ARK Admin Commands and RCON Guide for Server Owners

Essential ARK: Survival Evolved admin commands for spawning dinos, managing players, giving items, and remote server control through the MANAfuel RCON console.

1. 01

   Open the RCON Console

   Navigate to your ARK server in the MANAfuel dashboard and open the RCON Console tab. ARK uses RCON on port 32330 by default. The console connects with your admin password pre-configured. Type commands and press Enter to execute. Commands execute immediately on the server.

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2. 02

   Enable Admin Access In-Game

   To use admin commands in-game, open the console and type EnableCheats <AdminPassword>. Your admin password is configured in GameUserSettings.ini under ServerAdminPassword. Once authenticated, you can use cheat commands directly in-game. The RCON Console in your MANAfuel dashboard bypasses this requirement — commands execute with full admin privileges.

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3. 03

   Manage Players

   List connected players with ListPlayers to see names and Steam IDs. Kick with KickPlayer <SteamID>. Ban with BanPlayer <SteamID> and unban with UnbanPlayer <SteamID>. For whitelist-only servers, add players with AllowPlayerToJoinNoCheck <SteamID>. To promote another player to admin, use MakeTribeAdmin while looking at them (in-game) or add their Steam ID to the AllowedCheaterSteamIDs in your config.

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4. 04

   Spawn Dinos and Items

   Spawn a dino with admincheat SpawnDino "Blueprint_Path" distance spawn_y_offset z_offset DinoLevel. For example, spawn a level 150 Rex near you. Give items with GiveItemNum <ItemID> <Quantity> <Quality> <ForceBlueprint>. Give experience to yourself with AddExperience <Amount> 0 0. These commands are essential for testing server configuration, compensating players after bugs, and managing events.

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5. 05

   Control the World

   Force daytime with SetTimeOfDay 12:00. Kill all wild dinos (for respawn control) with DestroyWildDinos — useful after changing spawn weights in Game.ini. Save the world immediately with SaveWorld. For emergencies, DoExit gracefully shuts down the server. To broadcast a message, use ServerChat <Message>. Set server message of the day with SetMessageOfTheDay <Message>.

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6. 06

   Monitor and Maintain

   Check server status with GetChat to review recent chat history and ListPlayers for current population. Bob monitors your ARK server for crash loops, memory leaks (common with ARK after extended uptime), and performance degradation. If the server exceeds 90% memory usage, Bob alerts you with a recommendation to restart — ARK benefits from periodic restarts every 6 to 12 hours on busy servers.