How to connect

Joining from Epic Games

Epic's server browser for ASE is notoriously slow and often shows an empty list. The console open command is the reliable path — use it first.

Method 1 — Direct connect via console (recommended)

1. Launch ARK: Survival Evolved from the Epic Games Launcher.
2. From the main menu click Host/Local, choose any map, select Play Single Player. You must actually load into a single-player session first — the console will not accept open from the main menu on the Epic version.
3. Once you can move, press Tab to open the console. Press Tab again to expand it to the full top-half overlay (recommended, since the small one-line console is hard to read).
4. Type:
   open 217.154.191.51:7777?Password=dodo936
   and press Enter. The game disconnects from your single-player world and connects to the server.
5. If the ?Password= form is rejected by your client build, try the space-separated form: open 217.154.191.51:7777 dodo936.

Gotchas

• Text you type into the console may not render visibly until you hit Enter — type carefully and don't second-guess the blank field.
• If Tab does nothing, open Options → Key Bindings and confirm Toggle Console is bound. Tilde (~) is a safe alternative.
• The open command only works while in an actual game session (single-player or another server). It does not work from the main menu on the Epic build.

Method 2 — In-game Unofficial server list (fallback)

The server is listed via EOS, so it can appear under the Unofficial filter, but expect to wait — Epic's session browser can take 10–15 minutes to populate after the server starts and loads in batches.

• Session Filter: Unofficial
• Map filter: set to the current map (filtering by the active map dramatically speeds up the list).
• Hide Password Protected: OFF (this server has a password — leave it unchecked or the entry is hidden).
• Max Ping: bump to 200+ while searching; lower later.
• Name search: type the start of the session name to narrow results.
• When the entry appears, click Join, then enter dodo936 when prompted.

Epic quirks (vs Steam)

• No Steam-Favorites workaround — Epic has no equivalent of Steam's "Add Server" dialog.
• No mod support — Epic clients can't load Steam Workshop mods, so the server must be vanilla for Epic players to join (it is).
• Tab-console behavior is the same as Steam, but Epic players sometimes need to re-bind Toggle Console after the first launch.

Finding your EOS Player ID (for whitelisting)

If our server has the whitelist enabled, you need to give the admin your 32-character EOS ID. Easiest way:

1. Start a single-player game on any map and spawn a character.
2. Press Tab twice to open the expanded console.
3. Type whoami and press Enter.
4. Two values print: OSS Id and ARK ID. On the Epic version, send the admin the ARK ID — that's your EOS ID.

Alternative: just attempt to join the server once. Your EOS ID will appear in the server log under UniqueNetId and the admin can pull it out. There is no reliable third-party "Steam-ID-style" lookup site for EOS IDs.