Specimen Implant

The device in every survivor's arm

The Specimen Implant is an artifact item in ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended, described in-game as "A mysterious implant attached to your arm." Every survivor on the ARK carries one in the left arm, and a newly created or respawned character glances at it while waking up. The implant also takes the first slot of the inventory. As an item it weighs 0.01 and does not stack.

What the implant is involved in

The ARK Wiki links the implant to everyday actions: opening the inventory, crafting, leveling up and unlocking engrams, plus contact with alien technology such as the Obelisks. All of this happens automatically, and the inventory item itself has no known use and seems to be cosmetic.

Death, dropping and trophies

A living survivor cannot drop the active implant. When its host dies it appears to deactivate, and it can then be taken from the corpse. A survivor who gets back to the body in time can even recover the old one along with the other items, ending up with two implants, because each respawn comes with a new one. Inactive implants do not seem to have a use either, though some Player-Killers keep them as trophies or as proof of a kill for a bounty.

Ascension and the level cap

Completing Ascension gives a new implant based on the Tek Cave difficulty: Gamma raises the maximum level by 5, Beta by 10 and Alpha by 15. Ascending from Scorched Earth adds another 5, 10 or 15, and so does ascending on Aberration by defeating Rockwell, which also brings an aberrant glow. Further bonuses come from the Corrupted Master Controller in Genesis Simulation, Rockwell Prime in Genesis: Part 2, the Runes on Fjordur and the Lost Queen of Lost Colony; with all the survivor notes and Runes collected, the wiki's running total reaches 205. Once a player has ascended, the implant shows the bosses they have defeated.

After Extinction

Finishing Extinction removes the implant from that survivor for good, along with any prefix it had, and replaces it with an item called Homo Deus Record that works in a similar way. Unlike the other ascensions, this one grants no extra levels.