How do I move my ARK: Survival Evolved world to my HavoNode server?

Copy the world file and the player and tribe files beside it into your server’s save folder, then start it on the same map, the same game branch and the same save switches as before. Get one of those wrong and ARK either starts a fresh world or can’t load yours.

What to copy

On a server, the files are in ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks/, or in a folder inside ShooterGame/Saved/ named by the old server’s AltSaveDirectoryName setting. You need:

• the world, an .ark file named after the map, such as TheIsland.ark or Ragnarok.ark
• every .arkprofile file (one per survivor)
• every .arktribe file (one per tribe)

Leave out the .ark files with a date and time in their names, and anything ending .bak. Those are ARK’s own backups (it keeps up to 20 by default), and you only need the latest world.

If the old server ran with -usestore, survivors are stored inside the world file and tribes are .arktributetribe files, so copy those instead.

From singleplayer

Singleplayer saves are in your game folder (in Steam, right-click ARK, then Properties, Installed Files, Browse), under ShooterGame/Saved/. The Island uses SavedArksLocal. Other maps have their own folder, such as RagnarokSavedArksLocal.

Your singleplayer survivor is saved as LocalPlayer.arkprofile. Servers match survivors to players by the ID in the file name, so the server won’t hand that survivor to you automatically. Singleplayer also speeds up XP, taming and breeding by default, so your server will feel slower until you change its rates.

Move it

1. Download a backup from your Game Panel first.
2. On the old server, type cheat SaveWorld as admin, then stop it. Copy only from a stopped server, so the files can’t change halfway through.
3. Download the files listed above.
4. Stop your HavoNode server from the Game Panel.
5. In your server’s settings in the Game Panel, set the same map the old server ran.
6. In your Game Panel’s file manager, upload the files to your save folder (ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks/ unless an AltSaveDirectoryName is set), replacing what’s there.
7. Copy across the settings you’d changed in GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini, including the ActiveMods line if you ran mods.
8. Start your server and join.

Keep these the same

Set any of these in your server’s settings in the Game Panel.

• Save switches. The ARK wiki says a world saved with -newsaveformat needs it to load at all, and one saved with -usestore needs it for players and tribes to be recognised. If the old server used either, use it here too.
• Cluster. Survivors, items and creatures uploaded at an obelisk or transmitter live in the cluster folder, not the world. That’s ShooterGame/Saved/clusters/<clusterid>/ unless -ClusterDirOverride moved it. Copy it across and keep the same -clusterid, or players can’t download what they uploaded. If you plan to link several servers into a cluster here, open a ticket first.
• Branch. Since the Aquatica update in 2025, ARK has two branches: the current one and preaquatica. Run the one your old server ran. Players have to be on the same branch to join.

Big worlds

A big world takes longer to start and needs more memory than a fresh one. The ARK wiki says saves of 1 GB or more need far more RAM than an empty map, so check how much RAM you need before you move a large one. For moving the rest of your setup, see moving from another host.