ARK: Survival Evolved Server Configuration Guide

ARK has a reputation for being endlessly tweakable, and honestly that reputation is earned. Between taming rates, breeding intervals, stat curves and the three hundred or so toggles tucked into its two ini files, you can take the same base game and turn it into anything from a brutal vanilla grind to a weekend-friendly boosted server where everyone's riding a Giga by Sunday evening. This guide walks through the settings we see people change most often on their ARK: Survival Evolved servers, where each one actually belongs, and the admin commands you'll reach for once the server is live.

Before we get into the values themselves there's one thing worth knowing up front, because it trips people up constantly: ARK splits its config between two files, and putting a setting in the wrong one means it silently does nothing. No warning, no error in the log, it just quietly ignores you while you swear the game is broken. We'll flag which file each block belongs in as we go.

The two files and how to open them

Everything lives in GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini, both sitting in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/. You don't need to SSH anywhere to edit them — from your service page in control.low.ms:

1. Open the server.
2. Click Configuration Files in the left sidebar.
3. Pick GameUserSettings.ini or Game.ini from the list.
4. Edit, save, then restart the server for changes to apply.

Do not use File Manager for this. Configuration Files is the one you want — it's the TCAdmin editor that's been set up to point at the right ini paths for ARK, so you won't accidentally edit a stale copy.

GameUserSettings.ini — the rate multipliers everyone changes

Open GameUserSettings.ini, find the [ServerSettings] block, and drop your changes in there. These are the multipliers that 90% of server owners touch on day one:

[ServerSettings]
TamingSpeedMultiplier=5.0
HarvestAmountMultiplier=3.0
XPMultiplier=3.0
DifficultyOffset=1.0
DayTimeSpeedScale=1.0
NightTimeSpeedScale=3.0
PlayerCharacterFoodDrainMultiplier=0.5
PlayerCharacterWaterDrainMultiplier=0.5
PlayerCharacterStaminaDrainMultiplier=0.8
DinoCharacterFoodDrainMultiplier=0.8
ShowMapPlayerLocation=True
AllowThirdPersonPlayer=True

1.0 is the official rate for all of these. TamingSpeedMultiplier=5.0 means tames finish five times faster than official, HarvestAmountMultiplier=3.0 means every whack on a tree gives you three times the wood, and so on. The drain multipliers go the other way — lower numbers mean your food and water bars empty more slowly, which people generally want bumped down a bit so you're not constantly eating berries.

NightTimeSpeedScale=3.0 is a small kindness everyone appreciates. ARK nights are long and dark and you can't see anything; tripling the speed means they pass in a reasonable amount of time without removing the mechanic entirely.

PvP, PvE and offline raid protection

Still inside [ServerSettings], this is the block that decides what kind of server you're actually running:

[ServerSettings]
ServerPVE=False
ServerHardcore=False
AllowFlyerCarryPvE=True
PreventOfflinePvP=True
PreventOfflinePvPInterval=900

Flip ServerPVE=True for a PvE server. AllowFlyerCarryPvE=True lets PvE players pick each other up with Argentavis and other flyers, which is disabled by default on PvE and always surprises people.

For PvP, PreventOfflinePvP=True with a 900-second (15 minute) grace period is the most common offline-raid protection setup we see. After every player from a tribe logs off, their base becomes un-raidable once the timer expires. It's not to everyone's taste but it's what most small-to-medium PvP communities run these days.

Game.ini — the settings that silently fail if you put them in the wrong file

Here's the part that catches people out. A handful of the most important multipliers — anything to do with breeding, imprinting, per-level stats, and the XP caps — do NOT belong in GameUserSettings.ini. They live in Game.ini under the [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode] section header. If you paste these into [ServerSettings] they'll be ignored and your breeding times will stay on official rates no matter how many zeros you add.

Open Game.ini from Configuration Files and add:

[/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0
MatingIntervalMultiplier=0.1
EggHatchSpeedMultiplier=25.0
BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier=25.0
BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier=0.1
BabyImprintAmountMultiplier=3.0
BabyFoodConsumptionSpeedMultiplier=2.0
HarvestHealthMultiplier=2.0
OverrideMaxExperiencePointsPlayer=545000
OverrideMaxExperiencePointsDino=545000

Quick translation:

• OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0 is what actually makes wild dinos spawn up to level 150. DifficultyOffset alone doesn't do it on most maps — you need this too.
• MatingIntervalMultiplier lower = shorter cooldown between mating.
• EggHatchSpeedMultiplier and BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier higher = faster. 25x turns a Rex from a multi-day commitment into an evening.
• BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier lower = imprint cuddles come more often.
• BabyImprintAmountMultiplier higher = more imprint per cuddle, so you can actually hit 100% on the faster-maturing babies.
• OverrideMaxExperiencePointsPlayer/Dino set the XP ceiling for players and tames.

Per-level stat curves live here too. The classic "boosted weight and melee" tweak for tamed dinos:

[/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[0]=2.0
PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[7]=2.0
PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed[7]=2.0
PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed[8]=1.5

The stat indices are 0 Health, 1 Stamina, 2 Torpidity, 3 Oxygen, 4 Food, 5 Water, 6 Temperature, 7 Weight, 8 Melee Damage, 9 Speed, 10 Fortitude, 11 Crafting Speed. Index 7 (weight) and index 8 (melee) are the two people touch most — nothing ruins a breeding line faster than a perfect baby Rex that can't carry anything.

Admin console commands

Log in with your admin password via enablecheats YourAdminPassword in the tab console, then these are the ones you'll actually use:

• SaveWorld — force a world save before you do anything risky.
• DestroyWildDinos — wipes all wild dinos so they respawn under your new settings. Run this after any change to difficulty, spawn rates, or mods that touch creatures. It only affects wild dinos, never tames.
• SetTimeOfDay 12:00:00 — skip to noon.
• Broadcast <message> — server-wide message.
• ListPlayers, KickPlayer <id>, BanPlayer <id>, UnbanPlayer <id> — moderation.
• GiveItemNum <id> <qty> <quality> 0 — hand yourself items for testing.
• Summon <DinoID> and SummonTamed <DinoID> — spawn a wild or pre-tamed creature in front of you.
• God, Fly, Walk, Ghost, InfiniteStats — the usual testing toggles.

One thing worth repeating because people miss it: DestroyWildDinos is the command you run after changing difficulty or spawn settings. It's also not an ini key — if you see a guide telling you to put DestroyTamesOverLevel= or similar in your config, ignore it, that key doesn't exist. The cleanup is done from the console, not the ini.

Clusters

If you're running more than one ARK server and want players to transfer characters, dinos and items between them, that's a cluster, and the shared cluster storage needs to be set up on our side. Have a read of Everything You Need to Know About ARK Clusters first so you know what you're asking for, then open a ticket at LOW.MS support and we'll wire it up for you. It's a quick job but it can't be done from the panel alone.

Applying changes

Edit the file in Configuration Files, save, restart the server from the service page, and if you changed anything spawn- or difficulty-related, hop in and run DestroyWildDinos. Back up before big edits — the Backup Manager in the sidebar takes about thirty seconds and has saved more than one person from a typo in Game.ini that wouldn't let the server boot.

If you're still getting ARK set up, the getting started guide covers first-connection and admin login, the become admin guide walks through adding admins properly, and if something's misbehaving the troubleshooting guide is where to look first.