Steam Workshop mods from the ARK: Survival Evolved workshop: new creatures, items, structures, quality-of-life changes and even whole maps.
Back up first. See How to back up and restore your ARK: Survival Evolved world.
Add a mod
- Find the mod on the ARK: Survival Evolved Steam Workshop and copy the number at the end of its page address (the id= part). Only IDs from the Survival Evolved workshop work, not Survival Ascended.
- Open Settings, then Game Settings. Paste the IDs into Steam Workshop Mod IDs, comma-separated with no spaces, for example 1404697612,731604991. If your server has a Workshop tab you can add them there instead.
- Mods load in the order listed and the first one wins when two mods change the same thing.
- If a mod adds its own map, also set Server Map to that map's name.
- Restart the server. It downloads and installs the mods itself, so the first start after a change takes noticeably longer. Let it finish and do not kill or restart it while it installs.
- To remove a mod, take its ID out of the list and restart. Leave the field empty for a vanilla server. Removing a mod that added creatures, items or structures can delete that content from your world or break the save, so take a backup first and remove one mod at a time.
Players need the same mods
Everyone who joins needs the same mods and versions as the server.
Check it worked
Once the server has restarted, read the Console. A mod that loaded shows up during startup, and problems show under Errors and Warnings. See How to use the console and run commands and How to add mods, plugins and modpacks.
If the server stops after you add a mod, remove the newest mod or restore your backup. See How to fix a server that will not start.
