How to change the difficulty level on your ARK server

The difficulty level of your ARK server affects the levels of creatures in the world, as well as the quality of loot drops.

By default, the max level of all dinos is 30. If you want higher-level dinos and better loot, increase the server difficulty.

Increasing difficulty in the GameUserSettings.ini config file

The difficulty settings are in the GameUserSettings.ini file, located at ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini.

The difficulty value is determined by the formula:

DifficultyOffset * (OfficialDifficulty - 0.5) + 0.5

1. Log in to the control panel and, from your server's page, go to the File Manager.
2. Navigate to the GameUserSettings.ini file (at ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini).
3. Click the file to open it in the text editor.
4. All settings you change must be placed under the [ServerSettings] section. If a setting isn't in the file, create it on a new line in the format Option=Value.

To change the difficulty, add or modify these settings:

[ServerSettings]
DifficultyOffset=1.0
OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0

Once you have saved the file, restart the server for the changes to take effect.

Set DifficultyOffset to 1.0

DifficultyOffset is a multiplier applied to the official difficulty. That's why it is recommended to set it to 1.0: it makes it easier to calculate the difficulty value you want (the default is 0.2, which makes the math harder).

Set OverrideOfficialDifficulty with the formula (Max Level / 30)

The OverrideOfficialDifficulty value can be between 1.0 and 10.0. It should be your maximum desired level divided by 30. Example: if you want max level 300, set it to 10 (300 / 30 = 10). Some examples in the table:

Max level	DifficultyOffset	OverrideOfficialDifficulty
30	1.0	1.0
150	1.0	5.0
300	1.0	10.0

Clearing wild dinos

After changing the difficulty and restarting, you'll most likely want to clear the existing wild dinos with the DestroyWildDinos command. Steps:

If you haven't already, set up an admin password for your ARK server. Then you can press Tab to run commands.

1. Run enablecheats to gain access to admin commands.
2. Run admincheat DestroyWildDinos to destroy the wild dinos.
3. This removes all wild untamed dinos and begins respawning them at the new difficulty level.

Respawning the dinos can be very resource intensive. If you experience lag or high usage during this time, wait a few minutes and everything returns to normal once the process completes.

Need more help? Open a ticket.