ARK: Survival Evolved gets new content, Scorched Earth goes 25% cheaper

Studio Wildcard launched an ARK expansion called Scorched Earth a few months back. I found that to be an unbelievably strange move on their part, especially considering that firstly, the core game is still in Steam early access, and secondly, they usually release chunky updates anyway for not so much as a cent.

I mean, in terms of the latter, just look at Patch 248 for Survival Evolved for example (via VG247). It’s chockfull of neat little updates, and all for free:

Patch 248 expands ARK: Survival Evolved in many ways. With the arrival of Infinite Procedurally Generated Maps, players can determine a myriad of landscape options from the heights of mountains, depths of valleys, and the number of lakes, rivers or oceans, to the kinds of each biome they want, and more!

Also, the ARK “Explorer Note System” finds its way into both the main Island and ARK: Scorched Earth. Found within 130 treasure chests and available now, these chests contain the stories of actual inhabitants who have previously lived on the isle, as well as provide a temporary XP buff to those Survivors who collect them.

Patch 248 even includes three brand new dinosaurs. Here’s a quick overview of each:

• Kaprosuchus: a water-based carnivore primarily found among swamps and capable of high speed running on land or in water. It is a solitary hunter that picks off small to medium creatures, especially those isolated from their packs.
• Chalicotherium: found in small numbers in colder regions, the Chalicotherium is a primitive creature with simple behaviours. While normally a peaceful herbivore that prefers to spend its days lazing about or playing with its family, it is very territorial, and the entire family, young and old, will turn against an encroaching creature at just the slightest provocation.
• Diplocaulus: at home mainly on the island’s swamps, the Diplocaulus is a small amphibian residing at the middle-bottom of the ecosystem. Tamed Diplocaulus are often used by survivors as an oxygen bag. They air in the bladders of their head, divers can suck from these bladders to take deep breaths while submerged, supporting long-term underwater exploration without the use of external gear.

See what I mean? This is just one example of the typical sort of patch ARK: Survival Evolved gets. They tend to always contain some pretty significant improvements, or cool pieces of additional content by default. Scorched Earth must’ve been too big to include as a standard update I suppose.

If you’ve been holding out on getting the expansion for whatever reason, now is as good a time as any I guess. Scorched Earth is currently 25% off (for a limited time), meaning you’ll pay R164, instead of R219. It’s not the biggest saving mind you, but it does at least soften the blow of buying additional content for a game that hasn’t even officially launched yet.

Last Updated: October 24, 2016