What Is an Unofficial ARK Server?
Unofficial servers — sometimes called player servers — are ARK: Survival Ascended servers hosted and run by individual communities rather than by Studio Wildcard. “Unofficial” simply means the server exists outside Wildcard’s official server network; it has nothing to do with quality, size, or legitimacy.
Because each one is independently operated, unofficial servers can differ from official servers — and from each other — in almost every way, including:
- Rates (XP, harvesting, taming, breeding)
- Installed mods
- Tribe size limits
- PvP or PvE rules
- Which maps are available
- Raid protection and new-player protection systems
- Progression pace
- Community rules and moderation style
This is exactly why unofficial servers exist: they let communities tune ARK to the kind of experience they actually want, rather than the fixed official ruleset.
Joining an Unofficial Server
The general flow for finding and joining a player-hosted server in ARK: Survival Ascended looks like this:
- Launch ARK: Survival Ascended.
- From the main menu, open the server browser.
- Select the appropriate Unofficial server category and search for the server name.
- If the server is hosted on a dedicated/player-hosted machine, enable “Show Player Servers” so those servers are included in the browser results.
- If it doesn’t appear right away, check your filters (see below).
- Select the server and join.
Why Can’t I Find the Server?
This is one of the most common issues new players run into. Before assuming something is wrong, check for these common causes:
- Wrong category — make sure you’re browsing Unofficial/Player servers, not Official.
- Dedicated/player-hosted server — if the server runs on a dedicated/player-hosted machine, enable “Show Player Servers” so it appears in the results.
- Filters — an active search filter (map, region, password) can hide the server you’re looking for.
- Wrong server name — double-check spelling and capitalization.
- Server restarting or temporarily offline — servers occasionally restart for updates or maintenance.
- Version mismatch — if the server hasn’t updated to match your game version yet (or vice versa), it may be hidden or unjoinable.
- Mods updating — a server with mods can be briefly unavailable while mod updates propagate.
- Platform compatibility — not every unofficial server supports every platform.
- Crossplay settings — some servers only support specific platforms even with crossplay enabled elsewhere.
- Stale browser list — refresh or restart the server browser if it hasn’t updated in a while.
Crossplay
Not every unofficial server supports every platform, even when crossplay is technically available in ARK: Survival Ascended. Server owners choose which platforms to allow. Survival Enhanced supports full crossplay — PC, Xbox, and PlayStation players can all join the same cluster.
How to Join Survival Enhanced
Survival Enhanced runs on dedicated machines, so the flow is specific:
- Launch ARK: Survival Ascended.
- Open the server browser.
- Select the appropriate Unofficial server category.
- Enable “Show Player Servers” — Survival Enhanced is hosted on dedicated machines, so this needs to be on.
- Search exactly: SurvivalEnhanced
- Choose the map/server you want.
- Join.
For the most accurate picture of what’s currently online, check our live Servers page — it pulls real-time data directly from the cluster, current maps, and player counts, so it’s always more current than any cached browser listing.
You can also join our Discord for help, announcements, and community support.
Survival Enhanced Troubleshooting
- Make sure “Show Player Servers” is enabled.
- Search exactly:
SurvivalEnhanced - Check /servers to confirm which maps are currently online.
- Check our Discord for maintenance or status announcements.