The New Astraeos Map is Now Open in ARK: Survival Ascended

The long wait is finally over and the new Astraeos map is now available in ARK: Survival Ascended. This truly breathtaking map was created by Nekatus and sponsored by Nitrado. It's now in the game as an Official Partner DLC.

In a post, Studio Wildcard revealed that this was initially planned to be part of the June Premium Map Surprise. However, they've instead decided to make it available early and offer it as a fully integrated DLC rather than a Premium Mod. The map is priced at $14.99.

The map spans about 264 square kilometers and features an ever-expanding landscape that seamlessly connects to the main clusters with official servers. The studio shared that this is merely the beginning. This is because similar to the legends which inspired it, Astraeos continues to grow and with it introduces new realms, new challenges, and updates that shape the world over time.

This being a new map, there's bound to be a lot of new creatures. One of these is the Maeguana. This creature has a motherly nature that's sure to help nurture those babies and its skin membrane helps guide players to safety. The creature is pretty much a variant of the Maewing that combines the agility of its counterpart with a robust and reptilian appearance worthy of the gods of the pantheon.

ARK: Survival Ascended recreates the ARK world from scratch with the use of the latest Unreal Engine 5 technology. Players are taken to a vibrant and enigmatic island that’s filled with hundreds of dinosaur species and other prehistoric creatures ready to be tamed and bred. The game invites players to form tribes, explore, craft, build, and ascend the food-chain in an all-new world waiting for their discovery.

ARK: Survival Ascended offers the ultimate survival experience as it invites players to design their own Survivor, tame dinosaurs, and unravel the true nature of The Island and worlds beyond. There are also quality of life enhancements that include a refreshed user interface, intelligent creature pathfinding, wild babies, new map system, updated tracking system, new structures, creatures, and much more.

Get ARK: Survival Ascended on Steam now.