How To Play Lan Ark Survival Evolved Exclusive
For many survivors, the official servers of ARK: Survival Evolved represent a brutal, unforgiving wasteland—not just of dinosaurs, but of lag spikes, "Alpha Tribes," toxic griefers, and the dreaded "Taming/Decay timers" that punish you for having a job. Similarly, single-player mode can feel lonely and limiting.
Enter the holy grail of co-op survival: LAN (Local Area Network) Play. Playing ARK exclusively over LAN allows you and your friends (housemates, family, or LAN party attendees) to experience the entire 150+ GB of dinosaur-taming, boss-fighting, base-building chaos without an internet connection to the outside world.
But can you truly play exclusively offline? The answer is complicated due to BattleEye anti-cheat and session verification. This guide will walk you through every method to host a 100% local, offline-capable LAN server for ARK: Survival Evolved. how to play lan ark survival evolved exclusive
If you have an old gaming PC lying around, use it as a dedicated server. This unlocks all cores for your main gaming rig and yields the best performance.
This is the most common point of failure. The host machine must allow traffic through specific ports. For many survivors, the official servers of ARK:
This paper outlines the procedural requirements for establishing a Local Area Network (LAN) session for ARK: Survival Evolved. While the game offers streamlined online matchmaking via official servers, setting up a private LAN session—often referred to as "exclusive" or private play—requires specific configurations regarding network protocols, firewall exceptions, and hosting parameters. This document serves as a step-by-step reference for configuring both the host server and client machines to ensure seamless connectivity without reliance on an internet connection.
Inside that folder, right-click -> New -> Text Document. Rename it to LaunchLAN.bat. (Make sure file extensions are visible). If you have an old gaming PC lying
Right-click LaunchLAN.bat and select Edit. Paste the following code (adjust the values):
start ShooterGameServer.exe TheIsland?listen?Port=7777?QueryPort=27015?MaxPlayers=10?AllowCrateSpawnsOnTopOfStructures=True?MapPlayerLocation=True?RCONEnabled=True?ServerAdminPassword=YourPass?GamePlayerPath="C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ARK Survival Evolved Dedicated Server\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64" -NoBattlEye -insecure -useallavailablecores
Why these flags matter for Exclusive LAN:
