Due to a large-scale exploit, Ark Survival Ascended devs conducted an eight-hour service-wide rollback while penalizing those who utilized the exploit.
On Janurary 2nd, the developers took notice of a glitch that allowed players to place down turrets on a foundation, only to pick both the turret and materials used to build the turret back up. This was an exploit that broke the balance and difficulty of the game, as the materials to build the larger turrets are quite the feat to obtain.
With the deployment happening now, we are conducting a service-wide rollback on our Official Network of approximately 8 hours to reduce the damage caused by an exploit. We will be taking enforcement action against tribes that have benefitted from the exploit. Thank you for your…
— ARK: Survival Ascended (@survivetheark) January 2, 2024
On a Reddit thread discussing the known exploit, there was a bit of speculation on what exactly the exploit was, as it was never touched upon by the developers X post. Some theorized it was a saddle dupe glitch, where players can make multiple saddles for the dinosaurs without needing to farm materials.
In the X post, the developers made sure to note that those who took part in using said exploit, or exploits, would absolutely receive some form of penalty. They stated:
“We will be taking enforcement action against tribes that have benefitted from the exploit. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
For those who aren’t sure how a rollback works, players basically lose progress for the amount of hours the rollback was implemented. For example, when someone is raising dinosaurs that have a percentage as they make progress toward adulthood, it takes time for them to grow up. Since there was an eight hour rollback in time, percentage from those dinosaurs being raised was taken back eight hours.
