ARK: Survival Ascended maps and CurseForge mods on Hostd

Switch ARK: Survival Ascended maps from the dashboard and install CurseForge mods in clicks. Catalogue, mod cap, load order, and the swap workflow.

ARK: SA maps and CurseForge mods are the two things you'll touch most on an ARK: Survival Ascended server, and both live in the dashboard rather than in config files. No SteamCMD, no editing GameUserSettings.ini by hand, no separate mod manager. The panel handles it.

Switching maps

Your server runs one map at a time. Each plan is one server on one map; if your tribe wants a cluster across maps, you'd run multiple servers (talk to support about the cluster file share). Switching the active map is straightforward:

  1. Open your server in the dashboard.
  2. Go to Settings, then the Map section.
  3. Pick from the catalogue.
  4. Save, then restart the server. The new map applies on next boot.

The catalogue on Hostd currently includes The Island (the default and the original ARK), Scorched Earth (arid, wyverns, sandstorms), The Center (large free expansion with floating islands and an underworld), Aberration (subterranean radiation map with rock drakes), Extinction (corrupted titans, ruined cities), Astraeos (a large community-promoted map with floating islands and varied biomes), and Ragnarok (a huge community map with dungeons and ocean caves). The catalogue grows as new official and curated community maps land; the dashboard always shows the current list.

What survives a map switch and what doesn't

The new map starts as a fresh world. Your saves on the previous map sit on the volume untouched, but the world the server actually loads is the new one. Your mod list persists across the switch: whatever was active on The Island will still be active when you swap to Scorched Earth, downloaded and ready. Your dashboard settings (rates, slot count, password, RCON) all carry over too. What you lose on the new map is the in-world progress for that map: bases, dinos, characters, because they belong to the old map's save.

If you want to come back to the previous map's world later, that save is still in your volume; ask support and they'll help you swap the active save folder back.

Installing CurseForge mods

ARK: SA has first-class mod support via CurseForge. We use the official CurseForge API behind the scenes so you don't need a key, an account, or any client-side mod manager.

  1. Open your server in the dashboard.
  2. Go to the Mods tab.
  3. Search or browse the ARK: SA catalogue.
  4. Click Install on what you want; the mod ID is added to your server.
  5. Save your selection. The mods download and activate on the next boot.

The 30-mod cap per server is a sensible ceiling rather than a hard punishment; once you're past 20 mods you'll feel boot time growing, and stability falls off well before 30 on most stacks. Quality over quantity.

Mods worth naming

There's a small group of ARK: SA mods that turn up on nearly every healthy community server. Awesome SpyGlass adds the proper in-world creature inspection tool the base game really should ship with. Structures Plus (S+) is the building overhaul most tribes refuse to play without once they've tried it; rotate snaps, pickup-anywhere, the lot. Eco's mods are a family of decorative and quality-of-life add-ons that make bases look like places people live rather than crafting checklists. Super Structures sits in similar territory to S+ and is worth a look if S+ ever lags behind a game patch. None of those are required; they're just the ones that keep showing up on servers that stay popular.

Mod load order

The order of mods in the list matters. ARK: SA loads them top to bottom, and later mods can override earlier ones (especially when two mods touch the same item, structure, or engram). The dashboard's mod list order is the boot order. If two mods conflict over the same engram and you want one to win, drag it lower in the list.

For most stacks, leave QoL mods (SpyGlass, stack mods) near the top and put structures or content-replacement mods (S+, Super Structures) lower so they take precedence. The mod's own CurseForge page usually tells you if it has known load-order rules.

Heads-up: mods download on next boot

Adding a mod doesn't pull it instantly; the CurseForge fetch happens on the next server start. So if you've added five mods and want them live, save and Restart. The dashboard shows "Installing mods" as a milestone during boot so you can see progress.

If a mod fails to download (usually a transient CurseForge API hiccup), the server log will say so. Try the restart again; if a specific mod ID is genuinely dead, remove and replace it.

Where to go next

  • ARK: SA server troubleshooting for "mod mismatch" kicks and other common headaches.
  • Manual backups before a big map swap or a risky mod change.
  • The Files tab on your dashboard lets you peek at your Saved folder by hand if you ever need to.

Last updated 2026-05-20. Notice a mistake? Tell us.

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