‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Adds Tek Tier, Wild Hair, Jousting, And New Dinos In Huge Update

ARK: Survival Evolved just got hairier. A new update was deployed to the PC Monday to bring some long-promised features, such as the Tek Tier. Studio Wildcard upped the ante by dropping customizable hairstyles and facial hair into the open-world survival game along with jousting.

Patch 254 is available to download for ARK: Survival Evolved PC players now. This is perhaps the largest update to the title yet. At the very least, it is the largest update in more than a year thanks to the addition of the sci-fi Tek Tier.

ARK players who reach the end game levels and collect the new Element resources from bosses will be able to adorn themselves with Tek armor and weapons crafted in the Tek Replicator. The armor provides not just protection, but new abilities as well.

The visor of the Tek helmet will highlight enemy players in red and friendly players in green. It also serves as a radar to see through walls plus grants night vision. Meanwhile, the Tek boots turn players into super-fast speedsters capable of running through (at least wooden) walls and across water. The Tek gauntlets pack a powerful punch that can send opposing players flying or bring a deadly ground pound. Finally, the Tek chest armor equips players with a jet pack to fly around.

The first Tek dinosaur armor arrives as well. The new Tek tier Rex saddle turns the king of the dinosaurs into walking tank with extra armor and a head-mounted GigaLazer. Additional Tek tier saddles for other creatures will arrive in future ARK: Survival Evolved updates.

Aside from the Tek Tier, ARK Survivors can challenge each other to jousts. Lances haves been added to the game, which allows players to equip it and a shield while riding tamed dinosaurs like the Raptor.

Varied hairstyles and facial hair have been requested since ARK: Survival Evolved first released. It took a while for Studio Wildcard to add hair options to the game, but the developers at least went the extra mile.

Hair will slowly grow on player’s character. Craftable scissors can be used to cut the hair and trim facial hair into different styles as well as dye it. Additional styles will continue to be added to the game for players to unlock by discovering explorer notes.

The dinosaur roster expands by four yet again. The whale-like Basilosaurus will reward plenty of oil when killed or can harvest loads of fish when tamed. Players should beware though as ocean predators tend to follow this prehistoric whale around for scraps.

The crocodile-like Baryonyx is the third such creature to be introduced to ARK: Survival Evolved. While the last reptilian addition will leap out of the water, this new addition can perform a spin attack that stuns all creatures and humans caught by the tail whip.

The Purlovia is perhaps the most interesting of the bunch as they are like living landmines. Players will be able to tame these and set them to burrow underground in a spot. When enemies approach, the Purlovia will leap out and attack the unsuspecting enemy.

Finally, the Ovis Aries was originally a push to win a Steam award for “Best Use of a Farm Animal.” Studio Wildcard elected to add the sheep despite losing the award. ARK Survivors gain an easily tameable creature capable of providing wool from shearing or mutton when killed.

PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players can look forward to the content from this update to be released around February 14, per the official website. There is still no word on the status of the Xbox Play Anywhere feature.

Here are the official PC patch notes for ARK: Survival Evolved update 254.

• New Mechanic: Hairstyles & Facial Hair (with real-time growing), Hair Dye-ing, & Haircutting + Scissors
• Tek Tier Phase 1: Tek Engram system, Element Resource system, Tek Replicator, Tek Rifle, Tek Helmet, Tek Visor, Tek Jetpack, Tek Boots, Tek Gloves, Tek Rex Saddle, Tek Transmitter, and more.
• New Dino: Ovis Aries!
• New Dino: Basilosaurus!
• New Dino: Baryonyx!
• New Dino: Purlovia!
• New Item: Lance (for jousting of course!), and you can now also use a Shield when Weapon-Riding (provided you are using an appropriate Weapon).
• Alliance-Chat channel!
• Admin Command Logs & Chat Logs file-output options
• Troodon Scout now has an option to look for Corpses & Caches
• Tamed Dinos now have an option to disable their resource-harvesting
• Holding Left or Right when dismounting a Dino will now dismount you in that direction
• Significantly increased Scorched Earth Loot Drop Quality
• Added 5 more Player and Dino levels
• Fixed Allosaurus spawning inside bases
• Fixed issue with being able to clip through World Geometry
• Fixed Supply Crates respawn logic (would previously have stopped some cave crate spawns)
• ~16 more Explorer Notes
• Soups/Beers can no longer be eaten by Dinos

But wait, there’s more. The Center developer Ben Burkart has fixed numerous bugs on the official mod map plus added some new features.

List of Fixes and Features coming in the next major update to The Center! pic.twitter.com/vIJMBlKxCk

— Ben Burkart (@evilmrfrank) January 17, 2017

[Featured Image by Studio Wildcard]