Extinction Core Ascended Mod Guide

Extinction Core Ascended is a PvE overhaul for ARK: Survival Ascended by BrutalMeta183 (CurseForge ID 1012579). It remakes Extinction Core, the ASE mod by Psycho, and adds tiers of stronger creatures, human tribes, boss fights and a real final boss. Our database holds 415 creature entries, 349 items (50 of them fertilized eggs), 185 engrams and 4 crafting stations from the mod.

Before you start

• It is meant to be hard: the author calls it rough on new players and still a test for veterans. It is also pitched as a first big mod for people who find the larger overhauls too much.
• Other mods: vanilla-style creature mods such as Paleo Rex or Antrodemus can run next to it. Large overhauls of the same kind, Paleo ARK Ascension for example, cannot.
• It has an ending: unlike the ASE original, the mod ends with a final boss, The One Being.
• Read the in-game notes: search your engrams for "ECORE". The mod has a set of note items that cost one Fiber each and unlock as you level, from the welcome note at level 1 to the end-game pages at level 100.
• Start like vanilla: the welcome note advises a normal ARK start: resources, a base, vanilla tames and better tools before you go after any mod tier.

The tiers

The mod's own tier note counts 13 tiers. Six of them can be tamed or obtained; the other seven are there to be fought and farmed.

Prime and Vanilla Core creatures worth taming

• Prime Otter: left on wander, it makes Silica Pearls and Black Pearls.
• Prime Achatina: makes Cementing Paste and hard polymer.
• Prime Titanoboa: its venom bite knocks creatures out, and on wander it makes Narcotic and venom.
• Prime Dung Beetle: makes fertilizer and oil.
• Prime Dimorphodon and Prime Featherlight: flyers that need no saddle; you can shoot from the Dimorphodon.
• Prime Dodo: fights back with a pack bonus and gathers berries well early on.
• Golden Dodo: very rare and produces a lot of loot.
• Phoenix: spawns in daytime, tames the normal way, can breed and has a fire spin attack.
• DodoRexy: elemental forms with wyvern-like attacks, tamed by knockout.

Pygmys

Pygmys run instead of fighting, so you need a fast or strong mount to catch them. Each color drops something different:

Taming and knockout

Alpha kibble

An Alpha creature eats the Alpha version of the kibble its vanilla form eats. The notes' example: an Alpha Raptor wants Alpha Simple Kibble because a normal raptor wants Simple Kibble. Each Alpha kibble is made from the vanilla kibble of the same grade plus an Alpha egg, so you need running vanilla kibble production and laying Alpha females first.

For egg farming the author suggests at least two females and one male, plus an egg-laying boost such as an Oviraptor. Fertilized eggs do not count as kibble eggs. A few Alphas use other taming methods.

Other taming methods

• Tribesmen: they are tamed by knockout, and the notes name Alpha Meat Jerky (level 30, made from Prime Meat Jerky and Mejoberries) as their food. Killing tribesmen instead gives loot plus kibble that matches the tribe's difficulty, for example basic kibble from the yellow tribe.
• Lay-egg creatures: females of the Wyverns, Alpha Wyverns, Alpha Fasolasuchus and the four Stellar creatures drop an egg when you bring their health low, before they die.
• Submission taming: used for the Beast Of Darkness and the Ultimate primordials. You beat the creature down to as little health as possible while a taming item is active on every player taking part. See the Primordials section below.
• Potent Opiate: raises food use, on Alpha creatures only (level 30). Sedative (level 60) adds a lot of torpor and drains food on most creatures. Both need Bio Toxin, so a sea creature that gathers it is worth having early.

Knockout tools

• Creatures: the Alpha Dilophosaur's bite, the Prime Titanoboa's bite and the Alpha Scorpion's attacks all knock out. After those, the author names the Broodmother as the best option.
• Compound Tranquilizer Arrow (level 51): three times as strong as a tranq dart, for the compound bow only.
• Powerful Compound Tranquilizer Arrow (level 79): made for bosses; the author says 20 have always been enough for one boss.
• Detox (level 60): clears your torpor and stops incoming torpor, with a 10-second cooldown. Skeletal and Scion fights get much easier once you have it.

Progression and bosses

The notes give a rough order for the mod:

1. Play vanilla, tame the Prime creatures and start a farm with bee hives for honey.
2. Make vanilla kibble, then Alpha kibble, and tame your first Alphas.
3. Hunt Skeletals for loot once you have an Alpha, and Pygmys whenever you have a fast mount.
4. With Alphas at Alpha Superior Kibble level, try the Apex Raptor and the Scions. Scions drop Diamonds and Cosmic Flowers. Apex Carnotaurus and Allosaurus are about as strong as Scions, and the Apex Rex hits much harder.
5. Kill and tame the ARK bosses. They are required for the Guardian Golem Deities.
6. Defeat the Guardian Golems, then farm the Primal Tek creatures.
7. Fight the Omegas with a boss tame, build a Primordial, then face the Absolute Deities and The One Being.

Tameable bosses

Each ARK boss has a Matrix crafted from three or four artifacts, an Essence, a kibble and a saddle. The kibble always combines one Alpha Exceptional Kibble, 50 Prime Blood and a meat. Our data lists the Broodmother, Dodorex, Dragon, Manticore and Megapithecus. You knock them out with the poison compound bow arrows. The boss saddles sit at the top of the engram list (level 90 to 100) and need the boss's Matrix and Essence.

• Improved saddles: each boss can drop the blueprint for an Improved saddle. The Improved Dragon Saddle also fits Horvath, the Improved Broodmother Saddle fits both Silithas, the Improved Megapithicus Saddle fits both Bokitos, and the Improved Dodorex Saddle is for the Dodorex and the Beast Of Darkness.
• Omegas: the Omega Dragon, Omega Broodmother and Omega Megapitecus reflect damage unless you fight them on a boss tame wearing an Improved saddle. They drop the Omega Red, Green and Blue Amulets.
• Guardian Golems: they call minions, and the golem takes no damage until the minions are dead. Bring plenty of vials and Detox.

Primordials

The Primordial Matrix combines the five boss matrices and goes into the tributes, rings and most upgrades below.

Every tribute also costs 6,000 Black Pearls, 60 Diamonds, 6 Element Clusters, 6,000 Metal Ingots and a Primordial Matrix. The Supreme Rex upgrade needs 300 Alpha Rex Rip Cages, a Supreme Soul-Rex, a Primordial Matrix, 50 Diamonds and 3,000 each of Element and Black Pearls; the Supreme Trike uses Alpha Trike Pelvises instead. YutoMeta, Transcendent Supreme Warchief has a Warcheif Yuto Vial that works the same way.

Absolute Deities and The One Being

The StrongHeart Ring, Tanjiro Ring and Tartarus Ring summon StrongHeart-Courage Absolute Deity, Tanjiro-Transcedence Absolute Deity and Tartarus-Justice Absolute Deity. Each ring costs the standard end-game bundle plus 200 Cosmic Flowers. The deities fire unpredictable, hard-hitting projectiles and leave after 30 minutes. Beating them unlocks the Azure Amulet, which also needs the StrongHeart, Tanjiro and Tartarus Essences. The amulet is the item for The One Being, the end-game boss, who stays for 60 minutes once called. The author advises fully levelled tames on Improved saddles and warns that the boss has a surprise near death. A win at 10% of its power gives TheOneBeing Trophy.

Items and stations

• WorkBench Core (level 15): the main crafting table for the mod's items.
• Tek Originator: makes the top items and armor from materials and blueprints; it needs Element to run.
• Extinction Core Grinder: grinds crafted items and some resources and makes gems.
• Gems: Emerald (10 Crystal), Sapphire (5 Emerald), Ruby (5 Emerald, 5 Sapphire), Topaz (5 each of Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire) and Diamond (5 of each of the four).
• Prime armor: Cloth (level 3), Hide (15), Fur (23), Ghillie (33), Chitin (37), Flak (56), SCUBA (81) and Riot (98). Most pieces upgrade the vanilla piece with Prime Hide and a gem and are listed as unbreakable. Prime Tek armor resists most Extinction Core effects.
• Vials: the Blood Vial (level 30) fully heals, and the Fortitude Vial (level 30) refills stamina. Both work from the hotbar on a creature you ride and have a 15-second cooldown.
• XP potions: Small 4x, Medium 8x, Large 16x and Huge 32x experience for a while.
• Loot containers: armor, saddle and weapon containers come in Ramshackle, Apprentice, Journeyman, Mastercraft and Ascendant quality.

Tips

• Keep a laying pair of every Alpha you rely on. The next kibble grade needs its eggs.
• Kill every Pygmy you see. The white ones are the easy source of artifacts for the boss matrices.
• Get Detox before you take on Skeletals, Scions and the Guardian Golems.
• Save the Improved saddle blueprints: without one, the Omegas cannot be beaten.
• Stock Diamonds and Cosmic Flowers early. Each tribute, ring and Supreme upgrade takes 50 to 60 Diamonds, and each ring 200 Cosmic Flowers.
• If you tune the egg-laying multiplier in your ini, the author notes that a lower value makes eggs come faster.

Every creature, item and spawn command of the mod is listed on its mod page.