Server Browser

This page describes how to list all online ARK servers and query them for their current status, just as the in-game server browser does.

Getting server list
Official servers and unofficial servers are obtained separately. To get a list of official servers, you must use Ark's Web API. Ark uses Valve's Master Server Query Protocol to obtain a list of unofficial servers.

Querying server info
Server info is obtained by using Valve's Server Query Protocol. Descriptions of the protocol fields unmodified (Steam workshop 'plugins' don't count) Ark servers use follow below. Modified Ark servers can of course spoof or change the meaning of any of the fields and add in additional fields.

Info Requests
So a response from an unmodified server will look something like this (fields are not shown to their correct size):

[A2S Header ] 49 11 [Server Name ] [Map Name ] 61 72 6B 5F 73 75 72 76 69 76 61 6C 5F 65 76 6F 6C 76 65 64 00 41 52 4B 3A 20 53 75 72 76 69 76 61 6C 20 45 76 6F 6C 76 65 64 00 00 00 [Player Count] [Max Players ] 00 [Server Type ] [Platform ] '''[Private? ] 01 31 2E 30 2E 30 2E 30 00 B1 [Port ] [SteamID  ] [Keywords ]''' C3 BE 47 05 00 00 00 00 00

Server Name
Unmodified Ark servers limit their server name field to 63 characters. They also append the server version to their server name. The server name and server version are separated by space-dash-space-parens  and then the version number can be read until the next right parenthesis or until the end of the string.

Server Variables
The Variables field is a string that contains an unordered comma separated list of "Key:Value" server parameters. The list should always start with a comma but don't expect one as per the robustness principal. The table below describes the know keys and their observed value type and description, all of which may change at any time. Keys might be case sensitive?

Player Requests
Ark servers return some information on the players currently connected upon request.

Rule Entry
Server rules are a list of Key:Value strings back to back. The key and value fields are both strings, terminated by a null byte. The rule list also includes the server variables from the server info request, which are not repeated in this table. Just like the server variables in the info request, do not expect any of these to be present, and they may change at any time.

Ping & Challenge Requests
Ark servers do not support either ping requests or challenge requests (they are both considered deprecated now). Challenge requests are handled through info or player list requests. Most other games get server latency by measuring the round trip time of other packets sent and divide by two (not sure how Ark does it)

Navigateur des serveurs