Ho-ho-ho, Merry attempting to survive among a wild landscape of dinosaurs and disease in Ark: Survival Evolved’s Christmas event, Winter Wonderland. The fourth iteration of the successful event, once again bringing about various holiday themes to the Island. All maps are receiving the Winter Wonderland content, yet only The Island will have the visual winter theme, as it’s the only map supported currently.
The Winter Wonderland update brings about the return of RaptorClaus, dropping bags of loot across the maps for survivors to fight for. He’ll also drop mistletoe, and lumps of coal for the more naughty survivors. RaptorClaus will take to the skies every night in his sleigh pulled by deer, dropping bundles of joy at midnight, game time. RaptorClaus a;sp can gift chibis, the new event pet that Ark has added.
Community Crunch 211: Winter Wonderland 4https://t.co/fiaLvnZiMj pic.twitter.com/iNYcjGT8xZ
— ARK: Survival Ascended (@survivetheark) December 17, 2019
GachaClaus is also coming back to help out with the festivities, roaming the maps in bright holiday colors. GachaClaus accepts coal in return for holiday items, or you can trade in mistletoe along with coal for a chance at weapons, armor, and a new event item called Chibis. Much like actual chibis from Japanese culture, chibis in Ark: Survival Evolved are a new miniaturized pet that actually offers some pretty sweet buffs for survivors harshing it out in the wilderness.
Survivors will need to place their coal and mistletoe in the inventory of a wild GachaClaus to cause it to grow crystals. Crystals have better loot and an opportunity for chibis.
Ark: Survival Evolved developers Studio Wildcard have announced that there are over 50 Chibis coming in this update, all smaller versions of the creatures that survivors have already familiarized themselves with. Chibi pets can be leveled by killing specific Alpha dinosaurs; in exchange for leveling your Chibis, you’ll also receive levels for your survivor. They can also offer survivors the ability to increase their max level, bringing the current max level in official servers to 140. Some Chibis are difficult to find, so multiple visits to both RaptorClause and GachaClaus are necessary to complete your collection if you’re so inclined.
There are to be no EVO events while the Winter Wonderland event is active.
Winter Wonderland is also bringing specific event parameters for the holiday, which runs from now until January 7th, 2020. The current event parameters brings doubled breeding rates, double player experience, double harvesting, and double taming speed. Survivors will also notice an increased spawn of dinosaurs, with event dinosaurs being spawned in addition to standard spawn rates.
The taming rate was increased after community complaints of still needing half a day to tame most wild animals.
