Cerberax, the three-headed canid coming to ARK: Survival Ascended, won't be a simple knockout-and-feed tame. Taming it means winning over every head, and getting its full combat power means riding it with a team of three. It arrives September 30 alongside the Unreal Engine 5.8 upgrade, the Therizinosaurus TLC, and ARK: Dragontopia’s Gargantar.

Cerberax tricipitis is a huge, aggressive carnivore that can take on even a Rex or Ossidon in a fair fight. Anything short of a Giga or Carcha should expect trouble. Its size lets it absorb punishment, so make it bleed if you plan to fight one.

The three heads use different tactics:

• The right head applies fire to subdue prey and consumes venom to cripple it.
• The left head applies venom to weaken prey and consumes fire to heal.
• The central head coordinates the other two, increasing the side heads’ damage and spreading their venom and flames to nearby targets.

Taming is where Cerberax gets strange. When narcotics subdue it, all of its adrenaline surges to a single head. Mount that head quickly and placate it until its energy runs out; another head wakes, so repeat that process until all three collapse and you can feed it. Convincing all three heads to follow you can be as dangerous as fighting the beast.

Once tamed, Cerberax is best ridden by three Survivors: one controls the body and main head, while the other two control the left and right heads.

Watch the Cerberax reveal video · Download the full-resolution dossier art

Temporary Expire servers are available until 10am PST / 1pm EST on September 18. Search “Expire” in the session filter to find them. Only your character can be downloaded onto these servers, but anything you take off them can leave freely. Items, creatures, and characters left on Expire servers after that deadline will not be saved.

Official Network bonus rates are active until Tuesday, September 8:

• PvP/PvE: 2x Harvesting, Taming, Experience, and Breeding
• Small Tribes: 4.5x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience, plus 4x Breeding
• ARKpocalypse: 5x Harvesting, Taming, Experience, and Breeding

Conquest Season 8 is available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. It runs across 18 Genesis Part 1 maps: Cluster A is 12 servers that had transfers enabled with Classic before those servers shut down, and Cluster B is 6 servers with transfers restricted to those six for two weeks. Transfers between Cluster A and Cluster B open on July 17 at 10am PT. Rates are 5x.

Tek is enabled except for the Tek Grenade, Tapejara/Megalodon/Rock Drake/Mosasaurus Tek Saddles, and the Tek Railgun. Season support is available through the Conquest Enforcement Discord.

Survivors can browse cross-platform player-made maps, creatures, items, and game modes through the dedicated in-game mod browser. Featured mods:

• Prometeus: Frontiers of ARK by J26arkitecto
• Ascended Armory by Khalahad
• Extreme Creatures: Audacoceratops by Pat1419
• Tudor Medieval Structures by Sandi_00
• Astraeos - Wardrobe by Nekatus_Modding
• Astreos Structures - Custom Cosmetic by Nekatus_Modding
• Xyphias’ Creatures: T. rex by Xyphias
• [[T.A.C] Vectispinus](https://www.curseforge.com/ark-survival-ascended/mods/tristans-additional-creatures-vectispinus) by Tristans_Modding
• [[T.A.C] Eocarcharia](https://www.curseforge.com/ark-survival-ascended/mods/tristans-additional-creatures-eocarcharia) by Tristans_Modding
• ARKOLOGY: OE - Desolatitan by Dragonheart7998
• No Untameables by Myrmecoleon

The Galleon has officially set sail in ARK: Survival Ascended. Headlining Community Crunch 521, the ship offers a massive new open-water canvas for fortress-style base building and a formidable battery of cannons ready to turn a passing disagreement into a full broadside. With new water physics bringing rolling waves and shifting seas, and Astraeos now reaching its completed form, there are more reasons than ever to leave the shoreline behind—whether charting across Astraeos or braving Genesis waters. Full-resolution Galleon imagery is available here.

Transfers on Genesis Ascended Part 1 Official servers open September 4, allowing unrestricted movement of items, creatures, and characters onto the map. The opening is aligned with the Genesis Part 1 Expires servers, which give players a couple of weeks to move everything over before closing on September 18.

Structure decay stays disabled until September 4 while the team finishes resolving a small number of lingering tribe issues from last week's OC server outage; it re-enables that Friday alongside the transfer opening.

The Official Network bonus rates are active through Monday, August 31:

• PVP/PVE: 2x Harvesting, Taming, Experience, and Breeding
• Small Tribes: 4.5x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience + 4x Breeding
• ARKpocalypse: 5x Harvesting, Taming, Experience, and Breeding

Snail Games' large-scale PvP Conquest servers are open on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Season 8 features 18 maps, all Genesis Part 1:

• Cluster A: 12 servers that had transfers enabled with Classic before they shut down
• Cluster B: 6 servers with transfers only enabled between those servers for two weeks
• Transfers between Cluster A and Cluster B will open on July 17 at 10 AM PT
• 5x rates
• Tek enabled except Tek Grenade, Tapejara/Megalodon/Rock Drake/Mosasur Tek Saddles, and Tek Railgun

Join the Conquest Enforcement's Discord if you need support during the Conquest season.

Dododex's improved stat calculator is on the way, coming first to the web version. It will support tamed and bred creatures, customizable stat grading, and name suggestions from the Dododex community; a launch date will be announced soon. Use Dododex here.

Creators also shared new taming guides this week: ClickTockClock covers Concavenator taming and abilities, and Raasclark demonstrates the Boaratos' taming process and flaming-hot abilities.

Astraeos 1.0 — the final chapter of ARK: Survival Ascended's Greek-mythology map — has arrived on Steam with its most ambitious expansion yet: Heaven and the Abyss. The 264-square-kilometer world gains Helianthos, a bright, lush island of towering ridges, flower-filled plains, and flying islands overhead, plus Abyssanthos, a fog-shrouded deep-sea expanse whose enormous air bubbles shelter a mythical underwater city with room to build far below the surface. New rolling wave physics and weather events turn the ocean into a shifting frontier, and the ancient Trireme warship arrives for Astraeos owners. Watch the launch trailer.

The expansion adds two Kraken Ascension encounters — Abyssalus the Void Beneath and Shallocis the Void Above — one underwater and one at the surface; defeating both awards maximum player levels. Joining the update are Boaratos, a massive, scorching boar exclusive to Astraeos; minibosses Colossus and Kroaratos; a new Boss Terminal on the map's western side; Tidepups and Palaeoctopus in Astraeos spawners; and the Grand Tortugar Saddle in miniboss loot. Apex drops now include Astral Souls and Hex Coins, while unlockable cosmetics range from the Agamemnon Helmet and Boaratos Spartan Saddle to the Divine Sword, Divine Spear, Divine Shield, and Trireme Chair.

Concavenator is also available now on Scorched Earth, Ragnarok, Extinction, and Astraeos, with an X-Concavenator on Genesis and an Aberrant Concavenator on Aberration. This ruthless pack hunter swims beneath the dunes and ambushes prey with aerial attacks and blinding sand clouds.

Tides of Fortune owners can captain the Galleon, a fortress-scale naval titan armed with a broadside cannon battery. Astraeos ownership also unlocks the Trireme, allows crafting the Shipyard and its ship ammunition, and lets the Shipyard convert into "Galleon Mode" to support the larger vessel. The ship HUD gains a rudder direction indicator.

Genesis picks up three Ocean Outposts — Brimstone Bay, Chained Megachelon, and Market Port — plus land-based pirate camps across its oceanic islands. Players can clear 20 Pirate Camp layouts for loot, or encounter friendly Market Camps where neutral Pirate Merchants sell goods at a discount.

Beyond the new realms, Astraeos includes the gliding, baby-raising Maeguana; the armored Grand Tortugar, whose carapace opens into a multi-rider command post; the desert Pyranthos with Deathworms, the Scorpion King and Queen, Skeleton warriors, five Artifact Caves including the Minotaur Labyrinth, and Hydraskos the Unbroken; and Lemnokis Island, home to contrasting climates, buildable glacier caves, the mysterious Maelstrom, and duo-minibosses Kalydonios and Erymanthian — colossal boars wielding fire and poison. Dynamic weather and overhauled lighting shift from blinding glare to eerie fog across Mediterranean, cherry-blossom, and Appalachian-inspired landscapes, alongside enhanced Alpha Creature variants, OSDs, Element Veins, and Zeus-blessed Supply Drops.

The release — Astraeos Official Release v0.1.4 — also carries a lengthy general-fix list covering Valguero and Genesis issues, ship bugs, exploits, and client crashes. Full-resolution screenshots and artwork are available here.