Saving and recovery

ARK saves your account and active hero together after actions. Gold, stash transfers, loot and the active run belong to the same checkpoint. Two alternating copies retain the previous complete checkpoint.

An interrupted write leaves the previous checkpoint available. A damaged copy is ignored when its checksum or structure is invalid; the newest valid copy is loaded. The game reports recovery because recent progress may have been lost. If both copies are unreadable, it starts a new account and reports the problem.

Finishing a run saves the payout and fallen hero together with the absence of an active run. Loading that checkpoint does not repeat the payout. Recovering an earlier checkpoint can roll back a death along with all other progress since that checkpoint.

An unfinished battle still restarts from the room's beginning with the same seed and starting cooldowns; the battle simulation is not saved turn by turn.

If saving fails, keep the game open, check available storage and choose Retry saving. New actions are blocked until the current progress is saved. Closing the game before a successful retry can lose progress made since the previous checkpoint.

During the alpha, incompatible save formats are discarded without migration. An incompatible account resets both account and active run; an incompatible run alone is discarded while preserving a compatible account. This release uses a new combined format and ignores the older separate account/run files. Device settings remain separate.

The two copies protect against interrupted writes and a damaged file. They cannot guarantee recovery after loss of power or damage to both copies.

Multiple living characters share one account. The active run and parked character snapshots are committed together; switching characters preserves each run's health, equipment, room and random seed. Potion brewing also persists its completion timestamp, so offline time counts. Alpha schema changes discard incompatible saves.

The game opens on the home screen even when a character is saved. Select the character and resume when ready; opening the game does not advance the run.