Since I've some requests for this here's a basic guide to the mutation breed cycle in Ark. Let me know if you have any questions or suggested edits.
Getting Started:
1) Tame yourself dinos with high level stats in the stats you care about. Assuming you’re dealing with a wild level 150, you are looking for wild stat 25+. Post tame the stat needs to land 35+. (Note: If you want to get 254 vs 253 as the highest stat you can get, you will need to make sure the post tame stat is an even number.) You can use the Almanac to help you hunt down dinos with the desired stats. You will likely need 1 dino per desired stat. I do advise you try to get high levels in even the stats you don't desire simply because they give a nice end boost to the dinos overall level, but this is not required if you simply want to get started quicker. Spyglass will make it easy to see the stats. Once you've balled them into a soulball you'll also be able to see the stats there as well.
2) Breed your dinos holding the highest desired stats together. Take the resulting children that inherit the high stats of their parents and keep mixing until you get a final child with all the desired high stats. Be aware you may get mutations at this point, but it's important to not use those babiest. This will be your 0 mut base so adding mutations in now will cause issues later. Mutator for gender change will make this go easier. You can use Ark Smart Breeding app to help make tracking of the process and later mutation building easier.
3) Breed this top stat dino until you have at least 1 male and ~20-40 females. These are now your breeding base for mutation. The male will need for your first round of mutations and for breeding new 0 mut females if you want to expand your female breed pool so be sure to keep it around.
4) Prep for mutation breeding by selecting the stat you want to focus on, this will be your line focus till it's capped out at either 253 or 254. (Please be aware you will need lots of element for this phase, please see 2nd post for help on this if you need ways to collect element.) First and set up 2 mutators and a soul terminal in an area large enough you can have your females surround your male easily. I advise pulling the dinos out only when you need and simply place the females around the male every time you go for a try. You can set up a special breeding area where the females ring some sort of platform for making it easier to get the male in and out, but be advised this can seriously hinder the performance of your game if you get into larger breeding pools and isn't recommended. You will want to make sure all the females will be kept in the range of the male, 2 mutators, and the soul terminal set up to collect eggs/babies.
The Mutation Cycle:
5) Take your breeding male and surround with your 0 mut females. Activate both mutators on mutation pulse, then trigger breeding via the soul terminal.
6) Eggs/babies will be collected into the soul terminal where you can easily sort them. I recommend using the dodo nest to incubate any eggs that need to be hatched. Pick out one child who inherited the father’s desired stat with a +4 mutation on top. Dispose of the rest however you so choose.
7) Pull your baby out and let it age up. (I strongly recommend keeping some food on the baby regardless any nannies or maewings in the area.) You can speed up the process by using imprint kibble, around 10 is advised, but you may need more for larger breeds (4 kibble will give it 100% imprint, any after that will increase its growth speed). Turn it male if it's not already. This is now your new breeding male. Replace the male in step 5 and repeat steps 5-8 until you get the stat up to the desired level (max is 253 or 254). If you breed once a day, you should be able to reach this in ~2 months even accounting for some bad luck.
Optional: After the male passes the mutation cap, you will have a lower chance of getting the results you want so you may find you need to add on more 0 mut females to guarantee a baby in your desired stat every time you breed (or at least most of the time). Simply take your 0 mut male and breed to your 0 mut females until you start seeing results you are satisfied with, I don't recommend going over ~70 females as the benefits of adding more females after that will be negligible.
8) Once you have gotten a dino to the max in one stat (253 or 254), set it aside and start again Use your 0 mut male to start the next desired stat you want and repeat steps 5-8 until you have another maxed out stat. Do this for all the desired stats you want in your final dino. You can separate stat breeding lines simultaneously to reduce the time till your finished dino, but each stat will need its own breed pool of 20-40 females dinos.
Wrap Up & Profit:
10) Take your maxed stat dinos you’ve set aside and breed them together as was done previously in step 2 until you have 2+ dino with all the maxed out stats you desired on it. I recommend breeding more than one so you can keep a breeding pair tucked away if you ever want/need more for pulling out and terrorizing Ark with.
Getting Started:
1) Tame yourself dinos with high level stats in the stats you care about. Assuming you’re dealing with a wild level 150, you are looking for wild stat 25+. Post tame the stat needs to land 35+. (Note: If you want to get 254 vs 253 as the highest stat you can get, you will need to make sure the post tame stat is an even number.) You can use the Almanac to help you hunt down dinos with the desired stats. You will likely need 1 dino per desired stat. I do advise you try to get high levels in even the stats you don't desire simply because they give a nice end boost to the dinos overall level, but this is not required if you simply want to get started quicker. Spyglass will make it easy to see the stats. Once you've balled them into a soulball you'll also be able to see the stats there as well.
2) Breed your dinos holding the highest desired stats together. Take the resulting children that inherit the high stats of their parents and keep mixing until you get a final child with all the desired high stats. Be aware you may get mutations at this point, but it's important to not use those babiest. This will be your 0 mut base so adding mutations in now will cause issues later. Mutator for gender change will make this go easier. You can use Ark Smart Breeding app to help make tracking of the process and later mutation building easier.
3) Breed this top stat dino until you have at least 1 male and ~20-40 females. These are now your breeding base for mutation. The male will need for your first round of mutations and for breeding new 0 mut females if you want to expand your female breed pool so be sure to keep it around.
4) Prep for mutation breeding by selecting the stat you want to focus on, this will be your line focus till it's capped out at either 253 or 254. (Please be aware you will need lots of element for this phase, please see 2nd post for help on this if you need ways to collect element.) First and set up 2 mutators and a soul terminal in an area large enough you can have your females surround your male easily. I advise pulling the dinos out only when you need and simply place the females around the male every time you go for a try. You can set up a special breeding area where the females ring some sort of platform for making it easier to get the male in and out, but be advised this can seriously hinder the performance of your game if you get into larger breeding pools and isn't recommended. You will want to make sure all the females will be kept in the range of the male, 2 mutators, and the soul terminal set up to collect eggs/babies.
The Mutation Cycle:
5) Take your breeding male and surround with your 0 mut females. Activate both mutators on mutation pulse, then trigger breeding via the soul terminal.
6) Eggs/babies will be collected into the soul terminal where you can easily sort them. I recommend using the dodo nest to incubate any eggs that need to be hatched. Pick out one child who inherited the father’s desired stat with a +4 mutation on top. Dispose of the rest however you so choose.
7) Pull your baby out and let it age up. (I strongly recommend keeping some food on the baby regardless any nannies or maewings in the area.) You can speed up the process by using imprint kibble, around 10 is advised, but you may need more for larger breeds (4 kibble will give it 100% imprint, any after that will increase its growth speed). Turn it male if it's not already. This is now your new breeding male. Replace the male in step 5 and repeat steps 5-8 until you get the stat up to the desired level (max is 253 or 254). If you breed once a day, you should be able to reach this in ~2 months even accounting for some bad luck.
Optional: After the male passes the mutation cap, you will have a lower chance of getting the results you want so you may find you need to add on more 0 mut females to guarantee a baby in your desired stat every time you breed (or at least most of the time). Simply take your 0 mut male and breed to your 0 mut females until you start seeing results you are satisfied with, I don't recommend going over ~70 females as the benefits of adding more females after that will be negligible.
8) Once you have gotten a dino to the max in one stat (253 or 254), set it aside and start again Use your 0 mut male to start the next desired stat you want and repeat steps 5-8 until you have another maxed out stat. Do this for all the desired stats you want in your final dino. You can separate stat breeding lines simultaneously to reduce the time till your finished dino, but each stat will need its own breed pool of 20-40 females dinos.
Wrap Up & Profit:
10) Take your maxed stat dinos you’ve set aside and breed them together as was done previously in step 2 until you have 2+ dino with all the maxed out stats you desired on it. I recommend breeding more than one so you can keep a breeding pair tucked away if you ever want/need more for pulling out and terrorizing Ark with.
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