If you’ve spent dozens of hours taming dinos and building bases on ARK’s The Island map, you’ve probably hit a common frustration at some point. You want one save for casual solo play where you can mess around with creative builds, and another for hardcore PvE runs with your friend group, but the game defaults to overwriting your single Island save every time you start a new playthrough. You don’t have to delete your existing progress to try a new run, though. This guide covers exactly how to have 2 island saves in ark pc, with two tested methods that work for both modded and vanilla game setups, no paid tools required.
How to Have 2 Island Saves in ARK PC Without Mods
The simplest method to run two separate Island saves doesn’t require any extra software or mods, just a few quick file renames. I’ve used this method for years to swap between my casual solo save and my group’s permadeath run, and I’ve never had a save corruption issue as long as I followed the basic safety rules. First, you need to locate your local ARK save folder, which is almost always found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame\Saved\SavedArksLocal for Steam installations.
Your active The Island save will be named TheIsland.ark, with matching .arkprofile and .arktribe files that store your character and tribe data. First, load your current active save, make a manual in-game save, then close ARK completely before touching any files. Rename the existing TheIsland.ark, TheIsland.arkprofile, and TheIsland.arktribe files to match their purpose, like TheIsland_CasualSolo.ark and the corresponding profile/tribe files. When you launch ARK again and start a new The Island playthrough, the game will generate a fresh set of TheIsland save files automatically.
To swap between saves later, just close ARK, rename the active save file to its custom label, then rename the save you want to play back to TheIsland.ark, along with its matching profile and tribe files. Always close ARK completely before moving or renaming save files to avoid corruption, even if the game is just sitting on the main menu. It only takes 30 seconds to swap saves once you know where the folder is, so it’s a great option if you don’t want to take up extra storage space on your PC.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Managing Dual Island Saves
Even with this simple method, there are a few easy mistakes that can cost you hours of progress if you’re not careful. I made this mistake once early on, when I forgot to close ARK before renaming my save file, and lost 30 hours of taming progress on my Rex breeding line. Don’t make that same mistake. Another common error is forgetting to rename the .arkprofile and .arktribe files along with the main .ark save file, which will make you load into the map with a fresh character even if you renamed the main save correctly.
You should also never start a new The Island playthrough before renaming your original save file, because the game will immediately overwrite the existing TheIsland.ark file with the new blank save, and you won’t be able to recover your old progress without a backup. Make a backup of both save folders to a separate drive every 10 hours of play just in case something goes wrong, like a game crash mid-save or an accidental file overwrite. If you play with mods, make sure your mod load order is exactly the same for both saves, otherwise you might spawn in with missing items, broken structures, or even a corrupted save that won’t load at all.
Alternative Method: Use Separate Steam Library Folders for Dual Saves
If you don’t want to mess with renaming files every time you want to switch playthroughs, you can use a second Steam library folder to run two separate ARK installations, each with its own dedicated save files. This method is completely free, and you don’t need to buy a second copy of ARK to use it. Just open your Steam settings, go to the Storage tab, and create a new Steam library folder on a different drive (or the same drive, if you have extra space) than your original ARK installation.
Once the new library folder is set up, go to your Steam library, click install on ARK, and select the new library folder as the installation location. Each installation will have its own separate SavedArksLocal folder, so you can have one permanent Island save on each installation with no file swapping required. You don’t need to buy a second copy of ARK for this method, Steam lets you install the same game in multiple libraries on the same account for free. The only downside is that ARK takes up around 100GB of storage for the base game, plus extra for mods, so two installations will take up roughly 200GB of space total, which isn’t ideal if you have limited SSD storage.
Tips for Organizing Your Dual ARK Island Saves Long-Term
Once you have two working Island saves set up, you want to make sure you don’t mix them up or lose progress down the line. These simple organization tips will make managing your saves completely stress-free, even if you add more saves for other maps later:
- Create clearly labeled folders for each save in your documents folder, and copy the full save files there after every play session for backups, so you always have a working copy even if your main installation gets corrupted
- Add a small text note file inside each save folder with details like play style (solo casual, hardcore co-op), mod list, and last played date to avoid confusion when you’re swapping saves after a break from the game
- If you use the file renaming method, add a shortcut to the SavedArksLocal folder on your desktop so you don’t have to dig through nested Steam folders every time you want to swap saves
If you use the dual installation method, you can add custom launch parameters to each ARK copy in Steam to tell them apart at a glance. For example, add “-name SoloSave” to the launch options of your casual solo installation, so the window title will show which save you’re running as soon as you launch the game. If you play on both official and unofficial servers, keep your single player saves completely separate from server download files to avoid accidental overwrites when you connect to a public server.
You don’t have to choose between your casual build save and your challenging group run anymore, and you don’t need any fancy paid tools to run two playthroughs side by side. Both methods we covered are tested by thousands of ARK players, and as long as you follow the basic safety rules for file management, you won’t risk losing any of your hard-earned progress. Now that you know how to have 2 island saves in ark pc, you can jump between play styles whenever you want, whether you feel like breeding rare dinos in your solo world or taking on boss fights with your friends in your co-op save.