Homestead 1890: The Hunt
The age of the dinosaurs is over. That is the bold premise behind Homestead 1890: The Hunt, an overhaul mod for ARK: Survival Ascended that drags the survival experience out of prehistory and into a rugged frontier world set around 1890. Instead of dodging rexes and raptors, you will be watching the treeline for wolf packs, bears, sabertooths, thylacoleo, terror birds, woolly rhinos and mammoths. It is a completely different game, and that is exactly the point.
What Homestead 1890: The Hunt Changes
This mod reshapes the creature roster and the technology tree at the same time, so both the threats you face and the tools you use feel period-appropriate. Almost everything that roams the land feels like it could have been real. A few dinosaurs survived the shift, but they are rare. Yutyrannus has taken the place of the rex and the other big apex predators, while Therizinosaurus and Ankylosaurus still wander the map. Baryonyx and Sarcosuchus lurk in the rivers and swamps, waiting for careless travelers. The skies, notably, are unchanged.
On the tech side, the engram list has been cut back hard. Tek, metal building, machined firearms, explosives, turrets, traps, industrial stations, air conditioners and refrigerators are all removed, 167 engrams in total. What stays is the longneck rifle, the simple shotgun, the flintlock, the fabricator, the generator and electric lights. That single design decision changes the whole feel of the game. Taming, hunting, travel and base building all play differently when the biggest thing on the plains is a mammoth rather than a giga.
Version Support and Mod Compatibility
Homestead 1890: The Hunt for ARK: Survival Ascended is built to pair with Primitive Ascended, and the load order matters. Place this mod above Primitive Ascended in your mod list so the creature swaps and engram cuts apply correctly. It also works on its own if you prefer a standalone frontier experience. The mod is currently PC only, so console players will need to wait for a port before they can join the hunt.
It is tuned for The Island, which gives the most coherent spawn distribution and progression curve. On other maps, the dinosaur swaps and tech cuts still apply, and each map keeps its own native creatures, so you can carry the 1890 atmosphere into Scorched Earth, The Center or any other supported ARK: Survival Ascended version without losing what makes those maps unique. Caves, the ocean and the bosses are left unchanged, which keeps endgame content intact while the surface world transforms around it.
If you manage several overhauls at once, the foxygame.net launcher keeps things tidy by listing Homestead 1890: The Hunt alongside your other add-ons and handling version matching automatically, so you spend less time troubleshooting load orders and more time hunting.
How to Install Homestead 1890: The Hunt
Getting started is straightforward, whether you use a launcher or manage mods manually. Here is the basic process:
- Download Homestead 1890: The Hunt from your preferred mod source and subscribe or add it to your library.
- Open your ARK: Survival Ascended mod list and confirm the mod is active.
- If you also run Primitive Ascended, drag Homestead 1890: The Hunt above it in the load order.
- Launch your world and run the command cheat DestroyWildDinos once so the new spawns appear immediately.
That last step is important. Existing wild creatures stay until they die, so without a wipe you may still run into leftover vanilla spawns for a while. One command clears the board and lets the frontier ecosystem take over right away.
Why the Frontier Works So Well
What makes this overhaul compelling is restraint. By removing the loudest, most futuristic parts of ARK and replacing them with animals that feel plausible, it turns every journey into a tense, grounded expedition. A pack of wolves at dusk is scarier than a tek spider ever was. Base building becomes about timber and stone rather than metal fortresses, and a flintlock in your hands makes every shot count.
If you want ARK: Survival Ascended to feel dangerous again, in a way that rewards patience and preparation over raw firepower, download Homestead 1890: The Hunt and see how the frontier treats you. Just remember the load order, keep an eye on the horizon, and never assume the plains are empty.
--- **Update Oct 6, 2026:** Added 4 files for version 1.0.