How to Stop Maturation in Ark: Survival Evolved – A Comprehensive Guide

You can’t truly stop maturation in Ark: Survival Evolved in the traditional sense, meaning you can’t freeze a baby dino in its current state indefinitely using in-game mechanics. The maturation process is designed to be a continuous cycle until a creature reaches adulthood. However, you can effectively manage and manipulate the maturation process through server settings and careful planning. The goal is usually to control the timing of imprints and ensure you can fully imprint a creature before it matures. Let’s dive into the details.

Understanding the Maturation Process

The maturation process in Ark is a crucial part of breeding, and understanding it is key to managing it. Dinos go through several phases: baby, juvenile, adolescent, and finally, adult. Each stage requires different levels of care, and the speed at which they progress is governed by your server’s settings. While you can’t pause a dino’s growth, you can influence how quickly they mature.

Manipulating Maturation with Server Settings

The primary way to “stop” or rather, slow down maturation is by adjusting the game’s settings. Here’s how:

• BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier: This setting directly controls how fast babies mature. Lowering this value will significantly extend the maturation process, giving you more time to imprint. Setting it to a very low value can effectively make maturation incredibly slow.
• BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier: This setting determines how often a baby dino needs care (cuddles, walks, or specific food). Increasing this value will space out the imprint requests, giving you more breathing room.
• BabyCuddleGracePeriod: This setting defines how soon after the start of a care session the dino begins to lose imprint quality if it’s care is not met, while the lose imprint quality speed stat defines how quickly the imprint drops once it begins to fall.

By carefully balancing these settings, you can create a scenario where your baby dinos mature slowly enough to allow for full imprinting without being overwhelmed by constant care requests.

The Importance of Planning

Besides adjusting settings, planning is essential.

• Calculate Imprint Intervals: Use an Ark breeding calculator to estimate the ideal settings for your server. These calculators will help you determine the perfect balance between maturation speed and cuddle interval to achieve 100% imprinting.
• Prepare Resources: Ensure you have enough food and resources to care for the baby dinos throughout their extended maturation period.
• Time Management: Breeding and imprinting require dedication. Make sure you have the time to commit to the process, especially if you’re aiming for 100% imprinting on multiple creatures.

The Consequences of Neglect

While you can slow down maturation, neglecting your baby dinos will have severe consequences.

• Starvation: If you fail to provide enough food, baby dinos will starve and eventually die.
• Imprint Loss: Missing care requests will decrease the imprinting bonus, reducing the creature’s effectiveness.
• Death: Ultimately, neglect can lead to the death of your baby dinos, wasting all your efforts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some frequently asked questions about managing maturation in Ark: Survival Evolved:

1. Can I actually pause a dino’s maturation?

No, there is no in-game mechanic to completely pause a dino’s maturation process. The only way to effectively “stop” it is by slowing it down drastically using server settings.

2. Does putting a baby dino in a cryopod stop maturation?

Yes, placing a baby dino in a cryopod does effectively pause its maturation. However, be aware that there are cooldowns associated with cryopods, and repeated cryo/uncryo can have negative consequences on mutations.

3. What happens if I don’t imprint my baby dino?

If you don’t imprint your baby dino, it won’t receive the 30% damage and resistance bonus when ridden by the imprinter. This can significantly impact its effectiveness in combat and other activities.

4. How do I get 100% imprinting?

To get 100% imprinting, you need to fulfill all the care requests the baby dino asks for during its maturation process. Adjust the BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier and BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier to align the imprint intervals with the maturation time.

5. What is the “BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier” setting?

The BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier setting controls how often a baby dino needs care, such as cuddling, walking, or specific food. Lowering this value increases the frequency of care requests, while raising it decreases the frequency.

6. How does the “BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier” setting affect maturation?

The BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier setting directly controls how fast baby dinos mature. Lowering this value slows down the maturation process, giving you more time to imprint.

7. Can I use commands to instantly mature a dino?

Yes, you can use admin commands to instantly mature a dino. The command is “SetCheatPlayer True” followed by “Cheat SetBabyAge 1“. However, this bypasses the imprinting process and the dino will not receive any imprint bonus.

8. What foods are best for baby dinos?

During the baby phase, dinos will automatically eat from their inventory. Once they reach the juvenile stage, they will eat from a trough. Ensure the trough is stocked with appropriate food for the species.

9. Is there a limit to how many times I can imprint a dino?

The number of imprints depends on the settings. You need to make sure that you have the amount of time needed for the desired imprint percentage.

10. Does imprinting affect mutations?

According to the article excerpt, Genomic imprinting does not affect the DNA sequence itself. Instead, gene expression is silenced by the epigenetic addition of chemical tags to the DNA during egg or sperm formation.

11. How do I reduce the time between imprints in Ark?

Reducing the BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier to a lower number will reduce the time between imprints. For example, setting it to 0.1 with a mature rate of 6x can allow for 100% imprint with only one cuddle.

12. What does maturation mean in Ark?

Maturation refers to the process by which a baby dino grows from a baby to a juvenile, adolescent, and finally, an adult. During this process, the dino gains HP, food capacity, and carrying capacity.

13. What is the cuddle grace period?

The cuddle grace period defines how soon after the start of a care session the dino begins to lose imprint quality if its care is not met, while the lose imprint quality speed stat defines how quickly the imprint drops once it begins to fall.

14. Should I force feed babies in Ark?

During the baby phase, they will automatically eat from their inventory. Past that point, they eat from a trough. Force-feeding is generally only necessary if you need to quickly replenish their food supply in an emergency.

15. What happens if I raise the difficulty in Ark?

Raising the difficulty can make the early game harder, but it also increases the quality of loot drops and the potential for better tames, which can make the mid to end game easier.

Conclusion

While you can’t truly stop maturation in Ark: Survival Evolved, you can effectively manage and manipulate it through server settings, planning, and careful resource management. By understanding the mechanics and adjusting the settings to your liking, you can ensure you have ample time to imprint your baby dinos and reap the rewards of a fully imprinted creature. Remember to use tools like breeding calculators and stay informed about server settings to optimize your breeding experience. For further insights into gaming and learning, explore the GamesLearningSociety.org website.