Ark: Survival Evolved Adds Huge Hyena And Poo Boost

Huge hyenas, wall-crawling reptiles, megasloths, toilets, and more have hit Ark: Survival Evolved in the early access dinosaur island survive ’em up’s latest content update. I’m sorry to say you cannot ride the corpse-devouring big dog, only become its best friend for ever and ever and love it and walk it every day.

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I’m still fascinated by how Ark turns real(ish) creatures into video game monsters, exaggerating characteristics to create unique abilities. This translation also extends to human biological functions: poo in the toilet and you’ll get an XP buff. And in the game.

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First, new monsters! Hyaenodon dirus is a pack hunter who can wear special saddlebags to preserve meat, just as in caveman times. Megatherium formipavor is a huge sloth who loves eating insects so much it goes murderous near them and can extract extra resources from their bodies. Megalania muruspede is a monitor lizard with a venomous bite and the ability to climb walls – with you sat on top. The fishing bird Hesperornis avenatantes, er, can lay golden eggs which help train creatures. And Yutyrannus saevus is a feathered biggun whose roar makes enemies panic.

Also new in update 258 are a motorboat, harpoon gun, and toilets. The developers say, “Survivors can now go to the toilet when their characters are ready to defecate, and by doing so they’ll get a special ‘refreshing’ buff which will grant them an experience boost!” Right-o. Don’t forget that’s handy for fertiliser too.

Check the patch notes for full details on the lot.

Ark and it expansion are on sale right now. It’s £7.35/8,95€/$9.59 for the base game on Steam, the Scorched Earth expansion is £4.79/6,39€/$6.39, and both together cost £10.32/13,04€/$13.58.

Ark is still in early access, now almost a year past its original planned launch window of June 2016. The developers have certainly been busy, regularly adding gobs of content in updates like this one, though a lot of these focus on flashy features for high-end players. As updates keep rolling, beginners and non-hardcore players are increasingly hard done-by. Ark’s performance problems are still a big issue too, though the patch notes do mention future plans for performance improvements. They claim that a DirectX 12 mode for Windows 10 will bring a performance boost of around 20%.

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun