The gather rate is one of the first settings most ARK server admins want to change. Vanilla ARK is a deliberate grind, and on a private or community server you almost always want resources to come in faster so players spend more time building, taming, and fighting bosses than swinging a pick at the same rock for ten minutes. The good news is that changing the gather rate is a single config value, and it works the same way on both ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA) — the Unreal Engine 5 remaster that is now the primary game — and the legacy ARK: Survival Evolved (ASE). This guide walks through the exact key, the related multipliers you’ll almost always tune alongside it, per-resource overrides, and how to apply your changes.
The one setting that controls gather rate: HarvestAmountMultiplier
The global gather rate on an ARK dedicated server is controlled by a single key called HarvestAmountMultiplier. It lives in GameUserSettings.ini, under the [ServerSettings] section. The default value is 1.0, which is the same rate you get in single-player vanilla. Higher numbers mean more resources per harvest action — set it to 2.0 and every tree, rock, and corpse gives roughly double the materials; set it to 5.0 for a generous boosted-rates server.
[ServerSettings]
HarvestAmountMultiplier=2.0That’s it for the core change. The multiplier scales the quantity of resources you obtain from each harvest action across the board — wood, thatch, stone, metal, hide, meat, fiber, and everything else. There is no upper limit enforced by the game, though extremely high values (think 50x or 100x) can fill inventories so fast that gameplay loses meaning, so most server owners land somewhere between 2.0 and 10.0 for a comfortable boosted experience.
Because this key sits in [ServerSettings], it is shared between ASA and ASE — the harvest, taming, and XP multipliers behave identically across both titles. If you’re moving a config from an old Survival Evolved box to a new Survival Ascended server, these particular keys carry over unchanged.
The multipliers you’ll almost always tune alongside gather rate
Bumping the gather rate on its own creates a lopsided server: resources pour in, but taming a high-level dino still takes hours and leveling up still crawls. To keep progression feeling balanced, server admins typically adjust three companion multipliers at the same time. All of them live in the same [ServerSettings] block of GameUserSettings.ini, all default to 1.0, and for all of them higher means more.
| Key | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
HarvestAmountMultiplier | Global gather multiplier — the quantity of resources obtained per harvest action. Higher = more resources. | 1.0 |
TamingSpeedMultiplier | How quickly creatures tame. Higher = faster taming. | 1.0 |
XPMultiplier | Experience gained by players and dinos. Higher = more XP, faster leveling. | 1.0 |
HarvestHealthMultiplier | The “health” (durability) of harvestable resource nodes. Higher = the node survives more hits before depleting. | 1.0 |
TamingSpeedMultiplier
Taming is the slowest part of vanilla ARK — a high-level Rex or Giga can take many real-world hours. Raising TamingSpeedMultiplier shortens that wait. A value of 3.0 tames creatures three times faster, which pairs nicely with a 2–3x gather rate so players can actually feed their tames the kibble and berries they harvest. This is one of the most appreciated quality-of-life settings on community servers.
XPMultiplier
XPMultiplier scales the experience that both players and dinos earn from every source — killing creatures, crafting, harvesting, and discovery. If you’ve boosted gather and taming, leaving XP at 1.0 means your players sit at low levels while drowning in resources they can’t craft into anything useful yet, because engrams unlock by level. Raising XP to match keeps the progression curve coherent.
HarvestHealthMultiplier
This one is frequently misunderstood. HarvestHealthMultiplier does not change how much you get per hit — that’s HarvestAmountMultiplier‘s job. Instead, it controls the “health,” or durability, of harvestable resource nodes. A higher value means a tree or rock survives more hits before it’s fully depleted, so you can keep harvesting the same node longer before it disappears. Some admins raise it slightly so high-amount harvests don’t instantly vaporize every resource node on the map, keeping the world from looking barren.
A balanced “boosted but not silly” config that many server owners start from looks like this:
[ServerSettings]
HarvestAmountMultiplier=3.0
TamingSpeedMultiplier=3.0
XPMultiplier=2.0
HarvestHealthMultiplier=1.0Per-resource overrides: tuning individual materials
Sometimes a single global multiplier isn’t precise enough. Maybe you want metal to come in fast because the grind is brutal, but you want to keep prime meat scarce so taming still requires effort. For that level of control, ARK uses a separate, more granular key called HarvestResourceItemAmountClassMultipliers. Unlike the gather settings above, this one lives in Game.ini (not GameUserSettings.ini), and each entry overrides the global HarvestAmountMultiplier for a specific resource item class.
The general form is one line per resource class, each pairing a class name with its own multiplier value. Because the exact class strings vary by resource and can change between updates, you should look up the precise class name for the resource you want to adjust rather than guessing — community spawn and class databases catalog these strings. Conceptually, you are saying “for this specific item class, multiply harvested amounts by this factor,” and the global setting continues to apply to everything you don’t override. A typical use case is leaving the world at a modest 2x globally while pushing one or two stubborn resources higher.
One important clarification to avoid a common mix-up: HarvestResourceItemAmountClassMultipliers controls harvest amounts. It is a completely different setting from ConfigOverrideSupplyCrateItems, which is also a Game.ini override but governs the contents of loot crates and beacons. Don’t conflate the two — editing supply-crate overrides will do nothing to your gather rate.
Where the files live and how to apply your changes
On any ARK dedicated server, both config files sit inside the saved-config folder for the game. GameUserSettings.ini holds the gather, taming, XP, and node-health multipliers; Game.ini holds the per-resource overrides. If you’re hosting with a managed control panel, both files are editable through the file manager or a dedicated config editor — no need to SSH into anything. On our ARK: Survival Ascended hosting plans, these settings are exposed directly in the panel so you can change the gather rate without ever touching a raw INI by hand.
The single most important step that trips up new admins: you must restart the server for INI changes to take effect. ARK reads these config files only when the server process starts. Editing the file while the server is running does nothing until the next full restart — a simple save-and-reload of the file is not enough. So the workflow is always:
- Stop the server (or schedule a restart).
- Edit
GameUserSettings.iniand/orGame.iniwith your new multiplier values. - Save the file.
- Start the server back up.
- Log in and harvest something to confirm the new rate is live.
If your changes don’t seem to apply after a restart, the usual culprits are editing the wrong copy of the file, a typo in the key name, or a panel that regenerates the INI from its own UI settings (in which case you change the value in the panel UI, not the raw file). For a full walkthrough of the panel’s config tools, see our ARK: Survival Ascended server documentation.
ASA vs ASE: what’s the same and what isn’t
ARK: Survival Ascended is the current Unreal Engine 5 remaster, launched in 2023, and is now the primary product; ARK: Survival Evolved is the legacy title. The crucial point for this guide is that the gather-rate keys are shared. HarvestAmountMultiplier, TamingSpeedMultiplier, XPMultiplier, and HarvestHealthMultiplier all live in [ServerSettings] on both games and behave the same way. The per-resource HarvestResourceItemAmountClassMultipliers override in Game.ini also applies to both.
Where the two games diverge is mainly in install and mods. The SteamCMD App IDs differ: ASA’s dedicated server is 2430930 (the game itself is 2399830), while ASE’s dedicated server is the long-documented 376030 (game 346110). To install or update an ASA server via SteamCMD you run app_update 2430930 validate. The mod systems differ too: ASA distributes mods through CurseForge rather than the Steam Workshop that ASE used, and on a dedicated server you enable them by appending -mods= to the command line (and/or listing them as ActiveMods= in GameUserSettings.ini), after which the server auto-downloads them from CurseForge on start. None of that affects gather rate, but it’s the kind of difference to keep in mind when porting a setup.
| Item | SteamCMD App ID |
|---|---|
| ARK: Survival Ascended (game) | 2399830 |
| ARK: Survival Ascended Dedicated Server | 2430930 |
| ARK: Survival Evolved (game) | 346110 |
| ARK: Survival Evolved Dedicated Server | 376030 |
Testing your new rates as an admin
The fastest way to confirm a config change worked is to log in with admin rights and harvest a node, then check the quantity against what you expect at your multiplier. To get admin access, set ServerAdminPassword in GameUserSettings.ini under [ServerSettings], then in-game press Tab to open the console and type:
enablecheats The password must match ServerAdminPassword exactly — it’s case-sensitive and must have no trailing spaces. Admin rights last for that session only, so you’ll need to re-run enablecheats after every relog. On ASA, admin actions are typically run with the admincheat prefix (for example admincheat fly or admincheat god), and cheat also works once cheats are active. For the complete process, including the ASA launch-argument quirk where ?ServerAdminPassword= should be the last ?-style argument before any dash arguments, see our guide on setting the admin password on your ARK server.
Once you’re an admin, spawning a few test creatures is handy for checking taming-speed changes — use cheat summon Rex_Character_BP_C for a quick wild Rex, or the level-controlled and tamed variants. We cover all of those commands in detail in our guide to spawning dinos on your ARK server. And once your players are blasting through the boosted economy you’ve built, they’ll be chasing endgame tech — our ARK Tek Tier guide explains how Element farming and Tekgram unlocks fit into a high-rate server.
Choosing the right gather rate for your community
There’s no single “correct” value — it depends on the kind of server you’re running. A rough guide:
- 1.0 (vanilla): The official, intended grind. Best for purists and hardcore PvP servers where the slow economy is part of the challenge.
- 2.0–3.0 (lightly boosted): The sweet spot for most community PvE and casual PvP servers. Cuts the worst of the grind while keeping every system meaningful.
- 5.0–10.0 (boosted): Resources come in fast; great for building-focused or short-session servers where players want to skip straight to bases, tames, and bosses.
- 25.0+ (heavily boosted): Creative/fun servers where the grind is essentially removed. Pair with high taming and XP, and consider raising
HarvestHealthMultiplierso nodes don’t vanish instantly.
Whatever you choose, change the four [ServerSettings] multipliers together so resources, taming, leveling, and node durability stay in proportion — then restart, hop in, and confirm the rate feels right before announcing it to your players.
Frequently asked questions
What is the default ARK gather rate, and where do I change it?
The default gather rate is 1.0, set by HarvestAmountMultiplier in the [ServerSettings] section of GameUserSettings.ini. Raise the value above 1.0 for more resources per harvest, then restart the server to apply it.
Do gather-rate changes apply immediately?
No. ARK only reads its INI files when the server starts, so a full server restart is required for any change to HarvestAmountMultiplier or the related multipliers to take effect. Editing the file while the server is live does nothing until the next restart.
What’s the difference between HarvestAmountMultiplier and HarvestHealthMultiplier?
HarvestAmountMultiplier controls how much you get per hit. HarvestHealthMultiplier controls the durability of the resource node — a higher value means the tree or rock survives more hits before it’s depleted, letting you harvest the same node longer.
Can I set different gather rates for individual resources like metal or meat?
Yes. Use HarvestResourceItemAmountClassMultipliers in Game.ini to override the global rate for specific resource item classes. Look up the exact class string for each resource, since names vary and can change between updates.
Are the gather-rate settings the same in ASA and ASE?
Yes. HarvestAmountMultiplier, TamingSpeedMultiplier, XPMultiplier, and HarvestHealthMultiplier all live in [ServerSettings] and work identically on both ARK: Survival Ascended and ARK: Survival Evolved. The main differences between the two games are the SteamCMD App IDs and the mod system (CurseForge for ASA, Steam Workshop for ASE).
What gather rate should I use for my server?
For most community servers, 2x–3x is the sweet spot — it removes the worst of the grind without trivializing progression. Tune TamingSpeedMultiplier and XPMultiplier up to match so resources, taming, and leveling stay in balance.
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