Change the ARK difficulty level on your Survival Evolved server in the game panel: stop it, enable override difficulty in the config editor of config.bat, enter a multiplier, then respawn the wild dinos.
The difficulty sets how high the levels of wild dinos go on your ARK Survival Evolved server. The game setting behind the override is OverrideOfficialDifficulty. Official servers run at 5.0, which gives most wild dinos a maximum level of 150 (levels 5 to 150, in steps of 5). As a rule of thumb, the maximum level of most dinos is 30 times your multiplier.
How to set your ARK difficulty level
- Stop your server.
- Go to Configuration Files and edit the Config Editor of your
config.bat. - Enable override difficulty, then enter a multiplier. Look up the difficulties and the dino levels they give on the official ARK wiki: ARK difficulty.
- Once you set a multiplier, save and start your server.
- Inside the server console or via the actions tab under RCON commands, run
cheat destroywilddinos.
No actions tab on your panel? On the current GTX game panel, send the command with the Web RCON button in the left menu. See How to execute ARK RCON commands from the control panel.
Why run destroywilddinos?
The dinos already roaming your map keep the levels they spawned with. The destroywilddinos command destroys all untamed creatures on the map, so they respawn with levels from your new difficulty. Your tamed dinos are not touched.
ARK difficulty questions
What ARK difficulty level do official servers use?
Official ARK: Survival Evolved servers use a difficulty of 5.0, which gives most wild dinos a maximum level of 150. Enable override difficulty in the config editor of config.bat and enter 5.0 to match them.
Why are the wild dinos still low level after I changed the difficulty?
Dinos that spawned before the change keep their old levels. Run cheat destroywilddinos in the server console or through RCON, and the wild dinos respawn at the new difficulty.
Does destroywilddinos kill my tamed dinos?
No. The command only destroys untamed creatures on the map. Tamed dinos stay where they are.
Want your own ARK server? See ARK: Survival Evolved server hosting.
Related guides
Need help with your difficulty settings? Our support team is available 24/7: open a support ticket.
