Egg Incubator

Hatching eggs under control

Hatching eggs at a controlled temperature is the job of the Egg Incubator, a powered structure in ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended. The description: "Deployable device for warming and monitoring up to ten eggs at once. Requires electricity to run." It came with Genesis: Part 2, and the wiki also lists it on Lost Island, Fjordur and Genesis: Part 1. On Lost Island and Fjordur the engram can be learned without the Genesis Pass.

Temperature and the 20% bonus

Up to 10 eggs fit inside, and one temperature, chosen from the wheel menu, applies to all of them. Setting it to the middle of an egg's hatching range gives the maximum bonus of 20% faster hatching. When powered, the incubator keeps every egg properly insulated whatever the setting, so eggs with very different needs, such as Wyvern Eggs and Rock Drake Eggs, can share it, but they cannot all get the 20% at once. Batches with similar ranges get the most out of it.

Watching progress

A bar under each egg shows its progress toward hatching and its health, blue when too cold, orange when too hot and green when right. From outside, looking closely at an egg shows its color regions and levels, but handling it means opening the inventory. If the status does not appear, turn on the Floating Names option in the advanced settings. Since patch 341.19 the incubator can also give a buff for checking gestation, lasting 5 minutes.

Power, hatching and limits

• Unpowered, it still hatches eggs as long as the outside temperature is not extreme, but without the speed bonus or offspring stats. Eggs left too long without power or at the wrong temperature can be destroyed.
• At 100% the baby must be ejected by hand from the inventory and appears in front of the machine. Unwanted eggs can be cracked the same way and leave nothing.
• Eggs keep spoiling at the normal rate inside.
• It works underwater, so eggs of sea creatures can hatch in it, though large ones such as the Tusoteuthis need space.
• Only three incubators are allowed in one area.

Building an incubator

The engram needs level 89, 55 engram points and the Air Conditioner. A Fabricator or Exo-Mek builds it in 5 seconds for 100 XP from:

• 500 Metal Ingot, or Scrap Metal Ingot
• 350 Polymer, Organic Polymer or Corrupted Nodule
• 250 Electronics
• 200 Crystal, or Primal Crystal
• 100 Cementing Paste, or Achatina Paste

An incubator weighs 25 and up to 5 stack together, 125 in all. 32 crate types can contain one, such as the Genesis Blue, Genesis Green and Genesis Red crates.