TryNextGameYour next discovery
EN
← Back to discoveries

Desert Ark

Demo available

AriesArgaliDiscovered Sep 21, 2026

About the game

Desert Ark is a desert-greening strategy game. Under the protection of a spirit tree, you will build oases outward from the center of the world map, fending off periodic apocalyptic sandstorms.

Original Steam description
Desolation has swallowed the land, and only a handful of city-states still hold out. As a Sandwalker, you leave the city-states, awaken the Elf Ancient Tree, and build oases to hold back the spread of desolation—but the Doomsday Sandstorm will come.

Oasis Gameplay: Turn-Based Survival & Deckbuilding


  • Water management. Planting, plant growth, and resisting desolation all consume water. If your water reaches zero, the oasis construction fails.
  • Day, night, and action points. Each day is divided into day and night. Planting and harvesting cost action points, and they cost more at night.
  • Cards and plants. Get plant cards through pick-one-of-three choices, and harvest mature plants to replenish your deck. Each card sets its growth time, water cost, greening value, wind resistance, and harvest count.
  • Greening and desolation. Mature plants provide greening value, which offsets desolation's erosion of the spring. Upgrading the spring expands the area you can plant.
  • Weather and sandstorms. Seven weather types affect plant growth and water use. During a sandstorm, sand walls sweep across the map row by row or column by column; wind resistance determines how much damage the spring takes.


World Map: Expansion, Buildings & Technology


  • Found new oases outward from the Elf Ancient Tree or from the influence range of existing oases.
  • Build botanical gardens, Balance Towers, obelisks, and water areas to gain cards, resources, and permanent bonuses.
  • Unlock permanent bonuses in the Tech Tree, including starting water, daily action points, resource warehouses, and the Ancient Tree Barrier.
  • At Ancient Tree level 3, plot events appear; at level 5, Water, Fire, Wind, and Earth element rifts appear. Source Trees can be built on rifts.

Doomsday Sandstorm: Countdown Across Runs & Reset


The days spent on each oasis are added to the Doomsday Sandstorm countdown. When it reaches zero, the storm erases every oasis outside the Ancient Tree's shelter, leaving only sheltered buildings and accumulated resources. Technology can extend the countdown limit. Upgrading a Source Tree to
its highest tier unlocks the Source Heart, making the surrounding 9×9 area immune to the storm.

Other Features

  • Animal recruitment: meet the conditions to recruit animals and gain bonuses for related plants. Animals consume water each day and leave if their conditions are no longer met.
  • Plant gallery: view each plant's stats, element type, and description.
  • Visuals and languages: pixel art style, with seven interface languages—Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, French, German, Russian, and Spanish.
  • Saves: automatic save at the end of each day, with continue support.

Demo Content


The demo covers the core loop of the world map and oasis building, ending after you successfully found 4 oases. Demo saves are stored separately from the full version. The full version continues the loop and adds later technology, plot events, element rifts, and more.

Demo and release information

A Steam demo was found at the latest check. Confirm it is still available in your region on Steam before downloading.

Steam demo, playtest and Early Access: what is the difference?

Information & artwork: Steam · Last checked UTC