After the Cryopad update, Ark Survival Ascended has released an update in time for the holidays, and it’s all about the season of giving (or asking).
So, basically, the new update involves an event that allows you to request gifts from the game’s Santa. The rewards you can get are actually pretty neat.
But there’s a trick here. The game actually has a naughty and nice system that was set in place for the fireplace loots that you can get.
So, now that we have that settled, let’s talk about how you can be naughty or nice in the game’s new Winter Wonderland update.
How To Be Naughty or Nice in Winter Wonderland
The Basics
So, first things first, the fireplace loot requires you to have a fireplace. After that, if you look at your inventory, there will be a dino note that you can send to Santa.
You also need to have a bed that’s near a holiday tree. What happens here is that you have to use the dino note to request something from Santa.
The things that you can request can range from a class of armor, a class of saddle, or a class of dino. It’s basically up to you what you want to request.
You can only do this once a day and you can only send it between certain hours, likely between 2am and 10pm in the game.
Once you send your request, there will be an indicator at the bottom of your screen that will appear neutral.
This indicator shows whether you have been naughty or nice for the day. So, what that means is that you have to raise or lower that bar, depending on what you want.
How To Be Nice
So, if you want to raise the bar and be “nice,” what you need to do is to go around the map to kill things that are supposed to be aggressive. It sounds weird to have to kill things to do that, but that’s what you need to do to be considered nice.
If you kill an aggressive dino with a higher level, there will be a higher chance that you will be getting more points in terms of your nice bar.
The best would be the Alpha Rex level 150 – if you want to raise your nice points.
You can see the bar going up after killing a strong dino like the Alpha Rex, which is essentially going to be the best one to kill if you want to raise your bar higher. The higher the aggression level, the better it will be in terms of raising the bar.
Of course, the level of the dino matters a lot but the aggression matters more. Dinos like T-Rexes, Giganotosaurus, and Alphas are the ones that give the highest points if you want to be nice.
The highest level you can reach is super nice. Once you get to super nice, you can’t get any higher than that.
So, to get your reward for being nice, at 12 o’clock, Santa comes. But there are two things that you need.
- First, you need to be near a Christmas tree.
- Second, you need to be in bed.
When Santa comes at 24:00 in your game clock, he is going to spawn a cryopod near the tree to give you loot.
It could take around 15 to 20 seconds for the loot to come. Just keep your eye on the tree.
If you’re super nice, you’re going to get the best loot possible. The gifts aren’t going to be the best all the time due to the randomness of the results.
The gift also depends on what you requested. Again, you can request a saddle, a dino, or armor. After requesting, what you get will be random, but it will still depend on what you requested.
How To Be Naughty
But what happens if you’re super naughty instead? You can be super naughty if you kill dinos that aren’t aggressive at all.
What makes it worse is if you kill passive dinos that are still babies. This will lower your bar down to super naughty fast.
Killing Brontosaurus babies will rapidly lower your bar to super naughty.
Now, if you’re super naughty and wait for Santa in bed near a Christmas tree, the game will actually punish you with different random bad things that can happen.
Most of the time, the game will spawn dinos that will attack you while you are sleeping. The loots that you will get will also be bad, such as spoiled meat, animal feces, and even coal.
Basically, the point is that being naughty will yield negative effects at the end of the day. The game punishes you for being naughty, and it is most likely in the form of aggressive dinos that will attack you.
There really is no sense for wanting to be naughty unless you just want to see what happens.
Final Thoughts
So, in the end, that’s what you can do with the fireplace. You can get loots that are either good or bad, depending on your actions in the game. Of course, you’d want to get the good loots, so make sure that Santa knows you’ve been super nice!
ALSO READ: Ark Survival Ascended: Best Dino for Every Cave on the Island
