ARK: Survival Ascended’s Araneo TLC Is Live Alongside Fantastic Tames Season 1

By ZeroCool | August 16, 2026 | Comments Off on ARK: Survival Ascended’s Araneo TLC Is Live Alongside Fantastic Tames Season 1
Official ARK: Survival Ascended artwork of the Araneo
Image: Studio Wildcard

The Araneo’s transformation is no longer merely a tease. After previewing the community-backed creature overhaul in Community Crunch 499 on March 21, 2026, Studio Wildcard confirmed on May 20 that the Araneo TLC is now live in ARK: Survival Ascended. The newer announcement also launched Fantastic Tames Season 1 with its first playable addition, the Burrowbuck, on Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam.

The release turns one of ARK’s historically overlooked cave creatures into a mobile ambush mount built around vertical movement, stacking control effects, torpor delivery, and temporary web infrastructure. It is a much broader upgrade than the original preview established, with higher base stats, a new model and animations, revised taming, silk production, Turret Mode, and several abilities that could give the Araneo a genuine role in both PvE expeditions and PvP engagements.

The Araneo finally becomes a true climbing predator

The visual and movement overhaul gives the Araneo full wall and ceiling traversal, grounded strafing, and the ability to descend vertically from overhead surfaces on a web line. Wild Araneo can also appear attached to walls or ceilings, so cave encounters may now begin above the player rather than directly ahead. Its model, locomotion, and animation set have all been updated to support that expanded range of movement.

Wildcard also raised the creature’s foundations. Base Health increases from 150 to 200, while Stamina and Weight each climb from 100 to 150. Base Food rises from 900 to 1,200, and base melee damage receives a 50% increase. Those improvements should make newly tamed spiders substantially more durable and practical before breeding or heavy leveling begins.

A new Ambusher passive rewards players for moving between surfaces. After the Araneo attaches to or detaches from a surface, its next melee strike or Web Shot deals 50% additional damage and immediately applies the maximum number of Webbed stacks. This makes ceiling drops and rapid repositioning part of its combat rotation rather than movement tricks with no offensive payoff.

Webbed combines control, vulnerability, and area pressure

Araneo attacks now build a stacking status called Webbed. Each application progressively slows the target, reduces its attack speed, and increases the damage it receives. At maximum stacks, affected targets lose the ability to sprint or jump. If a heavily webbed creature dies, the effect spreads to nearby enemies, giving the Araneo a way to disrupt groups rather than controlling only one target at a time.

The ranged Web Shot has accordingly been rebuilt with better accuracy and reach. Riders can switch between a damage-focused version and a Poison Web Shot intended to inflict torpor, with both modes adding Webbed stacks. Combined with standard knockout taming, this gives the upgraded mount a practical field role: immobilize a prospective tame, keep it from escaping or retaliating effectively, and then build torpor from a safer position.

The new Web Tether adds both traversal and forced movement. An Araneo can create temporary, traversable web lines between surfaces, operating similarly to player zip lines and allowing spiders to travel along them naturally. In combat, tethers can pull smaller targets toward the Araneo, draw the spider toward larger creatures, or fasten prey to anchored web points for repositioning. Pulling strength scales with the Araneo’s Weight stat, making Weight relevant to control-oriented builds as well as inventory capacity.

From a ceiling, the spider can use Web Descent to hang from a suspended line, fire Web Shots, perform attacks, or detach instantly and fall onto prey. Creatures killed while affected by Webbed also produce Silk, with more stacks increasing the yield. This resource passive creates a repeatable PvE use for the mount even when its strongest battlefield control is unnecessary.

Turret Mode support and updated wild AI complete the mechanical overhaul. For tribes, the practical result is a creature capable of guarding an area, helping with knockout tames, generating Silk, building temporary traversal routes, and punishing enemies in confined or vertical terrain. Its control toolkit could be especially disruptive around caves, ledges, base interiors, and locations where preventing a sprint or jump can decide an encounter.

Burrowbuck opens a second route to battlefield mobility

Fantastic Tames Season 1 introduces a separate collection consisting of the Burrowbuck, Cerberax, and Enigmasaur. The Burrowbuck is the first creature highlighted as available with this launch and has been added to The Center, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Ragnarok, Extinction, Valguero, and Astraeos.

The Burrowbuck is designed around map control and misdirection rather than direct frontline strength. It can excavate concealed underground dens resembling small bunkers and establish temporary gateway tunnels for rapid travel over long distances. Those routes can support planned retreats, reinforcements, supply movement, or ambushes. When pursued, the creature can create disorienting dust clouds and leave hidden hazards behind for enemies that continue the chase.

The rest of the season’s announced lineup moves in different directions. Cerberax is planned as a three-headed combat bruiser with cooperative multi-rider functionality. Its heads specialize in corrupting defenses, applying fire, and using electricity to trigger or spread combined effects. The main rider can control the heads, or a coordinated tribe can assign up to three passengers to help operate them.

Enigmasaur is built around observation and disguise. It can store several forms copied from nearby creatures, transform into them, and gain the abilities associated with the selected form. Wildcard’s descriptions position Cerberax and Enigmasaur as the heavy-combat and adaptive options within the season, while the currently featured Burrowbuck serves tribes interested in tunnels, traps, and evasive movement.

The accompanying update targets crashes, desync, and map problems

The release also addresses several Tek Spear issues. Wildcard listed fixes for teleport and dash inconsistencies on poorly performing servers, along with a desynchronization problem visible when watching another player use the spear’s dash. Forest Titan taxidermy should no longer be missing its arms, while Ice Titan taxidermy should no longer appear invisible.

Other corrections cover a Pheromone Dart being consumed during crafting, Fire and Ice Wyverns incorrectly sharing a settings-copy group, Thralls sitting incorrectly while mounted, and excessive Kairuku spawns on The Center. Wildcard also fixed a Lost Colony mesh opening, multiple PC GPU crashes, and a crash associated with completing the Scorched Earth ascension.

Additional fixes address landscape collision, floating statues, mesh holes, and creature-spawn problems. Taken together, the patch is both a major creature release and a useful stability pass, although the most visible change will be overhead: caves and structures now have a newly dangerous predator capable of attacking, shooting webs, and controlling the battlefield without touching the ground.

The Extra Life TLC program moves to Therizinosaurus

The Araneo was the first community-selected TLC associated with ARK’s Extra Life fundraising effort. With that redesign now released, Studio Wildcard says the Therizinosaurus is next. No complete ability list or launch date for that overhaul was included in the May announcement, but the handoff confirms that the charity-backed TLC initiative is continuing beyond the spider.

Sources

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'Araneo TLC' & Fantastic Tames Season 1 'Burrowbuck' Trailer — Studio Wildcard

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