New ARK Lost Colony trailer confirms Arat Prime map and "Lost" character ability trees

Modified Mar 18, 2025 09:30 IST

ark lost colony map — Arat Prime has the key to many plot points (Image via Studio Wildcard)

$29.99 will be the price to pay for Lost Colony, the first canon story expansion exclusive to ARK Survival Ascended. This was confirmed with a fresh MAPPA-animated teaser giving us some more pointers on its locale, which is now officially confirmed to be what most players already expected: Arat Prime.

Those who hoped for a release date reveal with this teaser will be disappointed. The currently known release window is November 2025, which might be pushed to December based on Studio Wildcard's track record.

ARK: Lost Colony's map will be a frozen city with Element-powered factions

This is the first creature officially revealed for Lost Colony (Image via Studio Wildcard)

The fact that ARK: Lost Colony's featured new map will be Arat Prime was already tailgated by a small animated cinematic watchable after you defeat the final boss of Extinction in the Ascended version. The trailer features Mei-Yin at the end of the events of the ARK animated series, which automatically puts her on the dark side of the still earth, the polar opposite of the forever-daytime map of Extinction.

One detail the latest teaser establishes is that there won't be much frigid wilds to trudge through, as the focus will instead go to the city of Arat Prime, a mysterious facility that plays a big part in driving ARK's plot.

As the first story expansion for the UE5 remaster, Lost Colony will likewise be pivotal to the franchise's plot: not only does it address the gap between the events of ARK Extinction and Genesis Part 1, but it also sets up the long-awaited Vin Diesel starrer ARK 2.

The other key detail is the idea of Element-infused warring factions seeking to reverse the re-seeding of Earth. The wording in the teaser's description does not completely confirm there will be multiple factions at war with each other, but ARK Survival Ascended definitely has the framework to accommodate that mechanic.

With how Studio Wildcard has pushed for new systemic elements, such as a fleshed-out Genetic Traits system in ARK Survival Ascended, ARK Lost Colony might also see some big new toys to play with. So far, the teaser vaguely lists new Cursed-tier gear, "Lost" character ability trees, and advanced building systems. We will likely get more details in Community Crunch 450 this week.

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Edited by Rachel Syiemlieh