⚠ Early Development

Ancient Bloodlines is actively being developed.

Natural spawning is currently being tested following a major rework to the spawn system.

This release is playable, but balance, visuals, progression and individual systems may continue to change as development progresses.

Feedback and bug reports are welcome.

Ancient Bloodlines

Ancient Bloodlines is an endgame-focused ARK: Survival Ascended mod built around powerful Blighted creatures, new progression materials, tame upgrades, roaming bosses and future boss-tier progression.

The mod is designed to expand vanilla ARK rather than replace it or shortcut progression.

Phase One — The Blight

Phase One introduces the core Blighted progression systems.

Blighted Raptors, Carnos and Rexes can appear in multiple increasingly dangerous variants, providing access to new materials, loot and crafting progression.

Players can use Hale's Workbench to craft Ancient Bloodlines items and access Blight Infusion, allowing compatible tamed creatures to become permanently Blighted.

Phase One also introduces Blighted Guardians — powerful roaming boss variants designed as major overworld encounters.

Blighted Creatures

Each current species has four standard Blighted variants:

Raptor

• Blighted Raptor
• Blighted Elder Raptor
• Blighted Predator Raptor
• Blighted Titan Raptor

Carno

• Blighted Carno
• Blighted Elder Carno
• Blighted Predator Carno
• Blighted Titan Carno

Rex

• Blighted Rex
• Blighted Elder Rex
• Blighted Predator Rex
• Blighted Titan Rex

Blighted creatures feature:

• Increased combat capability
• Custom loot
• New crafting materials
• Multiple progression tiers
• Their own role within Ancient Bloodlines progression

Higher-tier Blighted creatures are intended to remain dangerous even for established players.

Blighted Guardians

Three roaming Blighted Guardians are currently included:

• Blighted Guardian Raptor
• Blighted Guardian Carno
• Blighted Guardian Rex

Guardians are significantly stronger than normal Blighted creatures and scale with server difficulty.

During combat, Guardians summon waves of Blighted Minions as their health falls.

Each Guardian has its own encounter scaling, minion wave sizes and difficulty-adjusted combat stats.

Guardians are intended to function as major overworld boss encounters rather than traditional arena bosses.

Blight Infusion

Blight Infusion can be used on compatible tamed creatures.

A Blighted tame currently receives:

• +10% Health
• +10% Melee Damage
• -10% Stamina
• -10% Weight
• +10% Stamina Drain

Blight Infusion currently modifies the tame's stats only. It does not currently change the creature's appearance.

Current Features

• Blighted Raptors
• Blighted Carnos
• Blighted Rexes
• Elder variants
• Predator variants
• Titan variants
• Blighted Guardian Raptor
• Blighted Guardian Carno
• Blighted Guardian Rex
• Guardian minion-wave encounters
• Difficulty-scaled Guardian combat
• Blighted Minions
• Custom Blighted loot
• Blighted Hearts
• Blighted Bone Fragments
• Blighted Coagulant
• Hale's Workbench
• Blight Infusion
• Permanent Blighted tame progression
• Same-map persistence through normal saving and cryopod use
• Endgame-focused engram progression

⚠ Natural Spawning

The natural spawn system has recently undergone a major rework.

Blighted creatures and Guardians are intended to appear through existing ARK creature spawn ecosystems rather than replacing normal vanilla spawning.

Dedicated-server testing of the new system is currently underway.

If you experience unusually low or absent Blighted spawns, please report the map and server configuration being used.

⚠ Cross-Map Transfer

Blighted status currently persists through normal gameplay and cryopod storage on the same map.

Cross-map / cross-cluster Blighted persistence is still under development.

Until this system is completed, transferring a Blighted creature between maps may cause its Blighted state to be lost.

Future Development

Future development is planned to include:

• Additional Guardian progression
• Keeper-tier encounters
• Additional Blighted creature types
• Ocean Blighted progression
• Aerial Blighted progression
• Additional Blight Infusions
• Higher-tier Blight upgrades
• New boss encounters
• Purified progression
• Primordial threats
• Additional endgame crafting and progression systems

Design Philosophy

Ancient Bloodlines is intended to expand ARK's endgame without removing the need to play through vanilla progression.

Most major Ancient Bloodlines progression is intentionally positioned at high survivor levels.

The mod is not intended to replace exploration, taming, hunting or combat with shortcuts.

Every hunt should matter.

Every victory should move progression forward.

Big thanks to Bearro