Ark: Survival Evolved Patch Notes: What Has Changed?

Okay, so Studio Wildcard has released the latest Ark: Survival Evolved patch notes detailing the various bug fixes, notes, updates, changes, and improvements to their long-running hit survival MMORPGs, Ark: Survival Evolved.

Released to early access in 2017, the dinosaur simulator has grown in leaps and bounds beyond expectations and hopes regarding quality and is now one of the best survival RPGs out there.

That’s not all. Over the years, the game has received immense support and love from the creators and the fanbase, and now is the best state it could ever be.

Current Ark: Survival Evolved Patch Notes

Starting off, we have coverage for both Sony and Microsoft’s consoles. The estimated patch file sizes for both of the consoles are close to 50GB.

Version v698.18 details the following changes and improvements –

Free DLC ‘Lost Island’ is now available! A new map with close to 200 sq km playable area, and 3 entirely unseen creatures; the Amargasaurus, Dinopithecus, and Sinomacrops!
Winter Wonderland will be making a return with new gifts and goodies for ARK survivors. The server parameter -ActiveEvent=WinterWonderland can be used to begin the event.
For the duration of Winter Wonderland, the world buffs from the Genesis Part 2 Missions on the Official Network: Baby Boon & Maewing Poach have been disabled.
In the past, the impact this event has had on the rates had been adjusted by tweaking the bonuses that were used during the holidays.
However, those tweaks lead to unfavorable circumstances on maps that aren’t Genesis Part 2, so going forward during breeding events, these mission buffs will be disabled specifically as not to affect the bonuses on other maps.
Some exploits were fixed.
Some server and crashes were fixed.
A bug where the TEK Bow would fire inconsistently was fixed.

So let’s take a look at the new creatures introduced in the latest patch.

Amargasaurus

A creature from the Cretaceous period, specifically a sauropod, the Amargasaurus is a special pyro-focused creature. It has thermal spines that will burn or, interestingly, freeze anyone in their attack radius. They also have spiked tails that they can use to devastating effect.

Sinomacrops

One of the cutesy, artsy-style creatures in the unforgiving abyss of Ark, the Sinomacrops are a breed of friendly and protective pterosaurs from the Jurassic period who will help you glide and maneuver in the air to help save you from gravity or other creatures.

Dinopithecus

Last but absolutely not least, the Dinopithecus is a community favorite baboon species that are ferocious, tenacious, and deadly at close range.

Their climbing is also one of their strongest traits, as they can even climb straight walls with their powerful limbs and you on their back.

Winter Wonderland Event

Like every year since launch, the Winter Wonderland Event returns with a variety of new presents for players of Ark: Survival Evolved. The event can be triggered with a server parameter called -ActiveEvent=WinterWonderland.

Event Drop Rates

Official Servers: 3x XP, Harvesting, Taming, and Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 1.5x Hexagon Bonus
Small Tribe Servers: 4.5x XP, 4.5x Harvesting, 4.5x Taming, and 4x Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 1.5x Hexagon Bonus
ARKPocalypse: 5x XP, 5x Harvesting, 5x Taming, and 5x Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 1.5x Hexagon Bonus
Classic: 6x XP, 6x Harvesting, 6x Taming, and 5x Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval

Creatures

RaptorClaus
GachaClaus

Emotes

Santa Laugh Emote *NEW*
Caroling Emote
Happy Clap Emote
Nutcracker Dance Emote

Skins

Full-body Santa Costume *NEW*
Animated TV Show Parasaur Skin *NEW*
3 New Male & Female Christmas-themed Sweater Skins *NEW*
4 New Christmas-themed Beanie Skins *NEW*
Rex Sweater Skin
Carolers Sweater Skin
Bulbdog Sweater Skin
Blue Winter Beanie
Purple Winter Beanie
Green Winter Beanie
Male and Female Noglin Swimsuit Skin
Male and Female Yeti Swimsuit Skin
Candy Cane Club Skin
Christmas Bola Skin
Nutcracker Slingshot Skin
Dino Ornament Swim Bottom Skin
Dino Ornament Swim Top Skin
Jerboa Wreath Swim Bottom Skin
Jerboa Wreath Swim Top Skin
Ugly Bronto Sweater Skin
Ugly Carno Sweater Skin
Ugly Chibi Sweater Skin
Gray Winter Beanie Skin
Purple Winter Beanie Skin
Red Winter Beanie Skin
Felt Reindeer Antlers Skin
Santa Hat Skin

Chibis

Animated TV Show Raptor Chibi *NEW*
Sinomacrops Chibi *NEW*
Dinopithecus Chibi *NEW*
Amargasaurus Chibi *NEW*
Festive Noglin Chibi *NEW*

Items

Festive Dino Candy
Holiday Lights
Holiday Stocking
Holiday Tree
Gift Box
Snowman
Wreath

Colors

Yellow *NEW*
Jade
PineGreen
SpruceGreen
DarkMagenta
Glacial
PowderBlue
Teal
DarkViolet
Red
Green
Light Grey
Light Red
Dark Red
Dino Light Red
Dino Light Green
Dino Medium Green
Dino Albino
NearWhite

For the duration of Winter Wonderland, the world buffs from the Genesis Part 2 Missions on the Official Network: Baby Boon & Maewing Poach have been disabled.

In the past, the impact this event has had on the rates by tweaking the bonuses that we use during the holidays had been tweaked.

However, those tweaks lead to unfavorable circumstances on maps that aren’t Genesis Part 2, so going forward during breeding events, these mission buffs are going to be tweaked specifically as not to affect the bonuses on other maps.

Now, there were many other changes made to the other versions of the game. Here are all of the patch notes that Studio Wildcard conveyed on Ark’s official website, including changes and improvements for the PC version of Ark: Survival Evolved.

Ark Survival Evolved Minor version update

v341.28 – 12/15/2021 – Minor version update for servers

Improved mesh detection in the Lost Island desert
Magmasaurus can now be raised with sulfur
Improved Amargasaurus AI
Fixed volcano ground clutter issues
Improved Dinopithecus melee attacks

v341.30 – 12/15/2021 – Minor version update for clients and servers

Fixed a bug which the Loadout Dummy, Taxidermy, and Training Dummy where the dermis was being destroyed, which in turn also destroyed anything that was equipped to the dermis.
We’ll be rolling back Official PC servers to right before the.28 deployment to restore any player data that was lost due to this bug.

v341.31 – 12/16/2021 – Minor version update for servers

Fixed various mesh holes on Lost Island
Dinopithecus now has faster and sticky grenades
Disabled flyers and jetpack in the boss arena
Level weight has been adjusted on Lost Island so that it’ll be more likely to find higher-level creatures

v341.33 | 341.36 (client) – 12/16/2021 – Minor version update for clients and servers

Fixed several exploits
Various map fixes for Lost Island
Sinomacrops can now be transferred to Aberration

v341.56 – 12/23/2021 – Minor version for servers

Fixed a creature overspawn issue
Enabled New Year event
Fixed an exploit

‘Happy New Year!’ event is now enabled on Official Servers. The event is set to go off at approximately Midnight EST and Noon EST on the 1st of January 2022. Servers running the event will be bombarded with raining gifts in a hail of fireworks to mark the end of 2021.

These gifts will contain a collection of your favorite skins from past events that are currently unavailable and a chibi bonanza! And by bonanza, we mean, the drop rate of Rare, Very Rare and Legendary chibis will be dialed to over 9000!

Unofficial Servers can enable the event with the following command-line param: -NewYearEvent

To modify the times, the following command line parameters can also be used:

?NewYear1UTC=1640995200

?NewYear2UTC=1641038400

You can use https://www.epochconverter.com/ to get your appropriate timestamp. Please keep in mind that this event cannot be run before Midnight EST on the 1st of January 2021, so if you wish to change your time it would have to be set after that.

Some additional notes:

This event can only be run ONCE on a savefile (with 2 triggers).

If a server is set to run the event at a time already passed, then on load the server will immediately trigger the gifts.

If a custom time isn’t set, then the event will run default at Midnight EST on the 1st and again at Noon.

Current Version: v341.59 – 12/30/2021 – Minor version for servers

Fixed an exploit

v342.2- 01/05/2022 – Major version for servers and clients

Fixed some exploits
Fixed some holes in lost island
Fixed some crashes
Addressed some overspawning issues on lostisland
Can no longer place dermis of creatures in taxidermy/training dummy if that creature is not transferrable to a given map (Wording?)
Fix loot crate spawns of Massive/Devious artifacts
Fix for fertilized voidwyvern eggs not decaying
Reduced fog while underwater
Fixed some clutter & foliage
Adjustments & fixes to Amargasaurus
Fixes to Sinomacrops
Adjusted respawn map and global LAT/LON coords to be more accurate on Lost Island
Fixed large beaver dams being invisible for some clients on Lost Island
Fixed an issue where some dinos were marked as not tameable in caves on Lost Island

Current Version: v342.9 – 01/10/2022 – Minor version for servers

Fixed several exploits

Conclusion

While there has been not much news on the front of the rest of the community, these are all of the patch notes that have been released for Ark: Survival Evolved recently. If there is some news on this in the future, you will be sure to find it here!