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You can tame a giant sea turtle and build a house on its back in Ark: Genesis

The new expansion starts in December

Ark: Survival Evolved now has another big season pass for you to buy into. There’s some benefit to purchasing now, but the more notable content drops begin in December with the first part of Ark: Genesis – a meaty expansion with new creatures both cute and fearsome, and new biomes taking us to the absolute extremes of hot and cold.

The first map is set inside some kind of simulation, and it’ll feature volcanic, icy mountain, and oceanic biomes, each of which bring their own new creatures to the game. Probably the neatest is the giant sea turtle, which can be both tamed and used as a platform to build a base. It’ll even throw out an oxygen bubble to keep you breathing underwater.

Other new critters include a big siege dinosaur which generates its own pools of magma and can shoot that magma as an AoE attack on enemies. There’s also a cute little fuzzy guy in the snowy area, but he’ll transform into a giant werewolf-like monster if he gets ahold of enough Element material.

If you’re keen to pre-order, you’ll immediately get access to a new cosmetic robot pet called HLN-A. Once Genesis properly lands, HLN-A will serve as a mission-giver that’ll push you along the expansions more directed story.

You can see a tease of all the new stuff in the trailer above, or get more detail in the developer livestream (helpfully broken down at Eurogamer).

The Ark: Genesis season pass is available on Steam for $34.99 / £27.79 / €29.99. Part one of Genesis launches in December, while part two is set for an even more vague “winter 2020.”