How to Change Your ARK Server Settings

We offer full customizability of your ARK Server. We provide easy to use controls to configure your server settings, as well as full access to your server files to make any manual changes.

You can change your ARK Server Setting with the following steps:

Login to the ARK server control panel.
On your server's page, navigate to Files > Config Files.
On this page, you will see each of the main settings files for ARK: ARK Server Settings, GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini.
Change ARK Server Settings
Browse through each of the files to find and edit any settings you wish!

Once you have changed any settings, restart your server for the changes to take effect.

ARK Server Settings (ark.properties)

This is the main settings file for ARK. This file allows you to change your server name, map, active events (such as the Easter event) and more.

GameUserSettings.ini

This file contains all of the server configuration options for ARK. This allows you to change settings in the game such as adding mods, changing the XP multiplier, respawn rate for resources, taming speed and many more settings. You can view the full list of settings and explanations of each at: https://ark.gamepedia.com/Server_Configuration#GameUserSettings.ini

Manual Editing

By default, certain settings such as XP Multiplier, Harvest (Gathering) Multiplier and more are not listed in this file, as they will use the default settings instead. Using the full list of settings, you can add and configure any missing settings you wish.

To manually edit the file, you will need to access it from the File Manager (via FTP) and modify it with a text editor. This feature is built into our control panel.

Access The Configuration File via the File Manager

Login to the ARK server control panel.
On your server's page, navigate to Files > File Manager.
Enter your control panel password to login, and you will then be presented with the file list.
Navigate through the folders to access the GameUserSettings.ini file. This file is located under: ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini
Click Edit to open the file in a text editor.
You can either generate the contents of this file by following the "(Option 1) Generating The GameUserSettings.ini File Automatically" section below, or manually configure the contents with the "(Option 2) Adding Additional Configuration Options" section below.

(Option 1) Generating The GameUserSettings.ini File Automatically

You can use the GameUserSettings.ini Generator to automatically generate the contents of this configuration file. Note that when using this option, your current settings are not retained - this will overwrite your existing configuration.
On the generator page, fill out all of the configuration options you wish.
Once finished, click "Generate" at the very bottom of the page. This will open a new popup box which contains your configuration file.
Click inside the text box containing the configuration and press Ctrl + A (Mac: Command + A) to select the entire contents, then Ctrl + C (Mac: Command + C) to copy the contents.
Back in the text file on the Shockbyte control panel, replace the contents of the configuration file with the one from the Generator and press save.
Restart your server for the changes to be applied.

(Option 2) Adding Additional Configuration Options

Once you are editing the GameUserSettings.ini file directly, you can add any additional options from the full list of settings.
In the GameUserSettings.ini text file, all settings changed must be placed under the [ServerSettings] section. Create a new line for any settings you wish to add from the full list of settings in the format of Option=Value.

For example, to modify the Harvest (Gathering) rate and the XP multiplier, the file will look like this:

[ServerSettings]
HarvestAmountMultiplier=1.00000
XPMultiplier=1.00000​

Once you have made your desired changes, save the file and restart your server for the changes to be applied.
Game.ini
This file is usually blank, as the default settings that can be set for this file are automatically enabled. However, you can add settings to this file yourself to customise them. The possible options can be found at: https://ark.gamepedia.com/Server_Configuration#Game.ini

Updated on: 11/29/2020