Every serious Ark breeding line eventually hits the same bottleneck: you need more identical females, and raising them from eggs takes days.
The Cloning Chamber is the answer, and it is the reason mutation stacks finish in weeks instead of months.
What it does
The Cloning Chamber copies a tamed creature. The copy emerges matching the source, for an element cost instead of a gestation period plus maturation.
| Raising from an egg | Cloning | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Days | 40 minutes to about 4 days |
| Cost | Food, a pen, attention | Element |
| Stats | Random within the parents’ range | Identical to the source |
| Use case | New combinations | Duplicating proven breeders |
Either way you still wait: cloning takes 40 minutes to about 4 days depending on species and level, so the element cost buys you time, not an instant result.
The stat match is the whole point. When you find a clean female with the stats you want, cloning her means the next ten females are the same female.
What it costs
The cost model is a base fee plus a per-level component, and the unit is Element Shards: species base × 2500, plus level × the species coefficient, divided by 5500. So low-level breeders are cheap and high-level fighters are not. That structure produces the practical rule that matters:
Clone low-level breeders, not high-level fighters.
A low-level clean female costs almost nothing to copy. A level 300 boss mount costs real element. For breeding line maintenance, the low-level version is what you want anyway, because clean females are supposed to be disposable.
Where it fits in a breeding line
The standard mutation workflow needs dozens of identical clean females. Every mutation event produces candidates, and every candidate needs a clean partner to test against.
| Step in the line | Why cloning helps |
|---|---|
| Building the female pool | Ten identical clean females in minutes, not days |
| Testing a new mutation | Clone more clean partners as fast as you can breed |
| Replacing a lost breeder | Copy the survivor instead of re-raising |
| Backing up a proven male | Keep a cloneable copy of your best stud |
The workflow that community breeding guides converge on is simple: find or build the clean female, then clone her as many times as the line needs. Eggs are for creating new combinations; clones are for scaling the ones that already work.
What it does not do
It does not create new stats. A clone is a copy, so cloning two mediocre creatures gives you two mediocre creatures. The value is in duplicating something you already proved.
It also does not replace imprinting. A clone is a fresh creature that still needs to be raised if it is a baby-stage copy, and the imprint bonus is per-creature work.
The three ways it gets wasted
- Cloning high-level creatures for a job a low-level one does. Element is the endgame currency; do not spend it duplicating something cheap.
- Cloning before proving the line. Clone the female that works, not the one that might.
- Forgetting the emergency use. A dead breeder with a Cloning Chamber available is a recoverable problem.
A quick checklist
- Confirm the creature is worth duplicating before spending element.
- Prefer low-level clones for breeding pools.
- Keep the source creature alive; you cannot clone a corpse.
- Pair cloned females with your mutated male, not with each other.
For the line the clones serve, see the breeding guide and breeding mutations. For the element economy, see how to get element and the tek tier guide.