ARK: Survival Ascended adds a shapeshifter and a free Giganotosaurus overhaul

ARK: Survival Ascended has received a new shapeshifting creature alongside a rework of an existing dinosaur. Developer Studio Wildcard announced the update on November 6.

A creature that becomes other creatures

The Enigmasaur does more than mimic another creature’s appearance: it can transform into one. Studio Wildcard says it can retain some abilities learned from earlier transformations. It is the third and final creature in the Fantastic Tames Season 1 bundle, following Burrowbuck and Cerberax. The paid bundle requires the ARK: Survival Ascended base game and is separate from the free Giganotosaurus overhaul.

A free Giganotosaurus rework

The community-voted overhaul changes the dinosaur’s appearance and taming challenge. Once tamed, it gains foot-stomping and tail-slamming attacks and can share a fighting effect with nearby allies, the developer says.

The move to Unreal Engine 5.8 also introduces Nanite Voxels for foliage rendering and Lumen Lite, a dynamic-lighting approach aimed at lower-end PCs. The developer says Lumen Lite is currently enabled only with select PC graphics settings. Performance improvements are the developer’s stated goal, not a guarantee for every device.