Advanced breeding: mutations, counters and traits
Everything on this page comes from our own testing on the cluster's dev server with our engine tools: 60,000 children for the counter rules, 7,100 for the mutation rate, 500 per cell for the caps, 32,000 embryos and 343 births for traits, 3,000 to 5,200 trials per trait loadout. Official settings.
How a mutation is rolled
Three rolls per baby, 2.5% each. 7.3% of babies get at least one mutation (measured 7.65% on 7,100). Two mutations in one baby is rare (11 of 7,100). Three is possible.
One mutation is +2 points on one stat the species can level (Direwolf: health, stamina, oxygen, food, weight, melee; never speed, torpor or the unused stats; uniform across the six), one random color region set to a random color from the whole table, and +1 on one counter.
The stat that mutates is chosen after the 55/45 pick, on top of the value the baby already took. A mutation can land on the lower parent's value.
The two counters
Every dino carries a maternal and a paternal counter. A baby's maternal counter is the mother's two counters added together. Paternal is the father's two added together. Then +1 on the side that sourced each new mutation, the 55/45 coin on that stat's total points. 100% of 60,000 children.
So a counter is a family total, not this dino's mutation count. A baby can show 20 on its counter and carry none of those mutated points, because each stat's points were picked 55/45.
A mutation adds 2 points, which is +2 levels on the baby.
Negative counters behave like any value under 20. No bonus, no penalty.
20/20 and what a capped parent still does
| Mother total | Father total | Chance of a mutation per baby |
|---|---|---|
| under 20 | under 20 | 7.3% |
| 20 or more | under 20 | 3.5% (3,000 births) |
| under 20 | 20 or more | 3.5% |
| 20 or more | 20 or more | 0% (0 in 3,000) |
A roll that lands on a capped side is dropped, not re-rolled. One capped parent cuts your odds to roughly half (3.5% measured on 3,000 births each way). Two end them.
A side sitting at 19 can source at most one mutation per birth (19 to 20, never 21).
The stacking loop
Keep a stable of clean females (both counters 0) and one mutated male. Every baby from a clean mother inherits 0 on the maternal side, so the mother's side keeps rolling forever.
A male past 20 on his paternal side can still be bred. The babies' maternal rolls continue at half rate (3.5%).
To combine stats, bring the mutated stats together in one line, then breed for the higher-stat pick at 55% per stat. Expect 0.55^k of babies to take all k mutated stats.
Keep the baby that carries the new +2. Check points with the Dino Stat Extractor, not the counter.
Caps
255 wild points is the top of a stat's wild byte and is inherited unchanged.
Mutations always add 2, so the highest mutation points you can reach in play is 254. At 254 further rolls on that stat are dropped and the counter does not tick (0 mutations in 6,000 stat-trials).
Counters have no ceiling other than 20 mattering. Values of 40 and higher copy through exactly.
No level clamp in the breeding path.
Twins and triplets
Twins 10% (measured 10.4% on 3,273 births), triplets 2% (1.8%). The extras are genome copies of the first baby (points, mutations, colors, counters). Sex is rolled per baby.
Color mutations
A mutation recolors exactly one of the regions the species uses (Direwolf: 0, 4, 5) with any of the 256 color ids, so a color mutation looks like a random paint job, not a shade of the parent.
Colors inherit per region 50/50 independently of the stats.
Gene traits
Wild spawns and hatched wild eggs roll them. Bred babies are born with no traits (0 of 32,000 embryos, 0 of 343 born babies). They move between dinos with the Gene Scanner and Gene Storage.
Tiers T1 to T3. A creature holds up to 5 traits, at most 3 stacks of the same trait whatever the tier. The engine refuses the fourth.
Mutable raises the 2.5% per-roll mutation chance by the amount in the table and steers the extra mutations onto the named stat. Robust raises the chance to take the higher parent on that stat. Frail subtracts the same. Neither Robust nor Frail changes the mutation rate.
| Trait | T1 | T2 | T3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mutable | +1.0 | +1.5 | +2.0 |
| Robust | +1.3 | +2.3 | +3.2 |
| Frail | -1.3 | -2.3 | -3.2 |
Three T3 stacks of Mutable on both parents is 37.5% of babies mutated (14.5% per roll), on 3,000 to 5,200 trials per cell. Three T3 of Robust on both parents is 74% instead of 55%.
Every other trait (Vampiric, Fast Learner, Cowardly) does nothing to breeding odds.
The Breeding Line Builder models these loadouts. Its constants match the engine.
Weekly gene-trait focus species are the five on the community rates block.
Cryopods and Gigantoraptor
Podding pauses the cuddle timer and maturation and keeps the imprint and the counters. The mating cooldown keeps counting while podded.
A saddled Gigantoraptor carries two babies. Each must be at or below the Gigantoraptor's level, on your team, and awake. Water-only babies can't ride. Neither can Gigantoraptors or large dinos. Egg-laid and live-born babies both ride. We trained a baby Rex and a baby Dire Bear together. The Gigantoraptor feeds the babies in its saddle from its own inventory.
Ride the Gigantoraptor with babies in the saddle. It picks one wild dino within 100 m as the target. Only killing that target counts. The next target is always a different species from the last one. Each saddle slot on the HUD shows the minimum target level, "Resting" while it has no target, and the count. Ours read "Lvl 90+" and "0/27". The count is 3 kills for every 25 levels of the baby, rounded up. Our Lvl 225 babies needed 27. The count can be lower when the baby has little growing time left.
When the count is done, the baby bonds with the Gigantoraptor. The Gigantoraptor and the baby must have the same imprinter. The rider does not have to be the imprinter. A dino bonds once, ever. Up to 12 bonds per Gigantoraptor. A bond raises the baby's imprint. Bonded dinos get the buff "Adopted Love", 10% damage resistance, only while they are near their Gigantoraptor. It drops when they move away and comes back when they return. It stacks with the imprint rider buff.
Bond stacks build on the Gigantoraptor: up to 25, each worth +2% damage for the Gigantoraptor only, so +50% at full. Stacks fall by one every 60 s with nothing new.
One feather every 8 h. It names the Gigantoraptor's highest wild stat. Its chance depends on how many wild points that stat has. The one we read was "Gigantoraptor Feather (Melee - 60.37%)". The tooltip reads "gives a baby a 60.37% chance to inherit the higher Melee stat from its parents when added to a mating parent's inventory", against the normal 55%. Plucking the same Gigantoraptor again gives the same stat.
A saddled Gigantoraptor also carries and incubates two eggs. See breeding.
Myths
The counter counts this dino's mutations. It doesn't. See how babies get their stats.
Negative counters on both parents boost mutations. They don't. 6.9% vs 7.0%.
Traits pass to the baby. They don't. Only the Scanner moves them.
Both parents at 20/20 still mutate sometimes. They don't. 0 in 3,000.
A mutation always improves the baby. It adds 2 points to one stat. The color roll is random and the stat may be one you don't want.
Adopted Love is permanent. It isn't. The buff drops when the dino moves away from its Gigantoraptor. It comes back when the dino returns.
Any kill counts toward the bond. It doesn't. Only the target the Gigantoraptor picked counts, and the next target is a different species.
Only egg babies ride the Gigantoraptor. Live-born babies ride too. A baby Rex and a baby Dire Bear trained together.