Are you looking for the best ARK: Survival Evolved mods to play solo, or to add to your server? You've come to the right place!

With so many mods to choose from, it can be hard to find what you're looking for in ARK: Survival Evolved, especially if you're a new player!

We've put together a list of mods including ones that make the game a little easier, add decorations, add a new map, and expand what creatures are available!

A giant Godzilla like creature from the Primal Fear mod being shot by a player
A creature from the Primal Fear mod

All of these mods are free and are compatible with multiplayer servers, though not all of them are compatible with each other. If you're looking for a multiplayer server of your own, check out our hosting options.

Browse types of mods:

Game Expansion Mods

Versatile Raft Mod

This mod adds five new rafts to the game, ranging from the small and super speedy Speedboat raft with eight max structures to the huge and slow Mobile Base raft with 600 max structures. So whether you want to whizz through the waters or breeze through with a fully-fledged base, this mod has something for you!

A screenshot of a wooden battleship sailing slowly across a lake
A battleship raft drifting across the open water

Download Versatile Raft Mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=703724165

Structures Plus

This mod is perfect for anyone looking for a wide-ranging structures mod. It has everything you could want, including tens of new structures, lots of quality of life adjustments like silencing noisy structures, and building mechanic improvements like stackable foundations. It also has an inventory sorter, so you can automatically filter out any items you don't want to collect!

A screenshot showing the 'fence supports' feature in action, with 2 contrasting fences to show the difference
One of the many useful features on display

Download Structures Plus: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=731604991

Beacon Enhancer

If you find the default Beacon supply crates a bit boring or useless, this mod has you covered. It adds saddles, building materials, armour and lots more to sky drops as well as level 2, 3, and 4 cave drops. A super simple mod that spices up your Ark experience!

A blue supply crate dropping from the sky into an open mountain field
A blue Beacon supply drop

Download Beacon Enhancer: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=609425335

Dragonpunk: Mythical Creatures

At some point, we've all had daydreams about living in a mythical world with fire-breathing dragons, three-headed dogs, ogres, and more weird and wonderful creatures. Well, this mod brings you a little bit closer to that experience by adding all of those and more!

A screenshot of gameplay showing a dragon breathing fire over a mountain
A fire breathing dragon steals the show

Download Dragonpunk: Mythical Creatures: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=848706943

Primal Fear

This mod adds a ton of awesome new creatures for you to battle or befriend, as well as new items to enhance gameplay including new armour, potions, dinosaur blood, and more. Added animals range from Godzilla-like monsters to a rainbow unicorn. With so much to see, you could spend countless hours exploring and finding new creatures!

A screenshot of a zombie woolly mammoth with its 2 front legs raised into the air
A zombie mammoth flexes its strength

Download Primal Fear: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=839162288

Eco's RP Decor

Decorate your bases with this beautiful, expansive mod that adds tons of new decorative items including flags, furniture, and food! Purely for decoration purposes, but it adds a whole new level of realism to your experience. Eco has lots of other mods we also recommend, and you can check those out here.

A screenshot of gameplay showing a kitchen and dining area using lots of custom decor from the mod
A lovely kitchen dining room using Eco's RP Decor

Download Eco's RP Decor: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=741203089

Play as Dino V2

If you've ever wanted to experience life as a dinosaur for some reason, well, now you can! You can also customise your dinosaur to your liking.  With more than ten dinosaurs to choose from, you can breed, build and explore all as a dinosaur.

A screenshot of the mod's dinosaur customisation menu
The dinosaur customisation menu

Download Play as Dino V2: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1429625638

Grind Reduction Mods

Death Recovery Mod

Are you tired of losing or having to hunt for your belongings after you die? This mod allows you to place a gravestone wherever you want to, and if you die, you can collect your belongings from the gravestone instead of travelling back to where you died.

A screenshot of the mod's gravestones
Four gravestones place next to each other

Download Death Recovery Mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=751991809

Classic Flyers

Buffs winged dinosaurs back to their pre-nerf status. This mod gives flying dinosaurs more stamina to travel longer distances and also lets you level up the dinosaur's flying speed.

A screenshot from the game of a winged dinosaur spreading its wings out
A dinosaur spreads its wings

Download Classic Flyers: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=895711211

Better Reusables

This mod allows you to craft reusable items that are not normally reusable in vanilla ARK, including a reusable grappling hook, parachute, spear, boomerang, and bola.

A screenshot from Ark of a player using a parachute to glide to the ground
A reusable parachute being used to glide down

Download Better Reusables: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1364327869

Automated ARK 3

Automated ARK reduces the amount of time you need to spend doing mundane tasks that aren't fun for anyone. With an all-in-one storage system and automated tasks, you can spend more time exploring, raiding, and enjoying your time on ARK. This mod has a core and then seven add-ons to choose from, so you can better customise your experience.

A screenshot of a farm in Ark
Farming is made easier with Automated Ark 3

Download Automated ARK 3: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=803250329

Super Spyglass

Super Spyglass lets you see statistics for each dinosaur, including their health, how their points have been spent and more. With the increased range and zoom feature, you don't even have to get close.

A screenshot of the in-game statistics GUI for a dinosaur
An example of the stats GUI

Download Super Spyglass: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=793605978

Ultra Stacks

As you can imagine, this mod changes stacking in ARK. But not only does it let you stack items up to ten thousand, but it also reduces item weights by more than 50% and more than doubles the spoil time for items!

A poster showing Ark items stacked to 10,000 with the mod name edited on
Items stacked all the way to 10,000

Download Ultra Stacks: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=761535755

Maps

Valhalla

The map is pretty and absolutely massive, coming in at about three times the size of the standard ARK map, with plenty of biomes to explore. It even won ARK's first global mod competition. What more could you ask for? If you're lucky, you might even run into Odin.

A screenshot from a section of the map showing a large island floating in the sky
A giant island floats above the grounds of Valhalla

Download Valhalla: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=504122600

Thieves Island

Once home to many of the world's crooks and criminals, the island used to be a thriving commune filled with pirates, thieves and vagabonds. Until one day, the island's original inhabitants had enough. The dinosaurs and creatures that called the island their home long before people wanted the island back, so they took it. The island is about half the size of the vanilla Ark map but is tightly packed with content and biomes to explore.

A screenshot from the map showing building ruins derelict and abandoned
The abandoned ruins of a once thriving community

Download Thieves Island: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=651147582

The Center

From the creators of ARK: Survival Evolved, this expansion pack map is about twice the size of the vanilla ARK map and has the content match. With vast underground ice caves, ancient ruins, giant waterfalls and more, there's always something new to discover in this Tolkien-esque map.

A screenshot from the map showing the central island surrounding by waterfalls and swampland
A floating island surrounding by huge waterfalls

Download The Center: https://store.steampowered.com/app/473850/

The Volcano

The focal point of this map is, of course, the volcano, which stands tall and spews fire and smoke into the sky. But there are also five biomes, including snow and swamp, to explore. Underneath the ground, you'll be able to find 15 caves to traverse!

A screenshot from the map showing a dinosaur taking centre stage as the volcano spews ash into the sky in the background
A dinosaur takes centre stage as the volcano spews ash into the sky in the background

Download The Volcano: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=715028562

Ragnarok

Our second expansion pack map on this list from the creators of ARK: Survival Evolved, Ragnarok is an absolutely massive map coming in at more than four times the size of the vanilla map. With elements from The Island and Scorched Earth, this map is perfect for base-builders and explorers alike. But beware on your travels, the map is home to polar bears, ice wyverns, and a new mythical creature unique to Ragnarok!

A screenshot of a player flying on a giant bird above the Ragnarok map
A player cruising above Ragnarok on their giant bird

Download Ragnarok: https://store.steampowered.com/app/642250/


That completes our list! We'll continue to update this list as time goes on and new mods are released, so be sure to check back. If you try any and enjoy them or see any mods missing, let us know over on our twitter.

Do you want to start your own ARK server to play with friends and try out some of these mods? Check out hour hosting options.

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