diff --git a/tools/arkmanager b/tools/arkmanager
index aca1188..bf40e46 100755
--- a/tools/arkmanager
+++ b/tools/arkmanager
@@ -335,6 +335,18 @@ safeUpdate(){
   fi
 }
 
+#
+# Copies server state to a backup directory
+#
+doBackup(){
+  local datestamp=`date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H.%M.%S"`
+  local backupdir="${arkbackupdir}/${datestamp}"
+  mkdir -p "$backupdir"
+  cp "${arkserverroot}/ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks/${serverMap}.ark" "${backupdir}/${serverMap}.ark"
+  cp "${arkserverroot}/ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks/"*.arkprofile "${backupdir}"
+  cp "${arkserverroot}/ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks/"*.arktribe "${backupdir}"
+  cp "${arkserverroot}/ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini" "${backupdir}"
+}
 
 #
 # Print the status of the server (running? online? version?)
@@ -407,6 +419,9 @@ case "$1" in
     checkupdate)
       checkForUpdate
     ;;
+    backup)
+      doBackup
+    ;;
     broadcast)
         doInfo $2
     ;;
diff --git a/tools/arkmanager.cfg b/tools/arkmanager.cfg
index 23f96d7..9fd0cf3 100644
--- a/tools/arkmanager.cfg
+++ b/tools/arkmanager.cfg
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ steamcmd_appinfocache="/home/steam/Steam/appcache/appinfo.vdf"      # cache of t
 # config environment
 arkserverroot="/home/steam/ARK"                                     # path of your ARK server files (default ~/ARK)
 arkserverexec="ShooterGame/Binaries/Linux/ShooterGameServer"        # name of ARK server executable
+arkbackupdir="/home/steam/ARK-Backups"                              # path to backup directory
 
 # ARK server options - use ark_<optionname>=<value>
 # comment out these values if you want to define them