‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ PS4 Patch Adds Tek Tier, Hair And Late Valentine’s Event

PlayStation 4 owners of ARK: Survival Evolved can now join in on the fun of Tek Tier and a Valentine’s Event. Studio Wildcard just released update 504 after it spent a little extra time going through Sony’s certification process.

The 504 update to ARK: Survival Evolved is a 5.5 G download for PS4 and PS4 Pro owners. It brings over all the content from the most recent PC release, the Valentine’s Event, a big update to The Center, and some console-specific enhancements.

The Valentine’s Event is now available on all official servers for the next week. Unofficial and player-run dedicated servers can also get in on some of the benefits of the event by entering “-vday” as a command line parameter.

Love will be in the air on official servers as players are encouraged to mate tamed animals for a 5 percent chance to drop a Box of Chocolate. This can be used to provide a full heal to a character or advance a creature’s taming affinity bar by 50 percent. ARK Survivors will want to focus on animals that tame quickly, such as Dodos, to increase their chance to receive a Box of Chocolate.

Meanwhile, the following boosts will be available on both official and unofficial servers that run the aforementioned “-vday” command line.

• Mate Boosted range increased by 2x
• Mating Speed and Mating Recovery increased by 3x
• Creature Maturing and Egg Incubation speed increased by 3x
• Baby Food Consumption decreased by one-third

Third-person mode is now accessible for PS4 players by holding down the Map button and selecting that as an option. Note that this may not work on unofficial player dedicated servers at the moment. Another small memory performance improvement has been added for handling distant shadows. Finally, some new server host and single player settings are available for ARK: Survival Evolved owners to tweak.

It’s also important to note that per-pixel painting was pulled from this update at the last minute. Studio Wildcard Community Manager Jat explained on Twitter it needs more technical work before the much-requested feature can be deployed to consoles.

As for the new content and gameplay improvements, the big news is Tek Tier has finally arrived. Phase one allows players who reach end game levels to craft Tek armor and weapons crafted in the Tek Replicator. This is for end game levels and requires players to collect the new Element resource from summoned bosses.

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.

Meanwhile, hair is the other big new feature. It will now grow on characters’ faces and heads, requiring the occasional trimming via a pair of craftable scissors. This means different styles will be available and can be unlocked by discovering explorer notes.

On the creature side of the ARK: Survival Evolved update, there are four new beasts. 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 brings a bit of domestication to the game. ARK Survivors gain an easily tameable creature capable of providing wool from shearing or mutton when killed.

The official ARK: Survival Evolved mods further add to the size of the update. The Center received numerous bug fixes and a couple of new features, as previously covered. The following Twitter post from The Center developer Ben Burkart covers the updates to the custom map.

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]