How do I change the XP, taming and breeding rates on my ARK: Survival Evolved server?

Rates are multipliers, and 1.0 is official. XP, taming, harvest and difficulty go in GameUserSettings.ini under [ServerSettings]. The breeding settings go in Game.ini under [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]. ARK ignores a setting in the wrong file or section without telling you.

Before you edit

1. Download a backup from your Game Panel first, so you can put things back.
2. Stop your server from the Game Panel. ARK only reads its ini files as it starts, and it writes some of its current settings back into them when it shuts down. Edit while it’s running and your changes can be overwritten.
3. Open your Game Panel’s file manager and go to ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/ (WindowsServer/ on a Windows machine). Both files are there.

XP, taming and harvest

In GameUserSettings.ini, find the [ServerSettings] heading and add or change these lines under it:

• XPMultiplier scales the experience players, tribes and tames earn.
• TamingSpeedMultiplier makes taming faster as it goes up.
• HarvestAmountMultiplier gives more resources from every tree, rock and carcass.

If a line is already there, change its value rather than adding a second copy.

Breeding

Open Game.ini. If it doesn’t have a [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode] heading yet, add one on its own line, then put these under it:

• MatingIntervalMultiplier is the wait between matings. Lower is sooner, so 0.5 halves the wait.
• EggHatchSpeedMultiplier hatches eggs faster as it goes up.
• BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier grows babies up faster as it goes up.
• BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier sets how often babies want a cuddle for imprinting. At 1.0 it’s every 8 hours, and lower means more often.

Difficulty

Difficulty decides how high wild creature levels go. The simple way is OverrideOfficialDifficulty under [ServerSettings]: set it to 5.0 and common wild creatures spawn up to level 150 on every map.

Without it, ARK works difficulty out from DifficultyOffset and the map. At the default offset of 1.0 that tops out at level 120 on The Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration and Genesis: Part 2, and 150 everywhere else. The ARK wiki recommends the override because it gives the same result on every map.

Creatures already roaming keep their old levels. To clear them so they respawn under the new setting, type cheat DestroyWildDinos as admin (how to become admin).

An example: everything at 2x

In GameUserSettings.ini:

[ServerSettings]
XPMultiplier=2.0
TamingSpeedMultiplier=2.0
HarvestAmountMultiplier=2.0
OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0

In Game.ini:

[/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
MatingIntervalMultiplier=0.5
EggHatchSpeedMultiplier=2.0
BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier=2.0

Save both files and start your server. The new rates apply from that start. Our ARK game page has a few more example setups, from official up to 10x.