ARK: Survival Evolvedhas seen its fair share of holiday eventsput forth by Studio Wildcardsince its launch date in 2015, along with generously boosted harvesting and breeding rates to keep its playerbase satisfied. Its Halloween-themed event, however, set the ball rolling as one of the first ever holiday events seen in theARKuniverse, carving the path for a future of colored creatures and novelty skins.
Now in its fifth year,ARK: Fear Evolved contains more than fifteen new creature colors, ghost creatures, skeletal creatures, spooky emotes, zombie wyverns, brand-new Chibis, and scary skins, all backed up by a haunting soundtrack.
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ARK: Fear Evolved
The original Fear Evolved saw its week-long debut in 2015, five months afterARK’s release date. During that week, survivors were introduced to the iconic DodoRex and the dinosaur bone skins, dropped by six different skeletal creatures. The current Fear Evolved features ten skeletal creatures, a small improvement from the original version. Along with bone skins, survivors also caught their first glimpse of the special holiday skins that Studio Wildcard now release with each event. Compared to the twenty-six skins available in this year’s Fear Evolved, the original version had only three to choose from.
ARK: Fear Evolved 2
Fear Evolved 2, a sequel to Fear Evolved, was the first Halloween Event to add the DodoWyvern (a creature similar to the DodoRex), that spawns onScorched Earth serverswith an army of zombie wyvern minions. Like the original, Fear Evolved 2 featured alterations in the environment, such as decreased air temperature, autumn-colored leaves, and a migration of cave-dwelling creatures to be seen above ground. Players also saw the introduction of four new skeletal creatures, including bone wyverns and the terrifying skeletal giganotosaurus.
The Witches Curse
Due to Studio Wildcard’s focus on theAberration DLC during 2017, the fan-favourite Fear Evolved event was replaced by a shorter and less content-packed Halloween event called The Witches Curse, which spanned over the course of two days. Unfortunately for players, both the DodoRex and DodoWyvern failed to make an appearance during this event, and would not be seen again until Fear Evolved 3. Although skeletal dinosaurs and autumn leaves were also absent, survivors did have the chance to tame black and orange spiders that spawned above ground and find Halloween skins in high-level supply drops.
ARK: Fear Evolved 3
With an absence of Fear Evolved events for three years,ARK: Fear Evolved 3 made a grand comeback in 2019 to the joy of theARKcommunity, bringing with it a multitude of spooky updated content and double rates across official servers. Fear Evolved 3 took the Halloween-theme a step further by introducing more than fifteen new colors that creatures spawned with, including dark purple, dragon-fire, and near-black.Players could also craft spooky emotesin cooking pots, something that had not been featured in previous Halloween events. These consisted of the panic emote, zombie emote, and dance emote, closely resembling Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance.
ARK: Fear Evolved 4
Although most of Fear Evolved 4’s content was featured in previous Halloween events, it did have a particularly important new addition: Spooky Chibi-Pets. Introduced inARK’sChristmas event, Winter Wonderland 4, Chibi-Pets are miniature versions of actual creatures that can be found wandering across the maps, that players can equip to their outfit to have them follow their characters around. Fear Evolved 4 also introduced ghost creatures, spirit-like beings that drop ghost skins when killed. Like bone skins, ghost skins can be applied to tames, giving them a supernatural appearance.
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ARK: Fear Evolved 5
In the recent Fear Evolved 5 update patch, Studio Wildcard have brought back content from the last four Fear Evolved editions, with two new emotes, seven new skins, and five new spooky Chibi-Pets for players to craft. Old classics such as the Hockey Mask skin, Vampire Eyes skin, and Onyc Swimsuit can also be made in cooking pots. Plus,the DodoRexand DodoWyvern are making their formidable appearances once again. The new Chibi-Pets consist of ghost Chibis and the witching owl Chibi, perfect little companions for spooky season.
Sadly, the trees no longer turn their autumnal shade of orange and the air temperature remains the same. Studio Wildcard have not explained why they decided to ditch the fall scenery in the lastFear Evolved event, and with Fear Evolved 5 now active, it looks unlikely that players will ever experience the full autumn vibe again. Gone are the days of longer nights and seeing cave-dwelling creatures roaming above the ground.
It appears Studio Wildcard may be running low on ideas for its Halloween events in the currentARKgame, with Fear Evolved 3 being the last edition to introduce a large variety of fresh content forARKfans. However, after seven years of producing new surprises and holiday-themed items, it can be forgiven for recycling similar content players saw last year. Withthe arrival ofARK 2on the horizon, a new dawn is beginning forARKplayers, which is likely where Studio Wildcard is devoting most of its resources. It will be interesting to see how the originalARKholiday events will evolve within the forthcoming sequel.
ARK: Survival Evolvedis available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
