ARK: Survival Ascended Guide | How To Raise Babies

Unlock a powerful method to accelerate baby creature growth using Bison Milk in ARK: Survival Ascended.

Game Guide by Monarch on Aug 04, 2025

Raising babies in ARK: Survival Ascended can be a challenging yet rewarding experience, especially for breeders aiming to optimize their process.

This guide shows a new technique that can make caring for babies a lot easier, especially for players who play for fun. Bisons, Ice Wyverns, Cryopods, and Extraordinary Kibble are central to the plan, which could be a game-changer for people who want to get the most out of their time.

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Essential Setup

To begin, ensure you have access to Bisons, including at least one male and as many females as possible in your base. This setup will make the process much easier. You will also need at least one Ice Wyvern for storage, at least one Cryopod, and every single imprint requirement needed for your babies.

Having a substantial supply of imprint requirements is crucial, so this method may be best suited to breeders who are already well-prepared.

Extraordinary Kibble is recommended, as it can substitute for any other kibble tier below it. Always have at least one baby Bison out at any time. There are specific rules to follow, so pay close attention to the setup.

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Milking Bisons

As long as there is a baby Bison present, any female in proximity can be milked. It is important to milk every single female you can and collect as much Bison Milk as possible.

Depending on your settings, the milk timer can range from 15 minutes in single-player mode to 45 minutes on official servers. Once the timer has hit zero, you can Cryopod your baby Bison, wait until the timer is up, then uncryo it to resume milking.

Store your Bison Milk on an Ice Wyvern to benefit from refrigeration timers, which last around four days on normal rates. If you have access to the tech tier, place a Tech Trough near a cart saddle and drop the milk in a bag on the saddle.

The milk will be auto-transferred to your trough for refrigeration. However, this method provides approximately half the preservation time compared to the Ice Wyvern. The Ice Wyvern is generally preferred for longer storage.

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Preparing for Imprints

Once you have gathered enough Bison Milk in your Ice Wyvern, you are ready to proceed. When your baby reaches its imprint requirements and requests Wyvern Milk, feed it Bison Milk instead. This will result in a 10% growth, emulating 2x rates on official servers.

After your Wyvern receives its final imprint to reach 100%, you can re-release it and wait for a new imprint request to arrive. If it asks for milk again, even at 100% imprint, you can still provide Bison Milk for another 10% maturation.

If the next imprint requirement is not milk, fulfill the requested imprint first. Then, use the Cryopod trick: Cryopod and uncryo the baby until it asks for milk again. Repeat this process to continue rapidly increasing maturation.

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Expanding the Method to Other Creatures

It has been discovered that any other creature can also request Bison Milk as an imprint requirement. Feeding Bison Milk to these babies grants the same 10% maturation boost.

However, aside from Wyverns, babies may require various other imprint items such as berries, meats, or Kibble. Cycling through imprint requirements to get to the Bison Milk option may take time, making it less efficient for creatures with faster maturation rates.

This approach can be particularly helpful for creatures that are slow to mature, such as Giganotosaurus or Karkinos. Raising these animals is much simpler once the Bison Milk imprint requirement is established.

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Mechanic Observations

Testing suggests that having a 100% imprinted baby Bison within range may trigger the possibility of Bison Milk becoming an imprint requirement. This mechanic did not appear to work in single-player until a 100% imprinted baby Bison was present and the Cryopod trick was used.

After this, Bison Milk imprint requirements started to appear more frequently.

It is unclear whether this is an intended feature or a bug, as Bison Milk requirements sometimes appear in quick succession, while at other times they are rare.

Regardless, for raising high-value creatures, this method offers a substantial advantage if you are fortunate with the imprint requirement RNG.

Final Notes

If you do not have Bisons nearby, it may be impossible to receive Bison Milk as an imprint requirement, suggesting a proximity mechanic. This guide provides a comprehensive approach to making baby raising in ARK: Survival Ascended much more manageable for breeders.

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