attacks (server can toggle them, as well as client if the server allows it). Default enabled, “?AllowHitMarkers=false” to disable. Also, server crosshair is now enabled by default, “?ServerCrosshair=false” to disable. There are now client options to disable these effects locally as well.
- Building Attack/Destruction TribeLogs
- UI Option to colorize item name texts based on quality level.
- Offline Raid Protection mode now disables PIN Locking, and Structures in Caves no longer get ORP.
What do you think of the ARK: Survival Evolved 245 update? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via Studio Wildcard]