How to Wipe Wild Dinos in ARK: Survival Ascended
The ARK: Survival Ascended dino wipe command is cheat DestroyWildDinos. It removes every wild creature on the map, and the server spawns a fresh set over the next few minutes. Tamed creatures are not touched.
Server owners run it after changing spawn or level settings, after adding a mod with new creatures, or when one kind of creature has taken over the map. New spawn settings only show up on creatures that spawn after the change, so the old wild population has to go first.
How to run the dino wipe command
- Join your server.
- Open the console. On PC press ~. On PS5 open the pause screen with Options and press Create, and on Xbox open it with Menu and press View.
- Log in as admin: type enablecheats followed by your server's admin password, for example
enablecheats MyAdminPassword. Nothing is printed when it works. - Save the world first:
cheat saveworld - Wipe the wild dinos:
cheat DestroyWildDinos - Give the server a few minutes. It lags while the map fills back up.
On a Survival Servers server the admin password is the Admin Pass field in the Command Center:
Why DestroyWildDinos does nothing
On a dedicated server every admin command needs the cheat prefix. Typing DestroyWildDinos on its own does nothing and prints no error, which is why the command looks broken. Type cheat DestroyWildDinos instead.
The other cause is the admin login. enablecheats lasts until you leave the server, so run it again every time you rejoin, including after a server restart.
Wipe wild dinos on every restart
The server has a launch option that wipes every wild creature each time it starts. In the Survival Servers Command Center it is Force Respawn Dinos in the Advanced Launch Parameters, under TOOLS > Launch Params. Tick it, save, and the next start begins with a fresh spawn.
Leave it on if you want a fresh wild population after every daily restart, or tick it for one restart and untick it after.
Questions
- Does DestroyWildDinos kill tamed dinos?
- No. It only removes wild creatures. Your tames stay where they are.
- Does it work on PS5 and Xbox?
- Yes. Open the console with the buttons above and type the same commands. The ARK wiki marks enablecheats as PC only, so a console player needs their ID in the server's admin list,
ShooterGame/Saved/AllowedCheaterAccountIDs.txt, instead of the admin password.
- How long until the wild dinos come back?
- A few minutes. The server respawns the whole map straight away, so expect some lag right after the wipe.
- Do I need to wipe after changing spawn settings?
- Yes, if you want the change everywhere now. Settings such as creature levels and spawn tables only apply to creatures that spawn after the change.