ARK: Survival Ascended has received its v97 update for servers and clients. This post explains what it means on our servers right now, and then summarises what is new in the game.

🛠️ Our ASA servers right now

  • v97 moves the game to Unreal Engine 5.8, which rebuilt the whole server program. Every memory offset inside it changed.
  • Our systems (the shop, item delivery, membership perks and cross-server chat) connect to the game through the AsaApi plugin framework. It needs an offset map made for this exact game build, and the AsaApi developers have not released the v97 map yet.
  • So that everyone can play now, our ASA maps are open in vanilla mode (the game without our plugins).

⏸️ Paused until the plugins return

  • Online time does not earn S Coin.
  • Please don't buy ASA items on the website for now. Delivery into the game is paused. ASE is not affected.
  • Membership perks inside the game, the in-game shop and cross-server chat are off.
  • The team will compensate online time during this period for members and non-members alike. The details will be announced separately.

🔌 When the plugins come back

As soon as AsaApi releases support for v97, we check it against every plugin we run, reconnect the website to the game, and post the restart time in the ASA chat and here.

🆕 What's new in v97

Unreal Engine 5.8

  • Lower GPU load and better performance, with improved foliage and distant views on all platforms.
  • Lumen Lite is enabled with some PC graphics settings for now.

Giganotosaurus TLC

  • A new model and animations, plus an extra colour region.
  • Wounded Fury: below 75% health the Giga grows stronger, up to +50% damage and +30% damage resistance. Nearby allied creatures get half of that bonus.
  • Heavy Stomp / Tail Slam: an area attack that knocks back and slows smaller creatures. Looking forward or to the sides stomps, and looking back swings the tail.
  • Rage: riders get a Rage bar. At full Rage you have a short window to regain control by landing attacks; if you fail, you are thrown off and the Giga enrages.
  • New taming method, Apex Challenge: the Giga is no longer tamed by knocking it out. Craft an Apex Offering from Alpha trophies and carry it near a wild Giga to start the challenge. The Giga's own hits raise its torpidity, which stops at 50% until you enrage it and survive until the Enrage ends. At 100% torpidity it falls unconscious and can be fed.

Enigmasaur

  • The last creature of Fantastic Tames Season 1 (DLC): a shapeshifter that becomes other creatures and keeps some of their abilities.
  • Added to The Center, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Ragnarok, Extinction, Valguero, Lost Colony and Astraeos.

Balance and other changes

  • Weaker: Aureliax, Astrocetus, Basilisk, Dreadnoughtus, Gloon, Karkinos, Umbra and Lumina.
  • Gachas: a tribe with more than 100 deployed Gachas gets a slower feeding interval until it returns to 100 or fewer.
  • Tesla Coils now take damage like Tek structures, and a platform saddle can hold only one placed Tek structure.
  • Lost Colony: Thrall Outposts can drop Tek Spear and Gigadesmodus Saddle blueprints.
  • Genesis Part 1: creatures in the Lunar biome can be knocked back again, and Feral ocean creatures spawn at normal wild levels and less often.
  • Fixes include Ferox keeping inherited traits after transforming, the Fire Wyvern's breath reaching from a distance, painting the Rockdrake, and DLC items that can now be moved between inventories without owning the DLC.
  • Limits Wildcard added for unofficial servers (Gachas, Tek Replicators, Tek Cloning Chambers) use the game's defaults on our servers. Any change will be announced first.

Wildcard's bonus rates and colour events in the same announcement are for the official network only, not our servers.