Svartalfheim is the newest map from Fjordur creator Nekatus. It is a dwarfen map highly inspired by Northern mythology and Lord of the Rings. With 33km² size it is fairly small compared to the other available ARK maps.
It is an unofficial mod map, that requires you to be able to make use of mods—Which mean you need to be on the Steam platform (check out the differences between Epic and Steam here). Svartalfheim is the home to the dwarfs in the Snorra-Edda. And dwarf world is what we get when playing this mod. But what are the key differences to other maps, and what do you need to know about Svartalfheim?
Svartalfheim Mod ID
- This is the mod ID to use the MAP: 2869407478
- This is the mod ID to use the additional dinos for Svartalfheim: 2869411055
Svartalfheim is a no flyer map
This was something that was controversial with some players but Svartalfheim will be a strict no-flyer map. Flying usually takes out the difficulty of a map and therefore gameplay can become stale fairly quickly. You won’t be able to enable flying or flyer spawns on this map and if you bring over flyers from other maps during transfer they will render useless and can’t be mounted. Gliders on the other hand will work—for example the Maewing.
Tek Armor will be disabled on the map
While map maker Nekatus was unsure about keeping Tek enabled on Svartalfheim – in a poll on Twitter a lot of players actually voted for removing the Tek armor functionalities from the map. So for now Tek armor won’t work on this map. This might change in the future.
Svartalfheim is about 40% done
This release is not a final release but more of an Early Access release that will still be worked on. Keep this in mind when playing on this map—it means that areas can and will undergo changes as the development progresses further.
The map will be 33km² on completion
Once completed, you will have access to 33km² of playable map surface. This is fairly small compared to other maps like The Island, which is 48km². Those 33km² do not incluse the caves on the map which means there will be more “real” walkable surface on Svartalfheim. At the moment the upper north is still in development and therefore not accessible now.
New resources
The map comes with new resources: Pure Gold, Mithril, Energy Crystal, Obsidian Flux and Mithril Alloy and more in the planning. New resources need to be processed with the new structure called Dwarven Forge. You can find it around the map especially in settlements.
Svartalfheim adds creatures with a dedicated mod to the map
There will be new creatured added with a dedicated mod that goes with the map. New Alphas like the Mega Deinonychos, Mega Brachiosaurus and Mega Styrachosaurus have been added to the map to make the gameplay even more challenging. In the screenshots we have seen blue glowy variants of X-Creatures called S-Creature like the S-Trike, S-Magmasaurus, S-Maewing, and S-Ankylosaurus
There are raidable NPC settlements
Farming doesn’t have to be boring—go and raid NPCs instead – Dwarven warriors. That’s a new and challenging way to also make the PvE gameplay a little more action filled than usual. NPC enemies have already been in ARK in Genesis 1 at the end fight, so while they are not new to ARK, we usually don’t meet them in the open world.
Will Svartalfheim be on PS4 or Xbox?
Consoles unfortunately don’t support mods. There are also no plans to keep releasing official DLCs for ARK 1 anymore. So the chances are very low to be able to play Svartalfheim on console.
How to get Svartalfheim and the Additional Dinos mod:
- Link to download the map: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2869407478
- Link to download the additional creatures mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2869411055