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ARK: Survival Ascended vs Enshrouded
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| shopping_cart Where to Buy | |
| info General Information | |
| Release Date | |
| Oct 25, 2023 | Jan 24, 2024 |
| Developer | |
| Studio Wildcard | Keen Games GmbH |
| Publisher | |
| Snail Games USA | Keen Games GmbH |
| Genre(s) | |
| Action-Adventure, Sandbox Survival, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO), RPG | Survival Action RPG, Open World, Voxel Crafting, Action-Adventure, Co-op |
| Engine | |
| Unreal Engine 5 | Holistic Engine (Proprietary Custom Voxel Engine) |
| stars Ratings & Price | |
| Content Rating | |
| Teen | Teen |
| Avg. User Rating | |
| 3.0 / 5.0 | 4.6 / 5.0 |
| Current Price (USD) | |
| $44.99 | $29.99 |
| tune Key Specs | |
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| colorize Combat & Gear | |
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| trending_up Progression & Upgrades | |
| Skills & Progression | |
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Progression in ARK relies on an RPG leveling system where survivors earn experience over time and through actions like crafting, hunting, and harvesting. Leveling up grants Engram Points, which are used to unlock crafting recipes ranging from primitive stone tools to advanced sci-fi Tek armor and laser rifles. Players can invest points into core stats such as Health, Stamina, Oxygen, Weight Capacity, Melee Damage, and Movement Speed. Tamed creatures also level up and possess unique skill trees, allowing players to breed generations of dinosaurs with mutated, super-powered stats for specialized roles like tanking, resource gathering, or aerial combat. |
Progression in Enshrouded merges survival crafting with an expansive, interconnected 360-degree skill tree. Players earn skill points by completing quests and chopping down Shroud Roots, branching freely across three core archetypes: Warrior (specializing in heavy two-handed weaponry, shield parries, tank resilience, and health regeneration), Ranger (focusing on bows, specialty explosive arrows, stamina efficiency, stealth, and critical headshots), and Mage (channeling staffs, wands, healing auras, and devastating elemental spells like Chain Lightning and Meteor). The central hub progression centers around the 'Flame Altar': spending gathered Sparks, monster trophies, and resources strengthens the Flame, permanently raising player attribute caps, extending the Shroud survival timer, and unlocking access to higher-tier red Shroud zones. |
| public World & Exploration | |
| World & Level Design | |
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The iconic base map, 'The Island,' features approximately 48 square kilometers of traversable terrain, meticulously remastered in Unreal Engine 5. It features distinct biomes ranging from dense tropical jungles, redwood forests with massive climbable trees, deadly irradiated swamplands, and freezing, snow-capped mountains. The map also includes complex underwater ecosystems and deep, hazardous cave systems filled with rare artifacts, leading to massive instanced boss arenas. Future DLC maps scale even larger, offering distinct environmental hazards like volcanic eruptions and aberrant radiation. |
Embervale is a colossal, seamless handcrafted open world spanning diverse geographical and climatic zones. Major regions include the Springlands (rolling green meadows, abandoned farming hamlets, and the iconic Braelyn Bridge), the Revelwood (a dense temperate forest of colossal ancient trees, spider-infested hollows, and overgrown ruins), the Nomad Highlands (arid sandstone savannas, rugged canyons, and fortified Scavenger mining outposts), the Kindlewastes (a scorching desert plateau dotted with ancient sun temples and deadly dunes), and the Albaneve Summits (treacherous frozen peaks with howling blizzards and steep glaciers). Cutting across all regions are sunken valley depressions smothered in the deadly Shroud, requiring careful timer management. |
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| book Story & Characters | |
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| people Multiplayer | |
| Multiplayer Details | |
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The core experience is defined by Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) servers holding up to 70-100 players. These servers are split strictly into Player vs. Environment (PvE), where tribes cooperate to build and defeat bosses without fear of raiding, and ruthless Player vs. Player (PvP), where massive wars are fought over territory, resources, and alpha status. Players can also host private dedicated servers, run non-dedicated co-op sessions with friends, or play entirely offline in single-player mode. |
Supports drop-in/drop-out cooperative multiplayer for 1 to 16 players on both player-hosted worlds and dedicated servers. The game emphasizes collaborative progression: all players in a session contribute to and benefit from shared Flame Altars, unlocked craftspeople recipes, and fast-travel spires. Dynamic difficulty scaling adjusts enemy health, damage, and horde reinforcements based on party size, while complementary skill trees encourage dedicated team roles (such as front-line tanks taunting bosses while healers cast restorative auras and rangers apply poison debuffs). |
| extension Editions & DLC | |
| Available Editions | |
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ARK: Survival Ascended launched into Early Access in late 2023 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. The base purchase serves as a complete package that entitles players to all previously released DLC content (such as Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, and Genesis) as they are visually overhauled and released into the UE5 ecosystem over time. Additional optional paid content exists in the form of 'Bob's Tall Tales' and specific 'Fantastic Tames' creature packs which introduce new story-driven missions, structures, and mythical beasts. |
Enshrouded is available on PC via Steam at $29.99 USD ($23.99 during periodic sales), which includes full access to all Early Access updates and the upcoming Version 1.0 commercial launch on October 15, 2026. A planned 'Flameborn Supporter Edition' ($39.99 USD) packages the full game alongside the official digital orchestral soundtrack composed by German composers, an interactive digital lore and concept art book, and exclusive cosmetic building block materials (such as Imperial Marble and Gilded Stone bricks). |
| Post-Launch Content / DLC | |
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The game follows a massive content roadmap, systematically recreating and releasing all expansion maps from the original game (Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, Genesis 1 & 2, plus community maps like Ragnarok and The Center) for free to owners of Ascended. Alongside these massive map drops, the developers introduce entirely new DLCs such as 'Bob's Tall Tales', providing narrative-driven missions voiced by Karl Urban, and premium creature packs that add unique fantasy and utility tames into the wild. |
Keen Games has maintained an aggressive development cadence driven by player-voted features on Feature Upvote. Major updates leading into Version 1.0 include the introduction of dynamic weather and water biomes, animal husbandry and pet companions, musical instruments with bardic buffs, customizable server world modifiers, instanced dungeon Hollow Halls, and expanded mountain regions. Post-1.0 plans include seasonal festivals, community building contests, and official modding support. |
| help_outline FAQ | |
| Frequently Asked Questions | |
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| build Technical Details | |
| Graphics & Visual Fidelity | |
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Visually, ARK: Survival Ascended is a generational leap. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, it utilizes Nanite to render millions of polygons for incredibly detailed rocks, trees, and dinosaur scales without traditional LOD pop-in. Lumen global illumination provides realistic lighting that dynamically bounces off water and reacts to the changing day/night cycle. Water simulation physics realistically deform as massive creatures wade through rivers, and dense, interactive foliage parts realistically as players run through the brush. |
Rendered in Keen Games' proprietary custom voxel engine, Enshrouded produces breathtaking vistas with painterly fantasy lighting. Realistic day-night cycles illuminate rolling hills and ruined castles, while dense blue Shroud mist blankets low-lying valleys with volumetric godrays. The voxel tech allows micro-level architectural detail where bricks, wood grain, and carved stone blend naturally into the natural terrain without jagged blockiness. |
| Audio & Soundtrack | |
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The soundscape is a major component of survival. The audio engine has been overhauled to provide realistic directional audio, meaning players can hear the terrifying, heavy footsteps of an approaching Tyrannosaurus Rex echoing through the jungle canopy before they see it. The game features an iconic, soaring orchestral soundtrack composed by Gareth Coker, which dynamically swells during intense combat encounters or when sunrise breaks over the prehistoric horizon. |
The soundscape evokes a rich sense of ancient mystery and high adventure. Acoustic guitars, lutes, and gentle orchestral strings create a serene, pastoral ambiance while building and tending settlements in the sunlit Overworld. In contrast, descending into the Shroud immediately transitions the score into haunting, dissonant ambient drones punctuated by eerie whispering winds and screeching mutants. Combat audio delivers crunchy satisfaction: booming shield parries, resonant bowstring twangs, and the thunderous crumbling of voxel terrain under heavy hammer impacts. |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | |
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The UI received a significant modernization in Ascended, moving away from the clunky menus of the original game to a sleek, transparent, and highly customizable HUD. It features a hotbar for quick item access, dynamic crosshairs, and cleaner inventory management systems that make sorting thousands of resources significantly easier. The tracking menu for tamed dinosaurs has been vastly improved, allowing players to set waypoints, track lost tames via a map UI, and easily manage massive breeding operations. |
The game features a sleek, modern fantasy UI designed for seamless controller and keyboard/mouse navigation. A prominent countdown dial indicates remaining Shroud survival time when venturing into the fog. The inventory system features clear rarity color-coding (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary), stack-sorting buttons, and quick-deposit hotkeys for base storage chests. The building interface offers an intuitive visual block selector allowing players to place individual voxels, pre-fabricated walls, staircases, and ornate architectural trim with snap-to-grid accuracy. |
| Accessibility Options | |
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The game includes various accessibility options such as scalable UI elements, fully customizable keybinds and controller layouts, adjustable field of view (FOV), and toggles for head bobbing and camera shake to prevent motion sickness. Additionally, players can heavily modify server settings in single-player or private servers, allowing them to drastically increase taming speeds, harvest rates, or decrease difficulty, tailoring the gruelling survival experience to their personal preferences. |
Keen Games has implemented comprehensive accessibility settings: fully customizable controller and keyboard keybindings, toggleable camera bobbing and screenshake sliders, adjustable FOV up to 110 degrees, dedicated colorblind presets (Protanopia, Deuteranopia, Tritanopia) that enhance HUD reticles and Shroud boundary markers, scalable interface text, and extensive server world settings (including custom death penalties, stamina drain rates, and daytime length sliders). |
| video_library Media Links | |
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| settings_applications System Requirements | |
| 1080p (Full HD) - Recommended (Medium/High Preset, 1080p (60 FPS Target with Upscaling)) CPU: Higher IPC 6-core processors that provide better frame pacing during dense jungle exploration and base rendering. CPU (Laptop): Ensures smooth AI interactions and consistent frame delivery when riding fast mounts across the terrain. GPU: High-end GPUs that provide the necessary VRAM (10GB+) and compute power to utilize Lumen global illumination at 1080p. GPU (Laptop): Excellent balance of power for 1080p, utilizing Frame Generation to keep performance locked around 60 FPS in dense bases. RAM: Highly recommended for preventing micro-stutters when rendering massive player-built megabases or highly populated tribe servers. Storage: Required for smooth texture streaming. | |
memoryCPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X / Intel Core i5-10600K developer_boardGPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-12700H / AMD Ryzen 7 6800H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 70 GB NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-8700 (3.7 GHz 6-Core) / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (3.7 GHz 8-Core) developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super (6GB+ VRAM) / AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (6GB+ VRAM) / Intel Arc A770 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-11800H / AMD Ryzen 7 5800H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (85W+) / RTX 4060 Mobile (80W+) layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 60 GB NVMe M.2 SSD |
| 1080p (Full HD) - Minimum (Low Preset, 1080p (30-45 FPS with Upscaling)) CPU: Entry-level 6-core processors necessary to handle the baseline AI pathfinding for herds of dinosaurs and basic game logic. CPU (Laptop): Mid-tier mobile CPUs that can sustain the minimum logic threads required to run the game without immediate bottlenecking. GPU: Provides the absolute bare minimum 6GB VRAM needed to render the island at low settings without out-of-memory errors. GPU (Laptop): Sufficient to push 1080p on lower graphics presets; utilizing DLSS/FSR is strictly required for playable framerates. RAM: The absolute bare minimum required to load the massive open-world map and entity data into active memory. Storage: Essential for functional loading times. | |
memoryCPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel Core i7-6800K developer_boardGPU: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i5-11400H / AMD Ryzen 5 5600H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / RTX 4050 Mobile layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 70 GB SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i5-6400 (2.7 GHz 4-Core) / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X (3.5 GHz 4-Core) developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB VRAM) / AMD Radeon RX 580 (6GB VRAM) / Intel Arc A380 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i5-8300H / AMD Ryzen 5 3550H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile (6GB) / RTX 3050 Mobile (6GB, 60W+) layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 60 GB available space (SATA SSD / HDD) |
| 1440p (QHD/2K) - Enthusiast (High/Epic Preset, 1440p (60+ FPS Target with Upscaling)) CPU: Top-tier processors with large caches that excel at streaming in dense world geometry and managing hundreds of active dino AIs. CPU (Laptop): Desktop-class mobile processors ensuring maximum stability. GPU: Easily tackles the increased pixel count of 1440p while maintaining sharp textures, fluid water physics, and dense foliage. GPU (Laptop): The high VRAM and compute capabilities ensure a smooth 1440p survival experience on mobile screens. RAM: Optimal for zero hitching during heavy combat scenarios with multiple particle effects. Storage: Fastest load times and minimal pop-in. | |
memoryCPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D / Intel Core i5-13600K developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-13900HX / AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 70 GB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-12700K / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (12GB) / AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (16GB) laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-13700HX / AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (115W+) / RTX 3080 Mobile (130W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 60 GB PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD |
| 2160p (UHD/4K) - Ultra (Epic Preset, 4K (60 FPS with Upscaling)) CPU: Uncompromised performance to feed maximum frames into the GPU without causing logic delays. CPU (Laptop): Maximum mobile processing power required. GPU: The only GPUs capable of powering the extreme demands of full Lumen and Nanite features in Unreal Engine 5 at true 4K. GPU (Laptop): A fully powered flagship mobile GPU is strictly required for playable 4K framerates. RAM: Massive headroom for maximum stability during marathon tribe wars and boss fights. Storage: Essential for instantaneous asset loading. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-14700K / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 / AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-14900HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (175W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 70 GB PCIe Gen4/Gen5 NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-14700K / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (16GB) / AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (24GB) laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-14900HX / AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (175W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 60 GB PCIe Gen4/Gen5 NVMe SSD |
| save Overall Storage | |
Spec: 70 GB available space (Solid State Drive Required) Note: An NVMe SSD is strictly required to stream high-resolution textures, complex base structures, and seamless map loading without devastating hitches or crashes. Type: SSD | Spec: 60 GB available space (Solid State Drive Recommended) Note: Solid-state storage is strongly recommended to prevent asset streaming hitches during high-speed gliding and fast-travel transitions. Type: SSD |
| desktop_windows Operating System | |
Spec: Windows 10 / Windows 11 (64-bit) with latest updates Explanation: Requires a 64-bit OS for modern memory management and DirectX 12 API support, which is the backbone for UE5's advanced rendering features. | Spec: Windows 10 64-bit / Windows 11 64-bit Explanation: Requires a 64-bit Windows operating system supporting low-overhead multi-threaded graphics APIs and modern memory addressing. |
| gamepad DirectX Version | |
| Spec: DirectX 12 Explanation: Mandatory for Unreal Engine 5 features such as Lumen and Nanite, enabling highly detailed meshes and dynamic lighting. | Spec: DirectX 12 / Vulkan compatible Explanation: Utilizes modern low-level graphics APIs for high-performance multi-threaded draw calls, dynamic voxel chunk meshing, and volumetric fog scattering. |
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info_outline Feature details based on available data. System requirements and performance estimates may vary.
laptop_chromebook Laptop Recommendations
Common Recommendations (Handles All Compared Games)
For ARK: Survival Ascended Specifically
For Enshrouded Specifically
info_outline Laptop recommendations are estimates based on available component benchmarks and game requirements. Actual performance may vary depending on settings, drivers, cooling, power limits, etc. Prices and availability subject to change. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.