The ARK: Survival Ascended server settings admins actually change — harvest, taming and XP rates, breeding and imprinting, difficulty and max wild level, structures, and PvP — each one explained in plain English with a sensible recommended value and the exact key. ARK splits its config across two files; this page tells you which setting lives where.
Unlike most games, ARK spreads its server settings across two config files. Both live in
ShooterGame/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/ on a dedicated server and are read on every restart. The single most common "my setting won't work" cause is putting a key in the wrong file or under the wrong section header.
The rates and identity file — and the one you'll touch first. Harvest, taming and XP rates, difficulty, day/night pacing, tribe limits, structure damage, server name and passwords all live here, mostly under the [ServerSettings] header.
The deep-gameplay file. Breeding and imprinting, per-level stat scaling, loot and crafting multipliers, and the structure/PvP tunables go here, under the long [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode] header.
The "server rates" everyone asks about first. All of these are multipliers on the vanilla rate — 1.0 is official rates, 2.0 is double. They sit in GameUserSettings.ini under [ServerSettings].
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| HarvestAmountMultiplier | Resources gathered per hit. The headline "harvest rate." | 1.0 | 2–3 |
| TamingSpeedMultiplier | How fast dinos tame (all methods). Higher = faster. | 1.0 | 3–5 |
| XPMultiplier | Global experience gain for players and tames. | 1.0 | 2–3 |
| HarvestHealthMultiplier | Health of harvestable nodes — higher means more total yield before a tree/rock is used up. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| ResourcesRespawnPeriodMultiplier | How quickly resources respawn. Lower = faster respawn (it's a time multiplier). | 1.0 | 0.5 |
| KillXPMultiplier | Fine-tune XP from kills specifically (stacks on XPMultiplier). | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| HarvestXPMultiplier | Fine-tune XP from harvesting specifically. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| CraftXPMultiplier | Fine-tune XP from crafting specifically. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
ResourcesRespawnPeriodMultiplier is the one rate that runs backwards — it's a period, so a smaller number means resources come back sooner. Set it to 0.5 for faster respawns, not 2.0.
ARK breeding settings are the most-tuned part of any server because vanilla breeding is brutally slow. These live in Game.ini. Watch the direction: speed multipliers go up to go faster, but interval multipliers go down to go faster.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier | How fast babies grow up. Higher = faster maturation. | 1.0 | 10–30 |
| EggHatchSpeedMultiplier | How fast fertilized eggs incubate. Higher = faster. | 1.0 | 10+ |
| MatingIntervalMultiplier | Cooldown between matings. Lower = breed again sooner. | 1.0 | 0.1–0.5 |
| BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier | Time between imprint (cuddle) requests. Lower = requests come more often — the key to 100% imprint. | 1.0 | 0.1–0.4 |
| BabyImprintAmountMultiplier | Imprint percent gained per cuddle. Higher = fewer cuddles to reach 100%. | 1.0 | 1–2 |
| BabyImprintingStatScaleMultiplier | How much a full imprint boosts the dino's stats. The "is imprint worth it" knob. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| BabyFoodConsumptionSpeedMultiplier | How fast babies burn through food. Lower it so babies eat slower — easier to keep fed through maturation, far less risk of starving while you're away. | 1.0 | 0.5 |
BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier is very high but BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier isn't lowered to match, the baby matures before enough cuddle windows appear and you cap out below 100%. A common combo is high maturation with BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier around 0.2–0.3 so cuddles keep pace.
This is the single most-asked ARK question: "why are my wild dinos so low level?" Difficulty controls the max wild level. The ASA defaults are deliberately low, so almost every server raises this.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| OverrideOfficialDifficulty | The real max-level lever — set this, and leave DifficultyOffset at 1.0. Max wild level = value × 30, so 5.0 = level 150 (the standard) and 10.0 = level 300. Default 0.0 means "don't override," which leaves wilds low. | 0.0 | 5.0 |
| DifficultyOffset | Leave at 1.0 for the full level range. It does not set the cap and can't exceed 1.0 — drop it below 1.0 only if you want mostly low-level dinos. | 0.2 | 1.0 |
| OverrideMaxExperiencePointsPlayer | Raises the player level cap (XP ceiling). 0 keeps the game default. Game.ini | 0 | 0 |
| OverrideMaxExperiencePointsDino | Raises the tamed-dino level cap. 0 keeps the game default. Game.ini | 0 | 0 |
DifficultyOffset=1.0 tells the server to use the full level range; OverrideOfficialDifficulty sets where that range tops out (max level = value × 30). So DifficultyOffset 1.0 + OverrideOfficialDifficulty 5.0 = max wild level 150 — leave the offset at 1.0 and raise the override to 10.0 for level 300. DifficultyOffset can't go above 1.0, so it's never what you raise for higher levels; that's always the override. The ASA default (DifficultyOffset 0.2 / OverrideOfficialDifficulty 0.0) is exactly why fresh servers spawn only low-level dinos. (After a perfect tame with imprint, a 150 climbs to roughly 180–225.)
Combat scaling and how harsh survival feels. All multipliers on vanilla; 1.0 is default. Lowering the drain multipliers makes a server friendlier for casual or new players without touching combat.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| PlayerDamageMultiplier | Damage players deal. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| PlayerResistanceMultiplier | Damage players take — higher value means players take more damage. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| DinoDamageMultiplier | Damage wild dinos deal. Raise for a harsher world. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| TamedDinoDamageMultiplier | Damage your tamed dinos deal. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| TamedDinoResistanceMultiplier | Damage tamed dinos take (higher = they take more). | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| PlayerCharacterFoodDrainMultiplier | How fast players get hungry. Lower = gentler. | 1.0 | 0.5–1.0 |
| PlayerCharacterWaterDrainMultiplier | How fast players get thirsty. | 1.0 | 0.5–1.0 |
| PlayerCharacterHealthRecoveryMultiplier | How fast players heal. Higher = faster regen. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| DinoCharacterFoodDrainMultiplier | How fast tames get hungry — lower means less constant feeding. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Build limits, structure durability, and decay. Most live in GameUserSettings.ini; the turret limit and harvesting-damage keys are in Game.ini (noted below).
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| StructureResistanceMultiplier | Scales incoming damage to structures (the name is backwards) — lower = tougher. 0.5 = half damage, 0.1 = 10%. On non-PvP servers, drop it so wooden bases shrug off wild dinos and weather. | 1.0 | 0.5 (PvE) |
| MaxStructuresInRange | Cap on structures built close together. Raise it for big-build servers. | 10500 | 10500+ |
| PvEStructureDecayPeriodMultiplier | How long unattended structures last before decaying. Higher = last longer. | 1.0 | 2–3 |
| MaxPlatformSaddleStructureLimit | Structures allowed on a platform saddle / raft. | 75 | 75–150 |
| StructurePickupTimeAfterPlacement | Seconds you can still pick a structure back up after placing it. | 30 | 30 |
| DinoHarvestingDamageMultiplier | How much resource a dino gathers per hit. ASA ships this above 1.0 already. Game.ini | 3.2 | 3.2+ |
| LimitTurretsNum | Max auto-turrets allowed within the turret range (anti-lag / anti-stack). Game.ini | 100 | 100 |
AlwaysAllowStructurePickup toggle in GameUserSettings.ini. With it on, the StructurePickupTimeAfterPlacement window stops mattering — players can pick up any structure anytime. Most quality-of-life servers turn it on.
StructureResistanceMultiplier (try 0.5, or 0.1 for near-indestructible). Structures only take that fraction of incoming damage, so you can build out of wood without a stray Carno or a wandering Giga flattening it. Remember the naming is backwards — you turn the number down to make things stronger. Leave it at 1.0 on PvP so raiding stays balanced.
The toggles and timers that define whether your server is PvP, PvE, or somewhere in between — and how raiding works. The ServerPVE master toggle is in GameUserSettings.ini; the raid timers below are mostly Game.ini.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| ServerPVE | Master PvE toggle. True = players can't damage each other or each other's stuff. GUS · toggle | False | choose |
| PreventOfflinePvPInterval | Seconds after a tribe logs off before their base becomes raid-protected (pairs with the PreventOfflinePvP toggle). GUS | 900 | 300–900 |
| PvPZoneStructureDamageMultiplier | Extra structure damage inside designated PvP zones. ASA defaults this high. Game.ini | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| StructureDamageRepairCooldown | Seconds you can't repair a structure after it takes damage (anti-soak during raids). Game.ini | 180 | 180 |
| AutoPvEStartTimeSeconds | With the AutoPvE timer on, the daily time PvE begins — schedule "PvE nights" on a PvP server. Game.ini | 0 | — |
PreventOfflinePvP toggle on for PreventOfflinePvPInterval to do anything. It's the most-requested PvP-server feature — without it, tribes get wiped while asleep and quit. Many servers also use the AutoPvE window to give a nightly raiding ceasefire.
Tribe size and alliance rules — the levers for "solo only," "small tribes," or "mega-tribes." A value of 0 means no limit on these.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| MaxNumbersofPlayersInTribe | Tribe size cap. 0 = unlimited. Set it to 1 for solo-only servers. (Yes, the key really is spelled "Numbers of".) | 0 | 4–6 |
| MaxAlliancesPerTribe | How many alliances one tribe can join. 0 = unlimited. | 0 | 0 |
| MaxTribesPerAlliance | How many tribes can be in a single alliance. | 0 | 0 |
MaxNumbersofPlayersInTribe to 1 for true solo, or 3–6 for small groups. This is the cleanest way to stop one mega-tribe from dominating a small community server. To disable alliances entirely there's a separate PreventTribeAlliances toggle.
Day/night pacing, saves, idle handling, and the ASA cryopod rules — the settings that make a server pleasant to run and play on.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| NightTimeSpeedScale | Speed of night. Higher = shorter nights. The usual "I hate ARK nights" fix. | 1.0 | 1.5–2.0 |
| DayTimeSpeedScale | Speed of daytime. Higher = shorter days. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| AutoSavePeriodMinutes | Minutes between world saves. Lower is safer but causes more save-lag hitches. | 15 | 15 |
| KickIdlePlayersPeriod | Seconds before an idle player is kicked. Frees slots on busy servers. | 3600 | 3600 |
| CryopodNerfDamageMult | Damage dinos deal right after being deployed from a cryopod — ASA's anti-"cryo-cheese" rule. 0.01 = 1% damage. | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| MaxPlayers | Player slot cap — but see the warning below. In ASA this INI key is effectively ignored. | 70 | see note |
MaxPlayers INI value no longer controls your slot count. ASA reads the player cap from the command line instead — add -WinLiveMaxPlayers=70 to your launch parameters (matching your host's slot count). Editing only the INI and wondering why slots don't change is one of the most common ASA setup mistakes.
There's no universal "best ARK settings" — the right values depend on whether you're running a chill PvE community, a boosted fun server, or a competitive PvP map. These are sensible starting points, not gospel; load them, play a week, adjust. Every value here maps to a slider in the generators.
| Setting | Casual PvE | Boosted / Fun | Vanilla+ PvP |
|---|---|---|---|
| HarvestAmountMultiplier | 3 | 5–10 | 2 |
| TamingSpeedMultiplier | 5 | 15–30 | 3 |
| XPMultiplier | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier | 10 | 30–50 | 10 |
| MatingIntervalMultiplier | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.5 |
| BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| DifficultyOffset | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| OverrideOfficialDifficulty | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| NightTimeSpeedScale | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 |
| PreventOfflinePvP | n/a (PvE) | optional | On |
| MaxNumbersofPlayersInTribe | 6 | 0 | 4–6 |
The ARK-specific failure modes, in roughly the order admins hit them.
GameUserSettings.ini under [ServerSettings]; breeding and gameplay multipliers go in Game.ini under [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode].GameUserSettings.ini: DifficultyOffset=1.0 and OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0 for the standard max wild level of 150 (use 10.0 for level 300).DifficultyOffset caps out at 1.0; if yours is lower (the default is 0.2) that alone forces low-level spawns. Raise the override for higher levels, never the offset.cheat DestroyWildDinos (or wait for a natural respawn) to repopulate at the new difficulty.MaxPlayers INI key. Set the cap on the command line with -WinLiveMaxPlayers=70.BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier goes up to speed maturation, but MatingIntervalMultiplier and BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier go down to shorten their timers.Game.ini, not GameUserSettings.ini — a frequent mix-up.Game.ini (gameplay: breeding, XP, multipliers) and GameUserSettings.ini (rates, difficulty, tribe limits, identity). On a dedicated server they live in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/. Edit them directly, or build them with the ARK generators, then restart the server — settings only load on boot.
GameUserSettings.ini holds the rates you'll change first — harvest, taming, XP — plus difficulty, tribe limits, and server identity. Game.ini holds deeper tuning: breeding and imprinting, per-level stats, and structure/PvP tunables. Both are read on every restart, so most settings are spread across the two. See the which-file breakdown above.
TamingSpeedMultiplier in GameUserSettings.ini ([ServerSettings]). Default is 1.0; 3–5 is a comfortable casual pace and 10+ is near-instant. It speeds up every tame method, including passive tames.
3× harvest, 5× taming, 3× XP, faster breeding, and OverrideOfficialDifficulty 5.0 for max wild level 150. PvP servers stay closer to vanilla rates and turn on offline-raid protection. See the recommended-settings table, then fine-tune in the generator.
GameUserSettings.ini: DifficultyOffset=1.0 (use the full level range) and OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0 (the cap — max level = value × 30, so 5.0 = 150). For level 300, keep DifficultyOffset at 1.0 and set OverrideOfficialDifficulty=10.0 — you raise the override, never the offset (it can't exceed 1.0). The ASA default (DifficultyOffset 0.2 / OverrideOfficialDifficulty 0.0) is why fresh servers spawn low-level wilds. Run cheat DestroyWildDinos afterward so existing dinos respawn at the new level.
BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier so cuddle requests arrive often enough to keep up with growth, and don't push BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier so high the baby matures before you finish the cuddles. Raising BabyImprintAmountMultiplier increases the percent per cuddle. All three are in Game.ini — see Breeding & Imprinting.
Game.ini and GameUserSettings.ini. Solo players can also change most of this from the in-game settings menu without touching files; the .ini route matters most when you're running a dedicated server with no GUI. If you do edit files solo, tick bUseSingleplayerSettings for ARK's rebalanced solo rates.