How to Change the Difficulty on an Ark Server

Changing your Ark: Survival Evolved server’s difficulty setting allows you to control how challenging the game is. Whether you're aiming for casual exploration or a hardcore survival experience, Beacon Hosting makes it easy to customize difficulty levels.

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✅ Step 1: Access Your Server

Log in to the Beacon Hosting Control Panel.
From the dashboard, navigate to your Ark server listed under My Services or go directly via the Server Selection Page.

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⚙️ Step 2: Find Difficulty Settings

Once inside your server management panel:

1. Open the Startup Parameters, Configuration, or Settings tab (depending on your panel layout).
2. Look for options such as:
   • DifficultyOffset
   • OverrideOfficialDifficulty

These control the strength and level range of wild creatures and loot. For example:

• DifficultyOffset = 1.0 is standard.
• OverrideOfficialDifficulty = 5.0 enables wild creatures up to level 150.

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✏️ Step 3: Modify and Apply Changes

1. Adjust the values to match your desired difficulty.
2. Click Save after making changes.
3. Restart your server to apply the new settings.

ℹ️ Note: You may need to perform a dino wipe (using admincheat DestroyWildDinos) for creature levels to regenerate under the new difficulty.

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💡 Difficulty Examples

| Setting | Description | |----------------------------|------------------------------------------| | DifficultyOffset = 0.2 | Very easy (low-level creatures) | | DifficultyOffset = 1.0 | Standard (max level ~30 or 120 depending on map) | | OverrideOfficialDifficulty = 5.0 | Max level 150 wild dinos |