As we approach the third anniversary of ARK Mobile, our team is looking at ways to really set this game up for the long haul. We intend to support this game for many years to come, and there are some changes we need to make so that our relatively small team can support our game more efficiently. Read on to learn about some upcoming changes during the month of March;
REMOVAL OF ADS
First up, we are removing all in-game ads from ARK Mobile in our next major update. We’ve reached this decision after careful consideration of many factors – most notably privacy concerns with ad tracking, inappropriate ads being served to our players, and the constant need for backend updates to support the latest types of ads.
While this will be welcome news to most, we are aware that many players rely on these ads to procure Ancient Amber and Free Gifts, among other instances. As such, the following changes will go live in the next update alongside the removal of ads;
- Supply Drops will be added to Single Player and PvE, making them available in all game modes.
- Supply Drops will have an approximate 25% chance to grant a small amount of Ancient Amber to the first player who opens it.
- Free Gifts will remain in the game and continue to provide a chance at a small gift of Ancient Amber.
- We are increasing the amount of Ancient Amber that can be obtained from Daily Pursuits by 50% for our Primal Pass holders.
STORE REFRESH
To coincide with the removal of ads, we will be making some adjustments to the in-game store. Over time our in-game store has grown to include over 175 different items, making the task of browsing all available items quite daunting. With our next update, we are making three key changes;
- The majority of Skins, Implant Grafts, Decor items, and Collars will be removed from their store folders and placed into our vault. Different vaulted items will appear throughout the week at the top of the store in the slot previously occupied by the Daily Sale Item.
- A selection of popular items from the above categories will remain available in the store at all times, alongside other favorites & consumables such as Crafting Stations, Balms, Buffs and Tickets.
- We are adjusting pricing on the majority of items available in the store to account for the removal of ads. These prices will raise approximately 5 – 10%.
CHEATS (THE BATTLE CONTINUES…)
Our team is well aware of the various cheats and exploits being used across our Multiplayer servers. We are constantly working behind the scenes to address these issues, and we often release updates in secret to combat these exploits and identify those abusing them. We have made a conscious effort to not discuss these changes publicly very often, as we do not want to draw more attention to these cheats or give the cheats’ creators ideas on how we’re detecting them. We are committed to continuing this fight, and will not rest until we can deliver a balanced experience for all of our players.
OFFICIAL SERVERS
Throughout the year, we evaluate the population of our Official Servers to determine when more servers are needed, and when perhaps we have too many. Last year, when COVID-19 forced the majority of the world into quarantine, we added more Official Servers to accommodate all of the new players joining us. Now that our player population has returned to pre-quarantine numbers, it is time for us to phase out some of our lower population servers.
Before we do so, we’ll be launching a batch of new Official Servers and placing the majority of our PvE servers into Moratorium, in order to free up space for our players transitioning off of phased out servers.
We’ll follow all of this up with a special Survival Surge event featuring 4x Harvesting on the weekend of March 19th to help these players get established on new servers.
- New Servers launch on Tuesday, March 9th at 12:00pm EST
- Server Moratorium will activate on Friday, March 5th at 12:00pm EST until Thursday, March 11th at 12:00pm EST
- Server Phase Outs will begin on Thursday, March 11th at 12:00pm EST and these servers will be brought down on Thursday, March 18th at 12:00pm EST
- Survival Surge will be held on all servers beginning on Friday, March 19th and lasting through the weekend
NEW SERVERS
We are happy to introduce the oft-requested PvP Duos servers to ARK Mobile on March 9th. These highly competitive servers have Tribe Alliances turned off and allow for tribe sizes of just 2 Survivors. Boosted rates are permanently active on these servers just as they are on Small Tribes variants. We’ll be launching one Easy server in each region to start alongside a handful of additional servers listed below;
- Dyad – Duo (PvP – Easy – NA)
- Dyad – Duo (PvP – Easy – EU)
- Dyad – Duo (PvP – Easy – AS)
- Dyad – Duo (PvP – Easy – ANZ)
- Jerboa Sanctuary (PvXc – Medium – ANZ)
- Artemis (PvE – Easy – NA)
- Athena (PvE – Medium – NA)
- Poseidon (PvE – Hard – NA)
- Tectonic – Casual (PvXc – Medium – NA)
MORATORIUM
All Official PvE and PvX servers not in the Phase Out list below will be placed into Server Moratorium from Friday, March 5th at 12:00pm EST through Thursday, March 11th at 12:00pm EST. During Moratorium, no structures can be placed and no creatures can be tamed.
SERVER PHASE OUTS
Beginning on March 11th at 12:00pm EST, the servers listed below will be placed into Phase Out. Once the Phase Out process begins, players will have 7 days to transfer off of these servers. No new players will be able to join these servers, and all existing players will be given access to a Free Server Transfer Ticket in the in-game store. The Free Server Transfer Ticket allows for a free revival on each of your tame implants and has also been adjusted to allow your Element balance & Dungeon Keys to come with you (*You will not see the Element or Keys listed in your Server Transfer Ticket UI, but it will come with you so long as it is in your inventory when you upload the Ticket).
As a reminder, when transferring off of one of these servers, please make sure that the creature implants you decide to bring with you are from tames which are personally owned. Any implants from creatures not personally owned will revive as wild and incur the standard Amber revival cost. You must revive a personally owned creature implant on the new server to avoid the revival cost and maintain it's tame status. The entire Server Transfer Ticket FAQ can be found here.
SERVERS BEING PHASED OUT (MARCH 11th):
- Artifact (PvE – Medium – AS)
- Carno Island (PvP – Medium – AS)
- Craftsmen (PvE – Medium – AS)
- Dahkeya’s Retreat (PvP – Easy – AS)
- Diana’s Garden (PvP – Easy – AS)
- Dire Archipelago (PvP – Medium – AS)
- Engram (PvE – Easy – AS)
- Forge (PvE – Medium – NA)
- Grand Peak (PvX – Easy – EU)
- Grand Peak (PvX – Easy – AS)
- Grand Peak (PvX – Easy – NA)
- Hidden Lake (PvE – Medium – AS)
- Hidden Lake (PvE – Medium – NA)
- Lamentation (PvX – Medium – NA)
- Mejoberry (PvP – Easy – AS)
- Noctis (PvE – Medium – AS)
- Northeast Shores (PvE – Easy – AS)
- Oasis (PvX – Medium – AS)
- Oasis (PvX – Medium – EU)
- Oasis (PvX – Medium – NA)
- Obelisk (PvE – Hard – AS)
- Pearl (PvP – Easy – EU)
- Potent (PvE – Medium – AS)
- Prime (PvX – Hard – NA)
- Rockwell Manor (PvE – Easy – AS)
- Southern Haven (PvE – Easy – EU)
- Southern Islets (PvE – Easy – AS)
- Stamina (PvP – Medium – AS)
- Stimulant (PvP – Easy – AS)
- Water Jar (PvE – Easy – NA)
- Western Approach (PvE – Easy – EU)
- Winter’s Mouth (PvE – Hard – AS)
