ARK: Survival Ascended Server Setup: SteamCMD, WinLiveMaxPlayers, Ports & RCON
How to stand up an ARK: Survival Ascended dedicated server: installing the free app 2430930 with SteamCMD (anonymous login works), running the Windows-only server under Wine/Proton on Linux, the launch command and the new dash-flags (-WinLiveMaxPlayers, -port, -mods) that replace ASE's ?MaxPlayers=/?Port=, why the query port is vestigial (EOS discovery) and you don't forward it, enabling genuine Source RCON from GameUserSettings.ini, and installing CurseForge mods.
ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA) is not the same game as the original ARK: Survival Evolved, and its server tooling changed in ways that trip up anyone copying an old guide. Two things catch every first-time host: the server ships as a Windows binary only (Linux hosts run it under Wine/Proton), and several launch options moved from ASE's ?Key=Value map-string syntax to new -Flag=Value command-line flags - so the ?MaxPlayers= and ?Port= you'll find in 2024 tutorials are silently ignored. This guide covers a correct-for-2026 setup.
This guide is for ARK: Survival Ascended. Running legacy ARK: Survival Evolved? It's a different app with different syntax - see the ARK: Survival Evolved server setup guide.
Installing the server with SteamCMD
The dedicated server is its own free Steam app - 2430930 ("ARK: Survival Ascended Dedicated Server"), separate from the game client (2399830). Anonymous login works - you do not need to own the game to run a server:
Re-run the same command with the server stopped to update. The install is large - budget well past 20 GB and put it on an SSD.
Linux: there is no native Linux server
As of 2026 Wildcard still ships no native Linux server binary. Linux hosts run the Windows ArkAscendedServer.exe under Wine or Proton (GE-Proton is the common choice), typically on Ubuntu 24.04 or similar. Everything below - the launch command, the config paths - is the Windows layout, because that is the binary you're actually running. Community Docker images and install scripts wrap exactly this.
The launch command and the new flags
The server binary is ArkAscendedServer.exe under ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64\. As in ASE, the map and session options are packed into a ?-separated string, but the important knobs now live in trailing - flags:
Key changes from ASE - get these wrong and the setting is silently ignored:
-WinLiveMaxPlayers=<N> sets the player cap, not ?MaxPlayers=. ASA ignores the old ?MaxPlayers= query param entirely (the default cap if you set nothing is 70). This is the single most-copied mistake - even an official-looking Steam Community guide still shows ?MaxPlayers=.
-port=<N> sets the game port, not ?Port=. The old ?Port= is ignored; don't rely on a ServerPort ini key either.
-mods=<id,id,...> lists CurseForge mod ids (see Mods below).
The map id carries a _WP suffix (World Partition) - TheIsland_WP, not TheIsland. The other released maps follow the same _WP naming; the bare ASE name won't load.
Put ServerAdminPassword last in the ?-chain. Anything after it gets swallowed into the password value, so keep it as the final ? argument before your - flags.
Config files: GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini
Both files live under ShooterGame/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/ - note the path says WindowsServereven on a Linux host, because you're running the Windows binary under Wine/Proton. There is no LinuxServer variant for ASA.
GameUserSettings.ini - [ServerSettings] holds ServerPassword, ServerAdminPassword, RCONEnabled, RCONPort, and most gameplay toggles.
Game.ini - advanced rules under [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode] (breeding/harvest/XP multipliers, per-level engram tuning). A fresh install often has this file nearly empty - that's normal.
Ports to forward
Port
Protocol
What
How to set
7777
UDP
Game traffic
-port=
27020
TCP
RCON (optional, remote admin)
RCONPort in the ini
That's it for the required forwards. Two ports people over-forward out of ASE habit:
The query port (27015 in old docs) is vestigial in ASA. Server-browser discovery goes through Epic Online Services (EOS), not Steam's A2S query protocol, so you do not need to forward or configure a query port for your server to show up. Skip it.
Peer port 7778 (game port + 1) is not normally required, but if players report intermittent connection failures, forwarding it is a cheap thing to try.
Only forward the RCON port if you administer remotely - and never without a strong ServerAdminPassword.
Admin access and RCON
ARK: Survival Ascended kept the standard Valve Source RCON protocol from ASE - the same one CS2 and Rust tooling speaks, so ordinary RCON clients connect unchanged. Enable it in GameUserSettings.ini:
ServerAdminPasswordis the RCON password - there's no separate RCON credential.
Don't assume the flags moved too. ASA relocated -port and -WinLiveMaxPlayers to command-line flags, but the RCON settings stayed ini keys - there is no -RCONPort= flag. Configure RCON in GameUserSettings.ini, not on the command line.
For the command vocabulary once you're connected - and the one big ASA gotcha, that moderation commands take a player's EOS ID rather than a Steam64 ID - see our companion reference: ARK: Survival Ascended RCON Commands.
Mods (CurseForge, not Workshop)
ASA mods do not come from the Steam Workshop - they come from CurseForge. List the numeric CurseForge Project IDs comma-separated on the launch line:
-mods=123456,789012
The server downloads and updates them itself on boot; load order follows the list (leftmost first). No API key is needed for standard published mods. This is a clean break from ASE's ActiveMods=/Steam-Workshop model - a mod that only exists on the Workshop is not an ASA mod.
Crossplay, BattlEye, hardware
Crossplay (letting Epic Games Store players join alongside Steam players) on a self-hosted server generally requires launching with the -crossplay flag - it is not automatically on for private dedicated servers the way official servers are. If Epic players can't find your server, this is the usual cause.
BattlEye is on by default. Servers running under Wine/Proton commonly launch with -NoBattlEye (BattlEye's anti-cheat doesn't run cleanly in that environment); public servers that can keep it on should.
RAM is the binding resource: plan on a healthy floor for a small vanilla TheIsland_WP server and considerably more once you add players, mods, or heavier maps. ASA is noticeably hungrier than ASE - give it fast cores and an SSD.
MantaScope tracks the live ARK: Survival Ascended server list with population history, per-server rank, uptime and downtime incidents. Because ASA speaks standard Source RCON, you can claim your server on MantaScope and administer it from the browser - live player list with EOS IDs ready to copy, kick/ban and console over the RCONPort you set above - alongside population graphs, scheduled SaveWorld/restart commands via automations, and Discord notifications.
ARK:SAServer Admin
