Game server hosting
ARK: Ascended server hosting
ARK: Survival Ascended server hosting on 12 GB RAM for €32.99 every 30 days, VAT included. Mods install straight from CurseForge, the server downloads them itself and joining players pull them automatically, on EPYC + NVMe hardware in Lauterbourg, France, with full config access and one-click or scheduled backups.
Set up for you by our team. Email us and we will confirm your start date and have your ARK: Ascended server installed, configured and running, usually the same day.
Stripe-secured payments · unused wallet credit refundable · no minimum term, cancel any time · EU company, VAT LT100016340412
Hosting ARK: Ascended
What actually matters on a ARK: Ascended server
ARK: Survival Ascended is the heaviest thing we host, and it is heavy in a way that catches people out: the Unreal Engine 5 rebuild streams the map in World Partition regions, so memory tracks how much of the world is loaded and how many tames are ticking, not how many player slots you sold.
Four players in four corners of The Island cost more than twelve players in one base.
It is also stubbornly single-thread bound on the game thread, so clock speed decides your tick rate far more than core count does, and Wildcard patches often enough that the server has to be restarted onto the new build before anyone can join, with CurseForge mods usually a day or two behind that.
What 12 GB realistically runs
12 GB is sized for one official-style map (The Island, The Center or Scorched Earth) with a private group.
On our hardware The Island used about 10.5 GB before anyone joined, and the community wiki lists about 7 to 12 GB per map, so this is the size we start from, who mostly play in the same part of the world, plus a handful of light quality-of-life mods such as spyglasses, stack changes and structure sets.
Because World Partition keeps regions loaded around players and around active tames, how spread out people are matters more than the headcount. It gets tight with large creature-adding packs, heavy overhauls, mass breeding runs with dozens of babies ticking, or a save that has been growing for several months.
Extinction, Ragnarok and Astraeos are noticeably hungrier than The Island and we would size those above 12 GB.
Two practical levers keep a 12 GB server healthy: set MaxPersonalTamedDinos so nobody parks a hundred idle wyverns on the server, and get people cryopodding what they are not using, since cryopodded dinos do not tick.
Dino count and structure sprawl also drive the size of the .ark file, and a save in the hundreds of megabytes shows up as slower restarts and a visible hitch at every autosave, so lengthen AutoSavePeriodMinutes rather than leaving it short on a mature world.
If you outgrow the plan, RAM upgrades are a same-day manual resize on request.
After checkout
Getting your ARK: Ascended server running
- 1
Let the first install finish before you touch it
ASA is by far the largest install in our catalogue, and the first boot also has to build the world before the server advertises itself.
Watch the console rather than the in-game server list, and resist restarting it because it looks quiet: a restart part-way through starts the download again. Only the first start is slow.
Later ones are much quicker unless a patch has landed.
- 2
Set the map, session name and admin password before first start
Choose your map in the startup variables.
ASA map names carry the _WP suffix (TheIsland_WP, TheCenter_WP, ScorchedEarth_WP, Aberration_WP, Extinction_WP), and a typo gives you a server that boots and never finishes loading rather than an error.
SessionName is the exact string players type into the search box, so make it distinctive instead of leaving the default. Set ServerAdminPassword at the same time: without it you cannot run enablecheats in game or connect over RCON at all.
- 3
Stop the server before you edit the .ini files
Config lives in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/. That folder is called WindowsServer even though the box underneath is Linux, because Wildcard only ships a Windows dedicated server binary.
A running server holds its settings in memory and rewrites both files when it shuts down, so anything you edit while it is up is silently discarded. That is the number one cause of "my settings won't save".
Mind which file, too: rates and server flags belong in [ServerSettings] in GameUserSettings.ini, while breeding, imprint and per-resource harvest multipliers belong in Game.ini under [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode].
A Game.ini line pasted into GameUserSettings.ini does nothing and reports no error.
- 4
Turn difficulty up, then add mods by CurseForge ID
A fresh unofficial server caps wild dinos at level 30. For official-style level 150 wilds you need OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0, which is not on by default and is the setting most new ARK admins end up searching for.
Mods come from CurseForge, not the Steam Workshop: put the numeric project IDs in the mod list in the order you want them loaded, and the server fetches them itself on the next boot while joining players download them automatically.
Load order decides which mod wins when two touch the same thing, so place overhauls and stacking mods deliberately.
A mod map needs both entries, the mod ID in the list and its map name as the server map, or you will boot into The Island with an unused mod loaded.
Mods & how far you can go
How mods work on your ARK: Ascended server
List your CurseForge mod IDs in the MOD IDs setting and the server downloads them when it starts. Every config file is yours to edit over SFTP.
- Set up for you, usually the same day
- Hosted in Lauterbourg, France (EU-West)
- Upload mods, plugins or a server pack and run them
- Full file access (SFTP + web editor)
- Nightly backup set up from the start, plus backups on a click
- Free MySQL database
- DDoS protection included
- Console, metrics & crash auto-restart
- RAM upgrades on request, same day
Already running ARK: Ascended somewhere else? See how moving to Puranode works.
Test your latency to our server
Measures the round trip from your connection to our server in Lauterbourg, France, right now.
This is an HTTPS round trip to the server itself, which typically reads a little higher than in-game ping. Treat it as an upper bound, not a promise.
How much RAM do you need?
Your ARK: Ascended plan ships with 12 GB. Group sizes below are a rough guide: mods, plugins and world size matter more than raw player count.
| RAM | Group | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 2 GB | Small group | Vanilla worlds, small co-op, Terraria |
| 4 GB | Friends or small community | Vanilla+ with plugins, light modpacks, most survival servers |
| 6 GB | Mid-size group | Mid-size modpacks, Satisfactory and 7 Days to Die worlds |
| 8 GB | Larger group | Heavy modpacks, Rust, Palworld, busy community servers |
Picked the wrong size? Email us and we will resize your server the same day: you keep the world, the files and the address.
Going deeper: How Much Does an ARK Ascended Server Cost?
How ordering works
- 1
Tell us what you need
Email us the game and plan. We confirm the price and your start date.
- 2
We set it up for you
Your server is installed and configured by our team, usually the same day.
- 3
Create your account and add credit
You get the panel details, top up your wallet by card through Stripe, and it renews like any other server.
Your servers live in the client panel at client.puranode.com, a separate app from this site, run by the same company.
Stripe handles the card
Payments run through Stripe. Puranode never sees or stores your card number.
VAT included
The price you see is the price you pay. No tax added at the last step.
No minimum term
Billed every 30 days. Cancel from the panel any time, no cancellation fee.
48-hour refund on your first order
Change your mind within 48 hours and we refund your first server's first 30 days in full. Unused wallet credit is refundable too.
MB VARIANTAI · company code 306133252 · VAT LT100016340412 · Lithuania, European Union. Refunds & cancellation
FAQ
ARK: Ascended server hosting: FAQ
My server is running but it does not appear in the ARK server list. How do players join?
The unofficial list is served by Epic Online Services, and a freshly started server can take several minutes to register, then still hide behind the browser's filters. Two things fix it in practice. First, search the exact SessionName with the unofficial filter on and the player-count and ping filters cleared. Second, skip the list: press Tab at the main menu to open the console and type open followed by the address and port shown on your panel. Use the panel's port, not 7777, since your allocation will not be the default. If the list still does not show it, direct connect is the reliable route, and we can check the server for you.
An ARK patch just landed and now my server will not start, or players get a version mismatch.
Clients update through Steam the moment Wildcard ships a build, and a client one build ahead of the server cannot connect. Restart from the panel so the server pulls the matching build. If it still fails after updating, it is almost always a mod: CurseForge authors need a day or two to recompile against the new version, and a single stale mod can stop the whole server loading. Take the suspect ID out of the mod list, start clean to confirm, then add it back once the author has updated. If you want to be playable on patch day, keep the mod list short. Long lists are the reason people lose an evening after every content drop.
Can I run a cluster so players transfer characters, dinos and gear between maps?
Yes, and it is worth knowing what it actually costs: a cluster is two or more complete servers, so a two-map cluster is two €21.99 plans rather than one. Both need the same cluster ID and a transfer directory they can both read, plus uploads and downloads enabled in config. The shared directory is the part people miss, because two servers with matching cluster IDs but separate folders will start happily and then simply show nothing to download at the obelisk after an upload. Email hello@puranode.com before you order the second server so we can place them together and point them at one folder.
How much does a ARK: Ascended server cost?
ARK: Ascended server hosting at Puranode starts at €32.99 every 30 days for a 12 GB server, VAT included. It's a flat price: what you sign up at is what you renew at, with no setup fees and cancel anytime.
How quickly is my ARK: Ascended server online?
Your ARK: Ascended server is installed and configured for you by our team. Email us and we will confirm your start date and hand over the panel details, usually the same day. From then on it is yours to run like any other server.
Can I install mods and plugins on my ARK: Ascended server?
List your CurseForge mod IDs in the MOD IDs setting and the server downloads them when it starts. Every config file is yours to edit over SFTP. Want a hand? Email us and we set it up with you.
Where are the servers located?
All Puranode servers run on EPYC + NVMe hardware in Lauterbourg, France (EU-West). It is one EU location, best for players in western and central Europe. Puranode is operated by MB VARIANTAI, an EU company in Lithuania, and prices include VAT.
Can I move my existing ARK: Ascended server to Puranode?
Yes. Upload your existing world and config over SFTP, or contact us and we'll help migrate it, free for the first setup.
What happens if I run out of credit?
Auto-renewal is on by default, so your server renews from your wallet every 30 days while the balance covers it, and you can switch it off on the order form or in the panel. If the balance will not cover the renewal, or auto-renewal is off, we email you 7, 3 and 1 days before it expires. If a server lapses it is suspended, not deleted: your files are kept for 30 days, and renewing at any point in that time brings it back.
Want a ARK: Ascended server?
Email us and we will have it installed and running for you, usually the same day.