INTRODUCTION

In the world of ARK: Survival Evolved beauty is everywhere with ancient ruins, unexplored caves, and paths that lead to new and exciting mysteries that you can uncover with other ARK adventurers. In the pursuit of the most epic journey yet, you and your friends can take advantage of server mods and morph your adventure into a spiral of new content that will take your server beyond and draw players to join!

Start adding ARK:SE mods to your server automatically in just a few seconds and bring joy to your players as they discover extremely unique creatures, devastating items, and custom maps that take your server to the max! Join us, as we explore ARK: Survival Evolved server mods, where to find them, and how you can activate them for your own server.

ENSURING YOUR ARK SERVER CAN USE MODS

By default, your ARK: Survival Evolved server will not support mods due to cross-play being enabled. This is caused by the EpicGames launcher for ARK not yet supporting the use of mods. At the moment, Steam is the only platform that supports ARK mods with the ARK Steam Workshop. We will cover how you can disable cross-play so that you use mods on your server!

1. Open your ARK control panel and directly below the “SETTINGS” section on the left, press the “General” setting.
   
2. In your ARK server settings under “Base settings”, scroll down until you see the option “Allowed platforms”.
3. Use the dropdown for this option to change this to “Allow only Steam players”.
   
4. From there, at the bottom select “Save changes” and then restart your ARK server from your server dashboard.

You will now be able to utilize mods on your ARK: Survival Evolved server!

LOCATING ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED SERVER MODS

The first and most important step in adding mods to your ARK server involves finding the perfect mods for your server and player community. It’s great to think about what you’re wanting, such as if you’d like to add new dinosaurs, try a feature that makes the game more hardcore, or venture into a new location. Once you have an idea of what you’d want, it’s time to find those mods!

1. Load Steam on your computer and at the top click “LIBRARY” and then select your “ARK: Survival Evolved” game.
   
2. Within the game overview area, look at the tabs and locate the “Workshop” tab. Press this option to access the ARK: Survival Evolved steam workshop.
3. In the workshop, browse through the many different mods available for ARK. You can use filters such as “Most Popular”, “Top Rated All Time”, and “Most Recent” during your search.
   
4. After locating the perfect mod(s) for your server, click on those mods to view their Steam Workshop pages.
5. Below the title and images of each mod, locate the “Share” option and click on that.
   
6. Upon selecting that option, a share link will appear. You will need the ID within this link, as that is the mod ID you will be adding to your server to add that mod.
   

   Copy that ID and save that for the next steps!

HOW TO INSTALL ARK MODS TO YOUR SERVER

1. Enter your ARK: SE server panel where your mod settings are located.
2. Look to the left side of the panel under “SETTINGS” and select the “Mods + Workshop” option.
   
3. In the ARK mod menu below “Base settings”, find the “Active Mods (IDs)” section and underneath that, the “Popular Mods” listings.
   

   You can now install mods both automatically and by adding mod IDs for mods had chosen.

INSTALLING ARK:SE SERVER MODS AUTOMATICALLY

1. While inside the ARK mod menu below “Popular Mods”, you can see lists of the most popular mods for your ARK: Survival Evolved server. Find mods that you would like to add to your server from the list.
2. Once found, simply click on that mod and that mod’s ID will automatically be added to your server’s mod list.
   
3. After clicking each mod you’d like installed press “Save changes” at the bottom right and then restart your server to load those ARK server mods!
   

ADDING ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED MODS BY MOD ID

1. Inside the Nitrado ARK mod installer, find the “Active Mods (IDs)” option.
2. From the above section “LOCATING ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED SERVER MODS”, use the mod IDs you gathered from the ARK Steam Workshop and add those IDs to this setting’s field like this ensuring there is a comma between each mod and no spaces:
   MODID,MOD2ID,MOD3ID,MOD4ID
   
3. Once those IDs are added, press “Save Changes” below to the right of that menu and then restart the server to add those mods!

CHANGING YOUR ARK: SE MOD SETTINGS

Some ARK: Survival Evolved mods include settings that you are able to add directly to your server files to change different options in the mod. Not all mods support these settings and so we will first need to check if the mods you installed allow for modifications like this.

1. Begin by checking the Steam Workshop page for that ARK: Survival Evolved mod you are installing.
   

   The description, found by scrolling near the middle of the page, offers details on the mod and will inform you on if there are settings available to edit. In the above example, Tranq Sniper includes several settings that can be added to the server.

2. To add settings from a mod load your Nitrado ARK server panel and to the left below “TOOLS”, select the “File Browser” option to edit your server settings.
   
3. In your server’s file browser, navigate through the folders “arkse” → “ShooterGame” → “Saved” → “Config” → “WindowsServer” and then click to edit the file named “GameUserSettings.ini”.
   
4. When editing the “GameUserSettings.ini” file, scroll to the very bottom of this file. This is where you will add the mod settings from the Steam Workshop page just like this:
   
5. From there, edit those new options to your specifications.
6. Once those options have been added and modified, press “Save changes” and lastly restart your server to update those mod settings!

ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED MOD FAQ

Why should I use ARK:SE server mods?

ARK: Survival Evolved server mods offer a versatile way to add unique new features to your server from the craziest dinosaurs to the most bewildering islands that you and your players can enjoy together on your server! When you add mods to your server, you will unlock endless new possibilities and ways to play.

What are some good beginner ARK mods?

HG Stacking 🍖 - This mod increases the stacking of most items by up to 5000 and reduces those items' weight by 90%, ensuring you and your friends can hold all items while adventuring on your server.

Dino Tracker 🦕 - Adding a brand new item to the game that you can craft after level 25, the dino tracker is attached to gloves and will allow you to track any of your dinosaurs no matter where they are in your world!

Classic Flyers 🛫 - Taking a fight towards the classic direction, Classic Flyers brings back the original stats of flyer species dinosaurs. This will not only speed up your flying speed on those dinosaurs but also includes the bonuses of new attacks, a new Emote: Pet!, and more!

Do players need to install the mods on their ARK game client?

Yes, but with ARK’s ingenuity, when a player joins your server their ARK:SE game will automatically begin installing the mods necessary to join that server. You will never need to share your server mod list or manually subscribe to mods in the ARK: SE Steam Workshop to be able to play together on your server!