I made this guide with the goal to explain what to expect from a server based only on the name and to help clarify to new (and old, delusional) players what the isle Is since so many people don’t seem to actually know because they didn’t watch enough/any of dondis streams or bothered to read the description of the game.
 
 
(This Guide will be updated semi-regularly)
 
 

Terminology/what the isle is going to be

(Info subject to human error. this information is based off of watching dondis streams and playing the game since release. If any of this information is wrong, please let me know and provide a source of the information so I can fix my mistake. If a valid source is not provided, Then I cannot believe that info and will not change it)
 
 
The isle: An open world survival horror game that lets you play as many unique species of dinosaurs and will eventually include mutant dinosaurs, mutant tribal cannibals, basic human survivors, straight up mutant abomination strain beasts, and armed mercenaries. There is only one goal for the dinosaur players, and that is to survive until eventually reaching elder or obtaining a strain form (just survive for the most part). the mercenaries will be tasked with capturing and fortifying various locations around the map, each faction will have its own end-game. Server owners will keep the ability to select what factions and creatures are playable in their own server. mods will also become available again at a later date. this allows the game to appeal to a wide variety of players, from the dino nerds, to the open world survival vets, to the players that tend to use the game as a glorified chatroom to just hang out, the Isle will offer many ways to play for many players.
 
 
carebears/mixpackers: players who will team up with players of another species to gain a massive advantage over other players. This is not the intended way to play on the official servers and most other servers (that’s why global chat was removed, and an affinity system keeps getting brought up) there isn’t anything inherently wrong with “playing the game the way you want” however, these players really should stick to the servers that want them there, rather than going into the officials or realism servers to troll other players because when they do that, that is what they are doing. to my knowledge, this is not the intended way to play.
 
 
corpse guarding: the act of an herbivore player going out of their way to grief a carnivore player, even if the herbivore will only be negatively effected. the reason it’s only a problem when an herbivore does it should be obvious, the herbivore can’t eat it and has nothing to gain from standing over it and is actually wasting its time just to deny food to something that probably can’t even grow into a threat. this is considered trolling in every server, it’s even found distasteful in many no rules servers.
 
 
killing for sport/kfs: this doesn’t exist. It’s a survival game. if you died you probably did something wrong or just got stuck between a rock and a hard place. it happens to the best of us. the isle is not suppose to be an easy place to live.
 
 
 

Official servers

Not much to say here other than these servers are where you will get the best experience of the isle as dondi wants us to play it.
 
At one point, some of these servers, during legacy, had active admins and mods to take care of those who exploit or grief (they no longer do and never will again as trying to have mods constantly active on this many servers enforcing rules on 100s of players just isn’t feasible for any dev team)
 
 
How to enjoy:
 
If you’ve played DayZ, rust, or any other pvp open world survival game then you should feel right at home in these servers. trust no one other than those you are voice chatting with, expect nothing but death around every corner while being prepared for everything, keep your head on a swivel and play smart. the goal is survive.
 
 
 

Any server that says “no rules”

If in the title you see “no rules” expect one of two things.
 
 
1-this is a lawless wasteland, pretty much like the officials except ANYTHING goes. no mods, admins, server owners or players won’t care what goes on here. expect some of the worst behavior the internet has to offer.
 
 
2- this type of “no rules” server actually does have some simple rules (mostly common courtesy stuff like no slurs, cursing, mostly rules that only apply if/when you use the chat box. these servers can be fun and often provide “free grows” to attract players however, these servers Harold a sinister truth. they are swarming with carebears and cut-throats. expect to always run in to a squad of mix-packers every time you log into one of these servers. if you are generally a solo player, avoid these unless you’re just messing around and not looking for a fulfilling gameplay experience. the carebears are not the only detriment, these servers also attract back stabbers. most of the time they claim to be carebears, but to be sure is impossible, they may have just turned on you to kill you just because they see that as fun. these players will pack up with you, gain your trust, and then kill you when you’re most vulnerable even if they have nothing to gain due to the cannibalism debuff that ptera and utah share. however, this is not the whole experience with these servers. they can be just as fun as any other server as long as this is the kind of gameplay you find most fun.
 
 
 

Realism servers

since the dawn of isle server hosting, there have been many “realism” servers. all have been somewhat different but much like the “no rules” servers, they can be organized into two groups.
 
 
1-childish realism: very strict and based off entirely what the owner of the server thinks is realistic. these servers will often have different rules for each individual dinosaur species like what they are allowed to attack and how they should react based on dinosaurs near them. these rules vary widely depending on what dinosaurs the owner likes/dislikes rather than actual realism. these servers tend to not last very long, have very small player counts, and will often kick you or not let you join at all if you don’t join their discord and read their short story worth of rules.
 
 
2-Fun/arcade/adult Realism: The realism is pretty loose in terms of rules to provide what is essentially a better official server. the most common rules here are no mixpacking/carebearing, no corpse guarding if you’re an herbivore, and other very common quality of life rules that make the server more fun and fair for everyone. these servers provide the best bang for your buck in terms of gameplay freedoms and fun. you’ll rarely, if ever, have a play-through ruined by mixpackers, back stabbers, and trolls on these servers.
 
 
 

Pay to Win servers

If you’ve read this far, then you probably understand that I do not like mixpackers or the “i’ll play the game any way I want” crowd. but that’s the thing, I don’t hate them. if people want to play that way that’s perfectly fine just go do it in the right server. The next server type I’m about to tell you about is a server type I have an extremely hateful bias against and I think these servers shouldn’t be allowed in the game at all.
 
this server type is a particular case where you can’t really tell if it’s pay to win just by looking at the name as many server types have done this and some still do in legacy. you will have to join the server or discord and see for yourself to find out.
 
In these servers, the average player will not be able to play as certain dinosaurs unless they pay for it. they can also pay to have their dino grown. now don’t get me wrong, that money is probably going to supporting the server, maybe paying admins or mods, but at the end of the day, It’s pay to win which is abhorrent and disgusting. not only are these servers using someone elses’ product to make money without paying the creators of the product a cut, but they are taking advantage of spoiled kids or catering to people that have the money and just want easy wins without actually playing the game and earning it like everyone else. There are other ways to make the money to host a server. If your server is pay to win kindly crawl back to the mobile market or at the very least pay the devs royalties since your making money from THEIR game.
 
 

 
 
Hope you enjoy the Guide about The Isle – Official servers & terminology guide, if you think we should add extra information or forget something, please let us know via comment below, and we will do our best to fix or update as soon as possible!