How to find and feed Gacha Claus for presents in ARK: Survival Evolved

During Ark’s Winter Wonderland 6 event, players will be able to find mistletoe and coal from Raptor Claus every evening from midnight until 2 AM. The pressing question then is precisely what survivors should do with those Christmas-themed gifts.

Enter the Gacha Claus.

The Gacha Claus is a large sloth that is appropriately covered in a bit of Yuletide flavor, with red markings and a small hat complimenting the gacha crystals growing on its back. Arguably one of the hardest parts of the Winter Wonderland event is finding Gacha Claus: some tribes will hunt it after trading in all of their mistletoe and coal, to try to keep other tribes from gathering the holiday gifts.

Players will have the best luck finding Gacha Claus on beaches and other low-aggression spawn areas and should expect to spend a good deal of time scouring the maps for it. Once players find it, however, they’ll want to gather all of their mistletoe and coal together.

Approaching the Gacha Claus and entering its inventory (‘F’ on PC) will allow users to exchange their coal and mistletoe in exchange for items. The items available range from cosmetics to rare armor and weapons to chibi pets. Once players place mistletoe in the inventory of the Gacha Claus, the sloth will begin glowing for a few moments until a crystal falls from its back.

Players should then pick up this crystal, and ‘use’ the item in order to spawn the gift. If using mistletoe, survivors should only transfer one item at a time and ensure they have the means of defending the Gacha Claus possible enemies (predators and players) during the gifting, which lasts roughly ten seconds. Using multiple mistletoe for one exchange will cause additional mistletoe to disappear with no clear player benefit.

Finally, coal does not guarantee a crystal for players to use, and coal and mistletoe both cannot be brought from server to server via clustering. In order for players to transfer to another server, mistletoe and coal will need to be stored in a box prior to the transfer via obelisk. Happy hunting, survivors, and may the drops ever be in your favor.