Aberration

DLC for ARK

Information

Release PC

December 12, 2017

Release Xbox

December 12, 2017

Release PS4

December 12, 2017

Aberration is a paid DLC expansion pack for ARK: Survival Evolved.

Aberration was released on December 12 2017 for PC, Xbox One and PS4 at the initial price of $19.99 USD.^[1] It is also available for purchase through the season pass.

Overview

Aberration places survivors on a damaged ARK: its internal atmosphere has leaked away, resulting in a harsh surface with intense radiation, and a plethora of lush biomes underground. With the maintenance systems of this ARK malfunctioning, the many hazards, creatures, and nature of the environment present a thrilling new world to explore and master.

The intense radiation of Aberration has led to incredible genetic mutations, resulting in new creatures with amazing abilities! Among others, clamber up walls & glide through the air on the back of a camouflaging chameleon-like ‘Rock Drake’, keep the dark at bay with a friendly ‘Bulbdog’, grab and toss multiple creatures simultaneously with a massive ‘Karkinos’, or—if you are talented enough to tame one—command the vile ‘Reaper Queen’ to impregnate your foes with a horrifying reproductive chest-burster!

New tools are on-hand to survive on the world of Aberration, while opening up many possibilities for new competitive and cooperative scenarios. Traverse the ARK using cave-climbing picks, gliding wingsuits, and ziplines. Learn advanced Engrams to dominate the harsh environment, protect yourself with Hazmat Suits, Charge Lanterns, Batteries, Glow Sticks, and much more. Thrive by gathering new resources, using fishing baskets, Gas Collectors, fortify your home within the caverns using cliff structures, and much more!

Earthquakes, radiation exposure, gas leaks, and Element chambers are among the many hazards that survivors will learn to grapple with Aberration’s varied biomes, both aboveground and below the surface. But among the greatest challenges on this ruined ARK is the hierarchy of unrelenting Nameless, requiring constant vigilance & Charge Energy to defend against!

And in the deepest depths of Aberration, their terrifying — yet somehow familiar — master awaits… will YOU be among the survivors powerful enough to face him?

The Underground Map

Overview

The map is the underground of a damaged ARK. Most of the features are related to underground, where new Resources exist, such as Fungal Wood and Gems. Rather than being an island, the majority of the map is enclosed underground biomes, making it especially advisable to carry a Compass or GPS to not get turned around in the dark twists and turns. Radiation seeps in at specific locations of the map, causing exposed players not wearing protective gears to take damage over time. Other new strange effects are also a feature.

There are three main regions, excluding the surface: The green region being the Fertile, the blue region being the Bio luminescence, and the red region being the Element. Fertile Land do not have any negative effects, Bio luminescence is cold, and Element contains radiation, inflicting both survivors and tamed dinos with Radiation sickness over time without protection.

Oil is harder to get, since other than the Trilobite Dung Beetle and rare Seeker drops, the only other natural source of Oil is at the Surface or in the much more difficult area beyond The Spine.

Like the other maps, Beacons only spawn on the surface, but unlike other maps, crates can still be found below the surface, outside of artifact caves, in the form of Deep Sea Loot Crates.

New Resources

A new and fairly vital resource to Ark is the Gem, which has three color types found in areas of varying difficulty. Green Gems are found almost immediately upon spawning in the Portal and are found further on in the Fertile region. Blue Gems are found within the Luminescent Biome. Red Gems are found in the more difficult depths of Aberration, in The Spine, Lost Roads, and Element Falls regions.

A lesser vital resource Fungal Wood is gathered like regular Wood but from the larger mushrooms scattered around the underground. It substitutes for Wood in recipes, but is explicitly required for making the new structure Shag Rug.

Mushrooms appear around the map as a harvestable resource, similar to the bushes found for Berries. However, be careful to avoid the Blue or Red mushrooms found across the map, as these are harvestable but dangerous. Blue mushrooms inflict instant Hypothermia. Red mushrooms inflict hallucination, which can be deadly: side effects other than colorful vision include uncontrollable direction change, constant defecation and its attendant increased hunger, and forgetfulness of breathing - better known as Suffocation, but it ignores Oxygen level of the player as it automatically registers as if the player has 0 Oxygen. Any of these side effects could kill unprepared players. These effects can also harm shoulder-mounted dinos, so be careful. However, eating the Aquatic Mushroom provides temporary immunity to the Freezing Debuff or Luminous Poisons, and eating the Aggeravic Mushroom provides temporary immunity to the Hallucinating Debuff or Fertile Poisons.

New Features

As the map is mainly underground, Earthquakes often happen which drop random items including Wood, Flint, Rare Mushrooms, Stone, Gems, Obsidian, and Crystal. They also randomly move sleeping survivors that are not anchored to their beds, and cause survivors using a zipline or climbing pick to fall.

There are also locations where Element can be crafted, called Charge Nodes. These require resources to craft, and one of the main items needed is Element Ore which is found on The Surface or in The Grave of the Lost.

New Creatures

Two new Creatures, the Nameless and the Reaper, emerge with differing frequencies within areas of both the Bio luminescence and Element Regions, in the absence of Charged Light, including inside player-made structures. It is well-advised to keep sources of Charge Light around the base as regular light sources do not prevent them from emerging. Charge Light is usually best provided by the new dinos: Featherlight, Bulbdog, Glowtail, and Shinehorn.

Another new creature, the Ravager quickly becomes a survivor favourite as the melee animal of choice, as their damage rapidly stacks with their pack bonus.

Unique Environmental Features

Earthquakes.
Extreme temperatures on the Surface.
Seasons that affect the lengths of daytime and nighttime.
Dangerous elemental liquid in the depths of Aberration.
Poisonous mushrooms and mushroom spore zones.
Sickening Radiation zones.
Plants that can be harvested for Organic Polymer.
Black clams that can be harvested for Black Pearls.

Regions


Regions of Aberration File:Map_Aberration.png

Fertile Region

Nameless and Reaper never spawns here, if they follow you from an surface entrance or other region, they will remain until they lose aggravation, then immediately burrow underground out of sight (possibly) when they reach this region.
Dizzy Spores most often happens around this region.
Red-Capped Red-stemmed Mushroom and Green Gem cluster are present around the region.

Mushroom Forest
River Valley
The Ancient Device
The Fallen Nexus
Old Railway Cave
The Surface - Northwest

Bio luminescent Region

Nameless and Reaper King sometimes spawns here. Reaper Queen never spawns here unless kited from Element Region.
Bio luminescence Spores most often happens around this region.
Cyan-Capped Blue-stemmed Mushroom and Blue Gem cluster are present around the region.

Crystalline Swamps
Luminous Marshlands
The Overlook
Hidden Grotto
The Surface - Northeast

Elements Region

Nameless, Reaper King and Reaper Queen (except surface) sometimes spawns here.
Element Spores most often happens around this region.
Brown-stemmed stalk Mushroom and Red Gem cluster are present around the region.
Radiation occurs around certain parts of this region.

Elemental Vault
Rockwell Terminal
The Grave of the Lost
Element Falls
Halls of the Reaper
Halls of the Reaper Queen
Hope's End
The Lost Roads
The Spine
The Surface - Southwest

Approximate Spawn Locations

	Approximate Spawn Locations P: Portal (easiest) FL 1: Fertile Lake 1 (easy) FL 2: Fertile Lake 2 (easy) FL 3: Fertile Lake 3 (easy) FL 4: Fertile Lake 4 (medium) UMF: Upper Mushroom Forest (medium) LMF: Lower Mushroom Forest (medium) FR: Fertile River (medium) E 1: The Edge 1 (hard) E 2: The Edge 2 (hard) E 3: The Edge 3 (hard) E 4: The Edge 4 (hard)

Data Maps

Strategic Resources
Exploring the map
Creature Spawns

Creatures

Unique Creatures

Aberration adds the following creature

Other Spawns

In addition to the DLC creatures, the following Aberrant creatures also spawn on the map: (More creatures will be added over time)

All Region

Fertile

Bio Luminscent

Element

Compared to their standard versions, Aberrant creatures have 4% less health, deal 5% more damage and glow in the dark.

Aberrant Dimorphodon was previously thought to not spawn, but has now been found in some regions of the map.

Upcoming/Unknown Spawns

Data containing Araneo and Megalania exist within game files, but has no spawn area as of current.

Radiation

Radiation is a new hazard introduced on Aberration that deals continuous damage to vulnerable targets that rapidly stacks-up, and cannot yet be cleansed. They are mainly found within Element Regions. The following Aberrant creatures are immune to radiation damage

Most of the life indigenous to the Aberration ARK is also immune. However, the following native creatures are noteworthy for not being immune:

All imported creatures without the Aberrant mutation or from the list of indigenous Aberration creatures are also vulnerable.

Artifacts

Main article:

Artifacts

Depths
Shadows
Stalker

Trailer


Aberration Launch Trailer	Aberration Announcement Trailer

Trivia

The broken ark, which is the setting for this DLC, is visible during the final boss fight of the island if one looks out the windows.
According to the end video after beating Rockwell, it appears you are sent through portal frames in the Element Falls shaft, through the Portal, through space then arriving on what looks like a ruined earth.
With the information gathered from the dossiers it is found that cause of the scorched Surface, dysfunction of the Obelisks, and the rise of Rockwell as the Overseer of Aberration is that Diana, a former survivor of Aberration, and her group bombed the Overseer. In the life on Aberration before the damage it seems the Overseer would have spawned and been located in the same manner as on the Island. But with the destruction of the Overseer and the apparent control center for the ark, the shields fell and earthquakes began.
If you stand near those large crystals sticking out of the roof of some regions, you can hear strange humming.