Imprinting
Imprinting is the process of raising a newly bred hatchling in the Nursery so it grows into an adult with permanent bonus stats. It extends the Breeding loop: rather than a bred egg joining the Stable instantly, it hatches into the Nursery and matures over time, rewarding you with stronger stats for showing up to care for it.
Imprinting is pure upside. Because the care prompts wait for you indefinitely, you can never lose imprint progress by being away — attention only buys you speed and stats, it never risks a loss.
The Nursery
The Nursery sits beside the breeding pen on the Stable page and holds one hatchling at a time. When a Breeding clutch finishes, the offspring hatches here instead of going straight to the Stable. If the Nursery is already occupied, a newly finished clutch simply waits its turn.
A hatchling matures over 2 hours of game time. Breeding (10 minutes) and maturation (2 hours) run in parallel, so the pipeline only backs up if you produce eggs faster than you raise them.
Care prompts
As it grows, a hatchling pauses at three care prompts, at 25%, 50%, and 75% maturity. Each prompt is a "the hatchling is hungry" message: feed it 3 food items from its diet and the maturation clock resumes.
Crucially, prompts never expire. If you are away for hours, the hatchling simply waits at its next unmet prompt with nothing lost but time. Feed it whenever you return and it continues. This makes imprinting fully idle-friendly — 100% imprint is always reachable.
Imprint bonus
Each care you complete is worth +5% to all of the hatchling's stats, baked in permanently when it grows up:
| Cares completed | Imprint % | Stat bonus |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0% | none |
| 1 | 33% | +5% |
| 2 | 67% | +10% |
| 3 | 100% | +15% |
At full growth the creature graduates into the Stable as an adult, carrying a permanent imprint tag showing its imprint percentage alongside any mutation badge from Breeding. The stat bonus is applied on top of its bred stats and stacks further with Dino Gear.
Weaning early
You are not forced to wait. A Wean button graduates the hatchling immediately at its current imprint level (including 0%). This is the release valve for mutation grinding: if you are breeding purely to stack mutations and do not care about the imprint bonus, wean at 0% to keep the Breeding cadence at its full 10-minute pace. If a graduating hatchling finds the Stable full, it simply holds until a slot opens — nothing is lost.
The imprinting loop
- Finish a Breeding clutch — the offspring hatches into the Nursery.
- Let it mature; feed it 3 diet foods at each of the three care prompts (25/50/75%).
- At 100% growth it graduates with up to +15% stats and a permanent imprint tag.
- Or Wean early to graduate immediately and get straight back to breeding.