ARK brings a popular fan mod as its own map, delivers 4 new animals at the same time
Fjördur is one of the most popular cards in Studio Wildcard’s dinosaur adventure ARK: Survival Evolved. The map was previously only available as a mod version. From today the time has finally come: Fjördur appears as an official map and celebrates the release on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC and has four new creatures in tow.
What is Fjordur? Fjördur is a map in ARK: Survival Evolved by German modder Nils Menne aka Nekatus. He is already responsible for the creation of the former mod map Valguero, which is also officially integrated into ARK.
When is the release? The release of Fjördur is scheduled for June 12th at 7:00 p.m. German time. At the same time, the Xbox Bethesda Showcase starts, where new details such as trailers, gameplay or release information about ARK 2 are expected.
How big is the patch? When Fjördur appears, you need to install a new patch. This has different sizes on the different platforms:
- PC: about 20GB
- Xbox: around 40GB
- PlayStation: the size of the patch is still open
You can see the official trailer for Fjördur here:
What distinguishes Fjordur? In his design, Fjördur combines two subject areas that the talented worlds artist himself finds interesting – the Norse mythology of the Vikings and the film series The Lord of the Rings. These themes are reflected throughout the card’s design.
Due to the Viking theme, Fjördur is a very cold map, with trees and bushes inspired by Scandinavian nature. The “Lord of the Rings” theme is reflected in the design of some of the caves that can be found on the map.
In general, caves are an important aspect of Fjördur, which are very often detailed and all different from each other.
No less impressive are the additional worlds that you can travel to from Fjördur via a portal and that also belong to the scope of the map:
- Jotunheim: a dangerously cold snowy world
- Vanaheimr: a world with lots of nature and green plants and elements of the Aberration DLC
- Asgard: a world where you can tame mystical creatures
- Underwater World: The underwater world is not actually an additional world like Asgard for example and can be visited by anyone who starts a dive on Fjördur. However, since Nekatus designed the underwater world of Fjördur with above-average complexity and detail, it also has to be mentioned.
What new creatures are there? Fjördur will receive four new creatures that fit the theme of Norse mythology and the general design of the map. These are the four new animals:
- Fjordhawk
- Desmode Draculae
- Andrewsarchus
- Fenrir
The creatures are completely new and, with the exception of the Fenrir wolf, have not yet been playable on the mod version of the map.
What can Fjordhawk, Desmodus Draculae, Andrewsarchus & Fenrir?
What can the Fjordhawk do? The Fjordhawk is a type of hawk with high intelligence and the ability to anticipate danger.
According to Studio Wildcard’s creature dossier, it’s a playful bird whose favorite game is tagging. Accordingly, the description of the falcon states that the tamed Fjordhawk will bring you objects to point at or track down injured prey.
However, another ability of the Fjordhawks is particularly interesting: If you should die in ARK, the bird grabs as many items from your inventory as it can carry. He then tracks you down after your respawn and brings you back the lost goods.
What can the Desmodus Draculae do? The Desmodus Draculae is an extremely large and dangerous bat. The creature’s dossier states that they are particularly good at flying and hiding in caves or dark, confined spaces. That sounds like a very strong ability, which is why the dossier also advises hunting bats in the light and away from their burrows. Flying animals are already very strong in ARK, which is why MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller thinks ARK 2 has to do without flying animals.
According to the dossier, the bat’s available abilities while tamed also include a scream to drive away your enemies and a kind of blood thinner in the monster’s saliva, which drains vast amounts of blood from its victims.
You can also command the Desmodus to hunt small prey for you. If you are in the dark with the Desmodus Draculae, she can also use her ability to disappear into it, giving you a kind of stealth mode.
If these skills are not enough for you to be convinced of the strength of the giant bat, you should take a look at the bloody elixir that the beast produces according to the dossier. This is said to “captivate” the most stubborn creatures.
What can Andrewsarchus do? Andrewsarchus is an extinct mammal species nowadays that can become very fast in ARK if provoked. According to the dossier, however, the new creature should be able to be calmed with honey.
For the Andrewsarchus there will be a saddle that contains a minigun and armor that the rider sits in and is protected from attacks.
The Andrewsarchus is also said to be very fast when mounted, but has a weakness for cornering at maximum speed.
What do we know about the Fenrir? Fenrir is a wolf modeled on Norse mythology. There is currently no official dossier entry or trailer for the Fenrir, but we will add both as soon as we have them.
With the release of ARK 2 fast approaching, it seems that ARK: Survival Evolved is slowly approaching the end of its lifespan.
Although it is certain that the survival hit will continue after the release of the sequel, it is currently unclear how many updates, new maps or creatures ARK will receive after Fjördur.
Are you already looking for alternatives for the popular dinosaur title? There might be something for you in our list of the 25 best survival games of 2022.
Reference-mein-mmo.de