How to make an ARK: Survival Ascended server

Your ARK: Survival Ascended server is online - here's how to join it, pick your map, unlock admin commands and add CurseForge mods.

Find your server address

1. Log in to the dashboard and open your server.
2. The server address sits in the panel's left rail, right under your server's name - an IP or a name, then a colon, then a port (it looks like 27.124.105.40:25588).
3. Press the copy button beside it so you take the whole thing, including the number after the colon.

We open the game port and the port after it for you, so there is nothing to set up on your side.

Wait until it is joinable

The panel switches to Running about a minute before players can join. Open the Console and wait for the line Server has completed startup and is now advertising for join. The first boot takes about two minutes, and any boot after you add mods takes longer.

Join from ARK

1. Open ARK: Survival Ascended (the remake, not Survival Evolved) and pick Join ARK.
2. Set the session filter to Unofficial, clear any other filter you've changed, and type your server's name into the name search.
3. Select it and press Join. If you set a Join Password in the Startup tab, the game asks for it here.

If you prefer typing an address, open the in-game console and enter open <your address> (for example open 27.124.105.40:25588).

Server not showing in the list

If your server is missing, work down this list:

1. Let it finish booting. A server is not listed until the console prints the advertising for join line above.
2. Check the filters. Use Unofficial, clear any other filter, and search for the exact Server Name from the Startup tab.
3. Make sure you're on the same version. You can only join a server running the same game version as you. If the game updated before your server restarted, restart the server: it checks for the new build on the way up.
4. Join directly. Use open <your address> from the in-game console.

Still stuck? Fix: can't connect to your server covers the checks that apply to every game.

What's in the Startup tab

Open Startup to change how the server runs. Changes apply on the next restart.

Pick your map

Set Map in the Startup tab to one of these, exactly as written (TheIsland_WP is the default). Each map keeps its own save, so switching starts that map fresh and switching back brings the old one back. No download is needed.

The map decides most of the memory you need. An empty Lost Colony already holds 14.9 GB and an empty Astraeos 17.3 GB. That leaves a 16 GB Dodo about 1.5 GB to spare on Lost Colony before anyone joins, and Astraeos ran a 16 GB server out of memory while loading. Pick Rex (24 GB) or Giga (32 GB) before you switch to either. The other eight maps run on Dodo, though players, mods and how much your tribes build all add to it. Upgrade from the dashboard whenever a map outgrows your plan - your saves stay as they are. Our ARK: Survival Ascended plans list each tier.

Admin password and commands

Your Admin Password is generated when the server is created and sits in the Startup tab. To use it in game, open the console and type enablecheats <admin password>. You can change it any time (8 to 64 letters, numbers, dashes or underscores), then restart so the server and the panel both use the new one.

The panel's Console runs these without logging in:

• SaveWorld, ListPlayers (everyone online, with their Steam IDs), Broadcast <message> and ServerChat <message>
• SetTimeOfDay hh:mm
• DestroyWildDinos (wipes every wild dino so they respawn fresh; tames are kept)
• KickPlayer <steam id> and BanPlayer <steam id>

How to use your server console explains the command box.

CurseForge mods

ARK: Survival Ascended keeps its mods on CurseForge. Each one has a project ID, the number on the mod's CurseForge page.

1. In the Startup tab, paste the IDs into Mod IDs, separated by commas with no spaces (for example 929420).
2. Restart. The server downloads and installs the mods itself on the way up, so the first boot after adding a mod is slower. Give it time before deciding something is wrong.

The server also updates its mods on every boot, so a scheduled restart keeps them current.

Files, settings and backups

Open the File Manager tab to reach your files:

• Saves are in ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks/, in a folder for each map. ARK keeps dated copies beside each .ark file, so a folder holds several files.
• Settings are GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/. The easiest way to change rates, difficulty and breeding is the Server Settings tab, which has labelled controls and presets, and restarts the server for you when it's running. To edit a file by hand, note it's only filled in after the server's first clean stop, so stop it once from the panel first.
• Max Players and the admin password are rewritten from the Startup tab on every boot. Change those two there, not in the file.

Your plan has two backup slots, so once both are used a new backup replaces the oldest one. How to create and restore backups covers protecting or downloading the one you want to keep.

Common first-boot problems

1. The panel says Running but nobody can join - normal for the first minute. Wait for the advertising for join line.
2. The server runs out of memory or keeps restarting on Lost Colony or Astraeos - the map needs more than a Dodo holds. Move to Rex or Giga, or set Map back to one of the other eight.
3. "Incompatible version" when connecting - the game updated before your server restarted. Restart the server and it picks up the new build.
4. Mods don't load - check the IDs are numbers separated by commas with no spaces, then restart once more.

Your server runs in Sydney. What ping to expect from each city has the numbers, New Zealand included.

If your problem isn't on this list, open the Console and copy the exact error lines. Paste them into your support ticket along with what you changed just before it started.