Survival · High-resource
Host an ARK Survival Ascended Server
Host ARK: Survival Ascended on your own Windows 10/11 or Linux computer. Swarm Hosts gives you a browser control panel to start, stop, monitor, and back up your server.
- Server Actions
- Mods & Content
- Guided settings
Available in Early Access
Hardware and runtime
What ARK: Survival Ascended needs
Minimum requirements are a starting point. World size, player count, content, and game settings can require more resources.
- CPU
- 4+ cores
- Memory
- 16 GiB minimum
- Player traffic
- UDP
- Backup coverage
- 1 saved data location
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.
- 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
Technical overview
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.
Launch workflow
From host to running server
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.
- Choose ARK: Survival Ascended.
- Select a Swarm Host that meets the CPU, memory, and disk requirements.
- Set the session name, map, private admin password, optional player password, and player limit.
- Review Character and tribe save storage.
- Choose an offered managed relay or prepare direct UDP port forwarding.
- Launch and wait until the logs report that the named server started.
Networking
How players 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.
Managed shared relay when the game, host, and current relay path support it.
Server Actions
Manage your ARK: Survival Ascended server
Available tools depend on the game, server status, and your permissions. The game guide explains any setup needed for Server Actions.
Server status
Read the configured session, map, runtime build, and connected-player count.
List players
List connected players while keeping their EOS account identifiers private.
Broadcast message
Send a server-authored chat message to connected players.
Save world
Flush the active ARKSA world state to persistent storage.
Respawn wild dinos
Remove every wild dinosaur so ARK can repopulate stuck or unbalanced spawns. Tamed creatures are preserved.
Mods & Content status
Mods and custom content
ARK: Survival Ascended resolves the ordered CurseForge project IDs at runtime. Swarm Hosts does not claim an exact installed file version without runtime observation.
The default map is TheIslandWP. 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:
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.
- create and verify a backup
- add a small group of project IDs
- keep their load order intentional
- apply the profile; and
- verify startup and join once with a real client.
Know before launch
Before you launch
- Host on Windows 10/11 or Linux with Docker Desktop in Linux-container mode on Windows, or Docker Engine or rootful Podman on Linux.
- Managed shared relay when the game, host, and current relay path support it.
- 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.
Windows 10/11 + Linux
Ready to host ARK: Survival Ascended?
Connect the Windows or Linux computer you already own, then follow the game-specific launch path.