Summary
Measuring the actual size of anArk: Survival Ascendedmap likeAberrationis more difficult than it seems. Although rough scale maps for the base location (The Island) andArk’s many DLC mapsdo exist, they don’t account for all the peculiarities possible. For example, some maps are more vertically situated than others, cramming more terrain into a technically smaller area. Others may contain large swathes of inaccessible or disused terrain, like thick cave walls or long stretches of open ocean.
Aberrationis the third main DLC map to come toArk, followingThe CenterandScorched Earth. It’s asubterranean map set on a broken, irradiated ARK, and as such, features multiple layers of winding passages through treacherous caves. Despite the manydifferences betwenArk: Survival EvolvedandAscended, its ground-up remaster, DLC maps remain largely the same when carried over from one game to the other. As a result, players familiar with the originalArkcan expect to find much the same in the revamped version. Comparing it to other DLCs and the original Island map, though, is a different story.
Ark: Survival Ascended Gets 400 New Dinos Thanks To Huge DLC-Sized Mod
Ark: Survival Ascended players looking to spice up their game should check out this massive mod which adds hundreds of new dinos to The Island.
How Big Is ASA: Aberration Compared To The Island?
Ark’s Base Map Vs. Aberration DLC
Aberrationhas been called the largest map ever to be released forArk, but the truth of that is actually much more complicated. In a Reddit post, playerPy64estimates the size ofAberration’s map at 64 square kilometers(25 square miles), almost exactly equivalent to the area of The Island. They used the in-game GPS to calculate these areas, which reflects the in-game measurements of distance. These may not directly translate to real-world measurements, but are useful for comparative purposes.
But just looking at the two of them side by side, it seems about right. Like mostArkmaps,both The Island andAberrationoccupy 90 latitude by 90 longitude square grids. They take up roughly the same amount of space on their respective pieces of aged parchment; the outer area of The Island’s map is covered in uninterrupted ocean, whileAberration’s is shrouded in impenetrable rock. Since these areas can’t technically be explored, it’s not totally fair to consider them part of their respective maps.
However, this calculation only measures surface area, and that doesn’t account for the one major factor that makesAberrationunique: its verticality.Aberrationis set in a massive underground cave network. It takes far longer to explore than The Island, and that’s not just because of its crushing difficulty.Aberrationfeatures layers upon layers of cave passages, often stacked on top of one anotherto the point that, when it comes to navigation, the map is basically useless. Players need a compass or a GPS to get around.
Ark: Survival Evolved Fans Are Getting A New Ultimate Edition This Year
Studio Wildcard announces that Ark: Ultimate Survivor Edition, the complete version of the original survival game, is arriving on a new platform.
That’s really the key toAberration’s increased size, and what once gave it its claim to fame as the largest map released forArk. Py64 went on to calculate several maps' full areas when compensating for height. They never got around toAberration, but claimedits area would be “vastly different,“likely due to its layered nature. It loses a few points for its many cave walls, which do somewhat cut into its overall traversable area. However, on the whole, it’s noticeably larger than The Island.
How Big Is ASA: Aberration Compared To Other DLC?
Ark’s Aberration Vs. Scorched Earth & The Center
ComparingAberrationtoArk: Survival Ascended’s other DLCs to date, things get even more complicated. According to Py64’s calculations,Scorched Earth’s map areais pretty much exactly the same as The Island andAberration’s, at 64 square kilometers. However,Scorched Earthdoesn’t even come close toAberration(or even the Island) in terms of verticality. As a result, it could be called one of the smaller DLC maps available, and is decidedly smaller thanAberration.
As forThe Center, even by Py64’s simple GPS calculations,it’s much larger than both The Island andAberrationat roughly 92 square kilometers (36 square miles). That’s mainly because it has a vertical layout comparable to, if not higher than,Aberration.The Centerfeatures not only an expansive cave network below ground, but also a series of mountain ranges above, not to mention the floating island at its center. It could easily take just as long, if not longer, to explore the entirety ofThe CenterthanAberration.
Ark: Survival Ascended’s New The Center Map Compared To The Island & Scorched Earth
Ark: Survival Ascended’s new The Center DLC adds a challenging experience to the game that makes it match up well with what is already offered.
ButThe Centeralso has a lot of unused areain the form of (mostly) uninterrupted ocean. While it does have a greater concentration of islands apart from the main landmass, there’s also a lot of terrain that simply isn’t ripe for exploration. Calculating the exact amount of explorable terrain would be difficult (the original post by Py64 even refers to it as “a nightmare”), but even with the hit taken by its unused terrain,The Centeris still probably larger thanAberration.
But what aboutASEmaps that still haven’t been released forASA? One of the original game’s maps still claims the title oflargestArkmap:Crystal Isles. Coming in at a whopping 272 square kilometers (105 square miles) per Py64’s calculations, it’s more than twice the size ofThe Center, and more than four times the size ofAberration,Scorched Earth, and The Island.GenesisPart 1is a close second at 225 square kilometers (87 sqare miles). So, whileAberrationis pretty big by currentASAmap standards, it’ll eventually be dwarfed by the releases ofGenesisandCrystal Isles, expected out in 2025.
But still,Aberrationis undeniably one of the larger maps available forASA, and will likely remain the largest for a long time to come. Players will find plenty to explore onAberration’s massive, highly vertical map, and even with the aid of a GPS and climbing dinosaurs like the Rock Drake, it’ll take countless hours to see everything the map has to offer. So, while it may not be the biggest mapArk: Survival Ascendedwill ever have to offer, it’s certainly one of the most diverse and challenging.
Source:Py64/Reddit
Ark: Survival Ascended
ARK: Survival Ascended is a reimagined version of the 2017 action-adventure survival MMORPG by the developers at Studio Wildcard and Grove Street Games. Built in Unreal Engine 5, players will return to ARK to build tribes, fight and tame dinosaurs, and brave the elements as they battle to survive in a unique sandbox where crafting and resource management is essential.
