Dead Mans Island is built around one simple idea: ARK should stay dangerous without the community becoming miserable. PvP, rivalry, territory fights and the occasional bit of chaos are part of the game. What we are deliberately avoiding is the constant fear that everything you built will be erased while you're offline. Cheating, harassment, loopholes and behaviour designed purely to ruin somebody else's experience are not.
These rules apply to everybody. New players, established tribes and admins are held to the same standard. We will enforce the rules based on both the wording and the intent behind them. Finding a technical loophole does not make abusive behaviour acceptable.
No hacks, scripts, dupes, unauthorized third-party tools, or deliberate abuse of bugs and broken mechanics. If something clearly gives an unintended advantage, don't build your strategy around it — report it. “The game let me do it” is not a defence for obvious exploit abuse.
Dead Mans Island is PvP, but it is not designed to make you afraid to log off, go to work, or sleep because your entire base might disappear while you're gone. Outside of scheduled HELL NIGHT events, random raids on established player bases are not permitted.
You can still fight, ambush, defend territory, steal loot and settle rivalries in the normal course of play. The difference is that we want your base to feel like a place you can build and come back to — not a second job you constantly have to defend.
HELL NIGHT is the designated raid window on Dead Mans Island. These scheduled events are when the no-raid protection is lifted and tribes are allowed to launch organised raids against other established bases.
Hell Night dates and exact start/end times will be announced in Discord ahead of time so everyone has a chance to prepare, defend, relocate valuables, form alliances and actually enjoy the chaos.
Outside of Hell Night, unauthorised base raiding is a rule violation and will be enforced by the admin team. The point is simple: you should be able to log off without wondering whether your home will still exist tomorrow.
Trash talk, rivalry and competitive banter are fine when they stay in the game. Personal harassment, threats, doxxing, stalking, targeted abuse or bringing real-life disputes into the community are not. Destroy somebody's base if that's the game; don't try to destroy the person behind it.
There are no VIP players and no protected tribes. The same standards apply whether you joined yesterday, have built the largest base on the map, or are part of the admin team. Friends of admins do not get special treatment, and established players do not get a free pass.
Build what you need and build something cool, but don't cover the map in unnecessary structures, abandoned traps, foundation spam or giant piles of junk. Remove obsolete structures when you no longer need them. Keeping the map playable and the server healthy is everyone's responsibility.
Dead Mans Island is a closed progression environment. Cross-server transfers are disabled. Outside characters, dinosaurs and items cannot be imported to bypass progression or bring in advantages earned elsewhere. What happens on this island stays on this island.
The server runs without a custom mod stack. This keeps the experience consistent and gives everyone access to the same core gameplay, items and mechanics. Do not attempt to use third-party tools or files that effectively function as an unauthorized mod.
Dead Mans Island is not built around the normal “wipe and start over” model. Player progress matters. Your base, tribe, dinos and long-term projects are meant to have a future here.
When things need to feel fresh, we'll use scheduled server-wide events, challenges and community activities rather than deleting everything people worked for.
Admin powers exist to keep the server fair and functional — not to create advantages, troll players or settle personal arguments. No spawning items for personal use, no invisible interference in PvP, no favouritism and no using admin tools to punish someone simply because you dislike them.
Admins are active players too and are expected to follow the same gameplay standards as everyone else. When an admin must intervene, the intervention should be limited to what is needed to resolve the issue.
See a cheater? Suspect an exploit? Have evidence of harassment or a serious rule violation? Bring it to Discord with names, screenshots, clips, timestamps and any other useful information you have.
Public accusations with no evidence often create more drama than they solve. Give the admin team enough information to investigate and make a decision properly.
Not every possible bad behaviour can be written into a numbered list. These rules establish the standard, not a collection of loopholes. If something is obviously intended to circumvent the spirit of the rules, expect it to be treated accordingly. When in doubt, ask before you do it.
Pick up abandoned structures. Don't leave pointless foundations everywhere. Don't deliberately create lag-inducing clutter. Report server performance problems. Help new players understand the rules. A healthy server depends on players taking some ownership of the environment instead of leaving every cleanup job to admins.
Dead Mans Island is intentionally being built as a small, mature community rather than a revolving door of random players. We want people who recognise the names they see in chat, know their neighbours, make rivalries, form alliances and actually become part of the server.
Our goal is to create a place where you can get the best parts of ARK — progression, exploration, building, taming and PvP — without the constant stress that comes with a server where everything can be destroyed at any moment.
The protection of your base is a privilege of following the server rules. Deliberately breaking the no-raid clause, abusing exploits, structure-spamming, cheating or repeatedly ignoring admin instructions can result in enforcement that removes that protection.
In other words: play by the rules and build in peace. Break them, and you may wake up to a very different island.
We're looking for mature players who actually want to play ARK: build, tame, explore, fight, raid, trade, progress and occasionally get eaten by something that had absolutely no business killing them.
You do not have to like everyone here. You do have to be capable of competing with people you don't like without turning the server into a toxic shitshow.
Dead Mans Island is currently in its testing phase. As the community grows, we may clarify or adjust rules where the current wording creates problems or fails to cover a new situation. Changes will be announced through Discord and will be made to keep the server fair and sustainable — not to suddenly benefit one tribe.
Report cheating, exploits, serious rule violations or server problems through Discord.