ARK Survival Ascended Valguero's new dino might be its most Souls-like

The Ark Survival Ascended port of Valguero is coming this August, and it has been confirmed that Megaraptor, a new dino, will also be included in this DLC. Studio Wildcard has always bundled their ASA ports of official maps with a brand-new creature decided by a community poll. With over 32,000 votes, Megaraptor won the most recent one — narrowly beating the Prehistoric Cheetah.

An aggressive Carnivore, Megaraptor was originally the mascot of the Additional Creatures mod for ARK Survival Evolved. However, the ARK Survival Ascended iteration has a much more brawny design, and it will almost certainly have a different set of abilities.

Specifically, you'll need to engage some timed parry shenanigans to tame it, and it might even come with a directional dodge system — dare we say, very Souls-like (for the lack of a more ubiquitous term).

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ARK Survival Ascended's Megaraptor has a directional dodge, and you tame it by parrying

Megaraptor has unmatched reflexes, say dossier (Image via SurviveTheArk Forum)

As outlined in Community Crunch 447, Megaraptor will have "lightning speed" and "razor-sharp instincts", meaning the developers might stick to the creator's original vision. The original forum submission dubs Megaraptor the Murderous Nightmare, and it's supposed to be a stealthy, versatile, and smart creature that hunts you from the dark.

According to this original concept, the Megaraptor will elude turrets and even player vision, and they can jump-scare the player literally, inducing a paralyzing Fear effect (like the Yuty, except it also works on you).

Megaraptor is resilient to arrows and regular melee weapons, and its only weakness is fire (think torches and flamethrowers). They will "parry" all attacks and projectiles, so the intended taming tactic turns this strength against themselves. To tame them, you must craft a special Blade weapon with Megaraptor Claws, which should be used to parry its melee swipes to drain its stamina and then feed it.

Once tamed, Megaraptor also comes with the implication of some unique mechanics:

• A directional Dodge system with i-frames like a Fjordhawk
• An Ambush Mode (which is always if it's not daytime)
• Lifesteal on bigger creatures
• Sideways sprint maneuver
• A charge-based Rage mechanic that brings some interesting implications

All of this is based on the forum post where community member RoberotTurati pitched the original concept last month, so the mechanics and specifics may change going into the actual Megaraptor in Valguero. In all honesty, calling it a Souls-like dino by virtue of a dodge and an attack-deflection mechanic is a bit reductionist. However, this is the perfect scope for Studio Wildcard to try out the fresh direction they're taking for combat with ARK 2.

Then again, the excitement for this maverick concept might also be unwarranted. It's possible the mechanics outlined by the creator will not play well with ASA, which will reduce it to a gimmick dino not many will cherish. After all, if the unique flourishes don't hit, it's just another big bad theropod at the end of the day.

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Check out more ARK Survival Ascended news and guides from Sportskeeda:

• Ark Survival Ascended DLC Roadmap and map release schedule
• All ARK Survival Ascended Traits you can store with Gene Scanner
• Best Ark Survival Ascended tame for every resource
• Ark Survival Ascended: Scorched Earth resource map
• Ark Survival Ascended The Center Resource map
• ARK Survival Ascended Aberration Resource map