Breeding questions

[Gogohorse]

Hi, I’m just starting to get into breeding and have a few questions: what level will the baby inherit? If I bred two raptors one with high health and one with high stamina would the result be a high stamina high health raptor? Also could I breed that raptor with a high movement speed raptor to combine all three of these stats? And what effect does imprinting have on the baby? Is it worth sticking it out to the end?

[Weiss]

The baby always inherits the base stats of one of their parents. Base stat means the stat right after taming.

Imprint has no effect on further breeding, leveling has no effect.

If you breed a high health and a high stamina raptor, the baby might inherit the high health and the High stamina (and maybe other high stats) and will have a higher lvl than it's parents base lvl.

If you're unlucky it might inherit the respectively lower stats and you'll get a baby lower than the parents.

Speed points are always the same after taming, they are calculated into the lvl but are "hidden". So you can't breed a baby with higher speed than the parents. If you imprint a baby the speed will rise a litte though, but remember, it's not going to be passed on to the next generation.

I'd breed the best stats you have until you have a breeding pair, then imprint their baby and use that one as your mount.

It can be good if you imprint some of the generations in between, because you might use old parents that you don't need for breeding any more as your companions.

I usually imprint when they want to walk and cuddle, and feed only kibble I have a lot of - unless I want to use the baby for dungeons etc., then I do as many imprints as possible. 

Google for ark smart breeding, you can extract base stats and keep track of your breeding lines with it.

[Gogohorse]

1 hour ago, Weiss said:

The baby always inherits the base stats of one of their parents. Base stat means the stat right after taming.

Imprint has no effect on further breeding, leveling has no effect.

If you breed a high health and a high stamina raptor, the baby might inherit the high health and the High stamina (and maybe other high stats) and will have a higher lvl than it's parents base lvl.

If you're unlucky it might inherit the respectively lower stats and you'll get a baby lower than the parents.

Speed points are always the same after taming, they are calculated into the lvl but are "hidden". So you can't breed a baby with higher speed than the parents. If you imprint a baby the speed will rise a litte though, but remember, it's not going to be passed on to the next generation.

I'd breed the best stats you have until you have a breeding pair, then imprint their baby and use that one as your mount.

It can be good if you imprint some of the generations in between, because you might use old parents that you don't need for breeding any more as your companions.

I usually imprint when they want to walk and cuddle, and feed only kibble I have a lot of - unless I want to use the baby for dungeons etc., then I do as many imprints as possible. 

Google for ark smart breeding, you can extract base stats and keep track of your breeding lines with it.

Ok thanks!

[Akherousia]

I understand that there are myriad resources for breeding, and many of them are very extensive. I've watched dozens of them myself but despite all my research, there are a few things that I don't quite 'get' and I was hoping that in asking specifically about one of those things that I might receive a little enlightenment.

We all know that mutations stack and multiply even when you're not acquiring new mutations, but how exactly do you limit this as much as possible...?
I keep hearing that the best route is to create two equal stat parents and then breed them together to look for stat mutations, but then that assures you will lose out on multiple mutation 'positions'. Is there a more streamlined way? Do I have to make two baseline animals with 0/0 mutations bred from wild-caught animals with the ideal starting stats, then breed that pair together until I get a mutation, and then breed that mutation with the corresponding parent? Is that how it's done?

Doesn't it decrease your probability of inheriting the mutations significantly when you get down to, say, four mutations and you're breeding them with a baseline parent?
Is this how it's supposed to be done, or is there another way. 

I'm asking because I'm pretty sure I just screwed up my current breeding project. I'm up to four health mutations, but I have 8 'mutations' on one side and 9 on the other. I've been doing my best to keep the numbers as low as I could, but it obviously hasn't panned out and I'm trying to figure out how I have to approach it if I want to start this project over again from scratch. Any help?

[IanHighlander]

I always keep a "clean" breeding line. Matched pair of male and female with the highest possible stats all combined into each of the pair but with zero mutations. If I tame a new one that has a higher stat, I will then breed that into the clean line until I have another matched pair with the higher stats. Those clean pair are always my base line for any mutations I want to add in (colour or stat) but I always keep that pair no matter what and branch other lines off those two for any other lines I want to create.

[DarthaNyan]

The most efficient way is, as you say, create a base 0/0 pair with identical stats or better yet a male and a whole bunch of females to breed with. That way if your mutated baby is a male - you have a whole harem of 0/0 females (to avoid bloating mutation count) ready to continue the project or, if baby is a female - keep mating it with 0/0 male until you get a gender switch with a mutation. Do note: once a dino has 20 marks combined on both sides chance for mutation is basically halved - you will have to rely on its 0/0 partner to mutate desired stat(s).

Once you did the initial setup you have several choices:

have 1 breed line and just accumulate mutations in several stats at once, but that also means that once mutation happens - you have to hope that ALL other mutated stats got inherited as well. Failing that leaves you in a pain in the arse situation where you inevitably will have to bloat mutation marks for nothing and decreases the overall speed of acquiring new mutations.

have separate line for each stat and once you achieve desired amount - breed them together for ultimate dino.

[Akherousia]

Yeah, I wasn't quite smart enough to keep a clean breeding line and killed off my last breeding females, but I was smart enough to keep the ones I tamed in the wild with their appropriate levels and stats marked down so that I can make another clean set of parents again in the future. 

 

So, I'm making a clean set of parents with the highest stats out of all naturally tamed dinosaurs, and then I'm mass breeding them - adding more females into the queue as I get them. Yes? This part I know, as it's what I've been doing. Now, am I understanding the next step right? Once I get a mutation, I phase out whichever gender the mutation belongs to (assuming it's one I want to keep, of course) but keep the parent I am replacing for the future. I breed it with the 0/0 parent until that mutation expands or gains another one, and then I swap out again so that I am mating the 2/0 mutation with the corresponding 0/0 parent, and I continue that until all the mutations are accounted for, right? Is that the most productive way to do it without wasting mutation 'points'?

I also had another question about breeding separate lines I was going to ask later, but since you mentioned it now, it seems like a good time to bring it up.
If I had one that, say, hypothetically was 20/20 in Health, and another 20/20 in Damage, would cross-breeding them together still allow me to inherit the stat of each, or do I have to do it before I reach the counter? 

[thatguy0890]

On the separate lines the mutations will cross over from what i have seen the reason to breed back to a clean parent is so one side will have a chance to mutate again. but the 20/20 will stack over and become 40/40 causing it to no longer mutate until having a clean side 0/40 or vise versa

[DarthaNyan]

36 minutes ago, Akherousia said:

So, I'm making a clean set of parents with the highest stats out of all naturally tamed dinosaurs, and then I'm mass breeding them - adding more females into the queue as I get them. Yes? This part I know, as it's what I've been doing. Now, am I understanding the next step right? Once I get a mutation, I phase out whichever gender the mutation belongs to (assuming it's one I want to keep, of course) but keep the parent I am replacing for the future. I breed it with the 0/0 parent until that mutation expands or gains another one, and then I swap out again so that I am mating the 2/0 mutation with the corresponding 0/0 parent, and I continue that until all the mutations are accounted for, right? Is that the most productive way to do it without wasting mutation 'points'?

Ideally you want to always get a male baby with a new mutation, so you can continue to breed it with 0/0 females (more females - more babies - more chance for new mutation).

You keep 0/0 Male for the case when you get a female baby with a new mutation in desired stat - then you breed that matured mutated female with clean 0/0 male until you get mutated male to breed with lots of clean females again. You dont have to wait for new mutation to pop when you do gender swap. This cycle can be continued indefinitely.

[Akherousia]

4 minutes ago, DarthaNyan said:

Ideally you want to always get a male baby with a new mutation, so you can continue to breed it with 0/0 females (more females - more babies - more chance for new mutation).

You keep 0/0 Male for the case when you get a female baby with a new mutation in desired stat - then you breed that matured mutated female with clean 0/0 male until you get mutated male to breed with lots of clean females again. You dont have to wait for new mutation to pop when you do gender swap. This cycle can be continued indefinitely.

Good idea. I'm on the right track, though, right? The mutation always gets bred with the 0/0 parents?
Okay, I think I have a better idea of what I'm doing now. Unfortunately, I wasted hours and hours of work yesterday doing it wrong, but I'm raising up two babies with the best stats out of yesterday's work so it's not a total waste, and I'm going to start over today so that I can actually do this right and maximize my gain.

Thank you for your help.
I'm revisiting a lot of the videos I watched, too, and the information is there in some of it, but it's not gone over in a lot of depth and can be quite misleading. I think that's where my confusion came from. I appreciate your help.

[Lihaliemikuutio]

Just download "ARK smart breeding"

[isu]

On 2/6/2018 at 6:05 PM, DarthaNyan said:

Ideally you want to always get a male baby with a new mutation, so you can continue to breed it with 0/0 females (more females - more babies - more chance for new mutation).

You keep 0/0 Male for the case when you get a female baby with a new mutation in desired stat - then you breed that matured mutated female with clean 0/0 male until you get mutated male to breed with lots of clean females again. You dont have to wait for new mutation to pop when you do gender swap. This cycle can be continued indefinitely.

That is if you care only for 1 stat and you are under 20 mutations(giga, stego and so). If you want more stats and you are already over 20 mutations, you dont need to keep clean male, just breed it with your overmutated male to get your male with all your best stats + mutated stat faster. It doesn't matter if you have 25 mutations on male or 2 millions. + You can use females with 19 mutations and lower, they don't need to be 0/0.

[DarthaNyan]

13 minutes ago, isu said:

That is if you care only for 1 stat (giga, stego and so). If you want more stats and you are already over 20 mutations, you dont need to keep clean male, just breed it with your overmutated male to get your male with all your best stats + mutated stat faster. It doesn't matter if you have 25 mutations on male or 2 millions. + You can use females with 19 mutations and lower, they don't need to be 0/0.

It is still faster to have separate bloodlines for each desired stat and combine them only at the "end". That eliminates breeding overhead where you try to re-combine them every generation in case not all stats got inherited.

[isu]

How its faster?

If i'm breeding for example Rex and I care for 3 stats (hp,stam,dmg) with my overmutated male (alpha male with 20+ mutations), I have 2,5% chance for mutations (bcs only female is 19 mutations or lower) and I have 3/14 for right stat to mutate.

If i will mutate one of these 3 stats and its Female, i will breed it with my alpha Male until I will get New alpha Male with this new mutated stat + 2 other my best stats.

If its new mutation on male, i will breed it with my other females (over 20 mutations), which have at least other 2 stats except that one, which I mutated.

If i would separate these lines, I would be much slower, because I have only 1/14 that i will get exact right mutations.

Also when I will get new mutations, I dont need to wait for new alpha male, I just can just breed old alpha male until new one is adult and I still have 2/14 chance for new stat and 1/14 to get same stat and maybe male.

+ mutations stacking never "END", so dunno how long you want to wait.

 

I think this is faster + you can keep up nonstop with best alpha rex and dont need to seperate any stat.

 

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Lihaliemikuutio said:

Just download "ARK smart breeding"

"Ark smart Breeding" is a great tool for identifying dinos with the desirable stats.

 

Stage One - combine the best stats from Wild dinos OR from dinos with zero mutations :-

When you have a few Males and Females available, the first thing to do is identify M/F pairs that can be mated in the hope of combining their best stats. 

If you get a baby that hasn't inherited at least two of the best stats available from the parents, then cull it.

If you get a baby that has a mutation, then cull it.  Mutations at this stage are not useful.

The aim is to get a Male and Female with the best stats combined and zero mutations.

 

Stage Two - breed for mutations :-

Using your Male/Female pair from stage One, keep breeding them and watch for mutations.

If you want to improve (say) Health and Melee, then you should cull any children with a mutation in (say) Oxygen, Food, Weight, Speed, Colour, etc.

Children with no additional mutations can be used for further breeding - if they have all the best stats from the previous generation.

When the mutation counter goes above 20, then stat mutations will no longer occur, but I believe you can still get colour mutations.

 

Stage 3 - When Mutation Counters reach 20/20 on Mother and Father's side :-

Catch another Wild dino and breed this into your 20/20 mutation dino.

The baby will accumulate all previous mutations onto either the Mother or Father's side.  The other side will have zero mutations (because the Wild dino has zero mutations).

You can use this baby for breeding, but the chances of mutations will be halved because one side has 20/20 (or more) mutations already.

 

At every stage, make sure your babies have unique names, so you can identify them in the Ark Breeding Tool.

Personal recommendation : Don't use friendly names for the babies because you might get attached to them and be reluctant to cull the useless ones.

Good luck :-)

 

[DarthaNyan]

27 minutes ago, isu said:

+ mutations stacking never "END", so dunno how long you want to wait.

hence the "".

28 minutes ago, isu said:

If i will mutate one of these 3 stats and its Female, i will breed it with my alpha Male until I will get New alpha Male with this new mutated stat + 2 other my best stats.

If its new mutation on male, i will breed it with my other females (over 20 mutations), which have at least other 2 stats except that one, which I mutated.

This is what i call breeding overhead - wasting time of trying to get the mutation AND all the other mutated stats in one package again every time new mutation happens. Plus that will leave you with quite a few extra dinos that will clutter your base. I'm not saying that it isnt viable way to breed, but an unnecessary "dirty" one that can only be reasonably used after you get your 20 mutations (in one stat).

[Guest]

On 2/5/2018 at 2:15 PM, Gogohorse said:

Hi, I’m just starting to get into breeding and have a few questions: what level will the baby inherit? If I bred two raptors one with high health and one with high stamina would the result be a high stamina high health raptor? Also could I breed that raptor with a high movement speed raptor to combine all three of these stats? And what effect does imprinting have on the baby? Is it worth sticking it out to the end?

See https://ark.gamepedia.com/Breeding  "There is a 65% chance of inheriting the stronger stat of each parent".

So the baby has a 65% chance of having the stronger stat from the parents - for each stat.  There is a chance the baby will have all the weakest stats, and a chance it will have all the higher stats.  The actual choice is random.

You can repeatedly breed parents and children to obtain the best possible stats (see my previous reply).

Imprinting and increasing levels through experience have no effect on the breeding or mutations.  Only the Natural stats  (AKA base stats) count.  " Natural stat levels are the levels in each stat after it has been tamed but before it gains any stats through leveling-up by a player. "

It's all down to the roll of a dice, plus your determination in sticking to a strict breeding plan.

Good luck.

[isu]

21 minutes ago, DarthaNyan said:

hence the "".

This is what i call breeding overhead - wasting time of trying to get the mutation AND all the other mutated stats in one package again every time new mutation happens. Plus that will leave you with quite a few extra dinos that will clutter your base. I'm not saying that it isnt viable way to breed, but an unnecessary "dirty" one that can only be reasonably used after you get your 20 mutations (in one stat).

Its not wasting time, i'm using females, which I cant use for mutations + these extra rexes are used for war. I can still use my clean females for new mutations. And I can get new lines of rexes in very short time.

With your method its extra slow and you would still need time to connect these stats and because they are separated, it will take even longer time.