How to Configure Breeding and Maturity Rates on ARK

Published June 8, 2026 · By Host Havoc Technical Support Team

Breeding rates on your ARK: Survival Evolved server (mating cooldown, egg incubation, and baby maturation) are controlled by multipliers in the Game.ini file, not GameUserSettings.ini. Higher values speed each stage up. For world difficulty and max level instead, see changing the difficulty level.

Before you start: Stop the server first. Edits made to Game.ini while the server is running will not save.

Set the breeding multipliers

  1. Log into the game panel and stop your ARK service.
  2. Open Configuration Files and open Game.ini in the editor.
  3. Under the [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode] section, add or edit these lines:
[/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
MatingIntervalMultiplier=1.0
EggHatchSpeedMultiplier=1.0
BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier=1.0
  1. Adjust the values (higher is faster), save the file, and start the server.

Note: Game.ini is separate from GameUserSettings.ini. Breeding rate multipliers live here, so do not confuse the two. Other world options are set in gameplay toggles.