Top 15 Mods for Ark: Survival Evolved

15. Classic Flyers

Many people who play Ark: Survival Evolved have been with the game since it was an early access title. Before the official release, you were able to level up the speed of your flyers, this would make them better for dog fights, and retrieving Wyvern eggs on the Scorched Earth map. This Mod gives you back the ability to level the speed of your flyer to make them fully customizable to your needs once again.

Reasons why this Mod is number 15:

• Allows you to customize your flyers stats, just like every other animal in the game
• Makes exploration and scouting easier. It allows you to level your flyer’s speed so that you can quickly scout out an area much faster than on foot.
• Wyvern eggs become much more accessible. When you attempt to the wyvern’s eggs in the vanilla ark you will find that the wyverns move faster than almost any other flyer. However, with the classic flyers mod, you can level up your speed and get an egg without the wyverns being able to catch you.

Get Classic Flyers here.

14. Natural Babies

Natural babies add another layer of realism to the game.  Vanilla Ark babies can only exist in a player-created environment where the player breeds two adult animals. With the natural babies mod, it allows there to be babies in the wild that can be tamed and raised like any other creature. Just seeing them in the wild makes the island seem that much more alive.

The reasons for this mod making it to the number 14 spot are as follows:

• Realism: In the vanilla ark, there are no babies in the wild, but there are always new adults no matter how many are killed another always fills its spot. With natural babies you see wild babies existing taking the place of the adults that die from various causes in the game.
• Taming can be easier: Taming of a baby is much easier, especially with carnivores. While they can still attack you, they are easier to manage because they are babies. Traps do not have to be built as large, so you can tame large animals in a smaller trap.

Get Natural Babies here.

13. Castles, Keeps, and Forts

The Castles, Keeps, and Forts Mod add a whole new assortment of buildable structural components to allow you to build a more medieval base. Vanilla ark has very basic structural shapes, pretty much squares and triangles, which can seriously hinder a player’s creative building. The Castles, Keeps, and Fort’s mod add several additional shapes to allow the construction of more elaborate bases, such as the one shown in the image above.

The Castles, Keeps, and Forts Mod made it to number 13 for the following reasons:

• Creativity: The mod allows the player to create more creative and unique bases. In Vanilla Ark, it can be a challenge to build something unique, but with this mod, it makes it quite easy to have a very unique place to call home.
• Stackable Foundations: This can be very helpful when it comes to building walls of other defensive positions. Foundations have some of the highest armor ratings, making it far more difficult for an enemy to break through your wall made of foundations.
• Cooling: In vanilla Ark, adobe structures have a unique cooling feature that helps you survive in intense environments. In this mod, all structures get that same buff so you can build your home to your liking out of whatever materials you like most.

Get Castles, Keeps, and Forts here.

12. Bore Water Kit

In Vanilla Ark, if you want to be able to grow crops needed for making kibble for taming, you must be located near a water source. This can cause congestion around water sources, which can cause lag and worse in dangerous regions of the island. The Bore Water Kit allows you to drill deep into the earth and tap water sources at almost any location.

Below is a list of reasons that this mod got the number 12 spot on this list:

• More Freedom: This mod allows you to have many more choices in where to build your home on the island.
• Less Congestion and Lag: The Bore Water Kit allows people to spread out and build their bases away from the lakes and rivers of the island. This leads to fewer bases being only a few feet away from each other. In turn, there is less to be rendered as you explore the ark and reduces the lag that many players experience in dangerous situations.

Get the Bore Water Kit here.

11. Better Reusables

The Better Reusables mod allows you to use items such as spears, bolas, and grappling hooks over again simply by walking up and picking the item back up. In Vanilla Ark, once you have used the item it is gone, and another must be crafted. This adds another layer of realism to the game, by allowing you to retrieve items like that. 

Below is a list of some of the reasons why this mod made number 11 on this list:

• Realism: It adds a new level of realism to the game by allowing you to pick up and reuse the items you crafted that were not damaged or destroyed. 
• Makes Life Easier: When planning a caving expedition you would have to make several grappling hooks and change them out after each use. With the Better Reusables mod, you can use the same grappling hook by retrieving it. The same principles apply to other items including spears, bolas, and parachutes. 

Get the Better Reusables Mod here.

10. HG Stacking Mod

In vanilla ark several items cannot be stacked, the problem with that is that they spoil and when they spoil they vanish. The HG Stacking mod allows you to stack those items and increase the spoil time on them by doing so. Due to the ability to stack these perishables, it makes this one of the more valuable mods on the list. 

Below is a list of reasons why this mod made it to the number 10 spot on the list:

• Wyvern Raising: Wyvern milk is one of the most important perishables in the game because without it you cannot raise a wyvern. It has an extremely short perishable time and because it can't stack in vanilla ark it makes it impossible to store it. With the HG stacking mod, you can stack the milk and keep it from spoiling longer in storage.
• Increased Carry Capacity: The mod allows you to stack more items such as ammunition and other supplies. This can be extremely helpful when planning an expedition, or boss fight.

Get the HG Stacking Mod here.

9. Dino Tracker

In Vanilla Ark dinos have several settings for defense and attack, as such a dino can get lost very easily by chasing a target they have locked on to. The only way to recover them at this point is to scour the ark inch by inch. With the Dino Tracker Mod, you will have a beacon showing you where your dino companion is located at.

Below is a list of reasons why this mod made it to number 9 on this list:

• Fewer lost dinos: People put a lot of hard work into taming something in Ark: Survival Evolved and one of the most frustrating things can be when they get lost. With the tracking mod installed you can find your tames via a locator beam in the sky above them.
• Find Where you Died: Sometimes you are out exploring and you get killed, if this was unfamiliar territory you may not remember exactly where you died at. The tracker mod can help you find whatever mount you were on or near at the time, making it that much easier to find your lost equipment. 

Get the Dino Tracker Mod here.

8. Eco’s RP Decor

In vanilla Ark there are not any decorations to set up, you can build a few tables and chairs and mount the skull of an alpha Rex, but that is about as far as decor goes. This mod adds another layer of realism to the game, many hunters enjoy making trophies of the game they kill. With Eco’s RP Decor Mod you can decorate your base with the trophies of the animals you takedown in the game.

Below is a list of reasons why Eco’s RP Decor Mod made number 8 on the list:

• You can pick things up: In vanilla Ark, once you place something that’s it, if you want to relocate it you have to build a new one. With Eco’s RP Decor you can pick items up and move them wherever you want them.
• Decorations: The ability to decorate your base makes the game feel more alive, you can take trophies from the enemies you vanquish in-game and place them on mounts, or use their skins to make a rug. The mod also allows for more furniture designs that just adds another layer of realism to the game.
• Food: In vanilla Ark, there are limited food items, cooked meat vegetables, and a few combinable items. Eco’s RP Decor adds legitimate food items to cook with additional nutritional values, again adding more depth to the world around you. 

Get Eco’s RP Decor Mod here.

7.  Death Recovery Mod

The Death Recovery Mod could be one of the best mods created for the game because there are times in Ark: Survival Evolved where death is an unavoidable situation. In vanilla Ark, death can be the most frustrating thing in the game, because whatever killed you is likely camping on your corpse and all of your equipment. With the Death Recovery Mod, you can create a tombstone at any given location, and upon death, you can retrieve your equipment from the tombstone rather than from your actual body.

Below is a list of reasons that the Death Recovery Mod made it to number 7 on the list:

• Easy Item Retrieval: Upon death typically you have to get to your corpse to retrieve whatever valuables you had on you. Usually, this will end in numerous frustrating deaths trying to retrieve what was lost, because whatever killed you is likely still guarding your body, awaiting your return.
• Each player can have their tombstone: Each member of the tribe can have one tombstone so that they can respawn their gear without having to wait on the cooldown timer of the previous tribe mate who died. This is extremely for a situation where the tribe may have died together in a raid or boss fight.

Get the Death Recovery Mod here

6. Bitou2k’s Binocular

In vanilla Ark, there isn’t a way to tell the stats of an animal without knocking it out and opening its inventory. Bitou2k’s Binocular Mod allows you to see the stats and other details of a potential tame without wasting the resources to knock it out. This can be especially helpful for a solo player who doesn’t have the resources to waste knocking out an animal with low stats. 

Below are a few reasons why the Bitou2k’s Binocular Mod made it to number 6 on the list:

• See Stats: By looking through the binoculars you can see the range a target is from you, its level, its torpidity, and all of its stats. This is an invaluable resource to a new player, or to one that doesn’t have resources to spare when looking for a specific breeding stat on a potential mount.
• Taming Food: The binoculars also have a setting to allow you to see what that creature prefers to eat. In the vanilla ark, there is no way to know what an animal prefers most, besides carnivores like meat and herbivores like vegetables. These binoculars tell you what the animal prefers, which saves you time in the taming process.

Get Bitou2k’s Binocular Mod here.

5. Structures Plus

As depicted in the image above vanilla ark can have some building issues, especially if you are not building on a level surface. The snap positions on walls that are uneven will leave gaps in your structures making them look shotty, and limit your building options. The structures plus mod allows you to build a lot cleaner base, wherever you choose to build at.

Below is a list of reasons why the Structures Plus Mod made number 5 on the list:

• Makes Building Easier: It adds additional snap points so that you can build on more uneven surfaces, or snap things like air conditioners into the windows of a building, or making walls and ceilings snap together flush instead of stacking on top of each other.
• Adds Additional Structures: Glass tier structures are added so that you can build physical glass windows into your window units. Another notable addition is the hitching post, which allows you to set an area where your dinos cannot leave.
• Adds the Nanny Bot: The nanny allows you to have some help raising babies. You can power it up and have it feed babies and give them care when you are offline.
• Other Features: The structures plus mod adds far too many things to the game to cover in an article such as this, including more defensive items, more helper bots, and more building capabilities. 

Get the Structures Plus Mod here.

4. Extinction Core

Most of the mods on this list are mods that make some aspect of the game easier or possible for a solo player to handle. Extinction core, however, does the opposite, it makes the game significantly more difficult in almost every way. I recommend this mod for experienced players who need a new challenge added to the game they love.

Below is a list of reasons that Extinction Core made it to number 4 on this list:

• More Challenge: The mod adds more dangers, from creatures to new events. The creatures in the game will have a significant buff to their stats, making them far more difficult to take down.
• New Animals: The Extinction Core Mod adds a host of new creatures to deal with, from the yeti in the icy tundra to the dodo-rex which will only spawn on Halloween and many more creatures in between. The new creatures leave even experienced players at a loss for how to handle them. 
• Special Events: In certain regions of the game you can find special events, like the rise of the undead, where skeleton creatures and ghouls will spawn and attack players.

Get the Extinction Core Mod here.

3. Valhalla Redux

Ark Valhalla Redux is a whole new map for Ark: Survival Evolved. It gives you the beauty and simpler lifestyle of the Island. While at the same time the map gives you some exciting new areas to explore and see. It also gives you some new kinds of transportation to craft, such as the Viking style ships. Another addition to the map is the pathways to get to the trophies for the boss battles, there are a series of challenges that makes the player feel like Indiana Jones trying to find their next great treasure.

The following is a list of reasons why Valhalla made it to number 3 on the list:

• New Challenges: Acquiring the trophies takes a little bit of work, as they are hidden in tombs that are rigged to kill you.
• Difficult but Simpler: A lot of the new maps are loaded with extreme bouts of technology, which some consider a take-away. The Valhalla map allows players to have new challenges while still feeling like they are living in the Jurassic time.
• Feels Fresh: After playing all of the stories many players find themselves wanting more with new challenges. This new modded map can give them a fresh feeling and a series of new adventures, to keep the magic of the ark alive long after the official maps are beaten. 

Get the Valhalla Redux here.

2. The Volcano

The Volcano map is a complete revamping of the Ark, it keeps the core principles that make it Ark, but gives you an entirely new experience. The intensity is turned up, making this an excellent map for experienced players who want a new world to explore and a new challenge. You will see sights unlike anything in the vanilla ark, and face threats equally unique. The map also contains all of the bosses from scorched earth and the island, making it possible to unlock the tek engrams even if you never played vanilla ark, so rather you are a new player or an Ark veteran, this is possibly one of the best things to happen in the mod world of Ark: Survival Evolved. 

Below is a list of reasons why The Volcano made its way to number 2 on the list:

• New adventures: the map has a total of 15 caves, each cave has its own set of challenges, including the tek cave which will have you face off against the overseer of the ark.
• Familiar with a new twist: The map gives you the same types of biomes, but gives them to you in a completely new layout, with new threats lurking behind every corner.
• More Places to build: The new biome layouts include the giant redwoods in every biome, allowing you to build treehouse bases in each of those biomes.
• Explorer Notes: Explorer notes are typically only found on story maps, however, the maker of this mod wanted players of all walks to be able to enjoy this map and as such put all of the explorer notes on the map. 

Get the Volcano Map here.

1. Olympus 

Ark Olympus feels like it belongs as part of the Ark story, Ark continues to evolve and become more technologically advanced. Olympus feels like the next chapter, it takes you to an Ark that was once maintained by an incredibly advanced society, but it has fallen into ruin after something tragic happened. Olympus gives players a new set of challenges and a new set of creatures to tame but does it in a way that feels like Ark, not like a futuristic mod. Survivors will have to battle their way across varying biomes, facing threats they have never known before to reach the summit of mount Olympus.

Below is a list of reasons why Olympus made it to the number 1 slot on the list:

• Custom Boss Arenas and a new boss: Their bosses are currently the same ones as are on the island but the arenas are completely redesigned. The author of the mod has promised in future updates to give us a boss battle worthy of the map.
• Size: The map is almost double the size of the island, giving you more to explore, better places to build, and more places to do so, and makes the battles between tribes even better giving them more places to battle each other.
• Mod-able: The mod uses a lot of the characteristics of the vanilla ark, so it is possible to add your favorite mods from other maps to this one, helping this mod take the number one slot as the best mod in Ark: Survival Evolved

Get the Olympus Mod here.

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