Today Ark: Survival Evolved announced they will be changing the harvesting, taming, and experience rates to 2x permanently.
Ark has been holding regular Evolution events since September which gave the same bonuses that players will now get permanently. Most events occurred on the weekends when all players would most likely have a chance to play. The lengths of events were also extended as time went on which was perfect for developers to test the effects of a permanent 2x upgrade.
That brings even more exciting news because now Evolution Events will be 3x harvesting, experience, and taming! Lots of players would not even bother taming unless an Evolution Event was on. This was in part due to the heavy griefing that can occur on servers with advanced tribes already in place. Playing on a private server with its own settings for harvesting, taming, and experience rates is a common solution but might not be needed anymore.
Private servers will need to keep these rates in mind and think about potential changes in preparation for the next big update. When Ark releases its next major game version update, the 2x bonuses will be added to the game’s coding. That means non-dedicated servers, single-player sessions, and unofficial servers will benefit from the 2x increase after the update. Server hosts can reduce their server/game rates by 50% to keep the gameplay the same as before.
What’s next for Ark: Survival Evolved?
Ark: Survival Evolved has overall received good reviews on Steam and so has their first expansion pack Ark: Scorched Earth. Ark was also recently released on PlayStation 4 consoles and multiple updates for stability and content have already happened. Sadly, the next major update, Primal Survival, has been delayed until late February 2017. Primal Survival will add a game mode where players can be the dinosaur and even recruit others to the pack.
Developers are on the ball with events and updates for Ark players and promise that there’s more to come. Hopefully, as a result, we will see more balance come to the game and some players are even hoping for a level cap raise. Christmas is just around the corner so expect another event like last year’s Winter Wonderland later in the month.