Hello Survivors!

Welcome to the fourth issue of the ARK Digest! For those who missed the previous issues, check out the Announcement section on the Community Hub and be sure to catch up with what you’ve missed!

First off, we want to say to everyone who has purchased ARK: Survival Evolved, how much we appreciate your support and help to make this game the biggest thing to hit the Survival Genre since… well… dinosaurs! The player response has been tremendous, with over 100,000 units solid within just 12 hours of launch. For a small indie team like ours, this exceeded our wildest expectations and it just, frankly, blew us away. Thank you everyone! Rest assured that our commitment to you, our Survivors, is to make ARK the most amazing, transcendent video game survival experience in history -- or prehistory? -- is stronger than ever. This is is who we are, and we are going to build this game up together.

We’ve had a very busy week as you can imagine and have pumped out quite a few announcements, so definitely check those out if you haven’t so far! This weekly feature entails information regarding some of the development of ARK, your questions as well as any extra bits of information we want to share!


A new Dino Dossier has dropped, this one is everybody’s favorite versatile apex predator, the Spinosaurus!



Monday, Wednesday, Friday are still Dossier Drop Days, so get ready for another fantastic new addition to the ARK on Friday :)


A lot of the work in the last week has been for preparing for the Early Access launch as well dealing with the hiccups and challenges that arise with actually going live! As our engineers focus on optimization and bug-squashing, we still have the content team blazing forward, and soon we’ll be showcasing the various new content & features!

Mod Tools & UE4

We’ll be presenting our modding tools, as well as an example of a basic mod-map to go alongside it, called a “Raptor Rapture”, a simple wave-based survival mode. Definitely excited to show this so you can see what the UE4 Engine is capable of! Keep in mind this is a small mod, so what you’ll be able to produce can be much much more.

This Thursday, Wildcard Jesse will be appearing on Epic Games twitch stream, where he’ll talk about the game, the engine and more!

Upcoming patches

We’ve just hit v1.60 and are working through the steps of improving the technical game for its many players, members of the content team have also been developing the next set of goodies.

Some of this to be steadily rolled out over the coming weeks includes: custom per-pixel custom sign painting, expanded illness and weather states, Plesiosaurus, Spinosaurus, Meganeura, Shastasaurus, the mysterious Cave of the Hunter that didn’t make it into Early Access launch (there are of course already 6 major cave networks to explore in ARK currently, along with 12 underwater minicaves) -- and we can’t wait for you guys to encounter them, and much more, on your ARK soon!

Early Access Duties

Since releasing the game we’ve been working on improving performance, stability as well as connection issues. A few of these fixes have been deployed, but this work will be ever-present and ongoing, and just about every day you’re going to get an update that will take a step forward! Our commitment is to you, our player-base, to deliver nothing less than the ultimate large-scale survival experience that you can enjoy on your home computer of choice. We have an excellent veteran engineering team, and they will not rest until we get all the way there, together.

Hello Survivors!

Welcome to the fourth issue of the ARK Digest! For those who missed the previous issues, check out the Announcement section on the Community Hub and be sure to catch up with what you’ve missed!

First off, we want to say to everyone who has purchased ARK: Survival Evolved, how much we appreciate your support and help to make this game the biggest thing to hit the Survival Genre since… well… dinosaurs! The player response has been tremendous, with over 100,000 units solid within just 12 hours of launch. For a small indie team like ours, this exceeded our wildest expectations and it just, frankly, blew us away. Thank you everyone! Rest assured that our commitment to you, our Survivors, is to make ARK the most amazing, transcendent video game survival experience in history -- or prehistory? -- is stronger than ever. This is is who we are, and we are going to build this game up together.

We’ve had a very busy week as you can imagine and have pumped out quite a few announcements, so definitely check those out if you haven’t so far! This weekly feature entails information regarding some of the development of ARK, your questions as well as any extra bits of information we want to share!


A new Dino Dossier has dropped, this one is everybody’s favorite versatile apex predator, the Spinosaurus!



Monday, Wednesday, Friday are still Dossier Drop Days, so get ready for another fantastic new addition to the ARK on Friday :)


A lot of the work in the last week has been for preparing for the Early Access launch as well dealing with the hiccups and challenges that arise with actually going live! As our engineers focus on optimization and bug-squashing, we still have the content team blazing forward, and soon we’ll be showcasing the various new content & features!

Mod Tools & UE4

We’ll be presenting our modding tools, as well as an example of a basic mod-map to go alongside it, called a “Raptor Rapture”, a simple wave-based survival mode. Definitely excited to show this so you can see what the UE4 Engine is capable of! Keep in mind this is a small mod, so what you’ll be able to produce can be much much more.

This Thursday, Wildcard Jesse will be appearing on Epic Games twitch stream, where he’ll talk about the game, the engine and more!

Upcoming patches

We’ve just hit v1.60 and are working through the steps of improving the technical game for its many players, members of the content team have also been developing the next set of goodies.

Some of this to be steadily rolled out over the coming weeks includes: custom per-pixel custom sign painting, expanded illness and weather states, Plesiosaurus, Spinosaurus, Meganeura, Shastasaurus, the mysterious Cave of the Hunter that didn’t make it into Early Access launch (there are of course already 6 major cave networks to explore in ARK currently, along with 12 underwater minicaves) -- and we can’t wait for you guys to encounter them, and much more, on your ARK soon!

Early Access Duties

Since releasing the game we’ve been working on improving performance, stability as well as connection issues. A few of these fixes have been deployed, but this work will be ever-present and ongoing, and just about every day you’re going to get an update that will take a step forward! Our commitment is to you, our player-base, to deliver nothing less than the ultimate large-scale survival experience that you can enjoy on your home computer of choice. We have an excellent veteran engineering team, and they will not rest until we get all the way there, together.

Welcome home indeed!

First of all we’d like to thank you for being patient over the past few hours! We had to delay the launch just by a little bit to help ensure that when you guys do get in, it will be as smoothly as possible. Hiccups may occur as we roll-out ARK, but we’ll do our best to avoid them and will quickly rectify them!

So without further ado, we would like to extend our warmest welcomes to ARK: Survival Evolved’s Early Access!

Over the course of Early Access we will be shipping multiple updates a week. You can expect to see very rapid iteration and progress being made at a consistent rate. Working together we will be able to build something spectacular. Something that’s going to set the bar for future survival games, and dinosaur games! It’s going to be one hell of a ride! There will be a lot of polishing, content creation, and optimization going on throughout the entire process and in 2016 we’ll all have something truly amazing to show for it. We’re very eager to get going, and hopefully you are too!


We’ve got a super cool surprise for all our Founding Survivors!



The Early Access Limited Edition “Founding Survivor” Parasaur Saddle Skin will be gifted to all survivors who pick up an Early Access copy of ARK: Survival Evolved within the first two weeks. You’ll be granted one on every ARK that you join! Just a little thank you from the team for considering and supporting us in this Early Access phase… and there may be a little something extra too, be sure to check your in-game Inventory :)

…though that’s not all to get hyped about ;)


A new Dino Dossier has been revealed, and this one is out of this world! Introducing the eight-legged arachnid queen, the Broodmother!



Scary right? Best of luck to any survivors who manage to bring together the required tribute to summon her!


That’ll be all for this announcement guys! Be sure to check our some of the earlier ones we posted in case you’ve missed anything juicy ;). Looking forward to seeing everyone on the ARK over the next year! We’ll have a great time I’m sure! Thanks for reading and thank you for being so patient! We’ll have more news later in the day as Early Access rolls out, including information about hosting your own servers, how to keep them up-to-date, along with content and features we plan to roll-out in the next day!

Yours Truly,
Your Community Manager Jat & ARK: Survival Evolved Team

Welcome home indeed!

First of all we’d like to thank you for being patient over the past few hours! We had to delay the launch just by a little bit to help ensure that when you guys do get in, it will be as smoothly as possible. Hiccups may occur as we roll-out ARK, but we’ll do our best to avoid them and will quickly rectify them!

So without further ado, we would like to extend our warmest welcomes to ARK: Survival Evolved’s Early Access!

Over the course of Early Access we will be shipping multiple updates a week. You can expect to see very rapid iteration and progress being made at a consistent rate. Working together we will be able to build something spectacular. Something that’s going to set the bar for future survival games, and dinosaur games! It’s going to be one hell of a ride! There will be a lot of polishing, content creation, and optimization going on throughout the entire process and in 2016 we’ll all have something truly amazing to show for it. We’re very eager to get going, and hopefully you are too!


We’ve got a super cool surprise for all our Founding Survivors!



The Early Access Limited Edition “Founding Survivor” Parasaur Saddle Skin will be gifted to all survivors who pick up an Early Access copy of ARK: Survival Evolved within the first two weeks. You’ll be granted one on every ARK that you join! Just a little thank you from the team for considering and supporting us in this Early Access phase… and there may be a little something extra too, be sure to check your in-game Inventory :)

…though that’s not all to get hyped about ;)


A new Dino Dossier has been revealed, and this one is out of this world! Introducing the eight-legged arachnid queen, the Broodmother!



Scary right? Best of luck to any survivors who manage to bring together the required tribute to summon her!


That’ll be all for this announcement guys! Be sure to check our some of the earlier ones we posted in case you’ve missed anything juicy ;). Looking forward to seeing everyone on the ARK over the next year! We’ll have a great time I’m sure! Thanks for reading and thank you for being so patient! We’ll have more news later in the day as Early Access rolls out, including information about hosting your own servers, how to keep them up-to-date, along with content and features we plan to roll-out in the next day!

Yours Truly,
Your Community Manager Jat & ARK: Survival Evolved Team

Hello Survivors!

Thank you to everyone who tuned in and participated during the first reveal of ARK: Survival Evolved! We had quite a large number of you guys show up on Twitch, holding the number spot for a moment, with loads of tweets and messages being sent from all over and across multiple social media platforms. We appreciate all the feedback and messages we’ve received.


We will begin Early Access tomorrow as normal on June the 2nd, hopefully you guys will be able to pick up a copy at around 10AM PST, possibly a little later. As we get closer to hour-zero we’ll be sure to let everyone know :).
From all the feedback we received during the Closed Alpha Test, as well as the live broadcasting that happened today, here’s our response:


There were clearly a few hiccups when the initial stream began and there is a fair bit of polishing to do, we recognize this and we can assure you that this game will be polished quicker and development will be iterated on quicker than just about anyone has ever seen before. You will see fixes deployed quickly, discussion occurring constantly and constant flow of updates to improve the game. We’re serious about the game, we’re serious about development and we want to prove that to you.


What you guys saw on all those stream, well that probably only comprises 1% of the actual gameplay that is currently involved in ARK: Survival Evolved. Even in this first Early Access build, it can take hundreds of hours to explore the mechanics and depth of content, burrowing deep into the foundations of the ARK and up above the clouds -- trust me, I've done that! :P And that is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve only just started with you! Once more intrepid survivors dig into the meat of the game, this will become very apparent. Finally we’ll keep on adding to and improving the game, so that there's always something exciting for you to explore and conquer! We hope you will all join us on the ARK tomorrow, and take this journey with us!


A very clear issue that has been brought up is that performance isn’t great, graphics don’t look great on low and optimisation isn’t great. We know this, we won’t lie. What I can say is that this is going to be a priority for us for the coming weeks and of course throughout the project. We will continue to work on all of these aspects and you will see steady improvement. Performance will get better day by day, graphics across the spectrum will improve! The trailer was recorded a while back on a GTX 980, right now the game on maximum settings looks better than that! So if you’ve got a 980 or Titan you can definitely take advantage of it. There are new visual techniques that are now in the game that weren’t around when we made the trailer. Yes it is true that if you have a less powerful graphics card, you’ll find that your graphics aren’t as good but we will continue to scale up and do daily optimisations to ensure that the game look as good as it can!


A lot of people have raised concerns about the state of the discussion boards, whether developers will continue to be active, how we can keep the forums clutter free and what our general plans are. Once the game launches into Early Access, we will begin re-ordering the Steam boards

The discussion boards will be arranged as follows:

Announcements – This is the section of the boards are purely for announcements, here you’ll see new updates about new builds, massive features, sponsorships and partnerships, any announcements regarding attendance of conventions, dino dossiers, updates about anything majorly important!

General Discussion – This forum will generally stay how it is now, there will be fairly lax moderation however general steam guidelines apply, and pinned topics highlighting important updates and announcements as well as general chit-chat for the game. The way it’ll change is that it will no longer be for suggestions and feedback, but instead the new sections below will be used for that.

Suggestions and Feedback – This will be a moderated section for survivors to provide their feedback about the game. We would like to keep it constructive and generally avoid any trolly-posts. You’ll see a lot of activity here from the developers and we’ll lock and clean up threads as necessary. This will help us keep things cleaned and organized.

Bug Reports and Exploits – Similarly to above this will be a moderated section for survivors to post any bugs they’ve found in the game, loopholes, exploits so the team can discover them and work to fix them in a timely and organized manner.

Tribes – You won’t see much change to what there is now. A place to recruit for your tribe, or find a tribe to join. There will be fairly lax moderation, however general steam guidelines apply.

Community Content – Similarly to above, you won’t see much change. It will be a place for you to promote your content, your non-tribal groups, share any stories or fan-art related to ARK and it’s universe. The moderation will be lax but steam guidelines still apply.
Off Topic – Pretty self explanatory, lax moderation though you’ll be required to respect the steam guidelines.

Hopefully these changes will help us organize better and allow for much more constructive discussion in order to improve the game. We aren’t very strict, we won’t ban you unless you’ve really crossed a line. We just want to maintain some order to ensure that everything is going smooth.


A little bonus for you guys! We’re excited to announce that….

A new Dino Dossier is posted, this one is everybody’s favorite apex predator, the Tyrannosaurus Rex!



Have fun dealing with this guy in game ;)


That’s it for now guys, there’s clearly a lot of work to be done to hit the finish line in 2016 but we can assure you, we’ll hit it. The game will reach new heights, have hundreds of hours of content and hopefully we’ll be seeing all of you join us on the ARK, exploring every nook and cranny of this gigantic universe that we’re building, helping us refine it into the ultimate survival experience that in many ways it already is, and certainly will be!

All the best,
Your Community Manager Jat and the ARK: Survival Evolved Team.

Hello Survivors!

Thank you to everyone who tuned in and participated during the first reveal of ARK: Survival Evolved! We had quite a large number of you guys show up on Twitch, holding the number spot for a moment, with loads of tweets and messages being sent from all over and across multiple social media platforms. We appreciate all the feedback and messages we’ve received.


We will begin Early Access tomorrow as normal on June the 2nd, hopefully you guys will be able to pick up a copy at around 10AM PST, possibly a little later. As we get closer to hour-zero we’ll be sure to let everyone know :).
From all the feedback we received during the Closed Alpha Test, as well as the live broadcasting that happened today, here’s our response:


There were clearly a few hiccups when the initial stream began and there is a fair bit of polishing to do, we recognize this and we can assure you that this game will be polished quicker and development will be iterated on quicker than just about anyone has ever seen before. You will see fixes deployed quickly, discussion occurring constantly and constant flow of updates to improve the game. We’re serious about the game, we’re serious about development and we want to prove that to you.


What you guys saw on all those stream, well that probably only comprises 1% of the actual gameplay that is currently involved in ARK: Survival Evolved. Even in this first Early Access build, it can take hundreds of hours to explore the mechanics and depth of content, burrowing deep into the foundations of the ARK and up above the clouds -- trust me, I've done that! :P And that is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve only just started with you! Once more intrepid survivors dig into the meat of the game, this will become very apparent. Finally we’ll keep on adding to and improving the game, so that there's always something exciting for you to explore and conquer! We hope you will all join us on the ARK tomorrow, and take this journey with us!


A very clear issue that has been brought up is that performance isn’t great, graphics don’t look great on low and optimisation isn’t great. We know this, we won’t lie. What I can say is that this is going to be a priority for us for the coming weeks and of course throughout the project. We will continue to work on all of these aspects and you will see steady improvement. Performance will get better day by day, graphics across the spectrum will improve! The trailer was recorded a while back on a GTX 980, right now the game on maximum settings looks better than that! So if you’ve got a 980 or Titan you can definitely take advantage of it. There are new visual techniques that are now in the game that weren’t around when we made the trailer. Yes it is true that if you have a less powerful graphics card, you’ll find that your graphics aren’t as good but we will continue to scale up and do daily optimisations to ensure that the game look as good as it can!


A lot of people have raised concerns about the state of the discussion boards, whether developers will continue to be active, how we can keep the forums clutter free and what our general plans are. Once the game launches into Early Access, we will begin re-ordering the Steam boards

The discussion boards will be arranged as follows:

Announcements – This is the section of the boards are purely for announcements, here you’ll see new updates about new builds, massive features, sponsorships and partnerships, any announcements regarding attendance of conventions, dino dossiers, updates about anything majorly important!

General Discussion – This forum will generally stay how it is now, there will be fairly lax moderation however general steam guidelines apply, and pinned topics highlighting important updates and announcements as well as general chit-chat for the game. The way it’ll change is that it will no longer be for suggestions and feedback, but instead the new sections below will be used for that.

Suggestions and Feedback – This will be a moderated section for survivors to provide their feedback about the game. We would like to keep it constructive and generally avoid any trolly-posts. You’ll see a lot of activity here from the developers and we’ll lock and clean up threads as necessary. This will help us keep things cleaned and organized.

Bug Reports and Exploits – Similarly to above this will be a moderated section for survivors to post any bugs they’ve found in the game, loopholes, exploits so the team can discover them and work to fix them in a timely and organized manner.

Tribes – You won’t see much change to what there is now. A place to recruit for your tribe, or find a tribe to join. There will be fairly lax moderation, however general steam guidelines apply.

Community Content – Similarly to above, you won’t see much change. It will be a place for you to promote your content, your non-tribal groups, share any stories or fan-art related to ARK and it’s universe. The moderation will be lax but steam guidelines still apply.
Off Topic – Pretty self explanatory, lax moderation though you’ll be required to respect the steam guidelines.

Hopefully these changes will help us organize better and allow for much more constructive discussion in order to improve the game. We aren’t very strict, we won’t ban you unless you’ve really crossed a line. We just want to maintain some order to ensure that everything is going smooth.


A little bonus for you guys! We’re excited to announce that….

A new Dino Dossier is posted, this one is everybody’s favorite apex predator, the Tyrannosaurus Rex!



Have fun dealing with this guy in game ;)


That’s it for now guys, there’s clearly a lot of work to be done to hit the finish line in 2016 but we can assure you, we’ll hit it. The game will reach new heights, have hundreds of hours of content and hopefully we’ll be seeing all of you join us on the ARK, exploring every nook and cranny of this gigantic universe that we’re building, helping us refine it into the ultimate survival experience that in many ways it already is, and certainly will be!

All the best,
Your Community Manager Jat and the ARK: Survival Evolved Team.

They’re back guys! Hooray! I know a lot of you have been asking for these ;)

A new Dino Dossier is posted, this one is everybody’s favorite multiple-horned herbivore, the Triceratops!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453437237


We’ve got some big news for everyone! As we approach our Official Early Access Launch date on the 2nd of June, we will be hosting a livestream event on Twitch – The event kicks off with KingFoom starting the streaming on ReverbGame’s channel at approximately 12PM PST!

As we progress through the day you guys will see loads of your favourite content creators getting online and getting their first experience of the island and all the mystery it holds. Some of the names who will be featured on Twitch’s frontpage are, KingFoom, Lirik, Towelliee, CohhCarnage, BikeMan, and many more!

Be sure to tune in and check out the game!


We’re also excited to announce our partnership with Curse and Gamepedia. We will be working alongside them, as well as with you guys to create the Official ARK: Survival Evolved Wiki! A complete resource for learning as much as you can about our game.

Be sure to check out their announcement on Gamepedia!

We hope you all enjoy yourselves watching the streams and we’re looking forward to the launch and seeing you for ourselves in game!

All the best,

Your Sarcosuchus-wrestling Community Manager Jat

They’re back guys! Hooray! I know a lot of you have been asking for these ;)

A new Dino Dossier is posted, this one is everybody’s favorite multiple-horned herbivore, the Triceratops!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453437237


We’ve got some big news for everyone! As we approach our Official Early Access Launch date on the 2nd of June, we will be hosting a livestream event on Twitch – The event kicks off with KingFoom starting the streaming on ReverbGame’s channel at approximately 12PM PST!

As we progress through the day you guys will see loads of your favourite content creators getting online and getting their first experience of the island and all the mystery it holds. Some of the names who will be featured on Twitch’s frontpage are, KingFoom, Lirik, Towelliee, CohhCarnage, BikeMan, and many more!

Be sure to tune in and check out the game!


We’re also excited to announce our partnership with Curse and Gamepedia. We will be working alongside them, as well as with you guys to create the Official ARK: Survival Evolved Wiki! A complete resource for learning as much as you can about our game.

Be sure to check out their announcement on Gamepedia!

We hope you all enjoy yourselves watching the streams and we’re looking forward to the launch and seeing you for ourselves in game!

All the best,

Your Sarcosuchus-wrestling Community Manager Jat

Your questions, our answers!

Answer:

This has been asked a lot so I guess it’s time for us to share some details ;). As you level up via playing the game, you gain Stat points and Engram points. You’ll be given one stat point per level and Engram points which scale per level. This is a key part of ARK: Survival Evolved as what you spend these points on determines the role you play.


This is the one the core-stats that you see in many games, it determines your life value, if this hits 0 – your character is dead. When you reach below the 25%, your character becomes injured. You will have to regenerate your health using food, blood packs or natural regeneration to regain normal functionality.

This is another key trait used in many games, it is generally used to determine how much energy your character has. Eating and drinking certain food will help replenish stamina. As you find yourself playing the game, you’ll see the bar plummet, especially when working tirelessly. So if you’re always chopping trees or sprinting, you’ll need to take time regenerate.

This is an uncommon trait you won’t see in many games. Rivers, Lagoons, Underwater pools and the Ocean plays a huge part in the ARK. It’s often a place of sanctuary or potentially a place of danger. There are times you’ll find yourself diving to the bottom of a pool, riding on aquatic friend, or swimming across to escape a deadly predator... only to find yourself in the mouth of another ;). Increasing oxygen allows you to stay submerged for longer periods of time.

This is a stat you’ll find in pretty much every survival game. Simply put it tells you if your character is hungry, ensure that you’re well fed otherwise you’ll risk starvation. Increasing the amount allows for your character to eat more, therefore you’ll have more time available to you in between meals.

This is a stat you’ll also find in pretty much every survival game. Water is something that will need to be monitored as if you’re thirsty you’ll find yourself suffering from dehydration.

This is something that’s core to the game. Unlike many other survival games that are primarily slot-based when it comes to inventory, ARK is not. ARK is a weight-based game. This means you can hold as many materials as you like, as long as you have the weight to withstand it. Weight is very useful stat, though something to keep in mind is that the more you carry, the slower you run and the lower you jump. When you reach a certain level of weight, you become encumbered and will find yourself unable to do much.

This is just as the name states. There are always going to be plenty of weapon options in games and normal circumstances dictate that range has an advantage, you deal a lot of damage, you can avoid taking it. It’s the most common way that survivors chose to fight, however we’ve introduced the melee damage stat to give players the opportunity to consider using it as a fighting option.

This is another key stat to the game, it’s used to determine how quickly a survivor can travel by foot. It is very useful in terms of escaping, hunting, in fact just about everything. It has great synergy with Stamina!

This is a very useful stat that not many may consider. Living life on the ark, experiencing the weather and the eco-system; you’re at risk! Increasing fortitude will help provide some resistance from the elements, as well as provide you some crucial resistance from torpor, which we’ll talk about later on ;). Fortitude is increased by 1 for each point you spend.

This is a unique stat and not seen in many games. This will allow survivors the opportunity to craft quicker, at first glance you may think it’s not as useful as the other ones. However you might end up in a pinch where you have seconds to live and you really need to make a bow, those points spent in crafting will definitely make all the difference. The difference between kill or be killed. It’s also a fun trait to consider having on servers where you just want to build as quickly as possible and make many grand structures.

Also known as torpidity is a stat which you will not be able to increase. However it is incredibly useful and very important that you watch your levels of torpor. It is used to monitor whether your character becomes unconscious and how long it stays unconscious for. When you have a high amount of torpor, you’ll be knocked out and will have to wait for it to decrease before you can function again though it decreases at a fairly rapid rate. As mentioned before, Fortitude provides resistance to Torpor in the sense that weapons, tools or consumables may not provide as much. Torpor is a key element when knocking out players and dinosaurs, if you find that your torpor is increasing – you better consider gobbling some Stimberries or some Stimulant otherwise find yourself potentially in grave danger.

Now that’s it for the stat points… now for the Tech Tree and Engram points!

As well as gaining stat points for leveling, you’ll also find that you receive Engram points. Engram points are spent on a pseudo-tech tree and it can determine the knowledge your character has. Everything you spend an engram point on, you’ll learn permanently. You’ll have the opportunity to learn a wide variety of engrams, such as the ability to craft tools, weapons, building structures, saddles, signs, crops, pipes, fridges, turrets, flares, parachutes, notes, clothes, armor, and well… you get the point. There are loads of things that you can craft, too much for one person to handle. This is why it’s suggested you find a group or a tribe to play with, or consider looking for some blueprints ;)


The alpha is currently still ongoing and we’re receiving a lot of feedback! We’ll still be recruiting more candidates, so keep an eye on your emails! Be sure to check out the pinned topic in general discussion for more details :)

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s ARK Digest! Hope you’ve enjoyed and wishing you all the best!

Your friendly neighborhood Community Manager,

Jat

Your questions, our answers!

Answer:

This has been asked a lot so I guess it’s time for us to share some details ;). As you level up via playing the game, you gain Stat points and Engram points. You’ll be given one stat point per level and Engram points which scale per level. This is a key part of ARK: Survival Evolved as what you spend these points on determines the role you play.


This is the one the core-stats that you see in many games, it determines your life value, if this hits 0 – your character is dead. When you reach below the 25%, your character becomes injured. You will have to regenerate your health using food, blood packs or natural regeneration to regain normal functionality.

This is another key trait used in many games, it is generally used to determine how much energy your character has. Eating and drinking certain food will help replenish stamina. As you find yourself playing the game, you’ll see the bar plummet, especially when working tirelessly. So if you’re always chopping trees or sprinting, you’ll need to take time regenerate.

This is an uncommon trait you won’t see in many games. Rivers, Lagoons, Underwater pools and the Ocean plays a huge part in the ARK. It’s often a place of sanctuary or potentially a place of danger. There are times you’ll find yourself diving to the bottom of a pool, riding on aquatic friend, or swimming across to escape a deadly predator... only to find yourself in the mouth of another ;). Increasing oxygen allows you to stay submerged for longer periods of time.

This is a stat you’ll find in pretty much every survival game. Simply put it tells you if your character is hungry, ensure that you’re well fed otherwise you’ll risk starvation. Increasing the amount allows for your character to eat more, therefore you’ll have more time available to you in between meals.

This is a stat you’ll also find in pretty much every survival game. Water is something that will need to be monitored as if you’re thirsty you’ll find yourself suffering from dehydration.

This is something that’s core to the game. Unlike many other survival games that are primarily slot-based when it comes to inventory, ARK is not. ARK is a weight-based game. This means you can hold as many materials as you like, as long as you have the weight to withstand it. Weight is very useful stat, though something to keep in mind is that the more you carry, the slower you run and the lower you jump. When you reach a certain level of weight, you become encumbered and will find yourself unable to do much.

This is just as the name states. There are always going to be plenty of weapon options in games and normal circumstances dictate that range has an advantage, you deal a lot of damage, you can avoid taking it. It’s the most common way that survivors chose to fight, however we’ve introduced the melee damage stat to give players the opportunity to consider using it as a fighting option.

This is another key stat to the game, it’s used to determine how quickly a survivor can travel by foot. It is very useful in terms of escaping, hunting, in fact just about everything. It has great synergy with Stamina!

This is a very useful stat that not many may consider. Living life on the ark, experiencing the weather and the eco-system; you’re at risk! Increasing fortitude will help provide some resistance from the elements, as well as provide you some crucial resistance from torpor, which we’ll talk about later on ;). Fortitude is increased by 1 for each point you spend.

This is a unique stat and not seen in many games. This will allow survivors the opportunity to craft quicker, at first glance you may think it’s not as useful as the other ones. However you might end up in a pinch where you have seconds to live and you really need to make a bow, those points spent in crafting will definitely make all the difference. The difference between kill or be killed. It’s also a fun trait to consider having on servers where you just want to build as quickly as possible and make many grand structures.

Also known as torpidity is a stat which you will not be able to increase. However it is incredibly useful and very important that you watch your levels of torpor. It is used to monitor whether your character becomes unconscious and how long it stays unconscious for. When you have a high amount of torpor, you’ll be knocked out and will have to wait for it to decrease before you can function again though it decreases at a fairly rapid rate. As mentioned before, Fortitude provides resistance to Torpor in the sense that weapons, tools or consumables may not provide as much. Torpor is a key element when knocking out players and dinosaurs, if you find that your torpor is increasing – you better consider gobbling some Stimberries or some Stimulant otherwise find yourself potentially in grave danger.

Now that’s it for the stat points… now for the Tech Tree and Engram points!

As well as gaining stat points for leveling, you’ll also find that you receive Engram points. Engram points are spent on a pseudo-tech tree and it can determine the knowledge your character has. Everything you spend an engram point on, you’ll learn permanently. You’ll have the opportunity to learn a wide variety of engrams, such as the ability to craft tools, weapons, building structures, saddles, signs, crops, pipes, fridges, turrets, flares, parachutes, notes, clothes, armor, and well… you get the point. There are loads of things that you can craft, too much for one person to handle. This is why it’s suggested you find a group or a tribe to play with, or consider looking for some blueprints ;)


The alpha is currently still ongoing and we’re receiving a lot of feedback! We’ll still be recruiting more candidates, so keep an eye on your emails! Be sure to check out the pinned topic in general discussion for more details :)

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s ARK Digest! Hope you’ve enjoyed and wishing you all the best!

Your friendly neighborhood Community Manager,

Jat