The best mods for Ark: Survival Evolved

New experience mods

These mods add totally new features to Ark: Survival Evolved to make the island a more varied place.

NPC Bush People

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Official servers can be a grind and PvP can be a Hobbesian horror show, so what's a lonely survivor supposed to do? If you want to hunt two-legged creatures on your singleplayer island, NPC Bush People adds tribes of humans and scatters primitive NPC settlements across the land. You still won't have any friends, but battling humans is a nice change of pace.

Like any other creature, you can train NPC humans and ride on their backs, but we should note here that slavery is absolutely not endorsed by PC Gamer.

Advanced Architecture

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Even after you break free from the all-right-angles and wonky restrictions of Ark's vanilla building system, your options for sweeping architectural masterpieces are somewhat limited. Advanced Architecture goes all Pillars of the Earth on the basic thatch huts you're used to with drawbridges, ceilings, braziers, and even a throne upon which to plant your royal butt.

Pimp My Dino

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Formerly known as Pimp My Rex, Pimp My Dino refuses to discriminate and adds armor and customization options for all dinos, regardless of age, gender, or culinary preference. Several different armor and clothing sets are available for your dinos, making them dangerous and stylish and dangerously stylish.

Dino Trackers

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It only takes a moment. An unlocked gate or an open door, and suddenly your dino is lost. Every year, millions of domesticated dinos escape, and some of them are never seen again. Keep your dinos safe with the Dino Tracker, a combo of two items: collar and tracker. Craft them and outfit your animals with them, and you'll always be able to track Fido down—whether he really did get lost or if that big idiot got stuck on a tree and you didn’t notice until you were miles down the road.

Armored Storage Stands

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You can craft and store so many different things in Ark, but there are surprisingly few ways to store or showcase the products of your hard work. Armored Storage Stands adds special shelves, gun racks, and armor stands so you don’t have to throw everything you own into a box and close the lid. You can showcase saddles, armor, swords, rifles, and clothes while keeping things organized and secure.

Steampunk Modtacular

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A book of blueprints from the late, great Dr. Rubeus Oswald reveals a lot of possibilities for survivors with a penchant for bronze and leather. The Steampunk Index includes plans for steampunk-style stuff including buildings, lights, gates, statues, and hot air balloons. If your low-tech survivor needs a steam-powered upgrade and a fancy set of goggles that look nice with a top hat, this is your mod.

Call of the Wild

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Sometimes, even an island covered in dinosaurs and killer bees and piranhas can get a little boring. Especially for singleplayer or PvE players, the act of building up a formidable castle is a little hollow, since no one is ever going to come around and attack it. With Call of the Wild, dinos will come and attack it.

This mod adds a control unit that lets you customize the size, frequency, and distance of your attackers. Dial in your preferences and hit go, and waves of pissed off dinosaurs will start to fling themselves at your walls. Especially with a group of friends on a PvE server, screaming defensive strategies and frantic repairs and make for a very fun, and very different, Ark experience.

You'll find more mods on the next page.