ARK: Survival Evolved Server Setup — Maps, Clusters & Configuration

RAM Requirements by Map

ARK is one of the most resource-intensive game servers you can run. Different maps have very different requirements because of their size, entity density, and terrain complexity. Here's what you actually need:

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Base Game Maps

• The Island: 4-6 GB RAM. The original map and the most lightweight. Good starting point for new server owners.
• The Center: 4-6 GB RAM. Slightly larger than The Island with more open water. Similar resource usage.
• Scorched Earth: 4-6 GB RAM. Desert map. Comparable to The Island in resource needs.
• Ragnarok: 6-8 GB RAM. Much larger map with diverse biomes. One of the most popular maps and noticeably hungrier than The Island.
• Aberration: 6-8 GB RAM. Underground cave system with complex geometry. The terrain complexity adds CPU load.
• Extinction: 6-8 GB RAM. City-based map with orbital drops and Titan spawns that spike resource usage during events.

DLC and Expansion Maps

• Genesis Part 1: 8-10 GB RAM. Simulation-based map with instanced missions. The mission system adds significant overhead.
• Genesis Part 2: 8-12 GB RAM. The largest and most demanding ARK map. The space biome and mission system push memory usage hard.
• Crystal Isles: 6-8 GB RAM. Large map with crystal wyverns. Moderate resource needs.
• Lost Island: 6-8 GB RAM. Similar to Ragnarok in scope and requirements.
• Fjordur: 8-10 GB RAM. Includes realm-switching mechanics (Midgard, Jotunheim, etc.) that effectively load multiple sub-maps.

CPU and Disk

ARK needs at least 2-3 dedicated CPU cores at 3.5 GHz or higher. The server is partially multi-threaded, so more cores actually help (unlike Minecraft). Disk space: The base server installation is 12-15 GB. With mods, expect 20-40 GB. World saves grow over time — active servers can have saves of 200+ MB per map.

GameUserSettings.ini — Key Configuration

The GameUserSettings.ini file controls most of the gameplay experience on your server. It lives in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/ (or WindowsServer). Here are the settings you'll want to tweak first:

Rates and Progression

• XPMultiplier=1.0 — Experience gain rate. Official servers use 1x. Most unofficial servers run 3x-10x because the vanilla grind is extreme. A value of 5.0 is a common starting point.
• TamingSpeedMultiplier=1.0 — How fast dinos tame. At 1x, high-level tames take hours. Most servers use 5x-20x. Some dinos take 6+ real-time hours at 1x — your players will thank you for increasing this.
• HarvestAmountMultiplier=1.0 — Resources gathered per hit. 2x-5x is common for unofficial servers.
• BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier=1.0 — How fast baby dinos grow up. At 1x, some dinos take 4+ real days to mature. 10x-50x is common.
• EggHatchSpeedMultiplier=1.0 — Egg hatching speed. Same story — increase significantly for playability.
• MatingIntervalMultiplier=1.0 — Time between breeding attempts. Lower = more frequent breeding. Set to 0.1-0.5 for active breeding servers.

Day/Night Cycle

• DayTimeSpeedScale=1.0 — How fast daytime passes. Lower values make days longer.
• NightTimeSpeedScale=1.0 — How fast nighttime passes. Most servers speed up night (2.0-4.0) because ARK nights are very dark and long.
• DayCycleSpeedScale=1.0 — Overall day/night cycle speed. Affects both day and night proportionally.

Player and Dino Settings

• PlayerDamageMultiplier=1.0 — Damage players deal. Increase for PvE ease.
• DinoDamageMultiplier=1.0 — Damage wild and tamed dinos deal.
• PlayerResistanceMultiplier=1.0 — Damage players take. Lower = tankier players. Note: 0.0 makes players invincible.
• DinoResistanceMultiplier=1.0 — Damage dinos take. Lower = tankier dinos.
• MaxTribeDinos=500 — Tamed dino limit per tribe. Reduce if you want to control server entity count.

PvP Settings

• bAllowFlyerCarryPvE=false — Whether flyers can pick up players/dinos in PvE. Set to true for PvE quality of life.
• PreventOfflinePvP=true — Prevent raiding when a tribe has no members online. Essential for PvP servers where players have different schedules.
• PreventOfflinePvPInterval=900 — Seconds after last tribe member logs off before offline protection activates.

Cluster Setup — Connecting Multiple ARK Servers

One of ARK's best features is server clusters: linking multiple servers (each running a different map) so players can transfer their character, dinos, and items between them. Here's how it works:

How Clusters Work

• Each server in the cluster runs independently with its own map and settings.
• All servers share a cluster directory — a shared folder where transfer data is stored.
• Players use supply drops or obelisks in-game to upload their character/dinos/items, which saves the data to the cluster directory. They then join a different server in the cluster and download their stuff.

Setting Up a Cluster

1. Create a shared cluster directory. All servers must be able to read and write to the same folder. On a single machine, this is just a shared path. Across multiple machines, you need a shared network drive or NFS mount.
2. Add cluster ID to each server. Add -clusterid=MyClusterName and -ClusterDirOverride=/path/to/cluster/folder to each server's startup parameters. All servers in the cluster must use the same cluster ID.
3. Optionally restrict transfers. Use -NoTributeDownloads to prevent external transfers (only allow within your cluster). Use ?PreventDownloadSurvivors=true to prevent character imports from outside.

Cluster Performance Considerations

Each server in a cluster runs as a completely separate process. A two-map cluster needs roughly double the resources of a single server. Most cluster operators run 2-4 maps. Running more than 4 on a single machine requires serious hardware (32+ GB RAM, 8+ cores).

Essential Mods

ARK's mod community is massive. These are the most popular and universally recommended mods for unofficial servers:

• Structures Plus (S+): Massively improves the building system. Adds pulling resources from nearby storage, triangle foundations, flexible snapping, and dozens of building pieces. Nearly every unofficial server runs this.
• Awesome SpyGlass: Replaces the basic spyglass with one that shows dino stats, level, and taming info at a glance. Quality-of-life mod that saves constant trips to third-party tools.
• Dino Storage v2: Soul Trap system — capture tamed dinos into items for compact storage. Dramatically reduces entity count on the server (improves performance) and makes managing a dino army practical.
• Classic Flyers: Restores the ability to level speed on flyers, which was removed in an official patch. Many communities consider the speed nerf a bad change. This mod reverts it.
• Awesome Teleporters: Adds teleportation pads for fast travel between bases. ARK maps are huge — without teleporters, moving between bases takes 10-20 minutes of flying.
• Kraken's Better Dinos: Overhauls dino abilities and stats to make underused dinos viable. Adds new attacks and utility to creatures that are otherwise pointless to tame.

Mod installation: Each mod has a Workshop ID (a number). Add mod IDs to your server's startup parameters with -automanagedmods and list them in GameUserSettings.ini under ActiveMods=ModID1,ModID2,ModID3. The server downloads them automatically on startup.

RCON Commands for Administration

RCON (Remote Console) lets you manage your server without being logged in to the game. You'll need an RCON client (mcrcon, ARRCON, or your hosting panel's built-in console) and the RCON port/password from your server config.

• ListPlayers — Show all connected players with their Steam IDs.
• SaveWorld — Force an immediate world save.
• ServerChat {message} — Broadcast a message to all players.
• KickPlayer {SteamID} — Kick a player.
• BanPlayer {SteamID} — Ban a player permanently.
• UnbanPlayer {SteamID} — Remove a ban.
• DestroyWildDinos — Remove all wild dinos and let them respawn. Useful after changing spawn settings or if dino counts are causing lag.
• DoExit — Save and shut down the server gracefully.
• SetTimeOfDay {HH:MM} — Set the in-game time. Useful for events or testing.
• Slomo {value} — Change game speed. Slomo 1 is normal. Slomo 5 speeds everything up 5x (useful for testing or fast-forwarding breeding timers).

Backup Strategy — ARK Saves Are Fragile

ARK has a well-deserved reputation for save corruption. The game saves multiple files that must all be in sync, and a crash during a save operation can corrupt the entire world. Take backups seriously:

• Automate backups. Set up hourly or every-2-hour backups of the entire Saved/ directory. Don't rely on the game's built-in save alone.
• Keep multiple generations. Keep at least 24 hours of rolling backups. A corruption might not be noticed immediately — by the time players report missing structures, the most recent backup might also be corrupted.
• Back up before updates. ARK updates occasionally break save compatibility. Always take a manual backup before allowing the server to update.
• Back up before adding/removing mods. Removing a mod that added structures or dinos will delete those objects from the world. Keep a backup in case you need to re-add the mod.
• Test your restores. A backup you've never tested restoring is not a backup. Periodically verify that you can actually load a backup file.

The key files to back up are in ShooterGame/Saved/: the *.ark map file, *.arktribe files, *.arkprofile files, and the *.arkcharactersetting files. Back up the entire Saved/ folder to be safe.

Common Issues and Fixes

Server Not Showing Up in Browser

• ARK uses ports 7777 (game), 7778 (raw UDP), and 27015 (Steam query) by default. All three must be open.
• If using the Epic Games version, also open port 7779.
• The Steam server browser can take 5-15 minutes to list a new server. Have players connect directly via IP while waiting.
• Check that bRawSockets is not enabled in your config — this changes the query port behavior.

Mod Mismatch on Connect

• Players must subscribe to all server mods on Steam Workshop. Share your mod list.
• Mod load order matters. Make sure the ActiveMods list in your GameUserSettings.ini matches the order players have in their client.
• After updating a mod, both the server and all clients need the updated version. Have players verify their mod files through Steam.

Save Corruption Recovery

1. Stop the server immediately.
2. Check for .bak files in the save directory — ARK keeps one automatic backup of the map file.
3. If the .bak is also corrupted, restore from your external backup system.
4. If no backups exist, the world is likely unrecoverable. This is why automated backups are non-negotiable.

Server Lag and Low TPS

• Too many tamed dinos: Run DestroyWildDinos to respawn wild dinos (removes ones stuck in terrain). Reduce MaxTribeDinos to limit tamed dino count.
• Structure count: Large tribes with massive bases cause entity overload. Consider structure limits or decay timers for inactive players.
• Mod conflicts: Some mods don't play well together. Disable mods one at a time to identify the culprit.
• Insufficient RAM: If the server is using 90%+ of allocated RAM, it will start lagging before it crashes. Upgrade or reduce map complexity.