Ark: Survival Ascended offers plenty to do in the base game but the experience can be enhanced further with the use of mods.
PC players with experience in Ark will likely have a hefty amount of knowledge in this regard but console players will be new to the world of modding in Ark: Survival Ascended, which will fully support crossplay.
However, scrolling through all the tabs of available mods can be time-consuming and daunting, so we’ve done the hard work to select 10 mods that every player should consider installing.
Additions Ascended
Additions Ascended is not one specific mod and, for the purpose of this article, we have collected them together. In total, there are seven Additions Ascended mods for Ark: Survival Ascended that introduce brand-new creatures.
These are the Ceratosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Deinosuchus, Deinotherium, Archelon, Helicoprion, and Xiphactinus, resulting in a considerable boost to the creature population on The Island—especially in the oceans.
Each of the new creatures has been expertly built for the graphical enhancements of Ark: Survival Ascended and includes several new features and mechanics for each creature, with some interesting approaches to taming.
Super Spyglass Plus
The Super Spyglass Plus is a game-changer in Ark: Survival Ascended, making it much easier to identify creatures from a distance and shows an incredible amount of detail, including health, torpor, and other stats, as well as providing variable zoom.
This is particularly useful when evaluating threats, such as Alpha creatures and whether you have the capacity to take them on, and for taming—as it shows a breakdown of the resources you will require to complete a tame.
Long-adored by PC players in Ark, the Super Spyglass Plus is a must-have for any player in Ark: Survival Ascended and once you try it, you’ll never go back.
Utilities Plus
Crafting the same item again and again can be infuriating in Ark: Survival Ascended but that chore is removed entirely by the Utilities Plus mod, which provides new versions of existing items that can be used repeatedly.
Items such as the Bola, Flare Gun, Parachute, Grappling Hook, Torch, and Spear can be used repeatedly, rather than being one-time use items, which makes it easier to progress in the game—especially early on when even one Bola can be expensive to gather materials for.
Again, it’s another mod that takes a pretty simple concept and makes such an impression that you’ll never want to go back to how the items work in the base game.
Hyper’s Cosmetics Ascended
The cosmetic tab in Ark: Survival Ascended is barren currently in the base game but that can all be changed by using Hyper’s Cosmetics Ascended, which adds an array of cosmetics for you and your creatures.
From holiday costumes to adorable Chibi pets, this mod truly has it all and allows greater customization of your player and creatures—the latter of which can be changed through costumes to provide a ghost, skeletal, or animated appearance.
Some items will be familiar to experienced Ark players, and will likely return to the base game in the future, while others have been created from scratch.
Cyropods
Another feature that Ark players will be familiar with that is not currently available in the base game of Ark: Survival Ascended can be amended with the Cryopods mod which, as the name suggests, adds Cryopods to the game.
With the use of Cryopods, you can capture dinosaurs and other creatures to transport them around as you please. They can then be redeployed to use, in a style that is very much like you see regularly in Pokémon games.
Cryopods can be crafted in the player inventory with this mod, although crafting the Cryofridge requires the Tek Replicator—an item that will take some time to unlock if you are progressing through the game naturally.
Svartalfheim
A behemoth of a mod that provides an entirely new map filled with new resources, new Alpha dino variants, and more, Svartalfheim provides a new experience even to players who have clocked up hundreds of hours in Ark.
While still not fully completed, with the creator stating the map is currently 60 percent complete, Svartalfheim puts players on a Dwarven-inspired map that includes some significant changes to spawns—as there are no flying creatures, no Giganotosaurus, and no Titanosaurus.
Instead, players can find different Alpha dino variants, and further custom dino variants are planned, along with new enemies like Dwarven Warriors. If you want something different from The Island, Svartalfheim is something you should definitely check out.
Gryphons
Griffins are not naturally available in Ark: Survival Ascended, even if you try to use admin commands on The Island, but players who want the lion-bird without waiting for future DLC can get what they’re after through the Gryphons mod.
While they may look the same, the “Gryphons” in the mod are different from the usual Griffins in Ark as they can breed, have two distinct saddles to choose from, provide new color regions, and, most importantly, can spawn on all maps using The Island Spawn regions.
So far, the Mountain Gryphon is currently the only variant to be included but there are plans for Artic Gryphons and Pygmy Gryphons to return, while further varieties will be added in a future mod.
Death Inventory Keeper
One of the biggest pains in Ark: Survival Ascended is dying a long way from your spawn and needing to undertake a long, treacherous journey, often without even the most basic items, to collect your stuff and rescue any tamed creatures you may have left there.
This pain can be removed with the Death Inventory Keeper mod which saves items after death into a specific folder, which can then be accessed to bring your belongings back to you—and it even works if you die while you’re offline.
On top of this, you’ll automatically re-equip your armor once you’ve got your items back, so there is no slow process of accessing your inventory and equipping them one by one, providing another big time saver.
BetterTranqs
Tranq arrows are an incredibly useful resource in Ark: Survival Ascended that are a must-have when taming creatures but players will soon begin to realize that a frankly absurd number can be required to knock out tougher creatures.
BetterTranqs is here to save the day with seven different types of Tranq Arrows, available for both the bow and crossbow, and seven different types of Narcotic—all of which make knocking creatures unconscious, and keeping them that way, much easier.
The mod also includes a tame helper to reduce the food value of knocked-out creatures, which speeds up the taming process and a variant of the Mortar and Pestle which is much quicker to craft with.
Upgrade Station
Armor, weapons, and saddles are all very important items in Ark: Survival Ascended, though, frustratingly, they can quickly become redundant if you find a better version—but the Upgrade Station solves this issue.
Using this mod, players can improve the quality of their gear from the basic level, Primitive, all the way up to Ascendant. On top of this, weapons, armor, saddles, structures, and more can be salvaged for resources and the mod even works with Tek items.
Work on the mod isn’t done either, with plans to pull resources from nearby containers, standalone versions of all stations with metal and Tek versions, plus a new station for upgrading dinos.
