If you're an action-adventure game's regular servers can be a challenging place to tackle. To help bring newbies aboard, the game features beginner servers with lower difficulty and various limits, but to keep them ship-shape for their purpose, Studio Wildcard routinely wipes them clean. And, if you're playing on them or thinking of getting into Ark, it's worth knowing when these wipes will happen.
The multiplayer game's server browser.
If you're new to the game, it's worth noting that jumping in fresh just after a server wipe has happened can be a good way to get stuck into it for the first time. As SW explains in a previous dev post, "beginner official servers are an experience for new ARK players to test the waters without the threat of thoroughly developed tribes".
Unlike the title's regular version servers, the beginner platforms have seen some changes and tweaks. "There have been some limitations on how much a player or dino can progress," the studio explains. "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."
https://twitter.com/survivetheark/status/1354221592251785216
Additionally, "due to the progression limits, some engrams are not achievable through levelling up but are found via supply crates. Some other changes include the disabling of alliances and tribe sizes have been limited to five maximum".
It's also worth noting, if you're going to get set up on a beginner server between wipes, you might want to make a note of the next scheduled deep clean as you may want to hang on to your character by ing them to main servers. Once you do so, though, you can't send them back to a beginner server – so bear that in mind.
Check out our best Ark servers you can if you're new to the game.