Swarm Hosts / Guides

ARK: Survival Ascended

ARK: Survival Ascended uses UDP for players and TCP for RCON. Swarm Hosts stores the world and configuration in the Swarm Server's persistent ARK Saved directory.

Requirements

  • Minimum CPU: 4 cores
  • Minimum memory: 16 GiB
  • Free disk: enough for the dedicated server, world, mods, and backups, with room for updates and growth
  • CPU architecture: x86-64
  • Network: one assigned UDP gameplay port; authenticated RCON stays inside the container

ARK is a large server. First start downloads and verifies the dedicated server, initializes its compatibility runtime, and creates configuration. Allow 10–15 minutes on a typical home connection and longer on slow storage.

Launch and settings

  1. Choose ARK: Survival Ascended.
  2. Select a Swarm Host that meets the CPU, memory, and disk requirements.
  3. Set the session name, map, private admin password, optional player password, and player limit.
  4. Review Character and tribe save storage.
  5. Choose an offered managed relay or prepare direct UDP port forwarding.
  6. Launch and wait until the logs report that the named server started.

Open Settings → ARK: Survival Ascended Settings to change managed game configuration. Saving settings recreates or restarts the server and disconnects players. A normal start or restart also checks for available server updates.

Enable Respawn wild dinos on startup when a broken or overcrowded wild-dino population needs a clean pass during the next start. This uses ARK's official -ForceRespawnDinos launch option. It removes wild creatures and lets the game repopulate them; it is not a tame or world wipe. Disable the setting again if you intended a one-time repair rather than a wipe at every future startup.

Swarm Hosts creates both of ARK's configuration files even before either has custom values. Open Files & Backups → File Manager and edit Config/WindowsServer/Game.ini for advanced game rules or Config/WindowsServer/GameUserSettings.ini for server settings. Stop the server before editing and create a backup first. After initial provisioning, these files are authoritative: restarting does not reapply old UI values. The settings page reads the current file values. Saving a UI edit changes only the settings you edited and refuses a file that changed after the page opened.

Import an existing save

ARK supports separate survivor/tribe profile files and an embedded world-save mode. Before replacing files, set Character and tribe save storage to match the source server, save the setting, wait for the restart, and stop the Swarm Server.

Use Files & Backups to create a safety backup before uploading the existing Saved directory. Keep the original source backup until a real player confirms the expected survivor, tribe, structures, and inventory.

Changing the storage selector does not convert an existing save. Converting between storage modes is an advanced ARK migration and should be tested on a copy before the original server is changed.

Connect

Search the in-game Unofficial server browser for the configured session name. On PlayStation 5, enable Show Player Servers, clear unrelated filters, enter the exact session name, and refresh.

ARK's server browser learns the public address from the server's outbound registration traffic. Because of that behavior, a managed relay must carry both inbound player traffic and the server's outbound registration through the same public relay address. Swarm Hosts only offers a relay when it can provide that symmetric path.

Without a compatible relay, forward the published UDP game port to the Swarm Host and allow it through the host firewall. Direct hosting may not work behind carrier-grade NAT. A player on the same LAN can also time out when the router does not support NAT loopback; test from a genuinely external connection.

The Swarm Server page's network probe can show that UDP reached the host, but ARK does not provide a Source-style query response. A successful join with a real game client is the final connectivity check.

Server Actions

Open Server Tools → Actions on a running ARK server to use these tools:

  • Server status reports the configured session, map, detected Steam build when available, and connected-player count.
  • List players shows connected players by display name without exposing their cross-platform account identifiers.
  • Broadcast message sends a message to players through the server chat.
  • Save world flushes the active world to persistent storage.
  • Respawn wild dinos removes wild creatures after an admin confirms it. It preserves tames and the saved world while wild creatures repopulate naturally.

The RCON listener is not published or relayed for new Swarm Servers. Swarm Hosts uses the private admin credential for these actions and never accepts raw RCON or console commands. Set Admin password under Settings → ARK: Survival Ascended Settings if the page reports that the private credential is missing.

Kick, ban, and unban are currently unavailable. Swarm Hosts also does not provide arbitrary cheat or console commands. Use the normal server controls to start, stop, or restart ARK, and the backup-protected Start a new game workflow when you want to reset the world.

See Server Actions for the availability matrix.

Mods and maps

The default map is TheIsland_WP. When Server Tools → Mods & Content is available, ARK profiles store an ordered list of positive CurseForge project IDs. ARK resolves those projects during startup, so the profile controls selection and order rather than promising an exact downloaded file version.

For an existing world:

  1. create and verify a backup;
  2. add a small group of project IDs;
  3. keep their load order intentional;
  4. apply the profile; and
  5. verify startup and join once with a real client.

Mod downloads increase startup time and disk use. Search metadata may be unavailable; in that case, enter the durable numeric project ID from the provider page.

ARK downloads the current content for the selected CurseForge project IDs at startup. Mods can execute game code, so install only content you trust. Saving a profile alone does not change the server; applying it is a separate action. Server Actions cannot install or alter mods.

If managed mods are incomplete or corrupted, open Mods & Content and choose Repair downloaded content. Swarm Hosts takes a safety backup, recreates the server, removes only the downloaded ARK mod cache, and downloads the currently applied project list again. The desired mod profile, Saved data, world, and configuration remain intact. The server must be running so the repair can verify that the replacement runtime starts.

Start a new game

To keep the Swarm Server identity, connection details, settings, mod profile, backups, and activity history while starting a fresh ARK world, open Settings → Danger zone, choose Start a new game, and type RESET WORLD. Swarm Hosts first creates and verifies a non-temporary safety backup. Only then does Swarm Hosts stop the server and clear its SavedArks world data. Configuration and the selected mod profile are preserved; the next launch creates a new world. Use backup restore if the reset was a mistake.

Troubleshooting

  • Still starting: wait for download verification, runtime initialization, and the successful-start log line. A running container alone is not ready.
  • Missing from the browser: select Unofficial servers, enable player servers, clear filters, verify the session name, and refresh after startup.
  • Timeout after selecting the server: verify the displayed relay or direct UDP path. Private RCON success does not prove the UDP player path.
  • Old CPU warning: move the Swarm Server to a newer x86-64 host.
  • Memory pressure: allocate at least 16 GiB and reduce mod load before assuming a network problem.

Authoritative references