Ascension (2024)

Ascension is the course of defeating the final boss in a canonical ARK, ascending the Survivor and transferring the character to the next ARK. It also involves beating all bosses in a story-line ARK and discovering its the true nature.

On most canonical maps, ascending allows players to unlock additional levels for their Survivors. Defeating Overseer in Island, Manticore in Scorched Earth, Rockwell in Aberration, Corrupted Master Controller in Genesis Simulation (Genesis: Part 1) or Rockwell Prime in Genesis Ship (Genesis: Part 2), Survivors maximum level is increased by 5, 10, or 15, depending on what difficulty one ascended on (Gamma, Beta or Alpha). The only exception is Extinction, where defeating King Titan does not increase the maximum level a Survivor can reach.

In summary, survivors are able to ascend on the following ARKs:

• The Island, after defeating the Overseer
• Scorched Earth, after defeating the Manticore
• Aberration, after defeating Rockwell
• Extinction, after defeating King Titan
• Genesis: Part 1, after defeating Corrupted Master Controller
• Genesis: Part 2, after defeating Rockwell Prime

Committing all ascensions allows Survivors to reach a maximum level of 205: 5 can be obtained by leveling a Chibi-Pet 5 times (up to level 6), other 10 levels by finding every explorer note and other 10 by collecting all Runes on Fjordur.

Ascension will also upload the character, which entails the loss of any Element gained with the fight, as well any other item that cannot be transferred through different ARKs. A workaround is to put element and any other non-transferable item inside a tame inventory before the ascension happens, during the short final countdown after defeating the final boss.

Tek Cave

The Tek Cave, located in the Volcano, is the final cave of the The Island: completing it and defeating the Overseer will allow the player to undergo the first ascension. To access the cave, survivors need the Broodmother, Megapithecus and Dragon trophies of the appropriate diffigulty (Gamma, Beta, Alpha), which in turn require o have already acquired all the artifacts (or fought the guardian bosses with somebody who did). Ascensions above Gamma require also to collect appropriate tributes from Alpha Creatures.

After defeating Overseer and ascending, the survivor's Specimen Implant will change into its respective type after returning to Island or transferring to another ARK, as well reporting the difficulty ("<Difficulty> Ascension") of the fight in both description and appearance of the implant. This is shown whenever any inventory is accessed. In case the survivor will ascend again but at a higher difficulty, this will update the implant too (ascending again at a lower difficulty will not).

Uniquely, completing Alpha Ascension with Single Player Settings will unlock Tek ATV engram.

Achievements and Rewards

There are 3 achievements to be unlocked by ascending in The Island, awarding skins and hairstyles in addition to a higher level cap.

• Awards DodoRex Mask Skin
• Unlocks Hairstyles: Mohawk Hair & Moustache Facial Hair

• Awards DodoWyvern Mask Skin & Survivor's Trophy
• Unlocks Hairstyles: Afro Hair & Goatee Facial Hair

• Awards Clown Mask Skin & Rex Bionic Costume
• Unlocks Hairstyles: Dreadlocks Hair & Dread Beard Facial Hair

Ascension on Scorched Earth

With update 355.3, additional levels can be gained for defeating Manticore depending on the difficulty. To access the Arena, survivors need the three Artifacts (Artifact of the Gatekeeper, Artifact of the Crag and Artifact of the Destroyer). All ascension battle require specific number of Wyvern Talons gathered from killing adult wild wyverns of specific type.

Upon defeating Manticore, the survivor's Specimen Implant will register the difficulty (Green for Gamma, blue for Beta, and orange for Alpha) on the implant.

Ascension on Aberration

With the release of Aberration, additional levels can be gained for defeating Rockwell depending on its difficulty, located below the Grave of the Lost in its terminal (or in multiplayer servers at any of the damaged obelisk at surface as well as loot crates). To access the Arena, survivors need to collect the three Artifacts of the ARK (Artifact of the Depths, Artifact of the Shadows and Artifact of the Stalker). Ascensions at Beta requires specific tributes too, moreover, ascensions at Alpha require additional three special drops from Alpha Creatures.

After defeating Rockwell, the survivor's Specimen Implant will be mutated with their respective color icons depending on the difficulty (Green for Gamma, blue for Beta, and orange for Alpha) at upper-left corner of the implant, along with the additional prefix "<Difficulty> Aberrant" (if Tek Cave Ascension was already completed, the text will appear at the right after the comma). An aberrant light glow on the implant will highlight its respective pattern as well.

Ascension on Extinction

With Extinction being accessible through the Aberration Ascension, the plot thickens. To be able to access and defeat the King Titan, survivors have to find its terminal located at the Forbidden Zone. In a similar way like Overseer, the three Titans Trophies along with other ARK specific drops are required. While there is no level requirement to activate the fight, it is recommended that one comes prepared, especially as the zone containing the terminal is teeming with Corrupted Creatures.

Consequent defeating King Titan, the survivor's Specimen Implant is permanently removed, and in place, hom*o Deus Record replaces its slot. Unlike previous Ascensions, its aspect remains the same regardless of the difficulty faced, with only difference being the record labeled as "Gamma", "Beta" or "Alpha" based on the difficulty of the King Titan that was beaten. Unlike the other version, this ascension does not increase survivor level cap. It is also necessary survivors to stay in the area after the fight, otherwise the ascension won't happen.

Ascension on Genesis: Part 1

With Genesis: Part 1 being accessible as VR simulation, more levels can be added unlocked for the survivor. To access the boss battle against the Corrupted Master Controller, players have to interact with HLN-A to pick The Final Test. Unlike the other Bosses, the survivor initiating the battle must have cleared enough missions of its related difficulty.

Defeating the Master Controller, the survivor's Specimen Implant will receive an additional attachment based on the difficulty at its upper-right corner, without any prefix added and, like previous ascensions, it will allow additional character levels to be unlocked. If King Titan was already beaten by the survivor, it will not show up, as hom*o-Deus Record will be in the Implant place instead.

Ascension on Genesis: Part 2

With Genesis: Part 2 accessible in the corrupted insides of Genesis Ship, more levels can be unlocked by survivors. To access the final boss battle against Rockwell in his prime state, players have to reach the mission terminal found below the heart inside the Rockwell's Proliferation.

Upon defeating Rockwell Prime, the survivor's Specimen Implant will have a summoning icon below without additional prefixes. This does not show up on survivor arm, regardless whether or not they have already defeated King Titan. Like other ascensions however, this allows to unlock additional levels.

ARK Code

A code can be seen during ascension on The Island, it can be decoded here.Input the ARK code in the input field below. Use the letters according to the following principle. Characters other than w, a, s, d or space are ignored.

	W
A	S	D

• Four consecutive symbols are needed to encode one character. If you see less than a multiple of 4 characters, omit the incomplete group of four at the beginning or the end - wherever the image you try to decode is cut off. If the resulting text doesn't make sense, you can add 1 - 3 zeroes (A) at the beginning of the row to see if a shift gives a better result.
• Sometimes you will see the picture containing the code mirror-inverted. Use the S symbol as an indicator.

Alphabet

Code translations during Ascension

Before transfer

After transfer

Spotlight

Notes

• Although ascension is impossible on The Center, Ragnarok, Valguero, Crystal Isles, Lost Island, and Fjordur, you can still use admin commands to ascend. Almost every ascension is possible through admin commands on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
  • Gamma: cheat playercommand Ascend1
  • Beta: cheat playercommand Ascend2
  • Alpha: cheat playercommand Ascend3
  • Aberration Gamma: cheat playercommand AbAscend1
  • Aberration Beta: cheat playercommand AbAscend2
  • Aberration Alpha: cheat playercommand AbAscend3
  • Extinction Gamma: cheat playercommand EXTAscend1
  • Extinction Beta: cheat playercommand EXTAscend2
  • Extinction Alpha: cheat playercommand EXTAscend3
  • Genesis Part 1 Gamma: cheat playercommand Genascend1
  • Genesis Part 1 Beta: cheat playercommand Genascend2
  • Genesis Part 1 Alpha: cheat playercommand Genascend3
  • Genesis Part 2 Gamma: cheat playercommand Gen2Ascend1
  • Genesis Part 2 Beta: cheat playercommand Gen2Ascend2
  • Genesis Part 2 Alpha: cheat playercommand Gen2Ascend3

• Forcing Ascension on Scorched Earth will force the player back to the Main Menu and result in some items missing. put your items into a container before proceeding
  • To avoid that you can use the following command: DefeatBoss player_id Manticore difficulty with difficulty being a number between 0 and 2 included (2 being alpha) and player id being the number on the player's implant after the #
  • Ascending a lower Ascension such as Beta after Alpha glitches out the Character's Profile resulting in issues such as the game crashing on a second log in during the play session.
• Ascended characters cannot enter maps with item download disabled through character download without removing their gears first in another server.
• Scorched Earth ascension was finally added on mid December of 2022 since version 355.3
• Beating the Manticore on Ragnarok Arena will not start the Ascension cut-scene, however it will unlock the Survivor additional levels based on the fight difficulty if the the Manticore was not already defeated on Scorched Earth (the Specimen Implant may need the Survivor to be uploaded and downloaded or transferred to another ARK before getting updated).

Changelog

Patch	ARK: Survival Evolved Changes
257.0	TEK Cave & Volcano. "Ascension" Game Progression.
257.499	Fixed issue with downloading Survivors & Ascending on Unofficial Cluster Servers.
259.0	ATV engram is available in singleplayer after reaching max ascension. Corrected specimen implant colors after ascending.
259.1	Fixed the ATV Engram being visible and craftable on Dedicated Servers. You can still spawn them in, or add it manually, or via being Alpha Ascended in Single Player.
262.0	Alpha Ascension unlocks the Rex Bionic Costume.
267.0	Ascension Endboss.
275.0	Aberration Ascension added to the game.
276.4	Made The Island Ascension properly give its Ascension Implant/Levels again.
276.46	Fixed a case when Ascending there was a chance to lose characters that had been uploaded to the cloud.
279.242	Fixed game exploits involving using a BattlEye bypass to exploit the ascension mechanic.
279.261	Fixed bug causing Ascension character loss if you hadn't interacted with a terminal.
285.104	Extinction Ascension added to the game.
289.100	Fix for Ascension skipping cinematics for saved games on Extinction. Mesh Memory Optimizations for Extinction - Ascension Props.
306.41	Genesis: Part 1 Ascension added to the game.
329.3	Genesis: Part 2 Ascension added to the game.
355.3	Added Scorched Earth ascension.

Gallery

• 

  Extinction as shown in the Ascension cinematic for Aberration.

• 

  Ascension in action.