ARK Survival Ascended Hibernation Feature: What is It & How To Disable It

If you've ever explored the vast landscapes of the ARK Survival Ascended island solo, you might have pondered what happens to the areas you're not actively in. Questions may arise about the fate of your tames, wild creatures, and timed events like those on items. The answer lies in a feature known as hibernation.

This intrinsic feature serves multiple purposes in the game, but there may be instances where disabling it becomes desirable, and that's where this guide becomes valuable. Below, we will provide a comprehensive breakdown of what the hibernation feature entails and guide you on how to disable it in ARK Survival Ascended if you choose to do so.

What is Hibernation In ARK Survival Ascended

To conserve resources, ARK Survival Ascended incorporates a feature known as hibernation, essentially causing areas outside of our render distance to freeze and become inactive. This includes dinosaurs, tames, and timed features like egg maturation, all of which pause until you return to resume these processes.

While this feature helps save significant resources and is generally recommended for a smoother gaming experience, especially on lower-spec PCs, there might be instances where you want to disable hibernation. Disabling this feature allows the entire map to continue in real time, regardless of your presence. To do so, a specific command can be used as a Steam launch option.

How To Disable Hibernation in ARK Survival Ascended

To get started, open Steam and navigate to your library. Right-click on ARK Survival Ascended and select "Properties." In the General tab, scroll down to find the launch options with a text input bar at the bottom.

In this text box, enter the command "-preventhibernation," and then click away, to ensure the command stays in the box. Close this menu and restart your game. Upon relaunching the game, hibernation will be disabled, and the entire map will progress in real-time, irrespective of your location.

It's important to note that disabling hibernation may impact your performance, so adjust accordingly based on your needs during gameplay sessions. If you wish to turn it off, simply remove the command from the launch options bar.

In summary, this provides a quick overview of what the hibernation feature is in ARK Survival Ascended and how to enable or disable it. Credit goes to YouTuber Teachers Game Too for their informative video on this feature, and for more details, be sure to check out their full video on the topic above.