ARK breeding, hatching and imprintingSet breeding times so they fit everyday life

Published on September 2, 2026 · last updated on November 8, 2026

The process in four steps

If you want to adjust the values, you should know the process they affect:

1. Mating. Two tamed creatures of the same species produce an egg or a pregnancy. After that, a waiting period applies before they can mate again.
2. Incubation. Eggs need the right temperature and time. This phase requires preparation, but not constant presence.
3. Raising. The baby has to be fed and must not starve - the critical phase.
4. Imprinting. At fixed intervals, the baby asks for attention. Each fulfilled request raises the imprint value, which permanently gives the adult creature better stats.

All the related values are in the Game.ini - not in the GameUserSettings.ini, where the general rates are.

The four settings

• Maturation time. How fast babies grow up. The most effective value - it decides whether raising a creature takes an hour or a whole evening.
• Incubation time. How long eggs take to hatch.
• Mating interval. The waiting time between two matings. If you want to build a bloodline, lower this value.
• Cuddle interval and imprint value. How often attention is requested and how much it is worth.

The classic mistake

There is one mistake almost every server owner makes once: speeding up maturation a lot while leaving the cuddle interval unchanged.

The result is unpleasant: the baby grows up before it could ask for enough attention. A full imprint thus becomes mathematically impossible - and imprinting is exactly why many people breed in the first place.

The rule is therefore: if you speed up maturation, shorten the cuddle interval as well. If you set maturation time to a tenth, adjust the interval by a similar order of magnitude. After the change, it is worth testing with a fast-growing species before anyone puts time into a valuable creature.

Values that have proven themselves

The after-work variant is the right one for most groups: breeding remains a project that needs planning, but it does not take over an entire evening.

What breeding costs the server

A point that is easily overlooked: every bred creature stays in the world permanently and is part of the simulation. An ambitious bloodline quickly produces hundreds of creatures - and that is one of the main reasons ARK servers need more resources over time, see How much RAM does an ARK server need?

Two remedies have proven themselves: a limit on tamed creatures per tribe and the habit of not keeping failed breeding attempts forever. Both can be handled via the GameUserSettings.ini or through agreements within the group.

Changes on a running server

Changes to the breeding values affect ongoing raising - immediately. If you shorten maturation time in the middle of raising a baby, it can suddenly become an adult, along with the lost chance to imprint.

So: change breeding values when nobody is in the middle of raising a creature - and announce the change beforehand. As always, a backup before the change is worth it, see Back up and move your save.

Frequently asked questions