Frequently asked questions

ATS is a competitive ARK: Survival Ascended network built around a season-long tournament with real cash prizes. It plays like Official, Small Tribes and Conquest: clean rates, no kits, no pay2win, and none of the modded clutter you find on most unofficial servers. The idea is simple. You already put the hours in, so your grind should actually be worth something. Season 1, our first ever season, launches with a $28,000 guaranteed prize pool, and the pool grows with the community every season, so the prizes only get bigger from here (see the prize questions below).

Because we love ARK, and we were not happy with where unofficial ARK had ended up. On a lot of servers your time and grind do not really lead anywhere, while the focus quietly shifts to who is willing to spend the most. We wanted the opposite: a place where playing well is what actually pays off.

So ATS is about giving the game back to the survivors. You turn your grind into real-life value, compete for real prize money, create content if that is your thing, and enjoy ARK at an official feel again. We are not doing this to profit off players. We built it to give back, keep things fair and clean, and make ARK fun to grind for again.

Exactly what it says. We do not sell anything that changes what happens in a fight: no kits, resources, dinos, breeding lines, blueprints, XP, stats, or boss fights. The only thing you can buy is queue access, and it never touches your position on the board. What you earn, you earn by playing.

Yes. 100% of VIP sales go back out as prize money, and ATS doubles it on top. Nobody here is pocketing your purchases. The network is run on a not-for-profit basis by ATS Ark Servers LTD, because the whole point is to give back to players, not to make money off them.

Real cash prizes, no pay2win, one clear rule set applied equally to everyone, and a not-for-profit model. In short, you compete for real value on merit, not on how much you are willing to spend. That is the whole difference.

No. ARK: Survival Ascended is a trademark of Studio Wildcard. ATS is an independent community and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Studio Wildcard.

ARK: Survival Ascended. You can play on PC through Steam, or on Xbox and PlayStation. Our tournament servers are full crossplay, so you can compete no matter which platform you are on. That is all you need to get started.

No. There is no entry fee, and no purchase is ever required to play or to win prize money. VIP is completely optional and never needed to compete. All it does is let you into a server that is already full, instead of hitting a "Server Full" error, so you are not locked out when things are busy. It gives no gameplay or leaderboard advantage at all.

Through optional VIP queue access. Every cent of it goes to the prize pool rather than to profit, and the operator covers the server costs. Buying VIP is really just chipping into the prizes while skipping the wait.

ATS is run by ATS Ark Servers LTD, with a paid staff and moderation team. Staff do not compete in the tournaments themselves. They are here to do a job: making sure every tribe follows the rules and the Code of Conduct, and stepping in to take action when it is needed. Staff decisions on the tournament, leaderboard, and bans are final.

Season 1, our first ever season, has a guaranteed $28,000 tournament prize pool no matter how many people play or buy anything, plus another $5,000 in creator rewards on top. Every season after that has a guaranteed floor: at least $10,000 in tournament prizes and $5,000 in creator rewards, put up by ATS regardless of revenue. Above that floor, the community decides how big it gets. Everything contributed through VIP over a season is matched by ATS and rolled into the next season's pool, so the more the community backs ATS, the bigger the prizes grow season over season.

• 1st place: $15,000
• 2nd place: $7,500
• 3rd place: $4,500
• 4th place: $1,000

5th to 10th place are funded separately from VIP sales.

100% of all VIP sales go into a pool for 5th to 10th place, and ATS doubles it dollar for dollar. It is totalled at season end and split equally among those six tribes.

$1,000 per tribe, which is $6,000 across all six. The pool fills once VIP sales reach $3,000, doubled to $6,000.

Anything sold beyond the cap rolls straight into the Season 2 prize pool. It is never kept as profit.

Season 1 kicks off 16 October 2026. The countdowns on the homepage show the exact time in your timezone.

Around three months. The tournament is the season-long leaderboard race, not a single weekend event.

The whole season. Your placement comes from the leaderboard across the full three months, not from one match.

By your final leaderboard position at season end, based on your score and rank. The top 4 tribes win from the guaranteed $28,000 prize pool. Places 5 to 10 share the bonus pool that is funded by VIP sales and doubled by ATS, so what it pays depends on how much the community puts in that season. Outside the top 10 there is no payout for that season. The exact scoring is published on the website and in Discord at the end of the season, and staff rulings on placement are final.

Just connect to the ATS servers on any platform and play. You are entered and tracked automatically, with no sign-up, login, or fee. Anything else worth knowing is announced in Discord before the season opens.

No. Competing and winning are completely free.

Cash prizes are paid to the winning tribes after the season ends and results are verified. We arrange the method and timing with each tribe directly and find the option that works best for you. By default the tribe leader receives the prize money, and if they would rather split it among members, we can set that up. If a winner would prefer a parent or legal guardian to receive the payment, we can arrange that too.

Yes. Season 2 follows Season 1, and it is how the prizes grow. Whatever the community puts in during a season, beyond what is paid out, is matched by ATS and carried into the next season's pot, on top of the guaranteed minimum. The stronger one season is, the bigger the next one starts.

Up to 27 at full scale, 70 players each: nine EU, nine NA, and nine conditional second-region servers that open as the population grows.

The main ATS Tournament servers run 5X on weekdays and 7.5X on weekends, with 10-man tribes. The conditional second beginners cluster runs a little higher, at 7.5X on weekdays and 10X on weekends. The 10-man size can change and is not guaranteed every wipe. Full rate details are posted in Discord, and we update the website and Discord if anything changes.

The Island, Scorched Earth, The Center, Aberration, Extinction, Ragnarok, Valguero, Lost Colony and Astraeos.

EU and NA, with a second NA region added as demand grows.

Up to 70 per server.

Find the server IP in the Discord server-ips channel and connect by direct IP in ARK. On Xbox and PlayStation, join through the in-game server browser using the same details. There is nothing to sign into, just connect and play.

On a published schedule tied to the season. Competitive ARK runs on scheduled wipes, so all in-game progress is temporary by design. Dates are shown on the homepage and in Discord.

Cluster transfer rules are posted in the Discord server settings. Follow those. Anything not permitted there is not allowed.

Subscribe to the exact mods listed in Discord and nothing else. Unlisted mods are not supported and can stop you from connecting.

You are either on the wrong account or your mods did not update. Unsubscribe, resubscribe, let them fully download, then try again.

Only under the Stego rule: you can build in a cave only if a Stegosaurus can walk in through the entrance. If a Stego cannot fit, building in that cave is not allowed. Rat hole building is never allowed.

Usually your connection, or a wipe or restart in progress. If it stays down for other players too, check Discord for a status update, then open a ticket if you need to.

All ATS Tournament servers are 10-man, though the tribe size can change and is not guaranteed every wipe. Alliances between tribes, official or unofficial, are not allowed.

No, and there never will be. This is full PvP. When you log off, your base stays in the world and can be raided, so build smart and defend what is yours. Getting raided while you are offline is part of the game here.

No. You do not need to sign up or log in anywhere to play or to be tracked. Just connect to an ATS server on your platform and play. Your stats and your tribe are picked up automatically.

It reads straight from the server. Every player and every tribe on our servers is tracked automatically, with nothing to set up or connect on your end.

No. Linking is not required for anything right now. Tracking happens automatically in-game, so there is no account to connect and no login step to compete.

Yes. Tracking is fully crossplay. Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation players and their tribes all show up on the same leaderboards, automatically, with no login needed.

You do not need it to play or be tracked, but yes, you will want it. Server IPs, rules, settings, announcements, and support all live in Discord.

Yes. You are already being tracked, so just open Player Lookup, search your name, and your stats are right there. No login or setup needed.

It is applied automatically once your payment clears, using the details you enter at checkout in the store. If it does not arrive, open a support ticket with your Tip4Serv receipt.

It carries real risk under our network rules. A ban on any account or device sharing your connection can affect all of them, so do not share with banned players. See the Code of Conduct.

Only VIP queue access: VIP and Ultimate VIP. Nothing that affects gameplay or the leaderboard. See the store.

VIP is $16.24 for 30 days. Ultimate VIP is $31.24 for 30 days.

No. It only affects whether you can get onto a full server. It gives no stats, items, or leaderboard benefit of any kind.

Payments are handled by our provider, Tip4Serv. Delivery is automatic once payment clears, and we never receive your full card details.

VIP is sold as a fixed 30-day access pass. Check the store and your Tip4Serv receipt for the exact terms of your purchase.

If a purchase is not delivered because of a fault on our side, contact us and we will deliver it or refund it. Otherwise, because access is a digital service that starts right away, purchases are generally non-refundable except where consumer law requires. See the Terms.

Give it a few minutes, then double-check the details you entered at checkout were correct. If it still has not arrived, open a support ticket with your Tip4Serv receipt.

Straight into the prize pool. 100% of VIP sales fund the 5th to 10th prizes, which ATS then doubles. Your purchase becomes someone's prize money.

Please do not. Contact us first through a ticket. Opening a chargeback instead of a ticket can cost you your VIP and get you banned from the network.

No. Only the options currently shown in the store are offered.

They are listed on each product in the store. If a feature is not listed there, it is not included.

Checkout switches on with the servers for the season. Until then the store shows the full lineup with a countdown.

When a server is full, VIP gets you in ahead of non-VIP players instead of a "Server Full" error. While the server is below capacity you go straight in with no wait at all.

No. Standard VIP is priority, not a guarantee. At peak times, if the VIP slots are full, you wait in a VIP priority queue ahead of everyone else.

VIP is priority. Ultimate VIP is a guarantee: you are never queued, on any server, even at peak times.

Yes, that is the whole point of it. No matter the demand or how many players are waiting, Ultimate VIP is never queued.

No. It only affects getting onto a full server, never the leaderboard. It buys a place in line, never a place on the board.

Yes. VIP works network-wide across all servers.

30 days from purchase, for both VIP and Ultimate VIP.

Because it is the one thing we can offer that costs nothing competitive and still funds the prizes. It saves your time without touching anyone's fight or rank, and every cent goes back into the pool.

The full Code of Conduct is on the legal page, and the Discord policies channel mirrors it.

Hacking, exploiting, cheating, DDoS, RMT, doxxing, poaching, ban evasion, offensive names, harassment, and illegal cave or rat-hole building, among others. Please read the Code of Conduct in full.

Open a ban appeal ticket in the Discord submit-a-ticket channel. Support is only given through the ticket system.

It means you are banned. Appeal in the submit-a-ticket channel. No other support is given for it.

Players with fewer than 250 hours may not use a VPN under any circumstances. Only approved cloud gaming services, such as GeForce Now, are allowed. See the VPN Policy.

Every one of your Steam Game Bans must be at least 100 days old. Any ban younger than 100 days disqualifies you.

More than 3 active Game Bans means a permanent ban from ATS. No exceptions.

Playing with anyone who has, or previously had, a cheating violation results in an automatic association ban. It is your responsibility to know who you play with.

Poaching is trying to recruit ATS players away to another server, through any channel. It is a zero-tolerance, permanent-ban offence.

Zero tolerance. Sharing or asking for anyone's personal information leads to an immediate permanent ban and possible escalation to authorities.

If any account on your network is banned, every account and device on that network can be permanently banned. Do not share your connection with banned players. See the Network Association Policy.

No. Appeals are not accepted for hacking, exploiting, aiding hackers, DDoS, RMT, doxxing, or threats.

Yes. Open a new appeal ticket and clearly ask for a different staff member. If the second reviewer agrees with the ban, it is final.

They can, at any time, and they apply to everyone immediately. Keeping up to date is your responsibility, so "I did not know" is not a valid excuse.

Use the Discord link in the site nav or footer, or the Join the Discord button on the homepage.

In the Discord server-ips channel. Connect by direct IP in ARK.

Discord rules are in the policies channel. Server settings are in the server-settings channel.

Go to the submit-a-ticket channel, press Open Ticket, and wait for a reply. Please be patient.

Since you cannot open a ticket while banned, ask a friend who is still in the Discord to open a ban appeal ticket for you in the submit-a-ticket channel. Staff will handle it from there.

Yes, in the recruitment channels. Just do not use recruitment to pull players toward other servers.

Through the report or ticket system in Discord. Include your evidence.

No. Staff do not handle support in DMs, pings, or side channels, and unsolicited messages to staff can be treated as harassment. Please use a ticket.

Yes. The Creator Rewards Program pays real cash for the best ATS content. See the creators page.

The creator pool is a guaranteed $5,000 every season, paid across the top 10 creators, with up to $2,500 for the top spot. It never drops below $5,000, no matter what.

On quality, creativity, production value, and execution, not on follower count.

No. A small channel with great content can beat a large channel with weak content. This is built so anyone has a real shot.

Yes. It is a separate reward from the in-game leaderboard and prize pool, so you can compete for both at the same time.

Full rules and how to enter are on the creators page.

On phones and slow or data-saving connections, the site shows a still image instead of the video, on purpose. On desktop, refresh once, and if it stays black, try a different browser.

Yes. The whole site, the store, and these documents all work on phones.

Use the sound toggle in the site's top navigation. Your choice is remembered.

We collect only what is needed to run the service, and we secure it with encrypted connections. Full detail is in the Privacy Policy.

On the legal page: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and the Code of Conduct.

Open a ticket in Discord for anything game-related. For legal or privacy requests, email [email protected].

That is by design. All support goes through tickets, and DMing staff can lead to a harassment ban.

Open a support ticket in Discord and the team will help you from there.