Aberration

DLC for ARK with a new cave map, Creatures, and game mechanics.

DLC

Content Type

Expansion Pack

Price (USD)

$19.99

Release Dates

December 12th, 2017

December 25th, 2022

June 11th, 2020

September 1st, 2021

Spotlight

Aberration is an Expansion Pack for ARK: Survival Evolved. It 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.

Any creatures tamed and items received can be brought to the vanilla island and used by people with and without the expansion. Items from the DLC can also be spawned manually if you don't own the expansion pack.

All music was made by Gareth Coker.

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’ by being impregnated 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 Hazard 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[]


Regions of Aberration

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 Gear 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, Lamprey 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. But It can be dropped by Tek Dinos.

Like the other maps, Supply Crates 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 Loot Crates.

New Resources

A new and fairly vital resource to the game 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 creatures: 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 night time.
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.
Rockwell's voices in Ancient Device and Drake Trench as well as the sound made by Corrupted Creatures in The Spine

Regions[]

Nameless and Reaper never spawn here, if they follow you from a 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
Old Railway Cave
River Valley
The Ancient Device
The Fallen Nexus

Nameless and Reaper King sometimes spawn 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
Hidden Grotto
Luminous Marshlands
The Overlook

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

Element Falls
Elemental Vault
Halls of the Reaper
Halls of the Reaper Queen
Hope's End
Teeming Caverns
The Grave of the Lost
The Lost Roads
The Spine

Nameless, Surface Reaper Kings, and Seekers spawn here.
Oil rocks can be mined here in abundance.
Supply Crates drop here very frequently.

The Surface - Northwest
The Surface - Northeast
The Surface - Southwest

Rockwell can be fought here.
Elemental Reaper Kings and Nameless spawn here.

Rockwell Terminal

Approximate Spawn Locations[]

Spawn Locations

	Portal (Easiest¹)
	Fertile Lake 1 (Easy)
	Fertile Lake 2 (Easy)
	Fertile Lake 3 (Easy)
	Fertile Lake 4 (Medium)
	Upper Mushroom Forest (Medium)
	Lower Mushroom Forest (Medium)
	Fertile River (Medium)
	The Edge 1 (Hard²)
	The Edge 2 (Hard)
	The Edge 3 (Hard)
	The Edge 4 (Hard)

¹ Despite being labeled easiest, this is one of the more dangerous spawn points on the map.
² Despite being labeled hard, this is one of the safest spawn points on the map (when you go north).

Data Maps[]

Strategic Resources
Exploring the map
Creature Spawns

Creatures[]

Unique Creatures[]

Aberration adds the following creatures

Other Spawns[]

In addition to the DLC-exclusive Creatures, the map is also comprised of mostly new variants of creatures called Aberrant Creatures and 4 other Non Aberrant Creatures, the following creatures spawn on the map:

All Regions[]

Fertile Region[]

Bio-Luminescent Region[]

Molten Element Region[]

Compared to their standard versions, Aberrant Creatures have 4% less health, deal 6% 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.

Aberrant Araneo has been known to be sighted around Grave of the Lost and Rockwell Terminal, but much like Dimorphodon, are a rare sight.

Unknown Spawns[]

Data containing Aberrant Megalania exist within game files, but has no spawn area as of current. This is due to a design choice in favor of Rock Drakes.^[2]

Radiation Immune[]

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

Also, Aberrant Megalania, Andrewsarchus and Desmodus are immune but don't spawn on Aberration and instead on Fjordur. Shadowmane is immune to Fjordur's Drake cave radiation but not Aberration/Valguero

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 and all Aberrant Creatures not included in the above list of those immune, as well as Tek Creatures, are also vulnerable. The most notable radiation-vulnerable creatures are Aberrant Ankylosaurus and Aberrant Doedicurus, due to their high utility in mining. You will need to feed them Mushroom Brew every 120 seconds to keep them from suffering the effects of Radiation.

Event Creatures[]

Creatures that only spawned during an Event:

Downloadable Creatures[]

Only certain creatures can be downloaded on Aberration. This limitation can be disabled with the CrossARKAllowForeignDinoDownloads option. See CrossARK Transfers for more details and a full list.

Items[]

All items from the base game are available on Aberration in addition to the items below.

Resources[]

Consumables[]

Trophies and Tributes[]

Weapons, Armor, and Tools[]

Structures[]

Saddles[]

Cosmetics[]

Other[]

Explorer Notes[]

As Aberration is part of the story of the ARKs, Explorer Notes can be found across the map. These Explorer Notes document the ARK lore. For more in-depth information, see Explorer Notes.

Dossiers

In addition to the Explorer Notes, Dossiers can also be found on Aberration, written by Helena Walker to document the research of Aberration's creatures. For more in-depth information, see Dossiers.

Artifacts[]

Main article:

Artifacts

Depths
Shadows
Stalker

Notes/Trivia[]

Though not recommend, the element infused water found in the radioactive zone will charge TEK armor if one jumps into the water while wearing it. But also note that this charge will last for a significantly shorter amount of time compared to if you had used element to power your armor.
Unlike the main game and the previous DLC Scorched Earth and like Extinction, this expansion pack includes mainly non-existent creatures from fantasy. (e.g. Bulbdog, Nameless, and Reaper King), and creatures from mythology such as the Rock Drake, Basilisk, and Karkinos.
Similarly to Scorched Earth, Aberration never shows all of its Guardians.
- However unlike Scorched Earth it doesn't show any Guardians at all.
- In lore it was confirmed that there were once Guardians as the old Overseer of Aberration was mentioned in explorer notes to transform into element versions of its Guardians similarly to the Overseer on the Island and presumably the Overseer on Scorched Earth could probably do the same as well transforming into a element version of the Manticore and the other 2 Guardians.
Almost every creature on Aberration is brand new except for the Tek Parasaur, Tek Raptor, Tek Stegosaurus and the Giant Bee.
The Broken ARK, which is the setting for this DLC, is visible during the Ascension cutscene of the Island if one looks out the windows.
According to the end video after defeating Rockwell, it appears you are sent through portal frames in the Element Falls shaft, through the Portal, across space then arriving on what looks like a ruined earth, which is the setting for the DLC Extinction.
With the information gathered from the dossiers and explorer notes, it's discovered that Diana (a former survivor of Aberration) is responsible for the scorched Surface, dysfunction and instability of the Obelisks, and the rise of Rockwell as the Overseer of Aberration, when her group destroyed the original 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. However, with the destruction of the Overseer and apparent control center for the ARK, the shields fell as earthquakes began.
If you stand near those large crystals sticking out of the roof of some regions, you can hear strange humming.
Aberration is currently the only map that allows any creature within an Artifact cave to be tamed. Other maps with caves have at least one cave which contains creatures that aren’t able to be tamed.
Prior to Patch 282.102, Tek Teleporter couldn’t be built anywhere within Aberration.
Though it is sometimes thought to be molten, the purple liquid in the Red zone cannot be in any way molten or hot, as creatures such as Aberrant Cnidaria and Lamprey can live in it. It is far more likely that it is element-infused, poisonous water that can only be tolerated by few organisms.
While most of the creatures found on Aberration are fantasy creatures it is possible like most other creatures the animals found on Aberration could have come from a fantasy world in Ark that no longer exists, because most of the creatures kept in the Arks are creatures that come from a world that can't support life anymore.
- Astrodelphis were also reported to be found in outer space and not created by people, proving that alien life exists in this universe.
Additionally for a very long time there was a underwater obelisk planned for Ark and the Kraken boss in Atlas is essentially a Reskin of the Rockwell boss battle in Aberration.
Based on the view of Earth below which can be seen occasionally when outside on the surface and looking up at the sky, Abberation is in orbit near the equator over eastern Africa, with the coastline of Somalia and Oman/Yemen clearly visible. Western Africa, Europe, and most of the Middle East are in total darkness, and as we learn in Extinction, likely have been for quite some time. During normal gameplay, Aberration appears to be in geo-stationary orbit, however this is most likely just a limitation of the skybox.
- During the Island's Overseer fight, the Island and Aberration both are over North America, with key landmarks being Hudson Bay visible towards the top part of the view of the planet, and California's San Joaquin valley on the left side of the planet.
- During the Ascension cutscene, The player passes thru the debris field near the destroyed control tower and descends towards Earth. Australia and Indonesia are visible, with the camera taking the survivor towards present day South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Key landmarks aiding the locating process are Australia's northwest coast on the right side of the planet, and the Sunda Island chain visible as a string of mountains, with southeast China on the left of the player's view. In the cinematic, the Earth has been tilted 90 degrees, and there is water visible in the pacific basin beyond the Present day Philippines.
Aberrant Megalosaurus does not stay awake when transferred to other maps such as Valguero or The Island.
Prior to the release of Genesis, players who logged their survivor out from Scorched Earth had the same title screen as if players logged their survivor out of Aberration.
Besides its formal definition, the level design and name of Aberration might possibly be inspired by the optical effect of chromatic aberration. Chromatic aberration is caused when color wavelengths fail to align on the same focal plane which then separate into the three primary colors of white light: red, green and blue.
Aberration was also the first map to have a generated structure that is interactable found on ONLY that map other than the terminals and obelisks being the Charge node (You can also find charge nodes on the Crystal Isles map), Extinction having the City Terminal, and Genesis part 1 having the Mission Dispatcher.
Aberration is the first map to have two tamable creatures that are only tamed by raising them on birth, which are Rock Drake and Reaper.
Aberration is the only map to have it's main theme diferent from trailer music.
- Genesis 1 and Ragnarok have their main theme cut from trailer music