Ark Nova: Ocean Worlds, an expansion for Ark Nova, introduces several new elements to the game, such as marine animals that must be played in new special enclosures that need to be built near water.

About half of the marine animals are reef dwellers, and each time you add a reef dweller to your zoo, you trigger the ability of all reef dwellers in your zoo. To counteract the dilution of the deck caused by adding more cards, all marine cards are marked with a wave symbol. Whenever it is revealed in the display, you discard the first card in the row and then refill it.

A new fourth university is available on the association board. When you take it, you claim one of six special universities from the reserve, which features a research symbol and one of six animal symbols. When you take this university, you reveal cards from the top stack and keep the first revealed card with an animal symbol that matches your chosen university.

For each of the five action cards, there are four alternative versions with a slight twist. Players draw action cards at the beginning of the game and replace two of their standard action cards with these new cards, increasing the asymmetry in the game.

New bonus tiles and cards for final scoring will also be included.

Additionally, the expansion will feature alternative wooden markers for the three tracks and cute animals that can be used to mark the supported conservation projects instead of using the standard player markers.