Community Crunch 483: Introducting Ossidon!

This week brings some big moments out on the ARK. The Ossidon has stepped into the foreground at last, an imposing winter-born brute with a presence that seems to quiet the wilds around it. We also closed out another Community Creature Vote, and the winning design is now bound for the wilds of Genesis Part 1. Thank you to everyone who brainstormed, sketched, debated, rallied, and dreamed together.

And on top of that, you’ve pushed us past 120k raised for Extra Life, with time still on the clock. Incredible! To keep the momentum rolling, we’ve added a new stretch goal further down. This is real-world impact made possible by a community that shows up for one another. We're grateful for your heart, your humor, and your generosity.

Let’s dive in!

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Common Name: Ossidon
Species: Cryopithecus dominus
Time: Necrocene
Diet: Carnivore
Temperament: Relentless

Project Ossidon has already yielded the ideal apex protector for our people’s needs! Experimentation with the infusion of Red Element into creatures engineered for hardiness has given us a truly fearsome anthropoid that can dominate the Antarctic wastes.

By design, these noble snow-beasts can be sorted at a distance by adaptation. Each specimen morphologically expresses its most useful genomic trait. The healthiest Ossidon might display a magnificent crest, while the deadliest will flash the longest teeth.

Our biotech teams are laboring around the clock to gestate and domesticate as many Ossidons as possible, should the day come when they may be needed to defend against a Titan. In the near term, these glorious behemoths will be employed as our peacekeepers and guardians.

Ossidon was engineered to produce excessive quantities of cryogenic mucus. This foul substance is the creature’s greatest weapon, whether rolled into an icy wrecking ball or spit in a shower of bone-chilling slush.
Any rider will feel unstoppable astride one of these imposing brutes! Our mounted forces will soon become as integral to the defense of this outpost as our protective energy shield. And should any of my subjects – my esteemed colleagues – feel tempted to challenge my rule, the Ossidons under my command would prove to be an effective deterrent…

With over 23k votes, Palaeoctopus will be the new creature added to Genesis Part 1for ARK: Survival Ascended. We are looking forward to sharing its concept and dossier in the weeks to come!

If you are interested in seeing exactly how the voting went, check it out here.

* Note that we'll be reading through these threads and using them as inspiration for how the creature will be designed; aspects suggested may change.

We’re thrilled to share that the community has raised over 120k for Extra Life!

And a new stretch goal for a fifth Dino TLC at 175k has been unlocked!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed. It has been inspiring to see the community come together for a cause with the energy and dedication only ARK players bring. Your generosity has helped us reach all of our donation milestones so far and will reward the community with four brand-new Dino TLC passes while unlocking a potential fifth TLC at 175k raised. There is only one week left before the first creature is locked in so get your votes in! Together, we’re making a difference for kids and shaping the future of ARK!

While we won’t be able to host our usual 24-hour Extra Life livestream this year, we’re still going all-in on what matters most: uniting as a community to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and unlocking something special for the future of ARK: Survival Ascended.

Our dedicated community has unlocked four Dino TLC passes to be released throughout 2026, breathing new life into a classic creature of the ARK with updated gameplay and style.

1. ↑ Therizinosaurus
2. ↓ Giganotosaurus
3. ⚌ Megalosaurus
4. ↓ Quetzalcoatlus
5. ↓ Araneo
6. ↓ Gallimimus
7. ↑ Thylacoleo
8. ⚌ Brontosaurus
9. ↓ Allosaurus
10. ↓ Carnotaurus

Donate now to any team member listed here to ensure your vote counts!

When donating to anyone on the Studio Wildcard Extra Life Team, not just Studio Wildcard directly, include a message with your chosen creature’s full first name preceded by a hashtag, like this (we’ll do our best to identify typos, but try to spell them correctly!):

• #Giganotosaurus
• Hello #Giganotosaurus
• Please give #Giganotosaurus a TLC!

If no hashtag vote is included in the donation message, the donation will still count towards the TLC total, but it won’t advance any particular dino’s voting tally.

• Every $1 donated = 1 vote
• A $50 donation with #Giganotosaurus = 50 votes for Giganotosaurus
• Five $10 donations with #Giganotosaurus = 50 votes for Giganotosaurus (10 x 5)

To keep the vote balanced and consistent, eligible creatures must meet the following criteria:

• Must be a creature from The Island
• Must be tameable
• Must be rideable or a shoulder pet
• Must not have previously received a TLC pass
• The following creatures have already had a TLC pass and are not eligible:
  • Argentavis
  • Dire Bear
  • Direwolf
  • Gigantopithecus
  • Mammoth
  • Parasaur
  • Procoptodon
  • Raptor
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex
  • Sabertooth
  • Sarcosuchus
  • Spinosaurus
  • Stegosaurus
  • Triceratops

Each winner will be locked in at 1 PM Pacific on that date and revealed the same day in the Crunch.

• November 14 – First Winner
• November 21– Second Winner
• November 28 – Third Winner
• December 5 – Final Winner

Ella Grace's journey began with a mysterious limp, leading to a four-year search for answers. Multiple surgeries and misdiagnoses left her family feeling lost. After finally getting a one-in-a-million diagnosis of Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis (CRMO), she was relieved to hear that UF Health Shands Children's Hospital could provide what she needed for her rare bone disease.

Though incurable, the hospital's specialized care and treatment plan brought stability and progress. Thanks to donations through CMN, UF Health Shands Children's Hospital provides specialized care and a comforting environment, empowering Ella Grace to face CRMO with strength.

You can read the full article about Ella's journey here!

All donations go directly to UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital, a nationally recognized cornerstone of the UF Health Shands campus. The hospital provides expert care across more than 20 pediatric specialties and is home to the community’s first emergency department dedicated solely to children, the UF Health Shands Pediatric ER.
Serving children and families throughout Florida and beyond, UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital is a leading destination for pediatric patients from across the United States and around the world who need specialized care for complex medical conditions.

UF Health Shands recently celebrated the ribbon-cutting of Unit 44, a fully renovated pediatric medicine and surgical floor designed with children and families in mind. The unit features all-new private rooms with tech-enabled amenities for families, dedicated gathering spaces for siblings, and brand-new toddler and teen playrooms equipped with four large TVs, allowing patients to use each screen independently or sync them together to play their favorite games on what might be the biggest screen they’ve ever seen, perfect for jumping into ARK and other games. Interactive healing walls and an upgraded procedure room further enhance the patient experience. The $30 million+ transformation was funded through a combination of hospital budget, state appropriations, and private philanthropy, including over $4 million from Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals supporters (that's you guys!) .

We’re bringing extra color to the chaos this spooky season! The community’s favorite creature colors are now live alongside the Fear Ascended color palette on the Official Network.

And that’s not all — Survivors can also enjoy event items and delicious cake slices from now thru November 10th.

• Taming Cake Slice
• Breeding Cake Slice
• Imprint Cake Slice 
• EXP Cake Slice 
• Harvesting Cake Slice

​

• ID5 Cyan 
• ID 94 Teal
• ID68 DeepPink
• ID36 Dino Albino
• ID96 Glacial
• ID4 Yellow
• ID6  Magenta
• ID84  Mint
• ID95 PowderBlue
• ID76 Peach 
• ID57 DarkTurquoise
• ID67 LightPink
• ID58 MediumTurquoise
• ID91 Lavender
• ID2 Blue
• ID92  DarkTeal
• ID19 Dino Light Red
• ID53 Dino Medium Blue
• ID50 WyvernPurple1
• ID54 Dino Deep Blue
• ID11 Light Yellow
• ID88 LeafGreen
• ID59 TurquoiseafGreen
• ID27 Dino Dark Green

We’ve turned up the saturation for Extra Life—more colors, more variety, and more chances to spot rare shades roaming the wild. Expect your world to be brighter, bolder, and packed with some of the community's favorite hues! 💙

Extra Life Game Day is in full swing and the support has been incredible. Together we’ve already passed 120k raised and unlocked four creature TLCs to make their way into ASA. Thank you so much to everyone donating, cheering, streaming, and showing up. This is the power of gaming communities when we come together.

And we’re not done yet. Throughout the day, these ongoing Game Day streams will feature some exclusive reveals you won’t want to miss, so be sure to tune in and hang out!

Let’s keep the energy going. For the kids.

Syntac & Heather take on Scorched Earth:

Raasclark, Aaron Longstaff, and friends play games across the ARK:

MODSPOLIGHTLINK
Download & play new custom content created by players, including new maps, creatures, items, and game modes, through a dedicated new Mod-browser directly within the game. Enjoy an endless stream of new ARK content as the creativity and talent of the community is fully unleashed for the first time across gaming platforms and stay tuned as we spotlight more Cross-Platform Mods each week!

This video features:

• Vintal Premium by WM_Plays (premium)
• Hunters Assemble by PlophoP, EveryJams (premium)
• Country House Structure Skins by WeiyiUE (premium)
• Cyber Dino Costumes by ValkyMeow (premium)
• DaniTech PaveTheRoad by TechyDani (premium)
• Svartalfheim Premium (Update!) by Nekatus_Modding (premium)
• Teraxititan (Update!) by Tristans_Modding, Tweeezs (premium)
• Cliffan’s Outfits: Timeless Tek Suit by Cliffan, NanoStel06
• Nekatus and Creep’s LOTR Skins by Nekatus_Modding, Creep
• Camping Survivor by Venkou90
• Roleplay Additions: Weapons by ScriptosaurusCR
• Hiveopod by Armangamer777
• Immersive Props by BAMB
• Weeping ARK by Hazearil
• ClaysAnkyloEdit by TheClay_Art
• Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle - Heavy FN SCAR-H Mk-17 by TeamMIROKU
• Draconic Chronicles (Content update) by Ave

Hey Survivors, after careful assessment, we've opted to begin the process of sunsetting a selection of our inactive official servers. Our goal is to ensure that we're always delivering the best experience possible, and official servers exist as a way for the community to play together without having to host their own. When we launch fresh content, typically, we put up more servers than we need in the long term to match the peak in user capacity; over time, these servers become ghost towns as players have dropped off and are waiting for the next major content release.

At the conclusion of the Bonus Rate Event on Monday, October 20th (around 1 PM Pacific), we’ll be opening transfers out of Isolated servers to the main network for items, characters, and creatures, as well as character transfers into Isolated for those who wish to move.

As part of this process, the servers will be renamed with the “SUNSET” prefix, following the same approach we’ve used in the past. Please note that once renamed, these servers will be removed from the in-game Favorites list, so you’ll need to search for them manually to reconnect.

After further evaluation, the following servers have been removed from the sunset list:

On December 8th, we'll be sunsetting these inactive Island servers, click on Show More to see the updated detailed list.

Non-Isolated

Non-Isolated

We still intend to provide capacity at launches as much as possible to meet the higher need during those periods.

We’re working with our partner at Nitrado to offer these saves after the scheduled sunset through Nitrado’s interface. Please stay tuned for more details.

Expire servers are temporary servers across the network that will eventually be removed, and you can find them by searching for "Expire" in the session filter.

These servers will be online until 10 am PST / 1 pm EST on December 8th. We're preemptively using our allocation for future maps to host some additional sessions that players can travel onto to farm, tame, and experience the newest content Gameplay. The same transfer restrictions apply in that you are only able to download your character, but you can freely take anything off. This is to help reduce load off some of the other servers, or provide players an option for those who just want to jump onto a new map temporarily.

Please note that these servers will no longer exist after 10 am PST / 1 pm EST on December 8th, so if you intend to use them, remember to transfer your items/creatures/characters off before that date, as nothing will be saved beyond that time period.

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Darkness creeps once more across the ARK...

Fear Ascended returns from now until November 12th, bringing with it a spine-tingling celebration packed with new skins, eerie creatures, and haunting surprises to discover.

We’ve turned up the saturation for Fear Ascended—more colors, more variety, and more chances to spot rare shades bleeding through to the wild. Expect your world to be brighter, bolder, and packed with some of the community's favorite hues!

Stay close to the fire, Survivors... you never know what’s lurking in the dark.
Check out all the spooky details here.

The Official Network will be receiving bonus rates until Wednesday, November 12.

• PVP/PVE: 2x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience, and Breeding
• Small Tribes: 4.5x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience + 4x Breeding
• ARKpocalypse: 5x Harvesting, Taming and Experience, and Breeding

Fan Art Gallery | Screenshot Gallery | Artist Feedback Form

The party starts at 10 AM PST, November 8th, for Extra Life Gameday! Come donate to help the kids for your chance to get your hands on some awesome, one of a kind, items including a fully custom build and painted Dino army from the incredible Boylei Hobby Time YouTube channel.

For more info, join HillBillyWilly's Discord.

You can catch HillBillyWilly on Twitch and YouTube.

Why not give the Megaraptor the creep factor it deserves? by penguinlover583

Reaper by @fan-da-engraver

Megaraptor by @SS38529630

Little Brawl by @falco_luna

For Extra Life by @SirDripstein

Empirosaurus by Ermerus

Blood Moon by BumpySlays22

The Ultimate All-in-One Raft Base by lolsatlance

Photo Mode by frozen_soap

Photo Mode by i_got_spaghetti

Who's hyped for Extra Life? by mystickorea

Castle I'm building on Ragnarok by twinscrewgamer

Enjoy your weekend! Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
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Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Threads: threads.net/@survivetheark
Official Wiki: ark.wiki.gg