Der Dino Finder Config Generator
All 24 documented settings for Der Dino Finder — the map-and-search utility mod for ARK: Survival Ascended — as toggles and fields with plain-English explanations.
Access rules, scan range and cooldown, default filters, and what the map is allowed to show: change what you care about, copy the output, paste it at the end of GameUserSettings.ini — the [DerDinoFinder] header won't already be in the file (mod sections never are), so the output includes it for you. Everything else keeps the mod's defaults.
Access & Permissions
Who gets to open the Finder at all: an admin-only switch, an engram or level gate for everyone else, and whether admins are actually exempt from the rest of this page's limits.
Locks the Finder to admins when set True. Default False, so every player gets it out of the box — flip this if the mod is meant to stay a staff tool.
Default True, meaning admins follow the same rules as everyone else — level gates, cooldowns, range caps, the lot. Set False and admins skip UnlockLevel, UnlockEngram, ScanCooldown, ScanRange, LevelFilterBound, and every Disable toggle on this page.
The character level a player needs before the Finder becomes available. Default 0, so it's usable from the moment someone spawns. Raise it if you'd rather new players earn the map-search shortcut.
Blueprint path to an engram that gates the Finder — players need it unlocked before they can use the tool. Blank by default, meaning no engram requirement. Pair this with UnlockLevel if you want both a level and an engram in the way.
Scan Limits & Cooldowns
How much the Finder can chew on per search: marker cap, cooldown between uses, range, and the hard ceiling on what level a player is even allowed to search for.
The most markers a single search can drop on the map. Default 20. Search for more than one species at once and this total gets divided between them, with each getting at least one marker.
Seconds a player must wait before scanning again. Default 0, so there's no wait at all. Worth knowing: the cooldown clock resets whenever the server restarts, so it isn't a permanent record.
Maximum distance in meters the Finder can search out to. Default -1, which means unlimited — the whole map is fair game. Set a real number to force players to actually be near what they're hunting for.
The absolute highest creature level a player is allowed to filter for. Ships at 2147483647 — that's int-max, the largest number the game's counter can hold — so in practice there's no cap at all until you set one.
Default Filter Values
What the level filter shows the moment a player opens the Finder, before they touch a single slider.
Where the minimum-level slider starts when a player first opens the Finder. Default 1, essentially no filtering at the low end. Raise it if you'd rather the tool open already ignoring low-level trash spawns.
Where the maximum-level slider sits by default. Default 150, which covers the vanilla wild-level ceiling comfortably. Lower it if your server's spawns don't roll that high and you want a tighter starting view.
Feature Toggles — Filters & Search
Switches for the individual filter tabs and the search function itself — level, gender, age, traits, variants, and whether the Finder can search at all versus just list dinos.
Removes the level filter entirely when set True. Default False, so the filter stays available.
Turns off the gender filter and stops the map from showing a creature's gender at all. Default False, so both stay visible.
Kills the age filter and removes age display from the map. Default False, so juveniles versus adults stays visible and filterable.
Stops players from searching by trait — note traits still show up on the map itself, this only removes the ability to filter for them. Default False.
The big one: turns the Finder into a plain dino list with no search function at all. Default False, full search intact. True basically demotes the mod to a species reference.
Turns off the variants tab. Only matters if you're running mods that add dino variants — on a vanilla-creature roster this setting has nothing to do. Default False.
Lets dino names show up translated according to each player's own client language setting. Default False, meaning names display in one consistent language for everyone.
Removes the stat tooltip that pops up when hovering a marker. Default False, so hovering still gives you the stat breakdown before you commit to the trip.
Map Display
What the map marker itself reveals and does once it's placed: live level readout, real-time movement tracking, trait labeling, and the variant name shown.
Hides creature level from the map marker itself. Default False, so the level shows right on the map — no need to walk up and check.
Freezes markers in place instead of following the creature as it wanders. Default False, so markers update live with movement — turn this on if live tracking feels like too much of an advantage.
Hides trait information from the map marker. Default False, so the trait shows on the map regardless of whether trait searching itself is on — this is display only, a separate switch from DisableTraitSearching.
Shows only the base species name on the map, dropping any variant name a modded creature might carry. Default False, so variant names display when they exist. Only relevant alongside variant-adding mods.
Exclusions & Access Lists
Two comma-separated lists: creatures the Finder should never surface, and players who get in even under an otherwise locked-down setup.
Comma-separated Entity IDs to exclude from the Finder entirely — and this one applies even to admins with RestrictAdmins off, so it's a hard block, not a player-level restriction. Blank by default, nothing excluded.
Comma-separated list of players' EOS IDs granted access to the Finder — useful for letting specific people in without going through IsAdminOnly. Blank by default, no whitelist enforced.
Advanced / Raw Config Overrides
An escape hatch for any [DerDinoFinder] 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 Der Dino Finder config generator
Der Dino Finder is a map-and-search utility mod for ARK: Survival Ascended — it plots nearby wild creatures on the map with filters for level, gender, age, and traits, so players can search by species instead of walking the whole map hoping to spot one. Around 8.1 million downloads and roughly 150 searches a month, and until this page, no generator or settings-explained reference existed for it anywhere. Its config lives in one [DerDinoFinder] INI block, and this page generates it.
The settings above come straight from the description table on the mod's CurseForge page — there's no wiki for this mod, so that table is the only public documentation that exists. All 24 keys are documented with zero ambiguity, so you won't see any ⚠ verify badges on this page.
Where do these settings go?
Same rule as every other ARK mod: place these INI options at the bottom of your server's GameUserSettings.ini. You must include the [DerDinoFinder] header. You only need to include entries that are different. Which is exactly what this generator outputs — the header plus only what you changed. And to be clear: the header won't already be in the file — you're adding the block, not finding it.
\ShooterGame\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\GameUserSettings.ini(Windows servers)/ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini(Linux servers)- Nitrado, GPortal, and most managed hosts: control panel → "Configuration Files" or "Expert Settings"
Do I have to configure anything?
No — the mod runs fine untouched: open to every player, unlimited scan range, no cooldown, a 20-marker cap per search. The config exists for servers that want it locked down (admin-only, level-gated, cooldown enforced) or opened up further (wider marker limits, translated names). If you just want the complete default block without touching a single field, use the Copy all (defaults) button in the output panel.
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