Unreal Update 5.5
ARK: Survival Ascended makes a strong comeback with Update v66 – new engine, over 100 fresh building components, smarter dinos, and technical refinements included. Those who love base building or rely on stable performance will get their money's worth now. Additionally, the mod project Astraeos continues to grow with new landmass and bosses, evolving into a full-fledged expansion.
With patch v66, ARK: Survival Ascended takes a significant step forward: The migration to Unreal Engine 5.5 improves the technical foundation for better performance, stability, and visual quality. Individual DLC maps can now be installed or removed separately – a plus for storage and mod management. Also new is the cross-platform backup system for single-player, which allows for automatic backups, as well as a performance-optimized graphics preset on PC that prioritizes framerate over graphics.
Content-wise, the update significantly expands the building system: Over 100 new building parts in various materials and building styles (including Tek, Adobe, Steampunk, Wasteland) bring creative diversity. The classic Egg Incubator returns, complemented by new structure variants. Creatures now exhibit more behavior thanks to "Curiosity" inspiration – wild animals perform animations or look around. The list of bug fixes is extensive: Issues with LODs, terrain adjustments, VFX, server stability, and numerous creatures have been specifically addressed. The ambitious mod project Astraeos has also been massively expanded – including new landmass Lemnokis, fresh caves, boss fights, and biomes.
1) ARK 10-Year Anniversary Event Now Live!
- Owners of unofficial servers can activate the event by adding
-Activeevent=birthdayto the server start parameters. - In single-player/host mode, a new drop-down option is available under Game Rules > Rules to activate events.
- More info: Community Crunch 460
- ClubARK shines in a tropical design to celebrate the anniversary!
2) Technical Improvements
- Migration from Unreal Engine 5.2 to Unreal Engine 5.5 for better performance, stability, and visual quality.
- Individual DLC maps can now be installed or uninstalled independently of the main game.
- New feature "Singleplayer Backup Saves (Beta)":
- Create, restore, and automatically generate backups on all platforms.
- New graphics preset "Performance Only" (PC only):
- Disables certain effects to increase framerate at the cost of visuals.
2.1) Dino Quality of Life Improvements
(inspired by AvianApexY and the Curiosity mod: CurseForge Link)
- Wild and tamed creatures look around curiously.
- Wild creatures occasionally perform new animations.
2.2) Structures
- Returned structure: Egg Incubator
- New building parts, variants, and skins:
Thatch (30 new parts):
Barn door, cellar door, double door, double frame, fence foundation, fence support, half beam, half column, half railing, thin beam half, thin column half, hangar door, hatch frame, ladder, pillar & beam, quarter ceiling, quarter foundation, quarter ramp, quarter roof, quarter stair, quarter wall, ramp, ramp corner, railing, flat inclined wall, staircase, thin column, trapdoor, triangular ceiling, triangular foundation
Wood, Stone, Metal (30 each):
Half beam, half column, half railing, thin beam half, thin column half, quarter ramp, quarter roof, quarter stair, ramp corner, flat inclined wall
Clay, Tek (22 each):
Half beam, half column, half railing, thin beam half, thin column half, inverted quarter roof, quarter ramp, quarter roof, quarter stair, ramp corner, flat inclined wall
BTTs Frontier Showdown, Steampunk Ascent, Wasteland War (30 each):
Half beam, half column, half railing, thin beam half, thin column half, quarter ramp, quarter roof, quarter stair, ramp corner, flat inclined wall
3) Bug Fixes (All Platforms)
- Fixed client crash during the Extinction ascension cutscene
- Corrected various ground adjustment issues with creatures
- Fixed incorrect LODs on creatures/saddles at low graphics settings
- Aquatic attribute no longer appears on flying creatures (when
bAllowFlyerDinoSubmergingis set to false) - Fixed issue with "Join Last Session"
- "Drop All" in creature inventory not possible with full player inventory – now fixed
- Fixed shadow flickering on many structure lights
- Fixed water flickering after character transfer
- Corrected Snow Owl’s dive bomb with active companion
- Fixed preview error when painting structures
- Pyromaniac is now correctly extinguished by water after teleporting from vacuum chamber
- Fixed visual artifacts on binoculars and diving helmet
- Industrial cooking pot now only draws water with irrigation
- Gamepad can now correctly turn Tusoteuthis in place (A/X)
- Reaper & Basilisk: Buried mounts now adjust to terrain again
- Biogrinder now correctly yields mutton when grinding Ovis
- Fixed spawn error under the mesh in the Sunken Forest on Extinction
- Added missing water volumes in lakes on Extinction
- Filled mesh holes on Extinction
- Removed Mei Yin’s note #28 from the mesh on Extinction
- Fixed missing textures and post-processing effects on Extinction
- Titan VFX nodes now appear correctly again
- BattleRig no longer sinks into the mesh after server restart
- Fixed client crash when switching to photo mode after firing the BattleRig rocket launcher
- Fixed issues with Wasteland structure skins
- Corrected Managarmr training cooldown after server switch
- Creatures can now correctly stand on platforms again
- Fixed leg deformation on small player characters when walking/uphill
- Fixed LOD issues with skins from the Animated Series Pack
- Corrected animation errors with the Quetz skin
- Fixed Bladewasp Hive distance rendering errors
- Corrected VFX errors with Baryonyx and Thylacoleo screams
- Tek force field no longer shows multiple layers simultaneously
- Fixed incorrect level-up animation on Phoenix
- Delivery balloon now inflates correctly when triggered
- Corrected material error on painted charge lantern
- Added missing heat cooling effects on Tek Railgun
- Fixed Boulder VFX of the Overseer in the Megapithecus fight
- Fixed several exploits, client, and server crashes
4) Astraeos – Official Release v0.0.6
4.1) New Content
- New landmass: Lemnokis
- Huge area with cold/warm regions, beaches, redwoods, mountain ridges, temples, new caves, and much more.
- New area: The Maelstrom
- Numerous new caves (small & large)
- Aberration cave with gas sources, green gems, and Aberration creatures (Karkinos, Cosmo)
- Double miniboss: Kalydonios & Erymanthian (Terminal on Lemnokis)
- Clay mound for collecting clay
- Astral wolf with loot like yellow ice cave
- Astral mammoth with loot like red ice cave
- Gas sources distributed across all of Therokis
4.2) Adjustments
- Revised grass meshes at a distance
- Adjusted grass density in close range
- Adjusted colors of the grass
- Revised description of boss tributes
- Adjusted cedar tree coloring
- Revised cave lighting (due to engine upgrade)
- Recreated temperature curve across the entire map
- Astral Deinosuchus now drops red swamp cave loot
- Astral Megalodon now drops yellow underwater cave loot
- Astral Mosasaurus now drops red underwater cave loot
- Astral Tusoteuthis now drops red underwater cave loot
- Lightning creatures are now immune to spike walls (Anti-AFK farming)
4.3) Bug Fixes
- Fixed mesh holes
- Corrected issues with post-processing volumes
- Fixed physics volume errors
- Eliminated various material errors
- Added missing vegetation on Therokis
