Summary
WithARK: Survival Ascendedserving as a remastered version ofARK: Survival Evolvedwith better graphics and overall expanded content offerings, fans of survival games might be excited to experience a reimagining of the title’s iconic dino-taming, base-building, and the adrenaline-pumping intensity of fighting for one’s life against players and other threatsthe game’s worldshas to offer.
However, with the game’s Early Access leaving much to be desired in areas such as server performance and visual glitches, fans ofARK: Survival Ascendedmight be on the lookout for mods that enhance the game’s quality of life features. With the right set of QOL improvements,ARK: Survival Ascendedmay just become a more exciting game for gamers, but which mods should fans be on the lookout for?
Updated Jun 22, 2025 by Rhenn Taguiam:As ARK: Extinction Ascended arrives this December 16th, fans of the ARK saga can now bear witness to its epic conclusion. Teasers for this part of the story include exploring the ruins of the Great City, fighting the colossal Titans, discovering the Earth’s last secrets, and “completing” the ARK Cycle.
Extinction Ascended is touted as a free companion to ARK: Survival Ascended, making it thrilling extra content by the time it arrives for players. However, those who want to prepare for the ARK endgame might want to engage with some of the game’s best QOL mods - including a special dinosaur finder, improved architectural mechanics, and the option to be immersed in the game’s nightly landscapes.
Find Dinosaurs With A Click Of A Button
The Problem
Players want dinosaurs but have no idea where to find them and how to tame them.
The Solution
A click of a button will now toggle the Dino Finder, allowing players to spot and track dinosaurs, and filter the information based on various elements.
Link
Der Dino Finder
Dinosaurs form acrucial part ofARK: Survival Ascendedgameplay, especially for players who always wanted a pet dino to accompany them to battle. Thanks toDer Dino Finder, this process becomes more efficient as a dinosaur-tracking device becomes integrated into the game’s core systems.
Instead of players having to spot dinosaurs manually and only gathering information based on how they see them, Der Dino Finder makes this easier with a press of a button. This button toggles the actual Dino Finder. When turned on, dinosaurs in the area are filtered by level, age, gender, and species. Should players trigger a search, some markers will spawn on the map that will track the closest dinosaurs. When players click one of those markers, they will track the said dinosaur - allowing players to be more intentional with their dinosaur hunting.
The building component in the game is rather limited
Get more structure parts and mechanics such as snap-points, stacking foundations, and automatic colors
Arkitect Structures Remastered
Players who loveARK: Survival Ascendedmight appreciate the game’s better graphics while retaining much of the thrills of its survival gameplay. However, players who have come from games likeMinecraftwith intricate building mechanics might findSurvival Ascended’s building systemrather limited, especially if players want to make more sophisticated structures. This is exactly whatArkitect Structures Remastereddoes for the base game, as it provides not just extra parts but a lot of more interesting features to enhance a player’s building experience.
With Arkitect Structures Remastered, the game will now allow players to further expand their building capabilities. They will get paint sprayers, a structure gun, and automatic doors to make the base house-creation process much easier. Not only that, but the mod will add quite a lot of structural parts such as cosmetic variants, shallow, and steep roofs. These new components also come with new game mechanics, such as stacking foundations and new snap points.
The game doesn’t seem to have realistic environments
Present a new lighting system and adjusted weather effects to emphasize survival gameplay
Survival Ambience
Players who want to make the most out of their survival gameplay experience in theirARK: Survival Ascendedgameplay may appreciate howSurvival Ambiencecan improve the way their game looks. Instead of survival mechanics being more of a technical aspect, the Survival Ambience mod now lets it take front and center of a player’s experience.
Thanks to Survival Ambience, players now get a visual overhaul that shifts their focus toward the more “natural” components of the scenery. To elevate the survival aspect of gameplay, the mod makes overall adjustments to weather and lighting effects. These include darker nights and a natural-looking moon, a more realistic daily cycle with visual adjustments to the twilight hour, and even a thunderstorm weather type being added into the game.
Skip The Trip To Refill The Inventory For Larger Projects
Players need to go back and forth to their storage spaces just to craft larger blueprints
Provides more inventory space for resources
Extended Smithy
Crafting forms avital component ofARK: Survival Ascendedgameplay, especially larger blueprints that reward more useful items in exchange for more resources. In most instances, players may be content with the limitations the Smithy has in terms of resources it can contain for processing. However, larger projects that need batches of resources at a time can be ground to a halt if players constantly have to reevaluate their inventory. This is whereExtended Smithycomes in, as it provides a much-needed boost to the beloved wooden crafting material.
The Extended Smithy is a cross-platform mod that does require the original Smithy blueprint to work. However, once players activate this mod, their Smithy’s 70 Item Slot capacity can receive a boost. This should give players an incentive to create larger items without having more complicated crafting materials like a Tek Replicator.
Get Resources Straight From The Inventory
Players have to search every storage when looking for specific items
Pull resources as soon as they’re selected
Pull It!
When players craft items inARK: Survival Ascended, chances are they won’t have all the tools they need in their immediate person. Like other crafting games,Survival Ascendedgameplay needs players to look for specific items in their storage spaces to pursue specific builds. While manageable, looking for a specific item in storage spaces can hinder a player’s ability to fully maximize their enjoyment of the survival title. Thanks toPull It!, items become easier to acquire for players who need them.
With Pull It!, players now get a widget to access their inventory even without going to storage spaces. This means they can “pull” items to them as soon as needed. Players needing urgent weapon repairs or those who want to craft items as soon as possible can find a lot of use for this mod.
Make Dinosaurs More Enjoyable With Automated Processes
Dinosaurs in a playthrough can be demanding of a player’s time and resources, getting them away from the core exploration focus of the game
Automates many processes related to Dinosaur collection, birth, and growth
Dino+ (Nanny, Hatchey)
Aside from the unique “prehistoric future” setup ofARK: Survival Ascended, a part of its appeal as a survival title for players would be the inclusion of Dinosaurs.Survival Ascendedplayers can tame and breed their Dinosaur, unlike other survival titles. Unfortunately for players,managing their Dinosaurscan be time-intensive. Not only do players have to manually acquire and incubate eggs, but they also have to monitor their progress and even imprint on them for familiarity. This can remove a lot of time from players who simply want to explore and enjoy the game.
This is whereDino+ (Nanny, Hatchet)comes in. The Mod allows players to automate many of the processes involving their Dinosaur experience. For instance, the Mod now automates the collection and incubation of Dinosaur Eggs, removing players from the management process. The Mod even automates the imprinting and feeds baby Dinosaurs, allowing players to explore the wild and return to a fully-grown Dinosaur in a few days.
The Perfect Solo Companion
Getting resources from creatures can be a tiresome task, especially for solo players
As long as players have the Solo Farm Remote, they can put creatures in a “Farm Mode” state where they can be looted for resources
Solo Farm
Looting creatures for resources can be an exhausting endeavor inARK: Survival Ascendedgameplay, especially for larger and much tougher creatures like Dinosaurs, which often need more than one player to fight and farm. With theSolo FarmMod, players can loot more challenging beasts and Dinosaurs without relying on a team.
The Solo Farm Mod gives players access to a Solo Farm Remote, which is essentially a settings mode that allows them to select the kind of resources they want to loot from the creatures they capture. The Remote makes beasts such as Dinosaurs enter a “Farm Mode” where they continue to attack in place while the game transfers available resources until their inventory is full.
Cryopods remain rudimentary creature-compression methods
Super Cryo Storage adds more advanced creatures to Cryopod storage, such as a more modifiable SCS Collection, a portable SCS Gun, and an SCS Terminal
Super Cryo Storage
The Cryopod has become a central part of a tamer’s repertoire of items inARK: Survival Ascended, especially when tames inside Cryopods don’t count towards the tribal limit and will be kept safe inside as long as the pods remain charged. In theory,this storage optioncan make tame transfers much easier and even hide them from the competition. However, players who want a more convenient take on Cryopods inARK: Survival Ascendedmay appreciate theSuper Cryo Storagemod.
When activated, this mod allows players to unlock the SCS Collection, SCS Gun, and SCS Terminal at Level 51. These items provide a myriad of options ordinarily unavailable to ordinary Cryopods. On top of enhanced storage features via the SCS Containers, players can now store dinosaurs quickly via the SCS Gun, while the SCS Terminal can automate some pod management tasks and even generate resources passively.
Get More Use Out Of Inventory Stacks With Extra Stacks
The stacking limit can make storage a hassle for the game’s resource-intensive crafting system
An additional stacking limit can help players maximize inventory space
TG Stacking
Given the possibilities tied to a player’s survival inARK: Survival Ascended, gamers who decide to settle in some part of the game world will have toworry about building basesand even maintaining their chosen lifestyle to continue surviving their playthrough. This can lead to tedious resource-gathering processes, especially if players want to stockpile materials first and build in batches. Sadly,ARK: Survival Ascendedcan make players reach caps on item stacking quickly, making inventory space a burden in the long haul.
If players installTG Stacking, they can secure more inventory stacking depending on the materials involved. At its core, stacks now receive -90% Weight Reduction alongside a +10,000 to base stacks, with only Ammo receiving +500. This straightforward modification to inventory stacks can significantly lighten a player’s load - literally and figuratively - especially if they’re planning on long gathering expeditions.
Improves The Spyglass With More Data
Spyglass offers information and data on the environment that still leaves players hanging in terms of specifics
Super Spyglass Plus vastly improves on the Spyglass with various vision options and expanded information on things they detect
Super Spyglass Plus
Players who plan on fully immersing themselves in the creature-hunting aspect ofARK: Survival Ascendedwill likely enjoy using the Spyglass onevery creature they encounter. As with its mechanics in the originalSurvival Evolved, the Spyglass is integral for players who want to tame dangerous creatures or even look for rare flying beasts. Unfortunately, the Spyglass is fairly limited in its functionality, leaving much of the hunting process a guessing game for players. If gamers install theSuper Spyglass Plusmod, their Spyglass essentially transforms into a Pokedex from thePokemonfranchise.
When deployed, the Super Spyglass Plus now shows more details about the targeted creature. Players will see Mutations and Stats (Wild and Tamed) on their targets and identify how much food they need for taming. The mod even shows existing buffs, creature colors, and even their region of origin. Such is the added functionality of the Super Spyglass Plus that it comes with Outline Mode, Predator Vision, and Night Vision toggles. Moreover, it can even reveal information on structures, supply drops, and dropped item bags.
