‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Patch 237 Drops Caves And Easter Event But No New Animals

The PC version of ARK: Survival Evolved received the promised patch 237 Friday afternoon with new swamp and snow caves. It also added a brand new Easter event to the dinosaur survival game. Unfortunately, some previously mentioned additions did not make the cut and have been delayed.

The release of patch 237 of ARK kicks off week-long “Eggcellent Adventure” event. Survivors will be able to collect special “Bunny Eggs” across The Island, which can be painted or used to craft Bunny Ears for players or a Bunny Costume for the Procoptodon (aka giant Kangaroo).

ARK Survivors will need to watch out though. The Bunny-Dodorex can be summoned during the limited time event and wreak havoc across The Island.

Studio Wildcard previously advertised that three new animals were to be added to ARK: Survival Evolved with patch 237. It doesn’t appear they are ready though and were pulled from the official patch notes on Steam late Thursday night. This would be the underwater version of the Giant Scorpion, the Eurypterid, which drops Black Pearls along with Chitin and Silica Pearls; the Dunkleosteus armored fish that can be tamed to harvest stone and oil in the depths of the oceans; and the Wool Rhino with its powerful charge attack.

Another patch is scheduled to be released to ARK: Survival Evolved next week and all three animals are targeted for it. Additionally, Studio Wildcard co-founder Susan Stieglitz has taken to the teasing the Basilosaurus, a large whale-like undersea mammal. It is reportedly coming in the next patch as well, though it is not currently listed in the patch notes.

Survivors do have plenty to look forward to with today’s ARK: Survival Evolved patch despite the three animals being cut. The long-awaited Snow and Swamp caves have finally been added following some performance difficulties that were finally fixed. These are geared towards high-level Survivors and contain high-end loot, artifacts, and the first clues towards the origins of the ARK.

ARK players will not only have to contend with creatures such as Yetis, Giant Scorpions, and Giant Bats, but the environment of the caves as well. The Snow Caves are brutally cold and will require Fur Armor. Meanwhile, the Swamp Caves have a noxious atmosphere that requires players to equip a Scuba Tank and Mask to survive. Ghillie Suits are an alternative as well, according to a Reddit post from Studio Wildcard Community Manager Jat Karunakaran. This gives Primitive servers a chance to explore Swamp Caves as well since they don’t have access to scuba gear.

For those wanting to know about the entrances for the new caves, GPS coords are: 29,31 for Snow & 62,37 for Swamp.

— Jat (@Jatheish) March 25, 2016

There are other additions listed in the ARK: Survival Evolved patch notes that have not been explained by Studio Wildcard. 4K textures have been released along with increased server performance and “majorly reduced client CPU utilization.”

Here are the patch notes released by Studio Wildcard for ARK: Survival Evolved patch 237.

• Limited Event: ARK: Eggcellent Adventure, March 25 – March 31
• Epic 4K Texture Deployment (all textures at source resolution)! Better texture pool utilization at all Texture setting levels
• Snow and Swamp caves
• Breeding Mechanics Phase 2
• Tribe Member Rankings with Customizable Per-Rank Privileges
• Increased Server Performance
• Majorly Reduced Client CPU utilization where many Dinos are active, significant gains for most players

There’s no word yet on when these features will arrive on the Xbox One. The “Eggcellent Adventure” event is guaranteed not to appear on the console. It typically takes two to three weeks for a PC update to reach the Xbox One.

Update: The Breeding Mechanics Phase 2 and Tribe Member Rankings were removed from the patch notes after this post went live. Author has been laid out with the flu and did not notice the change.

[Image via Studio Wildcard]