Ark: Survival Ascended Imprinting explained

Ark: Survival Ascended has a number of detailed mechanics to delve into once you become established with the game, including Imprinting baby creatures.

Imprinting can only be done with bred creatures, or babies found in the wild, and cannot be done with adult creatures and things you tame in the normal methods.

While it can be a time-consuming, frustrating, and difficult process, Imprinting is definitely worthwhile. Here’s everything you need to know.

What is Imprinting in Ark: Survival Ascended?

Imprinting baby creatures provides a boost to stats once the baby or juvenile creature is fully grown and requires you to care for the creature as it grows.

When you breed a baby creature in Ark: Survival Ascended, or find one in the wild, you can Imprint to begin the maturation process. Once this is down, a timer will appear above the baby that indicates when the creature wants care and a countdown.

There are several types of care that can be requested, which are shown below:

• Request a food item (Random)
• Wants a cuddle (Interact)
• Wants a walk (Whistle follow and walk a short distance).

Completing the care task raises the Imprint upon the creature and starts another countdown to the next care interval. Any Imprinting is permanent and does not decrease if you neglect to provide further care.

What bonuses does Imprinting give in Ark: Survival Ascended?

All stat values increase by 20 percent at full affinity, except for stamina and oxygen, and this particular stat bonus will be applicable throughout—so it does not require the player who completed the Imprinting to be riding it.

However, if ridden by the player who did Imprinting, the creature receives a damage and resistance bonus of 30 percent, which is added on top of the base stat bonus that is already applied.

Essentially, Imprinting dinosaurs makes them stronger than anything you can tame in the wild, but takes time and dedication.

Do wild baby dinos gain an Imprinting bonus in Ark: Survival Ascended?

From my experience so far, it seems that Imprinting a baby wild dino does provide the stat bonuses in general, but it doesn’t appear that you can also receive the riding bonus.

This would make sense, as it still provides a reason to breed creatures you have tamed yourself rather than adopting baby dinos that can be found across The Island.

It may take a little bit longer of the game being released to be able to confirm this fully, however, so we’ll update this post accordingly as required.