Game server hosting
ARK: Ascended server hosting
ARK: Survival Ascended server hosting on 8 GB RAM for €21.99/month, VAT included. Mods install straight from CurseForge, the server downloads them itself and joining players pull them automatically, on EPYC + NVMe hardware in Finland with full config access and automated backups.
8 GB plans are provisioned on request. This size sits above the capacity we keep online, so we bring a node up for it rather than holding idle hardware — which is also why the price stays where it is. Email us and we will confirm timing and have it running for you, 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 8 GB realistically runs
8 GB comfortably runs one official-style map (The Island, The Center or Scorched Earth) for roughly six to ten players 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 8 GB. Two practical levers keep an 8 GB box 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
Your container is up about a minute after checkout, but 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
Run any ARK: Ascended setup you want
- Set up by hand, usually the same day
- 1-click mod & plugin installer
- Full file access (SFTP + web editor)
- Automated backups
- Free MySQL database
- DDoS protection included
- Console, metrics & crash auto-restart
- RAM upgrades on request, same day
Test your latency to our network
Measures the round trip from your connection to our EU-Central edge, right now.
This is an HTTPS round trip to our web edge, 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 8 GB. Player counts below are the practical limit before tick-rate suffers — mods and plugins matter more than raw player count.
| RAM | Players | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 2 GB | 1–4 | Vanilla worlds, small co-op, Terraria |
| 4 GB | 5–15 | Vanilla+ with plugins, light modpacks, most survival servers |
| 6 GB | 10–25 | Mid-size modpacks, Satisfactory and 7 Days to Die worlds |
| 8 GB | 20–40 | Heavy modpacks, ARK with mods, 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.
How this one works
- 1
Email us what you need
Tell us the game and the size. We confirm timing and price before anything is set up.
- 2
We bring the capacity up
We provision a node for it and create your server, 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.
Credit is refundable
Unused wallet credit can be refunded to your original card on request.
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 never picks the server up while direct connect works, the query port is the thing to check, as that is what registers the server while the game port carries actual play.
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 [email protected] 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 €21.99 per month for a 8 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?
8 GB plans are provisioned on request rather than from the store, because that size sits above the capacity we keep online. Email us and we will bring the node up and hand over the panel details, usually the same day. Once it exists it behaves exactly like any other server.
Can I install mods and plugins on my ARK: Ascended server?
Yes. ARK: Ascended supports ASA, CurseForge mods, Auto mod-download, Clusters and Custom maps — install from a one-click menu or upload your own files over SFTP. There is no artificial limit.
Where are the servers located?
Puranode runs on EPYC + NVMe hardware in the EU (Finland), which gives low latency for European players. 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.
Want a ARK: Ascended server?
Email us and we will bring the capacity up for you, usually the same day.