‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Adds Giant Kangaroo That You Can Ride In Its Pouch

The PC version of ARK: Survival Evolved was updated Thursday with what may be its craziest prehistoric beast yet. Say “hello” to the Procoptodon, a huge prehistoric kangaroo that can be tamed and ridden by two players; one of which hangs out in the creature’s pouch.

The v229 patch for ARK: Survival Evolved was released on New Year’s Eve with the Proctoptodon being the only animal added. A new Tribes Alliance feature was added, as well.

The Procoptodon was a real prehistoric creature that lived in Australia (via Wikipedia). It stood approximately 6-and-a-half feet tall, though the beasts in ARK are much larger. The giant prehistoric Kangaroo allows one player to ride on its back with a second in its pouch. This is the first creature in the game to allow for two riders, even if it is extremely unconventional.

As expected, the Procoptodon can leap great distances and heights. The accompanying spotlight video shows ARK players leaping across bodies of waters and over settlement walls meant to keep prehistoric animals and other players out. The amount of havoc ARK players can create with the beasts should be interesting to watch.

ARK players should not expect an easy time taming the Procoptodon. It must first be knocked out and then fed Rare Mushrooms, according to the Survive Ark fan site. These are somewhat difficult to obtain and the quantities needed for the prehistoric Kangaroo only make it more difficult. A level 20 Procoptodon needed 67 Rare Mushrooms to be tamed, while a level 40 required 99 Rare Mushrooms. That points to around 234 Rare Mushrooms for the level 40 creature.

Players have discovered them in the northern regions of the ARK: Survival Evolved island. Fang Mountain and near Carno Island are two locations where they can be frequently spotted.

Meanwhile, the new Tribes Alliances option is now available in ARK. This allow multiple tribes to band together, either to take on larger and more powerful tribes, or to consolidate their own power on a server.

Xbox One players should look forward to the Procoptodon and the Tribes Alliances feature to be added to the game within the next couple of weeks. Studio Wildcard co-founder Jesse Rapczack previously stated the early access-like Preview Program version of the game on the console will receive the same content updates as the PC every couple of weeks. The Steam release is still in Early Access and receives new updates every couple of days.

PC gamers interested in ARK: Survival Evolved may want to look at jumping in now. The game is on sale for $18 as part of the annual Steam Winter Sale, which runs through January 4.

The game has turned into a hit on the Xbox One with over one million downloads and more daily players than on Steam. This marks the first open-world survival title released to either of the current generation of consoles after years of popularity on PC. Other survival games, such as zombie survival titles DayZ and H1Z1, are in development for both the PS4 and Xbox One. Release dates for both are still unknown, but DayZ is expected to reach final release in 2016 and will presumably be ported over after that.

This situation helps explain the popularity of ARK: Survival Evolved on the Xbox One. There are dozens of open-world survival games on Steam for PC gamers to explore versus only one for consoles. Studio Wildcard took the bold leap to make sure it was first to the console market and the move paid off.

The final version of ARK: Survival Evolved is due out in June 2016 for both the PC and Xbox One. A PlayStation 4 release will also arrive at the same time.

[Image via ARK: Survival Evolved]