Why Breed Dinosaurs in ARK? Master Dino Husbandry for Domination

As an avid ARK player with over 2,000 hours played, breeding super dinos is hands down one of the most important goals for advanced players. Embarking on a selective husbandry program takes time, but pays dividends when you churn out badass creatures tailor-made for survival and domination of the island.

Step 1: Understand the Core Benefits

Before mutated+imprinted dinos, most creatures max out around level 450 on official settings. But through diligent and proper dino breeding, you can shatter that barrier to produce level 500+ carnivores and herbivores optimized for specialized tasks and environments.

Push Key Stats to the Limit

By stacking mutations, many breeders are able to achieve 40-50K health rexes or 50-60K health brontos. That dwarfs their base stats which may start around merely 4,000 health after taming. Similarly, melee damage on properly bred Rex lines can exceed 1,200% – allowing them to chomp through even the tankiest foes with shocking ease compared to their 400% base values.

According to Dododex stats tracker across over 100,000 users, the highest reported official stats are:

• Health: Brontosaurus @ 916,000
• Melee: Rex @ 1,220.4%
• Weight: Quetzal @ 39,000 lbs

Now those are extreme examples, but they showcase what becomes possible!

Imprinting Unlocks Exclusive Bonuses

The imprinting system allows you to hand-raise babies through various care actions as they mature. At 100% imprint, creatures gain a 20% flat stat boost across the board. More importantly, ANY survivor who imprinted gains a 30% damage and resistance buff while riding that creature – which stacks with imprinting‘s stat gain!

So with the bonuses combined, you have dinos exceeding their normal capabilities by 50% or more – with that boost only applying to the imprinter survivor and allies. Imprint armies can become unstoppable forces.

Step 2: Basic Breeding Overview

Before mutation breeding comes generational expansion of dinos until you have hyper-specialized creatures all with their own strengths and all sharing your glorious bloodline!

Breed Baseline Creatures

I start by breeding any 150 tame with high stats distribution until I have a male and female with 50 points in the desired areas like 50 health or melee.

Hatch Eggs Strategically

Fertilized eggs inherit stat values from the parents within breeding range min/max thresholds. So with two 150 parents, eggs hatch anywhere from level 1 to 300. I hatch over 100 eggs until I get near 300 base levels with ideal stat distribution.

Mature and Assess Baby Dinos

Once I have ideal baseline male 300 melee and female 300 health creatures, I begin incremental generational expansion until hitting mutation caps. Multiple generational divide and conquer breeding projects target specializations.

Step 3: Mutation Stacking for Fun and Profit

This is where things get interesting. Mutations occur during breeding with a random 2.5% chance per domain (color region or stat).

Health and Melee Mutations Rule

While possible to target any domain, I focus efforts on melee damage and health as those give the biggest bang for buck. Mutations increment those stats +2 levels each time.

The Random Factor

Now early on, you may breed 50+ times with no mutations. Other times, you hit the jackpot with a male inheriting both color and melee mutations! RNG plays a factor but persistence pays off.

I once bred a male rex over 100 times until it randomly quad-mutated health in one breeding two generations later. That begins a powerful bloodline. Some breeders report 40+ health and melee mutations stacked onto a single male over generations of selective lineage breeding.

Stat Caps Still Allow Specialization

Creatures have a mutations domain cap around 20 mutations per ancestral line. So while one male may hit 40 melee, his offspring max out around 20 popped melee mutations. That means you specialize lineages over time.

Step 4: Managing Your Empire

All the breeding inevitably leads to sprawl. Some tips for managing breeding operations:

Multi-Purpose Breeding Facilities

Central hatchery areas make it easier to breed, imprint, and assess multiple species like Rex/Spino/Theri. I use the double wall+foundation vacancy trick to glitch various creature types through gates and doors stuck open. Then add structures like troughs, AC units, cryofridges etc. Use cryopods to hot swap males+females!

Cryopreserve Important Creatures

I strongly recommend cryopreserving any irreplaceable high-mutation creatures rather than keeping them out full time. That mitigates losing your perfect 40/20 melee male Rex to an untimely giga ambush. Reuse it only for breeding.

Offline Raiding Protection

As lines develop, certain dinos become high value assets. Use metal/tek turret towers, status chambers pods etc. for protection. I once lost legacy creatures worth endless real-world trading from being raided offline. Don‘t repeat my mistake!

Track Stats

Use external tracking like dododex to record all creature stats levels and rates. That helps quantify generational progress. Features like ancestry trees also help. Some servers have statistical reporting mods.

So in summary – breeding takes dedication but pushes the power boundaries of ARK while protecting valuable creatures through lineages. What strategies have you used for your breeding programs? Share your tips below!