GamesOMG · Generators · ARK · Custom Dino Levels

Custom Dino Levels Config Generator

Every setting for Custom Dino Levels — the mod that reshapes the wild-creature level curve across every ARK: Survival Ascended map — as toggles and fields with plain-English explanations. Pick a distribution mode, set your level range, guard the boss-tier creatures, and tune the tier weights: change what you care about, copy the output, paste it at the end of GameUserSettings.ini — the [CustomLevelDistrib] header won't already be in the file (mod sections never are), so the output adds it for you. Everything else keeps the mod's defaults.
One rule before you start: the four distribution switches (Equal / Ragnarok / High / Custom) are mutually exclusive — leave exactly one set to True or the curve behaves unpredictably.

🙏 Custom Dino Levels is created by kitzykatty. GamesOMG is an unofficial fan-made config tool — all credit for the mod goes to kitzykatty. Get it or support them: Custom Dino Levels on CurseForge.

Distribution Mode

0 / 0 changed

The three master switches that pick which level curve the mod applies. Exactly one should be True at a time — the author is blunt about this.

Flattens the curve so every level in your Min-to-Max band spawns with equal odds — no more oceans of level-5 dinos. This is the on-by-default mode, and the only one where MinLevel/MaxLevel actually do anything. Keep exactly one of the three mode switches True.

Reproduces the level spread the Ragnarok map used, which leans higher than default without going full high-end. Pick this if you liked how Rag felt. Turn the other two mode switches off when you use it.

Flips the vanilla curve so high-level dinos become the common ones and low levels get rare. Great for a hardcore or fast-progression server; brutal for a fresh start. Leave the other two mode switches False.

⚠ verify

A fourth mode that appears to hand the curve over to the four weight values below instead of a preset. The mod's own docs don't spell out exactly how it interacts with the presets, so treat it as the experimental switch and test on a throwaway save first.

Level Range

0 / 0 changed

The Min/Max bounds that clamp the spawn range. These are base levels — the game multiplies them by your difficulty value, so divide the level you actually want by that difficulty to get the number here.

1.0

The floor of the spawn range as a BASE level, so the real in-game floor is this times your difficulty. Want a 50-level minimum at difficulty 5? Put 10 here. Only matters when Equal levels is on.

30.0

The ceiling of the spawn range as a BASE level. At difficulty 5 the default 30 yields level-150 dinos; for a 150 cap keep 30, for 250 use 50. Like MinLevel, it only applies under Equal levels.

1.0

Separate floor for BOTH wyverns and rock drakes, which the game handles apart from normal dinos. Same base-level math as MinLevel. Leave at 1 unless you want a hard lower bound on your egg-stealing targets.

38.0

Ceiling for wyverns and rock drakes, defaulting higher (38) than normal dinos because their nests already push bigger numbers. Raise it if you want spicier egg runs, lower it to tame the top end.

1.0

Deinonychus get their own floor, working exactly like the drake settings. Leave at 1 unless you specifically want to lift the bottom of the Deino nest pool.

30.0

Ceiling for Deinonychus, handled separately from normal spawns. Bump it for higher-level nest raids or leave it at 30 to match the default dino cap.

⚠ verify 1.0

A per-species floor for Magmasaurs, which the mod tracks separately like drakes and Deinonychus. It's in the config block but the author doesn't detail it, so verify behavior in-game before relying on it.

⚠ verify 30.0

The Magmasaur ceiling, listed alongside the drake and Deino ranges. Present in the config block but undocumented by the author, so treat the default 30 as the safe baseline and test any change.

Special Creatures

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Guards for the two boss-tier creatures that break if you let the mod scale their levels. On by default for a reason.

Keeps the giant queen bee on vanilla level behavior when Equal or High levels is on. Leave it True — bees at inflated levels tend to misbehave. Only flip it off if you know you want scaled bees.

Same guard for the titanosaur — leaves it on vanilla levels under Equal or High modes. Keep it True unless you deliberately want the map's biggest creature riding the inflated curve.

Tier Weights

0 / 0 changed

Four weight values that bias spawns across low-to-high level tiers. They ship with a descending default curve, but the mod's own docs don't explain them — treat as advanced knobs.

⚠ verify 1.0

The heaviest of the four default weights, biasing spawns toward the smallest levels. The author doesn't document how these combine, so tune it relative to the other three and test rather than trusting a single number.

⚠ verify 0.5

Second rung of the weight curve at half of TinyWeight by default. Raise it to fatten the lower-mid band. Undocumented interactions mean you should verify the outcome in-game.

⚠ verify 0.25

The mid-tier weight, a quarter of TinyWeight by default. Nudge it up to make mid-level dinos more common. As with the other weights, the mod doesn't spell out the math, so test your curve.

⚠ verify 0.1

Lightest default weight, keeping top-tier levels rare. Crank it up for a server where big dinos are common. Behavior isn't author-documented, so confirm the spread on a test save before going live.

Advanced / Raw Config Overrides

An escape hatch for any [CustomLevelDistrib] line this form doesn't have a field for yet. One Key=Value per line, appended verbatim. Pasted lines are not read back into the form on import.

About the Custom Dino Levels config generator

Custom Dino Levels (CurseForge project 928708) reshapes the wild-creature level distribution across every ARK: Survival Ascended map, on both vanilla and modded dinos. Vanilla ARK skews hard toward the low end, so most of what you see wandering the beach is a level 5. This mod lets you flatten that curve so every level spawns with equal odds, mimic the Ragnarok spread, or invert it so high-level dinos become the common ones. At roughly 6.8 million downloads it's one of the most-installed level mods on CurseForge — and until this page, no config generator or settings-explained reference existed for it anywhere. Its entire config lives in one [CustomLevelDistrib] block with 18 keys, and this page generates it.

Most of these keys are pulled straight from the mod author's own documentation — the CurseForge description, the verbatim config block mirrored on arkcodes.com, and the author's pinned "How to: Using the .ini configs" discussion. Seven of the eighteen aren't spelled out anywhere beyond appearing in the config block itself: Custom distribution (WantsCustom), the two Magmasaur level keys, and the four tier weights (Tiny/Low/Medium/High). Those seven carry a ⚠ verify badge — their key names and defaults are confirmed, but the author never describes exactly what they do, so confirm the behavior on your own server before you build a ruleset around them.

Do I have to configure anything?

No — the mod works the moment it's installed. Out of the box it runs in Equal levels mode with a base range of 1–30, which at difficulty 5 gives you an even spread from level 1 up to 150 instead of vanilla's low-end pileup. That's a complete, playable curve on its own. The config exists for servers that want something else: a Ragnarok-style spread, an inverted high-level economy, or hand-tuned min/max caps. If you just want the full default block without touching a single field, use the Copy all (defaults) button in the output panel.

Why can only one distribution mode be True at a time?

Because they're four different answers to the same question — "what shape should the level curve be?" — and the mod can only apply one. WantsEqualLevels, WantsRagLevels, WantsHighLevels, and WantsCustom are mutually exclusive switches, and the mod author is blunt about it in the pinned guide: turn exactly one of them True and leave the other three False. Flip two of them on and you don't get a blend — you get undefined behavior. This is the single most common way people break this mod, so it's worth double-checking your block before you save. The templates above always leave exactly one mode on.

Where does the config go?

Same rule as every other ARK mod: place these INI options at the bottom of your server's GameUserSettings.ini, under the [CustomLevelDistrib] header, and include only the entries you've changed. Which is exactly what this generator outputs — the header plus what you touched. To be clear about the "explained" part above: the header won't already be in the file. Mod sections never are. You're adding the block, not finding it.

What are the ⚠ verify-badged keys?

Seven keys carry a verify badge because the author's public docs give their names and defaults but no firsthand description of exactly what they do. They are: Custom distribution (WantsCustom) — the fourth mode switch, which appears to hand the curve over to the four tier weights but isn't documented alongside the three presets; Min/Max Magmasaur level (MinMagmaLevel / MaxMagmaLevel) — a per-species range grouped with the drake and Deinonychus keys but never described; and the four tier weights (TinyWeight, LowWeight, MediumWeight, HighWeight), which ship with a descending curve but come with no explanation of how they combine. The key names and defaults are confirmed against the verbatim config block — the behavior isn't, so test any change to these on a throwaway save first.

Why does the max drake level default higher than everything else?

MaxDrakeLevel ships at 38 while the normal MaxLevel is 30, because wyverns and rock drakes spawn from nests that already push higher levels than ordinary creatures. The mod tracks them (and Deinonychus, and — per the verify-badged keys above — Magmasaurs) on separate min/max tracks so their nest levels stay meaningful instead of getting flattened to the general cap. If you want spicier egg runs, raise it; to tame the top end, drop it toward 30.

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