If there's one thing everyone hates, it's cheaters. Whether it's FPS players with head-popping aimbots, or ones that abuse in-game bugs for their own gain, cheaters are a genuine scourge. Amazon's flashy action MMO Lost Ark is no stranger to bad actors – over one million bans have been handed out since its release, and there are ongoing issues with botting. Over the past few days, there's been yet another bug which, in turn, has led to players exploiting the Stronghold on Ignite servers. Amazon has been quick to act, however, bringing down a pretty nasty ban hammer.
If you're out of the MMO's leveling experience. Notably, the auction and market house systems are disabled. Ignite servers are purely to boost new players, or fast-track fresh characters.
Over the past few days, however, some players have been exploiting an issue with Stronghold rewards, which have essentially become infinitely farmable. This led to cheaters accruing millions in gold, 100 quality gear, and a swathe of honing materials to upgrade their characters with.
The Lost Ark Reddit has been quick to call for punishment given the sheer scale of the exploit, and Amazon has responded with a lengthy forum post and some pretty severe bans.
"Around 2,300 players received rewards chests from the Ignite Stronghold reward issue," it writes in an Monday, October 21 tweet. "Within this group, over 1,200 did not open any of the reward chests. The group that did not open any reward chests will not have any action taken against their s apart from removing the unopened chests from their inventory. For the remaining 1,000 players who opened the reward chests, the severity of the penalty will directly correspond to the level of bug exploitation."
Amazon warns that any items received from the chests will be removed from players' inventories, and if the materials have already been used for crafting, their cost will be deducted from your total gold (even if it goes into negative numbers).
If you only opened one or two chests, you'll lose the items but not be hit with a ban. If you opened between three and seven chests, you'll get a two-week ban, then between eight and 14 it's one month. Above 15 will also net you a 30-day ban, but your is flagged for further review and may be subject to permanent expulsion from the game.
As a result, the Stronghold has been locked. If your character is trapped inside, you'll need to Amazon to get you out, or wait for the maintenance update on Wednesday, October 23.
While a 30-day ban is pretty hefty, some believe this still isn't enough. "These penalties are way too lenient," one commenter says, "especially when you take into the direct impact this had on regular players having their main characters stuck on the Stronghold all day." Others ask for compensation given the disruption to non-cheaters, but Amazon hasn't offered anything at this time.
If this new exploit has left you looking for something new, we have a list of various best free Steam games if you're looking to save some cash.
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