There are worse things than being swallowed by a dragon. When Gargantar arrives on September 30 for ARK: Dragontopia owners, Survivors will quickly discover that its seemingly bottomless appetite is good for a lot more than clearing the landscape.
But Gargantar isn't descending on the ARKs alone — the same day brings a massive triple-threat drop: Gargantar, the multi-headed terror of Cerberax, and the long-awaited Therizinosaurus TLC overhaul.
The more it eats, the harder it is to kill
The more Gargantar packs away, the tougher it becomes to bring down, turning a well-fed dragon into one formidable presence on the battlefield. That enormous belly has a few other uses too: trusted allies can find themselves tucked safely away from danger, while unfortunate enemies may discover that ending up on the inside is a considerably less pleasant experience.
The Therizinosaurus gets a complete overhaul
The claws are almost ready. Therizinosaurus will be more expressive in the wild, and tamed Therizinos will start to reflect the harvesting roles they play within your tribe. Getting around the ARKs will also feel smoother, with improved movement and a new bounding hop that helps it tackle tougher terrain. And naturally, those infamous claws have a few new tricks: alongside smoother harvesting, Therizinosaurus now has a powerful new claw swipe for when nearby creatures need a sharp reminder about personal space.
Cerberax: three heads, three trials
This week's Crunch also went deeper on how you actually win Cerberax over. Taming it means earning three separate votes: one head respects a Survivor who won't back down, so be ready to wrestle for control. Another becomes considerably more open to negotiation when food is involved. And the third? Sometimes the best bonding experience is a good old-fashioned hunt. Meet each head on its own terms, and Cerberax will finally join your tribe — one tame, three trials, no majority rule. We already covered Cerberax's full dossier, abilities and knockout mechanic in our earlier article.
Unreal Engine 5.8: a phased rollout
ARK: Survival Ascended's move to Unreal Engine 5.8 is happening in stages rather than all at once, since it's a major technical upgrade under the hood. The full release has moved to October 28, with a public beta opening ahead of it:
- October 5 — the Public Test Realm (PTR) beta client launches on Steam, giving an early look at UE 5.8 and letting the community help stress-test it ahead of release.
- October 28 — the full UE 5.8 update launches on all platforms, and modding reopens once Studio Wildcard and Overwolf finish recooking mods in batches.
Importantly, none of this delays Gargantar, Cerberax or the Therizinosaurus TLC — all three are still arriving on September 30 as planned. The engine upgrade is a separate, later step.
Gargantar requires the paid ARK: Dragontopia DLC and Cerberax requires ARK Fantastic Tames Season 1. Whether to buy them is entirely up to each player — both work fine on our servers for anyone who owns them.
Between October 5 and 28, cooking servers go down while mods get recooked for UE 5.8 in batches — that includes FusionShop, which our ASA servers use. Expect the possibility of short instability or downtime for mod-dependent features during that window; we'll keep an eye on it.
This overview is based on three consecutive Community Crunch posts from Studio Wildcard: Community Crunch 523, Community Crunch 524 and Community Crunch 525.