ARK Breeding Guide - Breeding Tips and Tricks

Time for two - the mating

For a successful mating, you need two dinosaurs of the same species, one male and one female. Cross-pairing is not possible, which means that both creatures must be of the same species. Tek, X, etc. creatures cannot be paired with any other variant.

Next, you need to lure both of them into a suitable pen at best and set them to "wander". The pen will ensure that the two dinos stay within mating range and do not gain too much distance. Make sure that the following is disabled on both dinosaurs.

The mating process

You can tell if the mating is successful by the pulsating red hearts above the heads of both dinos and the mating bar in the female's HUD. If the bar is full, the female is either laying the egg or is pregnant and gaining volume over time.

When the female is pregnant, she can eat twice as much food as normal. Accordingly, you should have made enough food and make sure there is enough supply, otherwise the baby can die very quickly in the womb.

The egg - hatching and care

As soon as the egg is laid, it will immediately start to hatch. So make sure that it is at the perfect temperature as soon as possible. The egg will show you two bars when you look at it: one is "Egg Incubation" and the other is "Egg Health".

Egg Incubation

The "Egg Incubation" bar shows how far the incubation has progressed. If the bar is empty, the baby is hatching.

Egg Health

"Egg Health" indicates the health status of the egg. If the bar runs empty, the baby in the egg will die.

The perfect temperature

To prevent the health of the egg from dropping and the baby inside from dying, you need an ideal ambient temperature. Outside of this temperature, there is no progress in incubation.

To achieve the right temperature for the egg, the most effective, though resource-consuming, way is to make eight air conditioners and place them in a U-shape. In the middle you place the egg and it incubates happily without temperature fluctuations.

Exceptions are larger eggs like the Giganotosaurus and Wyvern, which need up to 14 air conditioners. The Rock Drake egg requires at least 15 air conditioners due to its very cold temperature requirements.

The Egg Incubator

The so-called "Egg Incubator" can hold up to ten eggs and incubate them simultaneously at the perfect temperature. However, it is important that the eggs require a similar ambient temperature, otherwise you will have to manually adjust the temperature of each egg in the Egg Incubator.

Alternative to air conditioners

A good alternative that requires much fewer resources is to bring an egg to the appropriate temperature using a variety of heat sources. Torches, campfires, or stoves provide heat, but also add heat, which can cause it to get too warm. If this happens, you have to correct the temperature manually.

During this process, the temperature of the environment is very important. Therefore, find a region that is close to the ideal temperature of the egg. Usually, this is the same region where the creature would spawn.

Claim baby and take care of it

While the female is hatching or pregnant, it is a good idea to prepare plenty of food for the baby. As soon as the baby hatches or is born, you need to claim it immediately. The baby will start out with very low health, carrying capacity, and food level.

Once you have claimed the baby, you may need to feed it, along with your Tribe, throughout the entire baby stage. So only breed if you have enough time to take care of a baby or have access to a Cryopod or a Cryofridge.

Once the baby has reached the teen stage, it can eat from a feeding trough and be left alone for increasingly longer periods of time. You can check the growth via the progress bar in the info window. The three levels of growth are divided as follows:

• 0% - 10%: Baby
• 10.1% - 50%: Teen
• 50.1% - 100%: Adolescent

More tips and tricks

You are now familiar with the key points of successful breeding and you know what you have to pay attention to. However, there are other equally important tips and tricks that will help you with your breeding:

• Cryopod, Cryofridge and Fridge: use one of these to store the egg or even the pregnant female to pause the pregnancy or hatching of the egg
• Dimetrodons: another alternative to air conditioners and other heat sources are Dimetrodons, these provide one of the best sources of insulation in the game and the higher their melee damage the better the iso bonus. Above 1,000 this can even hatch Wyvern eggs
• Limited number of tamed creatures: there is a limit for tamed creatures in the game, you can find this number in the inventory. If the number is reached, the mating will fail or the egg will not produce a baby, so use the storage options
• Mating Cooldown: once females have laid an egg or given birth to a baby, a time expires in a bar that you can see in the female's HUD. Once this has expired, the female can't be mated again until it expires
• Babies Characteristics: Babies are not rideable and will flee at the slightest danger. Disable wandering on the baby, otherwise the baby may run away from you.
• Reaper King: claiming babies is about being fast, otherwise someone else can claim the baby. The Reaper King is an exception, it can only be claimed by the player who "gave birth" to it.
• Twins and triplets: Since there is a 10% chance of having twins and a 2% chance of having triplets, you should always be prepared to have multiple babies
• Attention, important! Other creatures set to aggressive will immediately attack newly hatched babies, so be sure to set all creatures in the surrounding area to passive.
• Certain Food: Some babies that hatch from eggs will only eat certain food:

1. Wyvern: Only Wyvern Milk which you get by slaying a female Wyvern or killing an Alpha Fire Wyvern
2. Rock Drake: Only Nameless Venom which you sometimes get by killing Nameless Venoms
3. Magmasaur: Only Sulfur or Ambergris which you can collect from the green-blasted rock formations in the moon biome of the Genesis simulation or the ring-shaped asteroid in the Genesis ship
4. Crystal Wyvern: Only Primal Crystal you can collect from a slain adult and wild Crystal Wyvern

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