ARK: Survival Evolved has grown from a single small island into a rich universe with a complicated storyline. To understand the lore in all its complexity, players must venture back to The Island, the original ARK map. Scattered across the map, players can find explorer notes written by the first four survivors of The Island. These explorer notes are crucial to discovering the storylines of the original survivors, offering clues on who they were and what became of them.
The four authors of The Island’s explorer notes are Helena Walker, a modern-day biologist from Australia; Sir Edmund Rockwell, a vain chemist from 19th century London; Gauis Marcellus Nerva, a ferocious warrior from ancient Rome; and Mei-Yin Li, a young fighter from third century China. While all four are different, some do share similarities. For example, Walker and Rockwell are both scientists fixated on discovering the properties of all living things that dwell on The Island. However, Rockwell’s sinister nature sets them apart, making Walker more akin to Mei-Yin who has a surprisingly compassionate nature underneath her fierce exterior.
The Original Survivors
In the beginning, all survivors lived in relative peace with one another, working toward a shared goal of surviving the unforgiving biomes and terrifying creatures of The Island. However, as Nerva’s tribe “New Legion” grows in power, tensions between settlements begin to rise. Admired for his intellect, Rockwell acts as a peacemaker between the tribes and agrees to meet with Nerva and try to calm him. However, upon meeting, Rockwell sees something in Nerva’s plans that appeals to his own sinister motives and decides to side with him.
After joining forces with Nerva, Rockwell’s private experiments lose their momentum, as his prime test subjects had been fellow survivors. Faced with expanses of time and nothing to fill it with, Rockwell decides to explore The Island’s cave systems, thus becoming the first original survivor to discover the artifacts and their mysterious connection with the three obelisks. Puzzled by this connection, Rockwell summons the help of a tribe called “The Howling Wolves” to help him locate the rest of the artifacts.
While New Legion terrorizes neighboring tribes, Walker and Mei-Yin become friends, brought together by Walker’s interest in Mei-Yin’s pack of tamed creatures. Although Walker later leaves Mei-Yin to join Rockwell in his scientific endeavors, their trust remains strong. While Mei-Yin is on her own, she encounters a tribe called “Painted Sharks” who are under threat by New Legion. On the night of the battle, Mei-Yin appears with her army of beasts and defeats New Legion. She is banished by the very tribe she sought to protect, and while on her own she manages to tame a Giganotosaurus, which she nicknames the “Demon King.”
Walker reaches a turning point in her findings and realizes that there is something odd about The Island, stating it is “the opposite of how any ecosystem is supposed to work.” Enriched with Rockwell’s knowledge on The Island’s three obelisks, she retrieves several artifacts and returns to the “Beast Queen” Mei-Yin, asking for help. Together, they approach one of the towering obelisks and activate a boss fight, managing to defeat the Megapithecus. Upon returning, they are ambushed by New Legion and Mei-Yin’s most faithful companion, a black raptor called Muzhui, is killed. Walker is taken as a prisoner of war.
Ignited with a desire for vengeance, Mei-Yin follows New Legion to the Tek Cave portal, discovering that Nerva and his tribe had located all the artifacts and defeated all endgame bosses. Mei-Yin finds Walker trapped in a cage at the portal, freeing her and then continuing her revenge mission. When Walker eventually follows Mei-Yin through the portal, she finds no signs of human life, only a few bits of dried blood.
Ascension
Emerging into what looks like a space station, Walker sees Planet Earth, and The Island contained within a space station orbiting around the planet. Marked by the absence of Mei-Yin, Nerva, and the rest of New Legion, it is suggested that they had already ascended by the time Walker arrived within the station. After the discovery, Walker ascends the ARK too.
For players who manage to survive the Tek Cave and make it to the space station, they will find several rooms open to exploration, each containing a hologram of Planet Earth. The first hologram depicts Earth as it was during the Jurassic era, with Pangea as the only continent on its surface. The second displays a modern-day Earth, and the third shows a dead, barren Earth with red borders and plains. There are also three spawning chambers within the station, each with a hologram of either a dinosaur or human, suggesting this how they are spawned into the ARK.
Studio Wildcard lays out some solid clues that explain ARK’s origin through the hologram that shows Earth as a barren wasteland. This suggests the world of ARK may be set in the far future, in a universe that has seen the extinction of humanity, with ARK’s stations being the only remaining life in the solar system. After players ascend, they are given a glimpse of an ARK DLC called Scorched Earth, leaving room for a multitude of questions.
ARK: Survival Evolved is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.