ARK Survival Ascended Admin Commands, Cheats & Save World Guide
How to Become Admin on ARK (ASA & ASE)
For both ARK Survival Evolved (ASE) and ARK Survival Ascended (ASA): 1) Stop your server. 2) Open GameUserSettings.ini (located in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/). 3) Under [ServerSettings], add: ServerAdminPassword=YourStrongPassword. 4) Save, start the server, and join. 5) Press Tab (or ~ on some keyboards) to open the console. 6) Type: enablecheats YourStrongPassword. You are now admin. For ASA specifically: you can also use the in-game Admin Manager UI (press Esc > Admin Manager) for a graphical interface. The password must be re-entered with enablecheats every time you join the server - admin status does not persist between sessions. Make your password strong and never share it publicly.
Save World Commands
ARK auto-saves every 15 minutes by default (controlled by AutoSavePeriodMinutes in GameUserSettings.ini). For manual saves: join the server, become admin (enablecheats password), then type: admincheat saveworld. The server writes the current world state to disk immediately. This is essential before server restarts, shutdowns, major admin actions, or mod installations. For ASE: the command is cheats saveworld (or admincheat saveworld). For ASA: admincheat saveworld works identically. You'll see a confirmation message in the console when the save completes. You can also save from the server console (not in-game): cheat saveworld. To change autosave interval: add AutoSavePeriodMinutes=5 to GameUserSettings.ini (saves every 5 minutes instead of 15). More frequent saves protect against crashes but cause brief lag spikes each save on larger servers.
Essential ARK Admin Commands
God mode and stats: cheat god (complete invincibility), cheat infinitestats (infinite health, stamina, oxygen, food, water, weight, and torpidity), cheat gcm (toggles creative mode - fly + infinite stats + crafting), cheat fly (toggle flight), cheat walk (disable flight). Combat and enemies: cheat EnemyInvisible true (creatures ignore you), cheat LeaveMeAlone (combines god + infinitestats + enemyinvisible), cheat kill (kill the creature/player you're looking at), cheat DestroyWildDinos (wipes all wild dinos - respawn with new levels), cheat DestroyAll (wipes all wild dinos of a specific type). Teleportation: cheat Teleport (teleport to where you're looking), cheat TeleportPlayerIDToMe PlayerID, cheat TeleportToPlayer PlayerID. Utility: cheat SetTimeOfDay hh:mm (set time, 24h format), cheat Slomo X (set game speed - 1=normal, 2=double, 0.5=half), cheat GiveResources (give 50 of each basic resource), cheat GiveCreativeMode (toggle creative).
Spawning Items and Creatures
Item commands: cheat GiveItemNum <itemid> <qty> <quality> <blueprint>. Item IDs found on the ARK Wiki. Quality: 0=Primitive, 1=Ramshackle, 2=Apprentice, 3=Journeyman, 4=Mastercraft, 5=Ascendant. Blueprint: 0=item, 1=blueprint. Example: cheat GiveItemNum 1 1 1 0 gives a primitive simple pistol. GFI (easier): cheat GFI <itemname> <qty> <quality> <blueprint>. Example: cheat GFI MetalPick 1 5 0 gives ascendant metal pick. Creature spawning: cheat Summon <creatureid> (spawns at your location), cheat SpawnDino BlueprintPath 500 0 0 150 (spawns with custom level, use ARK Wiki for full blueprint paths). cheat ForceTame (instantly tames the creature you're looking at, adds saddle). cheat DoTame (area-of-effect force tame, tames all nearby creatures). For infinite stats on dinos: look at them and use cheat infinitestats.
Setting Difficulty and Game Settings
In GameUserSettings.ini under [ServerSettings]: DifficultyOffset=1.0 (enables max difficulty scaling), OverrideOfficialDifficulty=X (controls max dino level). Max wild dino level = OverrideOfficialDifficulty × 30. Common values: 1.0 = max level 30, 5.0 = max level 150 (standard official), 6.0 = max level 180, 10.0 = max level 300. After changing difficulty, run cheat DestroyWildDinos to force new dinos to spawn at the updated levels. Other key settings: XPMultiplier (XP rate, 1.0=default, 3.0=3x), TamingSpeedMultiplier (higher = faster taming, 5.0=5x), HarvestAmountMultiplier (resource gathering rate), MatingIntervalMultiplier (lower = faster breeding, 0.1=10x faster), EggHatchSpeedMultiplier (higher = faster hatching, 10.0=10x), BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier (higher = faster growth). For ASA: additional settings include DisableWeatherFog (disable fog effects), ServerCrosshair (enable/disable crosshair), and bDisableStructurePlacementCollision (disable building collision).
ARK ASA vs ASE Command Differences
ASA (ARK Survival Ascended) uses Unreal Engine 5 instead of UE4, but admin commands are largely identical between both versions. Key differences: ASA has a new Admin Manager UI accessible from the pause menu - no console commands needed for basic admin functions. ASA uses cross-platform play (PC, Xbox, PS5), so admin commands work the same across all platforms. For console players on ASA: open the pause menu, press the button combo for console access (varies by platform), then type commands. The saveworld command works identically in both games. Some ASA-specific commands: r.VolumetricCloud 0 (disable clouds for performance), r.Fog 0 (disable fog), Grass.Enable 0 (disable grass), ShowDebug (toggle debug info). ASE mods don't carry over to ASA - ASA uses a new CurseForge-based mod system with cross-platform mod support.
FAQ
Related Tutorials
Was this guide helpful?
Join our Discord for more guides and direct help from our engineering team.