Playing with friends over a Local Area Network (LAN) offers the ultimate lag-free, low-latency survival experience. Hosting locally eliminates the recurring subscription fees of commercial server rentals, protects your data from external actors, and allows complete control over taming speeds, harvesting multipliers, and modifications.
Ensure Windows Firewall or your antivirus allows ARK: Survival Evolved and the dedicated server to communicate. how to play lan ark survival evolved exclusive
To join, other players should change their to LAN in the server browser. Troubleshooting Connection Issues If your local friends can't see the server: How to Join an ARK: Survival Evolved Server Playing with friends over a Local Area Network