There’s nothing quite like jumping into ARK: Survival Evolved with a friend by your side, fending off T-Rex attacks and building your first base together without having to hop into a chaotic public server. If you’ve been digging through menus trying to figure out how to play 2 player on PS4 Ark without running into constant crashes or weird screen cropping, you’re not alone. I’ve spent hours troubleshooting this exact setup for weekend sessions with my roommate, and I’ve nailed down all the steps and tweaks to make it work without the headache. This guide skips the complicated dev forum jargon and walks you through everything you need to get your co-op session up and running in 10 minutes or less.
How to Play 2 Player on PS4 Ark: Step-by-Step Split-Screen Setup
The setup process is way simpler than most tutorial videos make it sound, as long as you follow the steps in the right order. First, make sure you have two PS4 controllers paired to your console, and that you have enough storage space for your local save file – ARK saves can get pretty big after 50+ hours of play. You don’t need a PlayStation Plus subscription to play local split screen, but you will need one if you eventually want to move your save to an online server with more friends.
First, launch ARK using your primary profile on the first controller. When you reach the main menu, select Host/Local Play instead of browsing online servers – split-screen 2 player only works on locally hosted saves, so don’t waste your time clicking through the server list first. Pick the map you want to play (The Island is the best pick for new players, since it has the most gentle learning curve) and adjust your basic host settings before launching. I recommend turning up taming speed and resource harvest rate by 2x if you’re playing casually, to cut down on unnecessary grind.
Once you spawn into the world, pick up the second controller and press the Options button on it. A pop-up will appear asking you to select a profile for the second player. You can use a guest profile if you don’t care about saving the second player’s progress between sessions, or log into a separate PSN profile if you want their character level and tames to carry over. Within 10 seconds, the screen will split horizontally, and the second player will spawn right next to your character. Most glitches that happen when you play 2 player on PS4 Ark come from unoptimized default settings, not your console, so these small tweaks will fix 99% of issues you run into.
Critical Settings Tweaks to Fix Common 2 Player ARK PS4 Issues
ARK is a notoriously unoptimized game on older PS4 consoles, and split screen puts extra strain on the hardware that can cause stutters, screen cropping, or even random crashes if you don’t adjust your settings first. I’ve tested every possible combination of settings to find the sweet spot between visual quality and smooth performance, so stick to these adjustments before you try any other troubleshooting tricks.
- Turn View Distance down to Medium or Low – you won’t be able to see distant dinos, but you’ll eliminate 90% of frame drops in dense areas like the Redwood Forest or swamp biomes.
- Disable Dynamic Shadows and Motion Blur entirely – these two settings are the biggest drain on PS4 processing power for split screen, and turning them off won’t impact your actual gameplay experience at all.
- Turn on Disable Structure Placement Collision in the host settings if you want to build bases together without fighting over annoying placement rules that stop you from placing walls next to each other.
You should also adjust your PS4 system display settings before you launch the game, to fix the common issue of the second player’s hotbar being cut off at the bottom of the screen. Go to your PS4 main settings, select Sound and Screen, then Display Area Settings, and adjust the size until all four corners of the screen are fully visible. Restart ARK after making this change, and the cropping issue will be gone completely. I also recommend turning off auto-save intervals and manually saving every 30 minutes when you’re in a safe spot – frequent auto-saves cause both screens to freeze for 3-5 seconds, which is a nightmare if you’re in the middle of taming a high-level dino.
Fun 2 Player ARK PS4 Play Styles to Try
Once your setup is running smoothly, you don’t have to stick to the boring loop of grinding resources and building a basic base. I’ve tested a bunch of different play styles with friends that make 2 player sessions way more engaging than playing solo, and they all work perfectly on local split-screen saves.
The first and most practical play style is the specialization split. One player focuses entirely on taming, hunting, and exploring, while the other focuses on building, farming, and crafting. This cuts down on grind time by almost 50% because you’re not both wasting time doing the same tasks. I usually take the taming role, since I love tracking down high-level dinos, and my roommate handles the base builds and crop farms. We usually have a fully functional base and a small army of tamed dinos within 3 hours of starting a new save with this setup.
If you’re looking for a bigger challenge, try the nomad playthrough. You can’t build a permanent base, and you have to travel across the entire map using only tamed dinos to carry your resources. It’s way easier to pull off with two players, since one can drive the dino while the other defends against attacking wild dinos. If you’re feeling competitive, you can even set up a small PvP arena on your local save, with each player getting 30 minutes to gather resources and build a small outpost before you fight for control of a central supply drop. Pro tip: Turn on friendly fire in the host settings before you try this, or you won’t be able to damage each other at all.
How to Save and Transfer 2 Player Progress Correctly
One of the most common complaints I see from people playing 2 player on PS4 ARK is that the second player’s progress disappears when they log off. That’s not a glitch – it’s just how the local save system works if you don’t follow the right exit steps. First, if you want the second player’s character progress to save between sessions, don’t use a guest profile for them. They need to log into their own PSN profile when they join the game, or all their levels, items, and tames will be wiped as soon as they leave the session.
When you’re ready to stop playing, have the second player leave the session first by pressing Options and selecting Leave Game. Wait 10 seconds for their character to despawn, then have the host save the game manually and exit to the main menu. If you exit the game before the second player leaves, their progress for that session will be wiped, and they’ll spawn back at level 1 the next time you join. It’s a small quirk, but it’s one that has cost me and my roommate hours of progress more than once.
If you eventually upgrade to a PS5, you can transfer your 2 player save file to the new console by uploading it to PS Plus cloud storage, then downloading it on your PS5. Split screen works the same way on PS5, and you’ll get a huge FPS boost even with two players active, so you can turn view distance back up to high if you want. Important note: You can’t transfer a local 2 player save to an online public server. If you eventually want to play with more than two friends, you’ll have to start a new save on a dedicated server.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to play 2 player on PS4 Ark doesn’t have to involve hours of troubleshooting forum posts or messing with random settings you don’t understand. Follow the setup steps we laid out, adjust the settings to cut down on lag, and make sure you save correctly to keep all your progress intact. Once you’re up and running, you’ll get to experience all of ARK’s chaotic survival fun with a friend right next to you, no random server trolls or bad internet connections to ruin your session. Next time you’re looking for a fun couch co-op game to play on a rainy weekend, give this setup a try – you might just end up sinking 100+ hours into building your dino empire together before you know it.