ARK: Survival Evolved Configuration
ARK: Survival Evolved Configuration Overview
ARK has a reputation for being endlessly tweakable, and it is earned. Between taming rates, breeding intervals, stat curves, and hundreds of toggles, the same base game can be a brutal vanilla grind or a weekend-friendly boosted server. This guide covers the settings owners change most and, critically, which file each one belongs in.
For first boot and connecting, see Getting Started.
The Two-File Split (Read This First)
ARK splits its configuration across two files, and putting a setting in the wrong one is the single most common mistake:
GameUserSettings.iniholds most server settings under a[ServerSettings]section: rates, server name, password, PvP/PvE, and so on.Game.iniholds the advanced multipliers under[/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]: anything to do with breeding, imprinting, per-level stats, and XP caps.
If you paste breeding or stat multipliers into GameUserSettings.ini, they are silently ignored and your rates stay on official values no matter how many zeros you add. Both files live in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/. Edit them in the panel File Manager, and always stop the server first, or it overwrites your changes on shutdown.
Key Settings in GameUserSettings.ini
These go under the [ServerSettings] header:
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
SessionName | The server name shown in the browser |
ServerPassword | Join password (leave blank for public) |
ServerAdminPassword | The admin password used by enablecheats |
XPMultiplier | How fast players and tames earn XP |
TamingSpeedMultiplier | How fast taming completes (higher is faster) |
HarvestAmountMultiplier | Resources gained per harvest |
HarvestHealthMultiplier | How much total yield each tree or node contains before breaking |
DifficultyOffset and OverrideOfficialDifficulty | Wild creature levels. OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0 makes wild dinos spawn up to level 150 |
ServerPVE | True for PvE, False for PvP |
AllowThirdPersonPlayer | Enable third-person camera |
AdminLogging | If True, admin commands broadcast to all players. Set False to keep admin activity private |
A common boosted-but-balanced starting point is 2x to 5x on XP, taming, and harvesting. Pure vanilla is 1x across the board.
Key Settings in Game.ini
These go under [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode] and are the ones that do not work in GameUserSettings.ini:
[/script/shootergame.shootergamemode] MatingIntervalMultiplier=0.1 EggHatchSpeedMultiplier=25.0 BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier=25.0 BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier=0.1 BabyImprintAmountMultiplier=3.0 OverrideMaxExperiencePointsPlayer=545000 OverrideMaxExperiencePointsDino=545000
Lower MatingIntervalMultiplier means dinos can breed again sooner. Higher EggHatchSpeedMultiplier and BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier shorten the long raising process, which is the single biggest quality-of-life change for breeding servers. BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier lowered makes imprinting achievable without sitting on the server all day.
After Changing Creature Settings
Any time you change difficulty, spawn rates, or creature mods, run cheat DestroyWildDinos from the admin console. It wipes all wild creatures so they respawn under the new settings. It only affects wild dinos, never tames. Without it, your existing wild population keeps the old levels until they naturally despawn.
Recommended Approach
ARK's two ini files are large, and editing by hand is error-prone. Many owners build their config with an online ARK ini generator, then paste the output into the matching file. Change a few settings at a time and test, rather than rewriting everything at once.