Read before you play

Rules & Punishments

Breaking rules results in bans. Ignorance is not an excuse. Read them.

The recommended language for communication is English.
Use common sense. Any attempt to bend or exploit the rules is forbidden and will not be tolerated.
Breaking Wildcard's Code of Conduct in any way is forbidden.
No hacks, cheating, aimbotting, exploits, duping, meshing, undermeshing or lag attempts. This results in a permanent cluster-wide ban.
Account sharing is bannable.
HWID spoofing and MAC spoofing are bannable, whatever the reason.
Macros in any form are not allowed. Autoclickers are only allowed in PvE scenarios. Any form of AFK crafting is not allowed.
  • Autoclickers can be used to level dinos in PvE, but not to craft electronics.
Admins are not obliged to give back any property or dinos lost to in-game situations, bugs, outages or rollbacks.
Don't use your upload to store things. We don't replace items lost in upload.
Impersonating the staff team is against the rules.
Naming or raiding anything similar to "ADMIN DNT", "ADMIN AUCTION" or "ADMIN RAID BASE" is bannable. Admin-built events may only be destroyed after they have been announced.
Keep insults and threats within ARK. Anything crossing over to real life is bannable, e.g. threatening to dox or DDoS a player.
Real money trading (RMT) is not allowed. Selling anything for real money is bannable.
Scamming is not enforced: you trade at your own risk. Don't trade for ARB, eggs or anything that can't easily be traded through the /trader commands on Trading Outpost.
Insiding is forbidden and will result in a ban.
  • Owners own all, so choose your owner wisely. However, owners can inside in certain situations (admin discretion).
Blocking drops with foundations is forbidden.
No dinos in the Lava Golem except Velonasaurs.
You cannot block the Lava Golem for more than 10 minutes without doing anything.
You are not allowed to interact with people inside the no-tame bubbles in Mesa City with a tame.
Teaming with another tribe is not allowed, including in open-world PvP.
You may not place structures on a player to trap them (including yourself). You may do that to their dinos.
Using vacuum compartments to instantly kill any water dino is forbidden.
The max number of DPS dinos on an OSD or vein is the tribe limit for that cluster.
  • Example: 4 Man = 4 DPS dinos.
  • Any dino being used to deal damage counts as a DPS dino.
  • The maximum on Solos is 2 DPS dinos.
100x only: placing a structure cap inside a cave as a defender to structure-cap yourself is forbidden.
Building a basilisk box to bug a basilisk's hitbox, using stairs or otherwise, is not allowed.
Owner can be transferred if the entire tribe agrees. This only applies to the 6 Man main cluster.
Only one type of structure is allowed in your colli/wall spam (e.g. metal foundations, tek foundations, metal pillars). Mixing structure types in spam is not allowed.
Using a Stryder forcefield ability during raids is forbidden.
Raiding anything similar to "ADMIN DNT" is bannable.
Mesh biting or picking is forbidden.
  • Aggro dinos do not count (admin discretion).
  • Shooting with a Velonasaur through the mesh, using third person or otherwise, is not allowed.
Whistling neutral or aggressive on breeders or a large number of dinos during a defense or raid is not allowed. At most 4 tames may be whistled on aggressive or neutral at a time.
Damaging structures through the mesh is forbidden. This includes C4, grenades, dinos and Mek hitting through the mesh.
Tunneling (building into bases to bypass the defenders' defenses) is forbidden.
  • You may tunnel with motorboat and platform builds.
Forcefield abuse is forbidden: you cannot toggle between min and max multiple times in a short time, or use it to trap players or dinos.
Structure capping or C4 capping is forbidden.
  • Structure capping is allowed on 100x.
  • Structure capping is allowed past Day 5 on 3/6 Man.
Turret capping is allowed. Turret caps cannot be built into or placed in the mesh.
Max 3 dinos protecting an entrance or choke point to a cave.
  • This does not include anything that doesn't body block or is stationed on the wall, like Stalkers or Velos.
  • Support dinos being actively used, such as Yutys, Mammoths, Shadowmanes and Daeodons, count towards the limit of 3.
Max 5 unridden dinos may be soaking at the same time.
Illegal dino builds are not allowed: 2 of the 5 sides need to be hittable.
  • You cannot have billboards on 3 sides of a Quetzal; 2 sides need to be fully open.
  • You cannot place Replicators (except on Astros).
Boxing heavies with stairs on a fortnite so they can't be Astrocetus-bombed while still shooting down is forbidden.
A Diplo, Rex or Tapejara with a Noglin attached may not be teleported during a raid or defense under any circumstance.
Helping or gifting tribe score is not allowed. This includes but is not limited to:
  • Turning off generators.
  • Placing structures for your own tribe or another tribe to destroy.
  • Throwing for another tribe or your own to kill for score.
Anything related to popcorning while being raided is forbidden, for both defending and attacking tribes. This includes but is not limited to:
  • Dropping item caches.
  • Rapidly throwing out bags.
  • Excessively cryo-sicking dinos.
Denying tribe score is forbidden, including but not limited to:
  • Picking up structures from your base while fobbed (you may only port out resources, your breeders and BPs).
  • Demolishing or destroying your own structures (defending and attacking tribe).
  • Leaving the tribe.
  • This also covers fortnites (admin discretion).
Decomping your base is never allowed. If you want to quit for the season, leave your base intact.
Giving away loot (resources, BPs, dinos or anything related) during an active FOB is not allowed, including to another tribe that is in an active FOB. This is considered teaming.
  • 1 thatch for a slot cap of raid dinos is not a valid trade. If you want to give them anything, do it during PvE.
Cycling is allowed in a PvE environment, meaning you are not PvPing, raiding or defending.
  • You cannot cycle if you have a FOB placed or have any FOBs placed on your base.
  • If a tribe slot has been free since PvE, you may invite into it.
  • You cannot kick a member to replace them with a new member during PvP.
  • 100x: you may cycle during PvP.
  • 3/6 Man: cycling mid-raid is allowed past Day 5 between all of a tribe's cycles. If you have no HOF ticket open and no cycles declared, make a ticket and tell admins who you are cycling in a FOB.
You cannot cycle temp-banned or caged members for any reason. They cannot buy an unban while in PvP.
Merging tribes in PvP is not allowed at all.
If you abandon your FOB to cycle (the FOB is unpowered and/or picked up), you must wait 1 hour before coming back.
Fobbing a tribe's HOF base while they are fobbing is forbidden. Fobbing main FOBs is still allowed; if a tribe is fobbing on the map, their base counts as a main FOB. This does not apply to Solos or Duos.
Using a Dino Leash on a Noglin so it teleports back when the dino it's attached to dies is not allowed.
Using /farm on dinos specifically to block an entrance or choke is not allowed.
You don't need a FOB to raid a tribe. However, if you die or get pushed off, you must follow the counter raiding rules.
Countering without a FOB is forbidden. This includes griefing such as tame sniping.
A third party must place a FOB within visual range of the attackers' FOB or their surrounding spam.
Your FOB must match the effort level of the current attackers' FOB. To count as a FOB, it needs at least 20 turrets.
You must be prepared to destroy the attackers' FOB and continue the raid on the defenders.
  • If the counter succeeds, you must make a legitimate attempt to continue the raid.
  • If the counter fails, you must wait 1 hour before coming back.
You must completely destroy the attackers' FOB before looting or attacking the base.
While one tribe is countering the raid, all other tribes must stay out until one of the involved tribes has been pushed off.
Using Fjord TPs, anything from the F2 shop, exploits, or continuously reconnecting while handcuffed or lying in a bed to get out of being caged is forbidden. This also applies when a Noglin is attached.
  • Using anything from the F2 shop while picked by any tame is forbidden.
Cloud pulling while handcuffed or lying in a bed to get out of a cage in any way, or while picked by any tame, is forbidden.
If a player dies to a bug or anti-mesh issue, they are re-caged unless you can prove with a clip that they died through a viable strategy. Validity is up to admin discretion.
If you are caged because of a game crash, fatal error or similar, you will be uncaged, but only with a clip of it. Without one, admins can't help you.
Open-world caging is forbidden. You must have a FOB placed before caging.
Once a raid or defense has ended, you must free any caged members.
You cannot keep caged players inside the forcefield.
If you cage a member of the opposing tribe during a raid or defense, you can only keep them caged to fob their main base if it is on the same map (no cross-map caging). If you are not actively raiding their main base within 30 minutes of the original raid or defense, you must let them go.
Solos: a player caged for 2 hours must be uncaged, whether or not the base is wiped.
100x: a player can only be caged for 24 hours. After that they must be freed, and the tribe that caged them can cycle.
Open-world turrets are allowed at active PvP, farming and boss areas. You must pick them up when you are finished.
Farming outposts are allowed, but they need at least 30 turrets. Otherwise they must be picked up after use.
Open-world turrets are not allowed on OSDs or veins. You may have them out of render of the OSD or vein.
Do not build on player spawns, teleport spots, terminals or obelisks. Exception: the area directly outside your cave as part of your defenses. Also banned:
  • Crystal Isles: Bee cave, underwater loot tunnels and snow drops.
  • Genesis 1: volcano entrances and inside.
  • Genesis 2: space biome entrances (not including vents).
  • Ragnarok: Ice Queen, Golem, Desert Labyrinth.
  • Valguero: Aberration biome entrances and underwater loot tunnels.
  • Lost Island: Labyrinth cave and underwater loot tunnels.
  • Fjordur: Poly cave, underwater drops, Bee cave and Yeti cave.
Do not build in ratholes that need any of these to enter:
  • Knock out.
  • Grapples.
  • Structures.
  • Dinos.
  • Tek suits.
Do not build in mesh spots, spots with access to the mesh, or terrain that looks stretched.
Do not build in or under lava. Exception: foundations in lava to give foundation support.
Illegal base spots are dev-wiped instantly, with no questions asked and no warning.
Ocean platforms may not be placed inside caves. Behemoth gates may not be placed in a cave you own and/or are defending; they are allowed in caves for the attacking tribe only.
Blocking drops with foundations is forbidden.
Blocking an entrance or a choke with an ORP is forbidden.
Vault-dropping any structure that gives foundation claim is forbidden.
Max 5 vaults when blocking an entrance or choke, or when vault-dropping structures.
  • This includes but is not limited to vault-dropping generators or turret caps.
Purposely placing meshed, stacked, overlapping or unbreakable structures or turrets is forbidden.
Turrets stacked or overlapping with any structure, including but not limited to foundations and ceilings, are not allowed. Exception: vaults, but only 1 vault inside a turret cap.
Excessively stacked and spammed structures will be AOE-cleared, whatever else in the area is lost.
Structures that give foundation support, such as pillars, gates, cliff plats or ocean plats, must be at least 30% visible outside the mesh (admin discretion).
Building with pillars and fence supports is allowed. If a snap point breaks and leaves floating structures, all floating structures must be removed.
Floating structures are forbidden (except turrets in the middle of a giant hatchframe).
Snapping structures to the world border or cave ceiling is forbidden. It will be redgunned without warning.
Snapping foundations or other structures to trees, such as the big trees in the Redwoods, is not allowed.
No excessive spam. You may spam within one render distance of the cave entrance or your tower/fortnite. Random ground turrets do not count. A tower/fortnite needs at least 75 turrets to count.
  • Unless you are actively fobbed; we expect you to fix it after the FOB has been pushed off.
Spamming flexible cables or pipes at a cave entrance to cause FPS drops is forbidden.
Stacking dinos inside each other is forbidden.
Max 3 forcefields within one render distance (no forcefield spam). This only applies when forcefields are used on purpose to protect spam.
C+ vacuums must stay closed on at least 1 side so they can be legitimately damaged or destroyed. Having all sides hidden is bannable.
Trapdoors inside hatchframes are not allowed in any situation except on platform-saddled dinos.
Building with structures such as pillars inside foundations is not allowed on Solos and Duos. It is allowed on all other clusters.
Snapping structures using C+ fridges is forbidden and will be punished harshly if discovered.

Application

Submit your HOF application in the HOF ticket section of the MESA support Discord within the first 48 hours of the server wipe, and meet all other requirements, or your score will not count.
Your base must be in a cave edit or a vanilla ARK cave: no ratholes, no ceiling bases. Caves only (see Building Requirements). Certain land spots are allowed on request.
Put all tribe information in your HOF application as soon as you open it: tribe name (after submitting, you must request a change), in-game names, Discord tags and Steam IDs for all members, including cyclers, in this format:
  • STEAM ID - CHARACTER NAME - DISCORD TAG
Every Steam ID you have at the start of the wipe counts towards the total. Creating a new tribe to reset your Steam ID count is forbidden.
List and submit screenshots of your base location and CCC coordinates.
Submit a raid list and update it after every raid in this format: BASESPOT - TRIBE NAME - ONLINE/OFFLINE. Each new raid goes in a new message in the application. Keep proof of raids in case we ask for clips (the base already being wiped is not proof).
Don't use your HOF ticket as a support ticket; that's not what it is for.
If you are in the top three tribes at the end of the wipe, you must submit a HOF video with:
  • A base tour (see Building Requirements for what it must show).
  • PvP highlights.
  • Raid highlights.

Other HOF rules

Tribes that merge with other tribes to combine efforts, regardless of previous achievements, will not be considered for HOF.
Players who recently joined the tribe and didn't contribute to most of its progress may not be eligible for HOF roles.
Continuously disobeying MESA's rules, or trying to bend or cheat them, gets you disqualified (lead admin decision).
Losing your main base and running with loot gets you disqualified.
Cycling more than 2 additional Steam IDs on a cluster is not allowed and means instant disqualification.
  • You may ask to replace a Steam ID only if the player you want to remove has been offline for more than 24 hours. Once approved you may invite a new player, once per season per tribe.
  • Solos: no additional Steam IDs. Duos: one additional Steam ID. 100x: no limit.
Tribes found lying about their total number of Steam IDs, or trying to "reset" their Steam ID count, get a 60-day ban for all members.
Tribe score abuse is taken very seriously: 60-day ban.
Winners are decided by score alone. If scores are close, staff vote based on the raid list and HOF video.
Picking up structures and cryoing dinos while fobbed counts as denying tribe score.
Not filling in your HOF application correctly, such as leaving out player details, gets you disqualified.

Building requirements

Your HOF base must show all of these in the mandatory base tour video:

Crafting station (dedis, replicators, fabricators, chemistry benches, etc.).
War room (dedis, vaults, cryofridges).
Defenses (deathwall, cage tower, fortnite, a room with terrains; needs 100 turrets or very close) and breeders.
Location must be a vanilla ARK cave or included in cave edits; trees on Valguero/Aberration count too. If you plan a land base, ask in a ticket whether the spot counts.
No excessive, stacked or overlapping spam. You may spam within one render distance of the cave entrance or the nearest cage tower/fortnite. Random ground turrets do not count.
  • Unless you are actively fobbed; we expect you to fix it after the FOB has been pushed off. Staff will remove it without warning.
Purposely placing meshed, stacked, overlapping or unbreakable structures to prevent raid progression is not allowed. Staff will remove them and warn you; ignoring this repeatedly means a temporary ban for the online members or the players doing it, if proof with names is provided.

Losing your HOF role

Onlined on any cluster past Day 3 = you lose your HOF role. This applies to every player online during the raid, including cyclers.
Participating or playing with people who cheat, dupe, mesh, account share or popcorn.
Serious rule breaks can lose you your HOF roles (lead admin decision).
HOF roles can be transferred. If a tribe successfully raids a tribe with HOF role owners, one HOF role from every defending member with HOF is transferred to members of the raiding tribe, chosen by the raiding tribe.
HOF roles can be lost or transferred on every cluster if you are online-wiped past Day 3. For example, if you own Solos HOF and get onlined on 100x, you lose the Solos HOF. This applies to all clusters.

HOF role transfer requirements

The raid must be an online raid. Offline raids do not qualify.
The raid must be past Day 3.
The defending tribe must be fully raided.
You must provide valid proof (clips, recordings, screenshots, etc.).
The raiding tribe chooses which members receive the transferred HOF roles.
To be eligible to take someone's HOF role, you must have a HOF ticket open and be going for HOF that season.
If you can't decide yourselves who gets the roles, nobody gets any. It is not our job to sort out tribe issues for you.
Blocking drops or loot crates
Impersonating staff
Blocking Lava Golem for more than 10 minutes
Placing structures on players
Mass soaking (excessive soaking with no intent to raid)
Open-world caging or placing turrets in the open
Having meshed structures (unintentional)
Countering a raid that is already being countered
Using macros or autoclickers in PvP
IRL threats against other players
Mesh biting or mesh picking
Illegal builds (ratholes, blocked spawns, banned locations)
Griefing an enemy FOB outside of active raiding
Escaping cages via exploits or glitches
Real-money trading (RMT)
Insiding — betraying your tribe from within
Popcorning — intentionally dropping loot to deny raiders
Teaming with other tribes
Cycling (log rotating) during PvP
Merging tribes during PvP
Account sharing
Tunneling into bases (non-motorboat)
Tribe score abuse or manipulation
Lying about Steam IDs for Hall of Fame submissions
Cheating of any kind — results in all-cluster ban
Duping items or dinos — results in dev wipe + permanent ban
HWID spoofing to evade bans
Meshing or living inside the mesh
Building in banned/restricted locations
Rate
$2 USD / ban day
Minimum Fee
$10 USD
Cheats / Exploits
$150 minimum
Each day of your ban costs $2 USD. A 30-day ban = $60.
The minimum unban fee is $10 regardless of ban length.
Cheating or exploit-related bans have a minimum fee of $150.
Ban evading increases the unban price by $50 each time you evade.
Maximum unban fee is capped at $500.
Repeat offenses double the unban price from your last fee.

The following offenses cannot be unbanned under any circumstances:

Selling or buying accounts
Real-life threats or harassment
Doxxing — sharing personal information of other players
1Join the support Discord server
2Create a support ticket in the unban channel
3Submit your ban reason and in-game name (IGN)
4Wait for admin review (usually within 24 hours)
5Complete payment once approved
6You will be unbanned after payment confirmation
OffenseBan LengthUnban Fee
Insiding30 days$60
Cycling in PvP30 days$60
Aimbot / CheatingPermanent$150 minimum