History VideoGame / ARKSurvivalEvolved

** ''Andrewsarchus'' is portrayed as a hoofed mammal similar to ''Daeodon'', instead of the outdated mesonychid restoration from ''Series/WalkingWithBeasts''.

** The Titans introduced in the final DLC, ''Extinction'', are legit Kaiju monsters over twice the size of the already insanely large Titanosaurus. The FinalBoss of the series, the King Titan, is over three times the size of the regular Titans and is basically an {{Expy}} of Godzilla.

** ''[[LightningBruiser Giganot]][[BossInMooksClothing osaurus]] furiosa'', or Giga

* FilkSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ0SqeFUda8 Apex Predator]] courtesy of Jt Machinma and Music/DanBull.

** ''[[EverythingIsBetterWithMonkeys Mesopithecus]] amicufur'', or Monkey

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: The ''Mesopithecus'' (a genus of monkey similar to modern macaques). They're not very common and surprisingly hard to tame, but it's worth having a companion that can steal items, alert you of predators, and, yes, throw poop.

* GameBreakingBug: Sometimes, in a multiplayer environment, terminals that are about to initiate a boss battle may fail to teleport some tamed dinos or players to the boss arena, even if they are well within the teleport radius. While simple-sounding, having this bug occur can be absolutely devastating - it can stop key teammates and creatures from joining the boss battle, jeopardizing the endeavor and [[UnwinnableByMistake even potentially rendering the battle unbeatable]] if victory would have depended on having the one guy that the terminal failed to teleport.

* UnwinnableByMistake: Most of the color-code puzzles in ''Genesis 2'' have HLN-A calling out the colors for you, so color-blind players can still solve them. This is absent in the mission "Choose Your Own Adventure", at the boss stage where you have to disable its shield by stepping on randomized colored panels. Picking the wrong one not only fully restores the shield but also summons a horde of enemy dinos, and color-blind players have reported particular difficulty telling the green and yellow panels apart.

* BugBuzz: ''Titanomyrma'' soldiers emit a hornet-like droning noise. ''Meganeura'' dragonflies also do this though they're less likely to attack the player.

** ''[[ZergRush Titano]][[BugBuzz myrma]] parvagigan'', or Ant

** ''Raphus replicare'', or [[DumbDodoBird Dodo]]

* DumbDodoBird: Dodos are found all over the island. As you may have guessed, they're very easy to kill.

* DevelopersForesight: Wild Yutyrannus and Carnotaurus form symbiotic packs together, where the Yuty will use its courage roars to strengthen the Carnos and the Carnos will share prey with the Yuty. If you use a tame Yutyrannus's courage roars on a wild Carnotaurus, it will follow and share kills the same way until the roar boost wears off. May not work with Aberrant, Alpha, or modded versions of these creatures.

* ElectricJellyfish: The Cnidaria ingame have electric attacks on close range and will shock the player during combat.

** In ''Genesis II'' the "Bulbdog Fetch" missions are to track a pack of [[MatingFrenzy in-season]] bulbdogs and collect their pheromones for the same purpose.

* MamaBear: Dinos do not like their eggs being stolen. Even the normally peaceable Dodos will turn on you.

* MinMaxing: One can literally max out the melee damage stat which will allow you to hit dinos hard. Also, there are more Engrams than a single person can buy with the maximum Engram points.

* MortonsFork: On Aberration walk around with a light source to keep away swarms of Nameless and you are likely to be attacked by a swarm of Seekers, that are attracted to and receive a buff being near the light source, turn the light source off and be attacked by a never ending swarm of Nameless.

* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: ''Sarcosuchus'' are never a pleasant encounter if one goes to a lake or the coasts. There's also the ''[[SeldomSeenSpecies Kaprosuchus]]'' which drains stamina with its attacks.
* NobodyPoops: Averted. All creatures -- including the player character -- eliminate regularly; if you don't press Numpad + (PC) or select "Defecate" from the wheel menu (console) when your food meter turns light blue, you will defecate automatically. Feces can be used as fertilizer to help grow crops, or fermented by a compost bin or a dung beetle into a superior fertilizer. If you build a toilet (available at Level 32), you can poop in and immediately produce fertilizer.

** ''Genesis 2'' has a mission with gameplay that was clearly inspired by the likes of ''Videogame/StarFox'', featuring a player-piloted Astrodelphis with a saddle resembling the Arwing (appropriately named "Astrodelphis Starwing Saddle") and even including the somersault and barrel roll moves. Drilling the tribute even further is that the mission in question is called "Star Dolphin", holding H during said mission reveals the mount is named "Peppy", as well as the part where during the boss fight against Rockwell, HLNA exclaims "So Rockwell, your virus shows its TRUE form" -- a line that directly references ''Videogame/StarFox64'', where Fox [=McCloud=] has a very similar line.

** ''Genesis 2'' has a mission with gameplay that was clearly inspired by the likes of ''Videogame/StarFox'', featuring a player-piloted Astrodelphis with a saddle resembling the Arwing (appropriately named "Astrodelphis Starwing Saddle") and even including the somersault and barrel roll moves. Drilling the tribute even further is that the mission in question is called "Star Dolphin", as well as the part where during the boss fight against Rockwell, HLNA exclaims "So Rockwell, your virus shows its TRUE form" -- a line that directly references ''Videogame/StarFox64'', where Fox [=McCloud=] has a very similar line.

** The trailer for ''Genesis 2'' prominently shows gameplay that was clearly inspired by the likes of ''Videogame/StarFox'', featuring a ship resembling the Arwing and even including the somersault and barrel roll moves. Drilling the tribute even further is a brief scene where the pilot controlling the ship shoots Rockwell's gigantic face and HLNA exclaims "So Rockwell, your virus shows its TRUE form" -- a line that directly references ''Videogame/StarFox64'', where Fox [=McCloud=] has a very similar line.

* ''{{Megalodon}}'': Infests most of the game's non-river waters. Can be ridden.

* BearTrap: These can be crafted once you hit level 28 and have created a Smithy, with large versions following shortly at level 31.

* BeneathTheEarth: In the vein of Jules Verne, The Center gives us a massive underground biome complete with its own ocean. The entrances are well-hidden, but one you get in, it's much harder to get out.
** Most of the ''Aberration'' expansion is underground -- the sun has turned into a deadly radiation source that will kill you in seconds, as a result pretty much all the life forms that remained had to crawl underground.

* FantasticFlora: "Plant Species X", a strange plant that can be grown in one's garden with the bonus function of being a biological defense turret.

* GangUpOnTheHuman: It's an extremely risky proposition to try and distract a pursuing carnivore by luring it near another carnivore, as 9 times out of 10 the two will usually aggro against you instead of fighting each other. In fact, with a few notable exceptions such as the T-Rex, most carnivores will never attack each other at all. This is also true of neutral herbivores that turn hostile when approached, such as the Therizinosaurus.

* GrapplingHookPistol: The Grappling Hook ammo can turn a Crossbow into one.

* {{GIFT}}: Lack of player conduct enforcement has caused this to rear its ugly head on many of official servers. Even on unofficial servers, whether [=PvP=] is turned on or off, if the moderators are not very active, or worse, are complicit, people tend to go in this direction.
** A notable instance in [=PvP=] is "offline raiding", where an assailant waits until the dead of the night when nobody is online to wreak havoc. ORP (Offline Raiding Prevention/Protection) servers have since been released, but only a handful.
** PvE is not spared either -- mysterious walls spring up around spawn points, trapping newcomers as player-built structures can't be damaged by other players.
** On some unofficial servers, mods will use their admin rights to give themselves high-level equipment and tames when the average research level is still low. This effectively allows them to lord over 'civilian' players.
** Another aggravating occurrence in PvE servers is when players who've established themselves in an area place pillars or foundations around an area without actually building anything off them. Because other players not in their tribe cannot build within a certain radius of each pillar/foundation, entire areas end up being blocked for player development. Especially unfair when coastal areas in the south, areas that are known to be the best places for newbies to spawn, are the exact places that are blocked off.
** On some official [=PvP=] servers, the Alpha Tribe (the most powerful tribe on the server) will use the above tactics to aggressively monopolize and dominate the server, crushing anyone not allied with them and pushing all other tribes off the server. The typical end goal is to turn the server into the tribe's home base, from which they can safely launch raids on other servers for supplies or low-risk [=PvP=].

* InUniverseGameClock: The game has an in-game day and night cycle that will affect vision and sometimes what comes out to roam.

* KangarooPouchRide: The player can do this with the giant short-faced kangaroo ''Procoptodon'', which is described as having a dry pouch unlike those of other marsupials.

* ''{{Megalodon}}'': Infests most of the game's non-river waters. Can be ridden.

* MinMaxing: One can literally max out the melee damage stat which will allow you to hit dinos hard. Also, there are more Engrams than a single person can buy with the maximum Engram points.

* OneGenderRace: The ''Dung Beetle'', ''Araneomorphus'', and ''Onychonycteris'', as well as all untamable animals, all have their gender listed as "N/A," though this could be due to devs having not implemented gender for them yet.

* PsychoElectricEel: Electric eels (referred as ''Electrophorus'' [[note]] Which is the real animal's scientific genus. [[/note]]) are found in the waters of the island. Their shocks can be used to stun large marine animals into submission for taming purposes.

* RespawnPoint: If you managed to set up a nice comfy sleeping area, it can serve as your respawn point. Sleeping bags will respawn you just once while beds will work indefinitely, albeit with a cooldown timer.

* TenSecondFlashlight: Anything that burns will eventually run out. Played straight with flares as they only light up for a few minutes.