Ark Survival Ascended gets a performance boost and a big map expansion

Maligned on Steam since its launch in October 2023 for frequent performance problems and pervasive bugs, open-world dinosaur game Ark Survival Ascended has just been given a major engine upgrade. The new Ark update brings the survival game remaster to Unreal Engine 5.5, promising improved performance alongside other bug fixes and quality-of-life changes. Additionally, the recently launched Astraeos map, a Greek mythology DLC world created by one of its most beloved modders, just got a whole lot bigger.

The jump to UE5 for Ark Survival Ascended certainly has its benefits – the survival game has never looked as beautiful as it does here. But the remaster, which was pitched as a way for developer Studio Wildcard to get used to the engine ahead of the Ark 2 release date, has been lumbered with mixed Steam reviews since launch (it currently sits at 59% positive from a total of 69,000 responses). Chief among the complaints are the need to buy the full game and potential DLC again, and the fact that many PCs struggled to run it smoothly. If you're still having trouble there, a new 'performance only' graphics preset has been added for even more optimization.

The Ark Astraeos map, meanwhile, has been greatly expanded. You'll now be able to explore Lemnokis Island, "a vast landmass full of new biomes, caves, temples, and even a double miniboss encounter." The map, created by popular modder 'Nekatus,' is a stunning Greek fantasy realm that was integrated as an official DLC in February by Studio Wildcard, and the pairing promised at launch that such expansions would arrive in the future. Now, the first of them is here. The environment ranges from hot to cold, and there are plenty of secrets to be uncovered, so prepare well.

Ark is also turning ten (counting from Survival Evolved's original early-access launch), and a special anniversary event is now underway, featuring party-themed loot, the return of the Egg Incubator (capable of holding up to ten eggs at optimal temperature), and a wide selection of additional building pieces. Head to social hub Club Ark and you'll find that it's been decked out with a tropical look to celebrate a decade of the dinosaur game. You can toggle the anniversary festivities on for your server by typing '-Activeevent=birthday' (without quotation marks) into the command line.

Alongside this comes a number of bug fixes, and some additional small bonuses. You can now install and uninstall individual DLC maps separately from the base game to save space. There's a beta version of single-player backup saves, with the option to create or auto-generate backups across all platforms that you can return to in an emergency. Additionally, dinosaurs have been given some additional behaviors inspired by the Curiosity mod; wild and tamed creatures will now look around more, and you'll spot additional animations among the untamed animals.

Here are the best Ark Survival Ascended mods in 2025; if you're playing the new update, you'll definitely want to make sure you've picked out a few of these. We've also highlighted the best Ark servers if you're on the hunt for somewhere new to play.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.