With Ark: Survival Ascended seeing a crossover with Power Rangers, this opens the door for many potential collaborations. While Ascended‘s Power Rangers crossover was visually pleasing, it felt subpar overall. On the whole, it featured five unique skins for weapons, dinosaurs, and players, along with five new emotes. When considering the scale this could have reached, it feels like a huge missed opportunity with a lackluster collaboration.
Luckily, regardless of any collaborations, Ascended has done incredibly well. Along with having a healthy player base, the game has been a massive financial success. This should bode well for the highly-anticipated sequel Ark 2, but the worry there has been a lack of news. Numerous delays have left it with a supposed late 2024 release date, but the chances of another delay are larger than most would like.
10 Palworld Fits Well And Is Feasible
Two Games With The Same Roots
One of the most popular indie titles of 2024, Palworld makes ideal sense for an Ark collab. The gameplay is similar, as Palworld describes itself as akin to Ark, and it is not as hard of a company to make a deal with as if Studio Wildcard tried to reach out to Nintendo. On a small scale, the crossover could feature unique skins that mix well. An example of this is the Quetzal getting a skin of the Pal Jetragon.
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If Ark did want to go larger with future collaborations, Palworld offers the opportunity to. One simple idea is taking the raid mechanic from Palworld. This would make it so that occasionally an extremely strong dino would spawn and players would have to bring their best to beat it. Instead of dying, it would get knocked out and then be able to tame it cheaper, as to make up for the fight difficulty. This also brings a new experience to PvP, as multiple tribes would likely battle it out for this top prize.
9 Valheim Could Work Surprisingly Well
Ragnarök’s Long Lost Twin
Valheim is another one of the most successful survival games, and though it is not as popular as it used to be, it could still serve itself well by working with Ark. Bringing Valheim‘s unique art style through skins would fit well and be akin to what the Power Rangers pack did. Monster/Dinosaur skins would be trickier, but some exceptions could be made to make it work.
On a larger scale, whenever the Ragnarök DLC map gets added, this type of crossover would fit beautifully as a new addition. Perhaps a small town filled with Valheim items that are either purely decorative or have a few purposes. Though it would be a big ask, an amazing outcome would be one of Valheim‘s hardest bosses being added in some capacity to challenge players.
8 Exoprimal Is Limited But Meshes Well
Many Ways To Kill A Dino
Exoprimal may not be the first game that comes to mind when thinking about Ark, but the dinosaur theme ties them together. The third-person shooter has already had big-name collabs before, so teaming up with Studio Wildcard would not be impossible. The simplest route here would be giving unique skins to Tek gear that are inspired by armor and weapons from Exoprimal.
Unfortunately, it would be hard to get anything more from this without pushing the boundaries. Ideas like giving armor unique abilities or adding in new armor entirely would be fun but perhaps too game-breaking. Another idea would be creating a new multiplayer mode, or in-game event, where players have to defend against hordes of dinosaurs like in Exoprimal, but using Ark‘s mechanics.
7 Warhammer Cosmetics Would Just Be Fun
Space Marines Versus Dinosaurs
The Warhammer franchise is one of the most popular around, and though it doesn’t connect to Ark much, it would be a cool idea. Space Marine armor is beautifully crafted and wouldn’t look that out of place in this prehistoric survival game. If Ark wanted to go above and beyond, adding different customization options for unique sets would be amazing. At worst, there should be multiple Space Marine chapters included.
It would be tricky to turn Warhammer monsters into Ark dinosaurs, but not impossible. The best way to do this would be in Ark‘s more sci-fi maps like Aberration. Weapons would be easier and arguably more popular. A clear example of this would be getting a unique skin for the iconic Warhammer chainsword.
6 The Predator Has A New Prey
Adding More Danger To The Forests
The Predator franchise is vast and holds immense collab potential that has already been showcased. Skins for players would be tricky depending on how alien they are, but they could still come out well. This would be exciting for fans of the franchise and could make for some memorable PvP moments of being attacked from the darkness by an actual group of Predators.
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A creative but demanding idea would be making a Predator event boss. This would essentially be a small but nimble alien entity that would actively hunt players. By being equipped with its unique arsenal, it would have its ways of dealing with anything players or their dinosaur tames can attack them with. An experience like this would not only be a fun challenge but one that few other games could offer.
5 Horizon Zero Dawn Could Give Ark More Tek Dinosaurs
Embracing Science Fiction
Horizon Zero Dawn allows Ark to lean into the limited sci-fi dinosaurs it already has. This option would not be too far-fetched since the Horizon franchise has already collaborated with other titles like Genshin Impact. At worst, this would present an opportunity to give more dinosaurs a robotic look, even if they didn’t have the same qualities as the Tek variations.
With more creative freedom, this could be the perfect opportunity to add new creatures to the game. Horizon is filled with unique and creative machine creatures that could fit rather well in Ark. There may be some tuning needed to make sure they do not out-scale regular Ark creatures too much. Still, later additions to the prehistoric survival game have been incredibly strong in their ways.
4 A New Way To Hunt Dinosaurs With Monster Hunter
A Bold New Frontier
Monster Hunter is an iconic franchise and one that would blend with Ark relatively well. The easiest route here would be to turn the most popular armor sets and weapons into unique Ark skins. This way, even if the gameplay is vastly different, players can still get the feeling of battling these dangerous beasts under overwhelming odds.
With more effort, it would be exciting to see some dinosaurs get skins inspired by Monster Hunter. However, this would be a harder task due to how exaggerated those enemies are. In this regard, it may be more worth the effort to take a small handful of Monster Hunter‘s most popular creatures and recreate them for Ark.
3 Alien Can Bring More Horror To Ark
Aberration Becomes Alien
The Alien franchise has already left its mark on Ark in the shape of the Reapers, along with one of Aberration‘s weirdest mechanics, but it can have more. An official collaboration opens up the door to numerous opportunities. The most obvious of which would be an official Xenomorph skin that can be put over the Reapers. It may need to be enlarged a bit given the size difference, but it would be an exciting addition regardless.
A larger opportunity could be a small DLC map or an addition to Aberration where players are locked in a space, without any dinosaurs, and have to survive a strong Reaper/Xenomorph. This would be a unique and memorable experience, but one that would have to be tightly monitored. Even without tames, survivors can get very strong in Ark, so making sure it is still a challenge for well-equipped players would be crucial.
2 Godzilla Enters The Ark
Clash Of The Titans
Though modders have already added Godzilla and other Titans as some of the coolest modded dinosaurs in Ascended, an official collaboration could still go a long way. This would be one of the hardest ones due to the massive scale of it, but not impossible. Skins would be limited if any, but one idea could be unique armor sets that are designed after some of the Titans.
If Ark wanted to take it a step further, adding Godzilla and some Titans to the game would be incredible. They would pose a challenge to even the most experienced players, and would possibly be even tougher than the map bosses. The hardest part of this would be balancing the rewards. As fun as being able to tame a Titan would be, it would likely trivialize the rest of the game unless severely weakened once tamed.
1 Jurassic Park Is The Obvious Pick
A Movie Immersion
Whenever dinosaurs come to mind, Jurassic Park is never far behind. The near-endless amount of ideas that could come from these two working together is exciting. On the small side, iconic dinosaurs like T-Rex or Spinosaur could get their likeness transferred over to Ark. Though they would not be incredibly different, the mere presence of these recognizable creatures could have a big impact.
The best outcome from a collab like this, which would take a lot of work, could be immensely successful. If Ark was able to recreate the original island, or at least the remains of it, as a playable map, it would be an amazing experience. Players could explore the island for themselves and either relive the events of the movie or have to survive the aftermath of it. This would be a monumental effort for Studio Wildcard, but also something they could put a hefty price tag on and likely make a large profit from.
Since the door has already been opened once, it will be exciting to see what the Ark franchise has next for collaborations. The Power Rangers one was eye-pleasing but also shows that it didn’t try to go far enough. Hopefully, Studio Wildcard will learn from this and push the boundaries for future collabs. If this were to happen, these 10 franchises would be some of the best options for collaborations in Ark: Survival Ascended and beyond.