ARK 2 Wiki

ARK 2 is Studio Wildcard and Grove Street Games' Unreal Engine 5 sequel to ARK: Survival Evolved, starring Vin Diesel as Santiago da Costa on the alien planet Arat. It pivots the series to locked third-person Souls-like primitive melee combat, smaller-tribe survival, and modular crafting, and is currently targeted for a 2028 launch after multiple delays.

Getting Started5/16/2026 6 min readDarkwhispers

The Aratai are the native sentient species of the alien planet Arat and the principal antagonist faction of ARK 2. They are humanoid, hostile, organized into competing tribes, and they tame and ride their own dinosaurs, mirroring the player's toolkit and inverting the franchise's classic power fantasy.

Studio Wildcard is the American developer and publisher of ARK 2, founded in October 2014 and now a subsidiary of Snail Games. The studio created ARK: Survival Evolved (2017) and the Unreal Engine 5 remaster ARK: Survival Ascended (2023), and is co-developing the 2028-target sequel with Grove Street Games. Vin Diesel is President of Creative Convergence and executive producer.

Development5/8/2026 4 min readSableQuill

Santiago da Costa is the protagonist of ARK 2, voiced by Vin Diesel. He is a clone descended from the original Santiago Camacho of the wider ARK saga, who wakes up on the alien planet Arat after the Genesis Colony Ship explodes. He raises his daughter Meeka, leads a small tribe, rides a bone-armored T-Rex, and clashes with the native Aratai faction.

Characters5/8/2026 4 min readduskvalley

Karl Urban voices Bob across the wider ARK franchise, including the animated series, the Lost Colony expansion, and the upcoming Bob's True Tales episodic releases. As of April 2026 his role in ARK 2 itself is unconfirmed.

Characters5/16/2026 4 min readrunecaster44

ARK 2's combat system is a locked third-person, Souls-like primitive melee layer with dodges, blocks, light and heavy attacks, target-lock, combos, staggers, special attacks, modular weapon crafting, sense-based animal AI, and a deep traversal toolkit. It is the headline departure from ARK 1 and will first ship to live players via the Legacy of Santiago expansion in Q4 2027.

Systems5/8/2026 4 min readwillowmist

Arat is the alien planet (sometimes referred to as the Alien Moon Arat) where ARK 2 is set. It is the direct narrative continuation of Genesis: Part 2, hosting the survivors who arrive in Eden ring escape pods after the Genesis Colony Ship's destruction. The world inherits the older Arat Prime and Reseed Protocol lore, sits inside the new Necrocene cosmology introduced in ARK: Lost Colony, and carries a mixed biosphere of redesigned Earth dinosaurs alongside native alien fauna and the sentient Aratai.

World5/8/2026 4 min readghostpetal

ARK 2's release window has been pushed back four times since its December 2020 reveal at The Game Awards. The current target is 2028, confirmed at the December 2025 Snail Games Investor Day. This page tracks every public window, the role of the Unreal Engine 5 remaster as a stopgap, and what remains unconfirmed.

Development5/16/2026 6 min readMikoTanaka

Mika, officially spelled Meeka by Studio Wildcard, is Santiago da Costa's daughter and the second confirmed cast member of ARK 2. Voiced by Auli'i Cravalho, she was unveiled at the June 12, 2022 Xbox & Bethesda Games show. She is not Mei-Yin Li, the Beast Queen of the wider ARK universe.

Characters5/8/2026 4 min readj0shlore

ARK 2's interchangeable-component crafting system for weapons and tools, with stat-visual coupling and a primitive-only launch loadout.

A pre-launch onboarding guide for ARK 2: how to follow the 2028 release, what the campaign involves, the major gameplay pillars, the story setup on Arat, recommended franchise on-ramps, current status, and a pre-launch checklist.

The tribe-based social layer of ARK 2: smaller squad-scale cooperative survival, PvP and PvE framing, and the design departures from the previous game in the series.

Vin Diesel's real-world role on ARK 2: lead actor for Santiago da Costa, executive producer, and President of Creative Convergence at Studio Wildcard.