ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

Classic PvP Season 4
Season 4 kicks off on Friday 2/5/21 at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST.

Classic PvP is a competitive player experience for PC players that focuses on the PvP experience from the days of old. Season 3 saw the introduction of breedable Wyverns and Stegos which brought an impactful change to the meta, so this season.  Each season will introduce new changes and will continue to evolve along with the base game.

This week we'll be kicking off Season 4 of Classic PvP (bringing an end to the current season). If you're unfamiliar with what Classic PvP is, there's a quick breakdown below.

Classic PvP Breakdown

  • Experience gain, taming, gathering, breeding, hatching, and raising rates have been doubled compared to our standard Official Servers (2x)
  • Tribes are set to 25 players max
  • Tribe alliances are disabled, though informal alliances are allowed
  • Servers have a maximum player count of 100
  • These maps will be available: The Island, Scorched Earth, Ragnarok, Valguero, and The Center
  • Tek dinos (Tek Parasaur, Tek Quetzal, Tek Rex, Tek Raptor, Tek Stego), Paracer, Tapejara, and the Titanosaur are not available for taming on Classic PvP
  • All Aberration and Extinction content is unavailable on Classic PvP
  • Scaling of weapon damage has been reduced
  • No TEK Engrams
  • No cave building
  • Cryopods enabled
Season 4 Changes

  • Tamed Stegosaurus Resistance reduced by 35%
  • Tamed Quetzal Resistance reduced by 20%
  • Tamed Wyvern Resistance reduced by 20%
  • Tamed Wyvern Damage reduced by 20%
  • Reaper Queen added to the Valguero Aberration Zone
ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded
​Last Week In ARK
Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch!

In Last Week In Ark, we've seen some changes in the Players Killed By Weapon Type.  While things remained the same on XBOX, we saw slight changes in both XBOX and PC in the weapons players chose to use compared to last week. 

Kills By Wild Dino Type shows us same creatures but overall deaths by these four creatures have reduced by 14.9% when compared to last week.  We'll keep looking for more interesting stats to share with you!


EVO Event


There will be no EVO event this week

Community Corner
In light of all the amazing content being shared by the ARK community, we'll be expanding the Fan Art section and renaming it  'Community Corner' to include more than fan art.  You can expect to find a variety of community content that is being shared across social platforms (Twitch, Discord, Twitter, Youtube, Reddit, Facebook).

Clips/Videos
How to Build a Large House/New Roof Building Design - The Pilgrimz
The Pilgrimz demonstrates how to build with a new roof design in his latest video.

How to Build a Modern House - Aaron Longstaff
Aaron Longstaff designs a modern house and takes you along for the ride.

Star Wars Astromech Droid Speed Build - Sypher Sam
Pulling off a Star Wars build is no easy feat, but Sypher Sam does it with ease in this video.


Fan Art
ARK Rock Drake - Sonne-Spiritwind


Strawberry - algiz0


Reaper Queen A3 - sevvydeb


WIP (Discord) - niceguysrage#2040


In-Game Screenshots
Roxy#2612 (Discord)


Khal Alastor -Dusk-#8673 (Discord)


Project Fjördur - Nekatus


Enjoy your weekend survivors!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded
Last Week In ARK

Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch survivors.  In the past, the community has expressed an interest in analytics so we'd like to pilot a new segment called "Last Week In ARK" that highlights general analytics and statistics we collect on the back-end.

Consider this a sample of things we might be able to provide if there is community interest.  What types of things are you interested in seeing?  Are there particular metrics that interest you more?  Sound off and let us know!  



EVO Event


There will be no EVO event this week

Community Fan Art

Cnidaria Ark Encounter by fernsylhouette


Would You Like To Cut It by sis_6193


Desert Base by nonoARK


House by the Dock by sam_stim


Gasbags (Discord) by NISIS#1565


Wishing you a stress-free weekend.  Catch you next week!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded
Happy New Year! We hope you had a fun and relaxing holiday.

We're energized and busy working on the next adventure: Genesis Part II! In the meantime, let's take a look at some amazing fan art and screenshots from the community.

EVO Event


There will be no EVO event this week

Community Fan Art
Warm With You by sis_6193



Deinonychus by eagleclaw6089



Merry Christmas by hipapparitiongamer



The T-Rex And The Butterfly Based On Ark 2 by adamsalive4kids



Lightning Wyvern by cyanimus



Griffin by kawarayane



By greyjan#9071 (Discord)



By theyaa#6363 (Discord)



We'll catch up with you next week!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
ARK: Survival Evolved - Jat


As 2020 winds up--a year that has been eventful and challenging for all of us--we wanted to take pause and extend our heartfelt gratitude to the ARK community for the tremendous support you've shown us throughout the years. ARK is a community-driven game and you continue to put your dedication and passion on display daily. We pour our hearts and souls into everything we create. We embrace that passion so that we can continue creating epic entertainment for our players. Irrespective of who you are or where you’re located—if you’re a part of our evolving and vibrant community, you're a part of what makes the ARK Franchise what it is today. 

Gaming brings people together across the globe. We're humbled that we can bring some joy and fun into player's lives, especially during a challenging year when connection and camaraderie can help us all.



The 'Poglin' skin is a prime example of something born of community love, humour, and passion. The 'Poglin' mask became a reality after the ARK community began to create memes inspired by the debut of the Noglin with the Genesis II teasers. Although the addition of the skin is minor, we wanted to show that the ARK community is major to us.  As we move forward to 2021 and the release of Genesis Part II, we strive to reciprocate the creativity, excitement and passion you've continually shared with us. 

Speaking of excitement, we couldn't move onto 2021 without a little more teasing of Genesis Part II:

Introducing the Maewing!



Engineered to be the ultimate interstellar wet nurse and surrogate parent, in addition to automatically taking care of your babies, the Maewing can steal enemy offspring by luring their young in for an irresistible suckle at its bounteous teats!

A 2020 wrap up...

Genesis Part I


February

We launched Genesis Part I, a whole new chapter in the saga of ARK: Survival Evolved.  Genesis Part I created new challenges that have yet to be seen in prior ARK experiences! ARK: Genesis represented a new, story-oriented beginning in ARK’s epic saga of survival. 



You gained a robotic companion, HLNA, to help you overcome the simulation’s rigorous tests. You not only needed to tame and fight but you also had to adapt just as the environment around you does.

Crystal Isles Launch


June

We invited you to explore a new world, Crystal Isles, a supernatural beauty won the hearts of the ARK community since its debut as a mod in 2016.  Crystal Isles offered rainforest canopies, mysterious floating islands, and introduced three types of crystal wyvern for you to tame and breed and a new custom boss arena.



Extra Life


November

As we have done in prior years, we held a 24-hour charity event for Extra Life. During the stream, we gave away Collector’s Edition boxes, and game keys!  We also gave away information about the upcoming DLC Genesis Part II and had special announcements from Jesse and Jeremy.

Thanks to the ARK community, this years Extra Life turned out to be a huge success! We hit $482k lifetime donations as a team and $182,553.24 as a team in 2020 alone!  A huge thanks to the generous ARK community for helping us do some good for children in need.

Tender Loving Care 3



We were able to launch our highly anticipated patch: Tender Loving Care 3.  When the opportunity presents itself, we like to go back and show some attention to creatures that may need more love or things that our community would like to see addressed. We were particularly excited about TLC 3 and the introduction of insect and wyvern breeding to the game.

In addition to the creature and balance changes, the community saw a rework of the taming UI. 



ARK 2 and ARK: The Animated Series


December

Just recently we announced ARK II, a brutal new world of primitive survival against both beast and man, facing down the ever-present threats of hyper-realistic intelligent dinosaurs, aggressive alien fauna, and the exotic environments of an unearthly planet.  Survivors will continue ARK's dramatic eons-spanning story of humankind's evolution, in this next-generation sandbox survival experience!



To accompany the ARK II announcement, we announced a partnership with acclaimed director Jay Oliva (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox) to executive produce and co-showrun an original animated television series based on the hit video game ARK: Survival Evolved.

From cutting-edge animation studio Lex + Otis and with music composed by Gareth Coker (Ori and the Will of the Wisps), ARK: The Animated Series chronicles the story of a mysterious primeval land populated by dinosaurs and other extinct creatures, where people from throughout human history have been resurrected.



However you spend the end of your year, we wish you health, happiness and good fortune (and a lot of rest and nice snacks). Take care of yourselves and each other and we'll see you all in 2021 with a slew of hype and energy! 



All the best and happy holidays!

Studio Wildcard
ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded
Winter Wonderland 5


Winter Wonderland will be making a triumphant return for the fifth time with new presents and goodies for ARK survivors. The winter-themed holiday event begins on December 17th at 10am PST for PC, XBOX, and PS4 and will last until Tuesday, January 7th. All maps will receive Winter Wonderland and all its content including RaptorClaus and GachaClaus.

Our very recognizable helper, RaptorClaus, is returning to drop off holiday gifts filled with loot, event items, mistletoe, and lumps of coal for all those naughty survivors. You'll be able to catch RaptorClaus flying across the skies at midnight (game time) on all maps.

GachaClaus is also making a come-back to help RaptorClaus spread the holiday cheer! GachaClaus will be roaming all maps in true holiday spirit while sporting holiday-themed colors. He will be accepting your coal and in exchange will gift you holiday-themed items, or you can trade-in your mistletoe and coal for a chance at event items. weapons, armor and 7 brand new Chibis!

Event Details
This event can be manually activated with the server arg parameter: -ActiveEvent=WinterWonderland

Dates
December 17th to January 7th

Rates
  • 2X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  • 2X Player XP
  • 2X Harvesting

Event Creatures
  • RaptorClaus
  • GachaClaus

Event Skins
  • Rex Sweater Skin *NEW*
  • Carolers Sweater Skin *NEW*
  • Bulbdog Sweater Skin *NEW*
  • Blue Winter Beanie *NEW*
  • Purple Winter Beanie *NEW*
  • Green Winter Beanie *NEW*
  • Male and Female Noglin Swimsuit Skin *NEW*
  • Male and Female Yeti Swimsuit Skin *NEW*
  • Candy Cane Club Skin
  • Christmas Bola Skin
  • Nutcracker Slingshot Skin
  • Dino Ornament Swim Bottom Skin
  • Dino Ornament Swim Top Skin
  • Jerboa Wreath Swim Bottom Skin
  • Jerboa Wreath Swim Top Skin
  • Ugly Bronto Sweater Skin
  • Ugly Carno Sweater Skin
  • Ugly Chibi Sweater Skin
  • Gray-Ball Winter Beanie Skin
  • Purple Winter Beanie Skin
  • Red Winter Beanie Skin
  • Felt Reindeer Antlers Skin
  • Santa Hat Skin

Event Chibis
  • Shinehorn *NEW*
  • Featherlight *NEW*
  • Glowtail *NEW*
  • Bulbdog *NEW*
  • Top-hat Kairuku *NEW*
  • Reindeer *NEW*
  • Gacha Claus *NEW*

Event Items
  • Festive Dino Candy
  • Holiday Lights
  • Holiday Stocking
  • Holiday Tree
  • Gift Box
  • Snowman
  • Wreath

Wild Creature Colors
  • Jade *NEW*
  • PineGreen *NEW*
  • SpruceGreen *NEW*
  • DarkMagenta *NEW*
  • Glacial *NEW*
  • PowderBlue *NEW*
  • Teal *NEW*
  • DarkViolet *NEW*
  • Red
  • Green
  • Light Grey
  • Light Red
  • Dark Green
  • Dark Red
  • Dino Light Red
  • Dino Light Green
  • Dino Medium Green
  • Dino Albino
  • NearWhite

ARK II & ARK: THE Animated Series
ARK II

ARK II, Sequel to the Multi-Platinum Dinosaur Franchise has been announced with major moves to expand the iconic survival universe! We’re so excited to share the trailer with you!


ARK II thrusts players into a brutal new world of primitive survival against both beast and man, facing down the ever-present threats of hyper-realistic intelligent dinosaurs, aggressive alien fauna, and the exotic environments of an unearthly planet. Survivors will continue ARK's dramatic eons-spanning story of humankind's evolution, in this next-generation sandbox survival experience!



Catch the Official full length high-resolution trailer featuring Vin Diesel as the hero protagonist, Santiago



Finally, here's a special treat from Gareth Coker, the first two Official tracks from the ARK II soundtrack!



ARK: Animated Series


Studio Wildcard has partnered with acclaimed director Jay Oliva (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox) to executive produce and co-showrun an original animated television series based on the hit video game ARK: Survival Evolved.

Created and executive produced by the game’s creators Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak and associate produced by the game’s product managers, Jatheish K and Ihriel E, ARK: The Animated Series is currently composed of fourteen 30-minute episodes and has two seasons currently in production in anticipation of a 2022 launch.

Marguerite Bennett (Batwoman, DC’s Bombshells, Batman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Josie and the Pussycats) and Kendall Deacon Davis (Halo 4, The Wolf Among Us, Honor of Kings) are the lead writers for ARK: The Animated Series, which features an extraordinary voice cast!



Voice talent and character descriptions, in alphabetical order:
  • Gerard Butler plays General Gaius Marcellus Nerva, a brutal ancient Roman despot.
  • Devery Jacobs plays Alasie, a peppy 17th century Inuit teenager, now finding her place on the ARK.
  • Cissy Jones plays The Gladiatrix, a formidable commander in Nerva's army.
  • Madeleine Madden plays 21st century Australian paleontologist Helena Walker, newly awoken on the ARK.
  • Deborah Mailman plays Deborah Walker, a 21st century Aboriginal Australian activist, and mother to Helena Walker.
  • Zahn McClarnon plays Thunder Comes Charging, a 19th century Lakota warrior who leads a thriving community on the ARK.
  • Malcolm McDowell plays Senator Lucius Cassius Virilis, a manipulative aristocrat during the reign of Caesar Augustus.
  • Juliet Mills plays Chava, a wise healer and village councilmember.
  • Elliot Page plays Victoria Walker, an idealistic humanitarian aid worker, and wife of Helena Walker.
  • Ragga Ragnars plays Queen Sigrid, a bellicose 10th century Viking warlord.
  • David Tennant plays Sir Edmund Rockwell, an egocentric 19th century scientist harboring dark ambitions.
  • Alan Tudyk plays The Captain, a crusty buccaneer who profitably sails the dangerous waters around the ARK.
  • Karl Urban plays Bob, a recent square-jawed ARK arrival.
  • Jeffrey Wright plays Henry Townsend, an 18th century American watchmaker and Patriot spy.
  • Michelle Yeoh plays Meiyin Li, a 3rd century Chinese rebel leader, known on the ARK by her reputation as the formidable “Beast Queen.”
  • Ron Yuan plays Han Li, a 3rd century Chinese rebel leader and brother to Meiyin.
  • With Russell Crowe playing Kor the Prophet, an eccentric ‘dino-whisperer’ hailing from a time before recorded history.
  • And Vin Diesel playing 24th century ‘Mek’-pilot, gearhead, & freedom-fighter Santiago.

Vin Diesel has joined Studio Wildcard as President of Creative Convergence and will act as executive producer of both “ARK II” and “ARK: The Animated Series.” Diesel will also lend his voice talents as Santiago, a fully rendered hero protagonist, who will cross over from the newly announced video game sequel to the animated television series.

From cutting-edge animation studio Lex + Otis and with music composed by Gareth Coker (Ori and the Will of the Wisps), ARK: The Animated Series chronicles the story of a mysterious primeval land populated by dinosaurs and other extinct creatures, where people from throughout human history have been resurrected. When 21st century Australian paleontologist Helena Walker awakes on the ARK after tragedy, she must learn to survive and find new allies, or die again at the hands of ruthless warlords -- all while trying to uncover the true nature of their strange new world.

ARK fans will recognise many aspects of the lore and witness new depth and development to familiar characters. We can’t wait to share more as we near the airing!



To celebrate our latest news of ARK II and ARK: The Animated Series, we've created some special skins you can obtain in-game. Be sure to view the trailers from the ARK main game menu to get your hands on a cool anime raptor inspired from the animated series, or a hatchet and spear skin inspired from ARK II!



Official Network PC Server Maintenance


The Official PC Network will be undergoing maintenance at approximately 10PM on Wednesday, December 16th. We are expecting up to 3 hours of downtime during this maintenance period. We are scheduling this downtime so that it impacts the least amount of players.

If there are changes to the proposed maintenance window timeframe, we'll provide a more specific timeframe prior to the maintenance period.

EVO Event


Survivors on all platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event as part of Winter Wonderland! It will be active from Thursday the 17th of Dec at 1 PM EST until Thursday the 7th of January at 3 PM EST. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:
  • 2X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  • 2X Player XP
  • 2X Harvesting

Fan Art

Springloaded by Kylie Langton


Giga in ARK 2 by Robinson Vronti (Discord)


The Dragon by MoltenElement


Feeling Nostalgic by naeriie


Griffin by Toxin


Yuty by Amberghini


ARK 2 by AdamsAlive4kids


Wishing everyone safe and happy holidays!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
ARK: Survival Evolved - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

A dadly Vin Diesel in an Ark 2 screenshot.

“Is that Vin Diesel?” I asked, watching the announcement trailer for Ark 2. “Have they copied Vin Diesel’s face?” Then he grunted. “IS THAT A REAL VIN DIESEL GRUNT?” Then he spoke. IT IS VIN DIESEL. Yes, Riddick/Groot/Dom stars in the sequel to Studio Wildcard’s dinosaur-hunting sandbox survival game, which is… what is this even going to be? They also announced an Ark animated series with a voice cast including Karl Urban, David Tennant, Michelle Yeoh, Elliot Page, and Russell Crowe. What is going on.

(more…)

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

We've prepared a special announcement for ARK fans that you won't want to miss. It all starts at The Game Awards on December 10th!

Classic PvP Season 3

Classic PvP is a competitive player experience for PC players which focuses on the PvP experience from the days of old. Next week we'll be kicking off Season 3 of Classic PvP (bringing an end to our Conquest season). If you're unfamiliar with what Classic PvP is, there's a quick breakdown below.

Classic PvP Breakdown:
  • Experience gain, taming, gathering, breeding, hatching, and raising rates have been doubled compared to our standard Official Servers (2x)
  • Tribes are set to 25 players max
  • Tribe alliances are disabled, though informal alliances are allowed
  • Servers have a maximum player count of 100
  • Classic PvP servers are unaffected by Evolution Events
  • These maps will be available: The Island, Scorched Earth, Ragnarok, Valguero, and The Center
  • Tek dinos (Tek Parasaur, Tek Quetzal, Tek Rex, Tek Raptor, Tek Stego), Paracer, Tapejara, and the Titanosaur are not available for taming on Classic PvP
  • All Aberration and Extinction content is unavailable on Classic PvP
  • Scaling of weapon damage has been reduced
  • No TEK Engrams
  • No cave building
  • Cryopods enabled

Prior to the launch of Season 3 next week, we'll share more details on the launch and timing.

EVO Event


Survivors on all platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk as part of the Turkey Trial event! It will be active from Tuesday the 24th of Nov at 4 PM EST until Thursday the 10th of December. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:
  • 2x Breeding/Maturing/Egg Hatching
  • 2x Harvesting
  • 2x Taming
  • 2x XP

Fan Art

DodoRex by Silatria


It’s a pink Argy by Beastboy (Discord)


The Kings Call by FoxFox87


Therizinosaurus by kawarayane


Face Off by nikout13 (Discord)


Giganotosaurus at the Meadow by Cucumberg


We can't wait to catch up with you at The Game Awards!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded
Turkey Trial 4


From Tuesday, November 24th through Tuesday, December 8th grab your tribe and flock over for Turkey Trial 4. Go on the hunt for the unforgiving “Super-Turkeys” and harvest wishbones to gain new chibis, cosmetic items, event-themed skins, and all new emotes!

Event Details

This event can be manually activated with the server arg parameter: -ActiveEvent=TurkeyTrial

Dates: November 24th to December 8th

Rates
  • 2X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  • 2X XP
  • 2X Harvesting
  • 2X Taming

Event Creatures
  • Super Turkeys (Untamable creature)
  • DodoRex (Craftable Temporary Tame)

Event Skins
  • 2 Thanksgiving-themed Sweater Skins *NEW*
  • 2 Thanksgiving-themed Swimsuit Skins *NEW*
  • 2 Hawaiian-themed Shirt Skins *NEW*
  • Bonnet Hat
  • Chieftan Hat
  • Pilgrim Hat
  • Turkey Hat
  • Dodo Pie Swim Bottom & Top
  • Meat Swim Bottom & Top
  • Turkey Swim Bottom & Top
  • Pitchfork
  • Turkey Leg

Event Chibis (acquired via killing Super Turkey's for Wishbones)
  • Tuso *NEW*
  • Broodmother *NEW*
  • Bonnet Otter *NEW*
  • Mantis *NEW*
  • Dunkleosteus *NEW*

Event Items
  • Wishbones (acquired from killing Super Turkey's)
  • Thanksgiving Dino Candy

Wild Creature Colors
  • MediumAutumn *NEW*
  • LightAutumn *NEW*
  • BurntSienna *NEW*
  • DarkMagenta *NEW*
  • DarkViolet *NEW*
  • Vermillion *NEW*
  • MidnightBlue *NEW*
  • BlackSands *NEW*
  • DarkBlue *NEW*
  • Orange *NEW*
  • Brown
  • Dark Red
  • Dino Dark Red
  • Dino Albino
  • NearBlack
  • Red
  • Light Brown
  • Black
  • Dino Darker Grey



Live-Ops Update

A message from our Product Manager:

While gamers can sometimes squabble over the little things, like which console is better, the ARK community is nonetheless tightly-knit. It's no surprise then, that when the community loses one of their own, fellow players are eager to reach out and honour the player that has passed away

Over the years, we have received some very touching messages from players who have lost fellow tribe members, family members and friends and chose to share their ways of paying tribute to them in-game with us.

Many of us at Wildcard were touched by a player’s story shared on Reddit about his lovely wife Heather, who passed away suddenly. He and his sister made a tribute to her on Valguero (her favourite map) and shared this screenshot with the community



We put our heads together to come up with a way we could add a lasting memorial to the game for, not only Heather, but for all of the Survivors who have Ascended.

Jackson Lawrence, one of our talented Level Designers, kindly offered to spend his own time creating a lasting memorial and I think his work is just beautiful! I’m humbled to be able to share our new addition to the Valguero map with the community.

Thank you for not only allowing us to entertain you but also for inviting what we created into your lives. As a bunch of people wanting to make something exciting and immersive, we’re honoured when players take that beyond anything we can possibly do to forge their own connections with the game. Our world may not be real but your sentiment and attachment to it is.



We hope our small gesture brings some comfort to players who have lost loved ones.

- Dollie and the Studio Wildcard Team.

DDoS Mitigation
Improving the health and stability of our network infrastructure is a huge priority for the team. One of the biggest hurdles we've faced stem from DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks. These are malicious attacks on our network which lead to server issues such as downtime, poor performance, or not being able to connect. While these attacks are impossible to prevent entirely, the team has spent a considerable amount of engineering time on mitigating these attacks with our hosting partners to reduce the impact they have on your playing experience.

As of the past few weeks, we have deployed some serious enhancements to the system and have such seen a dramatic decrease in server issues related to DDoS attacks on PC, Xbox, and PS4. Although things have improved, we will continue to monitor the overall health of the Official Network and work on advancing the technology to mitigate these attacks.

Character Loss caused by Rollbacks & Auto Restoration
Preventing character loss remains of utmost importance to us. We've recently implemented the technology (and have had it running live on our Official Network) to auto-restore characters in the event that a server has experienced a rollback. Specifically, if a player has recently transferred to a server and for some reason, that server has done down without saving the world (crashed/restarted), upon it's next start up that character (presuming it hadn't left the server), will be automatically restored. We'll continue to monitor for character loss reports and identify opportunities to advance the auto-restoration technology.

Disconnection Issues for Xbox and Win10 clients.
We have identified and fixed the issue causing players to regularly disconnect from Player Dedicated & Non-Dedicated servers on Xbox/Win10 every 30 minutes. The fix will be rolled out the upcoming Turkey Trial update on the 24th of November.

Beginner Server Wipe
Just a friendly reminder that we're close to the next reset date on Beginner servers, which will take place on December 1st. For those not familiar, Beginner Official Servers are an experience for new ARK players to test the waters without the threat of thoroughly developed tribes.

Unlike our regular servers, these have undergone some changes and will wipe every 8 weeks. First of all, there have been some limitations on how much a player or dino can progress. Player levels hit their cap at 44 and the highest encounter possible for wild creatures is level 30. Tamed creatures can receive up to an additional maximum of 30 levels. Due to the progression limits, some engrams are not achievable through leveling up but are found via supply crates. Some other changes include the disabling of alliances and tribe sizes have been limited to 5 members maximum.

Below are the subsequently planned wipes based on the 8-week wipe schedule:
  • January 26
  • March 23
  • May 18
  • July 13
  • September 7
  • Nov 2
  • Dec 28

Black Friday Sales


Don't miss your chance to grab ARK for up to 80% off in the XBOX Black Friday Sale



Get started on your Black Friday shopping with ARK while it is up to 80% off in the Playstation Black Friday Sale!

EVO Event


Survivors on all platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk this weekend! It will be active from Friday the 20th of Nov at 4 PM EST until Tuesday the 8th of December at 3 PM EST. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:
  • 2x Breeding/Maturing/Egg Hatching
  • 2x Harvesting
  • 2x Taming
  • 2x XP

Fan Art

Poglin from ImEnFuego


Brontos Grazing from RoxaneLapa


Parasaurolophus from Drekaava


Crystal Isles: A quiet sunset by Melina799


Reaper Queen from Bob van Dorst (Discord)


From MrMEOLA


Catch you next week!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded
What an eventful week it's been! We hope you had a chance to check out the Extra Life charity stream that happened this past Saturday. A tremendous thanks to the ARK community for helping us raise over $180,000 for sick children. Year after year, the ARK community continues to come together to support a great cause.

Speaking of the Extra Life live stream, In case you missed it we've detailed all of the Genesis 2 reveals below. From Noglin, to the Egg Incubator, the community is having trouble identifying a favorite.

Genesis 2 Extra Life Reveals

During the Extra Life live stream we also revealed that we'll have a special announcement for the ARK community at The Game Awards on December 10th. Be sure to tune in for a special treat from Jeremy and Jesse!

Live-Ops Update
We recently deployed a patch that made changes to structure placing and demolition to help increase server performance.

Previously when replacing a structure, the server had to do complex calculations involving checking all snapped structures to the structure being replaced to verify structural integrity. That calculation has now been eliminated as it is a replacement rather than the placement of a new structure in a new area. This will really only be highly noticeable on servers with large save files

The change to demolishing structures reduced how much is being calculated. It's less complex which makes it less intensive and "cheaper" on the server's performance thereby reducing lag, stalls and/or server drops when demolishing.

EVO Event


There will be no EVO event this week.

Fan Art

The pinnacle of mankind's ingenuity by TheShadowStone


King Of The River by SoldierofFortuna


Snack? by Omgods1


Trashcan McGee (Discord)


DodoRex - Lisalyulf (Discord)


The Noglin by ARION


Nezuyu (Discord)


Catch you next week!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
...