ARK: Survival Ascended is the Unreal Engine 5 rebuild of ARK, and it is one of the heaviest survival games you can host. Every tamed dinosaur, every structure and every resource node on the map lives in the server’s memory, and the newer engine asks for a lot more of it than Survival Evolved did. A smooth ASA server comes down to sizing memory honestly, keeping mods under control and setting up clusters properly if you run more than one map. This guide covers each of those, then shows how to get a server running on GGHOST Cloud.
What you are hosting
The ASA dedicated server is a separate program from the game, installed through SteamCMD. It loads one map, simulates the creatures, tribes and structures on it, and writes the world to a save file under ShooterGame/Saved. Studio Wildcard ships the server for Windows, so on Linux machines it runs under a compatibility layer, which adds a little overhead of its own.
Each server process runs one map. If you want The Island and Scorched Earth at the same time, with players able to travel between them, you run two servers joined into a cluster.
How much RAM does an ARK: Survival Ascended server need?
ASA’s memory use is driven by the map, the number of tames and structures, and mods. These are the figures we size it at:
- Up to 20 players, a single map with light mods: 16 GB. A tribe of friends on one map sits comfortably here.
- 20 to 50 players, a single map with heavy mods: 24 GB. Large mod lists and busy servers need the headroom.
- A cluster: 32 GB and up. Each map in a cluster needs its own headroom, so memory scales with the number of maps.
Memory climbs as a server ages. A fresh map with a few bases is light; the same map after months of breeding programmes and sprawling tribe bases is far heavier. If memory sits above about 80% at peak, it is time to size up or cull abandoned structures.
On GGHOST Cloud you pay for memory, not player slots. The player cap is a setting you choose, not a line on the invoice.
Vanilla, CurseForge mods and clusters
We support three ways of running ASA: Vanilla, CurseForge mods and clustered maps.
Vanilla
The game as Studio Wildcard ships it, with official maps. You can still change rates, difficulty and almost every gameplay rule through the config files.
CurseForge mods
Mods for Ascended come from CurseForge rather than the Steam Workshop. On our panel, mod IDs go into a startup variable, and the server downloads and updates them when it boots. The underlying launch option is -mods= followed by a comma-separated list of IDs. Keep the list short to start with: every mod adds memory and boot time, and one broken mod after a game update can stop the server starting.
Clustered maps
A cluster is several ASA servers that share player data, so characters, items and creatures can be uploaded on one map and downloaded on another. Every server in the cluster needs the same -clusterid value and the same shared directory, set with -ClusterDirOverride. If either differs, transfers fail.
Settings worth changing
ASA’s settings are split across two files in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/WindowsServer, which you can edit from the panel’s file manager. Stop the server before editing them, because ARK can write its settings back on shutdown.
GameUserSettings.ini
The [ServerSettings] section holds most of what server owners change:
SessionName: the name shown in the server browser.ServerPasswordandServerAdminPassword: the join password (leave it empty for a public server) and the password for admin commands.XPMultiplier,TamingSpeedMultiplierandHarvestAmountMultiplier: the rates players ask about first. Doubling them is a common choice for small groups who cannot play for hours a day.DifficultyOffset: together with the difficulty override, this sets the maximum level of wild creatures.
Game.ini
Deeper rules go in Game.ini: breeding and maturation speeds, per-level stat multipliers and engram overrides. Change one thing at a time, restart, and confirm it took effect before moving on.
The player cap is set at launch with -WinLiveMaxPlayers, a startup flag you can change in the panel.
Performance habits that help
- Restart on a schedule. A daily restart, announced in advance, keeps long-running servers healthy. Set it up as a scheduled task in the panel.
- Clean up abandoned bases. Structures and tames from players who have left still cost memory and server time. Decay settings in
GameUserSettings.inihelp, and so does an occasional manual tidy. - Watch creature counts. Large breeding programmes are the most common reason an ASA server gets heavier over time. A tribe tame limit keeps it in check.
- Save before you stop. Run
SaveWorldfrom the console before a manual shutdown so nothing since the last autosave is lost.
Mods: installing them safely
- Add mods a few at a time. If the server fails to boot, you will know which one to remove.
- Expect breakage after game updates. When ASA updates, some mods need their own update before they load again. Check the console after every game update.
- Back up before changing your mod list. Removing a mod that added creatures or structures can remove those from the save as well.
Backups and saves
Your map save, tribe files and player profiles all live under ShooterGame/Saved. On GGHOST Cloud, backups run on a schedule you set and restore from the panel without a ticket. A daily backup, plus a manual one before every game update or mod change, protects months of taming. If you are moving from another host, upload your saved folder over SFTP or the file manager and carry on where you left off.
Launching your ASA server on GGHOST Cloud
- Pick a plan on the ARK: Survival Ascended page: choose memory from the sizing above and the region closest to your players. Singapore and Europe (France–Germany border) are live today, with the United States (East, Central and West), the United Kingdom, India, Japan and Australia available on demand.
- Check out. Where a node in your region has room the server is created within seconds; in regions where we add capacity for you it is usually ready within 2 hours (24 hours at most).
- Set your options in the panel: map, server name, passwords, player cap and mod IDs. Start the server and wait for the first boot to finish downloading and loading the map.
- Share the address. The address and port are shown in the panel, and players can find the server by name in the unofficial server list.
You get our Pterodactyl panel with a live console, file manager, SFTP, scheduled tasks for restarts and announcements, sub-users for your admins and database access. Every node is behind DDoS protection from our network providers, on every plan. You can change game version or startup flags from the panel and restart without a reinstall, and support comes from the people who run the servers, on Discord or at hello@gghost.cloud.
The short version
Plan for 16 GB on a single map, more with heavy mods, and add memory per map if you cluster. Keep your mod list short, give every server in a cluster the same cluster ID and directory, schedule a daily restart, and back up before every update. ASA rewards honest sizing more than any other survival game we host.
