Breeding & Mutations Guide

Last Updated: October 12, 2025

Unlock the full potential of your dinosaurs through advanced breeding! This comprehensive guide covers everything from basic breeding mechanics to complex mutation stacking strategies for creating the ultimate creatures.

Key Breeding Changes in ASA

In ASA, wild and mutated levels are tracked separately and inherited together for each stat (55% chance for the stronger, 45% for the weaker). You can bias inheritance for specific stats (e.g., Gigantoraptor Feathers, Robust Trait), which makes targeted breeding clearer and more controllable.
🦖 Breeding Helper Creatures & Structures

Essential Breeding Assistants:

🦅 Gigantoraptor

Mobile incubator and nursery

  • • Incubates 2 eggs regardless of temperature
  • • Holds/feeds 2 babies in saddle
  • • Roar can change nearby babies' care request type
  • • Feathers bias inheritance for a specific stat (shows exact %)
🦎 Maeguana

Mobile feeding trough for babies

  • • Auto-feeds nearby babies
  • • Can carry up to 4 babies
  • • Works with unclaimed babies
  • • Level food stat for better range
🏗️ Egg Incubator

Genesis 2 structure

  • • Holds up to 10 eggs
  • • Maintains perfect temperature
  • • Requires electricity
  • • Shows incubation progress
🧬 Embryo Incubator

Bob's Tall Tales structure

  • • Use Gene Scanner to extract embryos from pregnant dinos
  • • Stores up to 10 embryos and incubates them (powered)
  • • Gene Scanner + Gene Storage integrate with Traits
  • • Lets you complete gestation outside the mother
The Gigantoraptor's feathers can increase stat inheritance chances up to 6.25% when the raptor has 60+ base levels in that stat!
🥚 Breeding Basics - How It Works

Requirements for Breeding:

  • Two creatures of the same species
  • One male, one female
  • Both must be adults (fully matured); juveniles/adolescents cannot mate
  • Enable mating on both (hold E → Enable Mating)
  • Keep them close together
  • Proper temperature for egg incubation

The Breeding Process:

🥚 Egg Layers
  1. Enable mating on pair
  2. Wait for mating bar
  3. Female lays fertilized egg
  4. Maintain proper temperature
  5. Wait for egg to hatch
🍼 Live Birth
  1. Enable mating on pair
  2. Wait for gestation
  3. Female becomes pregnant
  4. Baby born after timer
  5. Immediately needs food
Babies need constant feeding! Stock feeding troughs with appropriate food before hatching.
📊 Understanding Stat Inheritance

How Stats Are Inherited:

Each stat has a 55% chance to inherit the higher parental value (45% for the lower). In ASA, wild and mutated levels are paired for the chosen stat. You can bias specific stats via Gigantoraptor Feathers or Traits (e.g., Robust), but there is no global 70% rule.

Example:

Father Rex: 8,000 HP (40 points) | Mother Rex: 10,000 HP (50 points)

Baby has 55% chance for 10,000 HP, 45% chance for 8,000 HP

The Seven Stats:

  • Health - Most important for tanks
  • Stamina - Important for flyers
  • Oxygen - Usually ignored
  • Food - Usually ignored
  • Weight - Important for farmers
  • Melee - Critical for DPS
  • Speed - Most tames can't gain useful movement speed from breeding; speed mutations are effectively wasted
Pro tip: Level = sum of all stat points + 1. A wild 150 has 149 points distributed randomly.
🧬 Mutations - The Key to Super Dinos

Understanding Mutations:

Chance per baby
7.31%
Both parental sides < 20; ~3–4% if only one side < 20; 0% if both ≥ 20
Stat bonus
+2 Levels
To one random stat
Max mutations
20/20
Per parent side

Mutation Facts:

  • Each mutation adds +2 levels to one stat
  • Always causes a color change (may not be visible)
  • Can stack infinitely with proper breeding
  • Mutations counter tracks total ancestry mutations
  • Once a parent hits 20/20, they can't produce NEW mutations
🎯 ASA Change:

ASA separates wild and mutated levels and shows them independently. Inheritance picks the stronger/weaker pair per stat; targeted bias is possible via Gigantoraptor Feathers and Traits.

ASA Traits: Creatures can have passive Traits (e.g., Robust +1.5–3.0% higher-stat inheritance, Mutable +1–2% mutation chance for a stat). Extract/apply with the Gene Scanner + Gene Storage; Traits don’t pass via normal mating.
🏆 Creating the Perfect Breeding Line

Step-by-Step Breeding Strategy:

Step 1: Tame High-Level Creatures
  • Tame multiple 135+ wild creatures (145+ preferred)
  • Check each for high stats in desired areas
  • Keep the best male and females for each stat
  • Don't worry about levels - focus on individual stats
Step 2: Create Perfect Pair
  • Breed to combine all best stats into one male and female
  • May take many generations
  • End goal: Identical male/female with all desired stats
  • These become your "base breeding pair"
Step 3: Mass Breed for Mutations
  • Keep 1 perfect male, breed with 20-50+ perfect females
  • Females must stay at 0/0 mutations
  • Check every baby for mutations in desired stats
  • Kill or store babies without useful mutations
Step 4: Stack Mutations
  • When you get a good mutation, that becomes new breeding male
  • Continue breeding with clean females
  • Each new mutation stacks on previous ones
  • Can continue infinitely with proper technique
Keep detailed records! Name creatures with their stats for easy tracking.
🔬 Advanced Mutation Techniques

The Clean Female Method:

This is the most efficient way to stack mutations infinitely:

Why It Works:
  • Use females with < 20 total mutations to keep mutation chances active
  • The breeding male can exceed 20; odds drop if only the female side is < 20
  • Stack by replacing the male each time you get a desired mutation
  • In practice you can stack indefinitely, but you’re constrained by the official level cap (see below)

Multiple Stat Lines:

For maximum efficiency, run separate lines:

  1. Health Line: Stack only health mutations
  2. Melee Line: Stack only melee mutations
  3. Weight Line: For utility creatures
  4. Final Breeding: Combine all lines into super creature

Level Cap Considerations:

Official Server Level Cap: 450

Creatures above 450 are deleted on server restart. Some R/X/Genesis variants hard-cap at 500. Plan your stacks with headroom for leveling.

🔧 Advanced Breeding Techniques

Using Gigantoraptor Effectively:

Feather Stat Biasing
  1. Pluck feather from Gigantoraptor (24hr cooldown)
  2. Check feather for stat icon and exact percentage
  3. Place in female's inventory before mating
  4. Increases chance baby inherits the higher value for that stat
  5. Bias scales with the raptor's wild/mutated levels in that stat (feather shows the value)
Incubation & Baby Care
  • Place egg in Gigantoraptor inventory
  • Attach to left/right saddle slot
  • No temperature requirements needed
  • Press R while riding to access care options
  • Bonding hunts build combat buffs for the family (not extra imprint %)
  • Babies are fed while you are actively riding the raptor

Maeguana Baby Management:

Set up a nursery area with multiple Maeguanas:

  • Fill Maeguana inventories with appropriate food
  • Activate "Nursing" on each Maeguana
  • Babies eat from inventory first, then Maeguanas
  • Level Food stat to increase nursing range
  • Warning: Baby Maeguanas can't eat from adults!
Ensure Gigantoraptor is higher level than baby to prevent mesh issues!
👶 Raising Babies - Care Guide

Growth Stages:

Baby
0-10%
Hand feed only
Juvenile
10-50%
Can use trough
Adolescent
50-100%
Nearly grown
Adult
100%
Fully grown

Imprinting for Bonus Stats:

  • Care Timer: On official defaults, babies request care about every 8 hours (server-configurable)
  • Requests: Cuddle, walk, or specific kibble
  • 100% Imprint: +20% base stats, plus +30% damage dealt and −30% damage taken when ridden by the imprinter (flyer movement speed is unaffected)
  • Tips: Use Gigantoraptor or Maeguana for easier raising
Food Requirements by Type:

Carnivores:

  • Raw meat (stacks to 40)
  • Cooked meat lasts longer
  • Raw fish for some species

Herbivores:

  • Berries (Mejoberries best)
  • Vegetables for some
  • Sweet veggie cake for snails

⚙️ Recommended Breeding Settings

For single-player or private servers, these settings make breeding manageable:

Time Reduction:

  • • Mating Interval: 0.1x (faster breeding)
  • • Egg Hatch Speed: 10-50x
  • • Baby Mature Speed: 10-50x
  • • Cuddle Interval: 0.1x (more imprints)

Quality of Life:

  • • Baby Food Consumption: 0.5x
  • • Allow Anyone Baby Imprint
  • • Disable Baby Wandering
  • • Gigantoraptor (mobile nursery)

📋 Breeding Quick Reference

Mutation Math:

  • • 7.31% chance per baby
  • • +2 levels per mutation
  • • 6 useful stats to mutate
  • • Color always changes

Best Practices:

  • • Keep females at 0/0
  • • Name with stat values
  • • Use breeding tracker
  • • Cryopod extras

Time Savers:

  • • Mass breed females
  • • Use Egg/Embryo Incubators
  • • Maeguana for auto-feeding
  • • Gigantoraptor for all-in-one care