Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

iTechGuides is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more

You cannot tame an adult Fire, Lightning, Poison, or Ice Wyvern by knocking it out and feeding it. To obtain one, steal a fertilized egg from a wild nest, escape the adults defending it, incubate the egg, and raise the hatchling with Wyvern Milk until it becomes an adult. The exact danger, incubation time, maturation time, and milk demand depend on your map, temperature controls, difficulty, and server multipliers.

What “taming a wyvern” actually means

Standard wyverns use a raising process rather than the normal knockout-taming process. An adult wild wyvern cannot be rendered unconscious and tamed. The tame begins when you take a fertilized egg from a nest and continues through incubation, hatching, feeding, imprinting, and maturation.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

The standard egg families are Fire, Lightning, Poison, and Ice. The egg’s type determines the elemental type of the wyvern that hatches. Once you have adult wyverns, breeding is restricted to the same elemental type; a Fire Wyvern cannot breed with a Lightning, Poison, or Ice Wyvern.

Prepare before entering a nest area

Egg theft is dangerous because nearby adult wyverns become hostile and can pursue you after you take an egg. The ARK Official Community Wiki recommends using a fast mount and carrying as little irreplaceable gear as possible. Treat the first raid as an extraction operation, not a fight to clear the entire area.

#1 Best Overall
ARK: Survival Evolved (PS4)
  • Use cunning strategy and tactics to tame, train, ride and breed the 100+ dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the dynamic, persistent ecosystems across land, sea, air, and even underground Build your character's strengths and gain items, skills, and pet creatures using in-depth role-playing systems
  • Start a tribe with hundreds of other players to survive and dominate competing tribes...and ultimately discover ARK's true purpose
  • Build a fire or shelter, then craft customizable clothing & armors to help protect against damage and extreme temperatures on your way to unlocking advanced technologies and equipment
  • Chop down trees and mine metal and other precious resources to build massive multi-leveled structures composed of complex snap-linked parts
  • Fast, expendable flying mount: You need enough speed and stamina to leave the trench or nest zone while under pursuit. Do not make your only high-value mount the planned escape vehicle.
  • Food and water: Bring enough for the scouting trip and the return journey. A chase that lasts longer than expected can otherwise end before you reach safety.
  • Healing supplies: Carry a way to recover your mount and yourself after damage. Keep emergency supplies separate from the minimum kit you are willing to lose.
  • Recovery plan: Decide where you will land, where you can safely dismount, and where the egg will be stored after extraction.
  • Route knowledge: Scout the approach and exit before committing. A route that looks short on foot may be unusable while flying through hostile adults.
  • Optional trap location: If you intend to trap a pursuing wyvern, prepare the structure before stealing the egg. Trap designs are not universal: map geometry, server settings, building access, and your available resources all change what works.

Do not assume that killing one defender makes the nest safe. Other adults can still react to the theft, and a deeper nest may contain additional threats.

Choose an egg type

There is no universally best egg. Choose the elemental type you want to raise and then plan around the nest location and the escape route available on your map.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
Egg type Resulting adult Elemental breath role Important planning point
Fire Fire Wyvern Fire-based breath Requires a Fire Wyvern nest and the same high-risk theft-and-escape process.
Lightning Lightning Wyvern Lightning-based breath Use the nest route and escape plan that best fit your map and settings; the egg type does not make theft safe.
Poison Poison Wyvern Poison-based breath Secure the egg before worrying about long-term raising; adults remain hostile during extraction.
Ice Ice Wyvern Ice-based breath Availability and nest danger vary by map, so verify that your current map contains the relevant nests.

Eggs are fertilized eggs from wild wyvern nests, not ordinary inventory items obtained from a tamed adult. The type of egg is fixed when you take it, so select the nest deliberately rather than collecting a random egg and discovering later that it is not the type you wanted.

Step-by-step: steal the egg and get out

1. Locate a nest without committing to the theft

Approach far enough to identify a usable nest and an exit route, then withdraw if the route is blocked. Your objective is an egg plus a safe escape, not maximum time inside the trench. Mark or remember a fallback landing point where you can recover if your mount is damaged.

2. Take one fertilized egg

Move to the nest, collect the fertilized egg, and leave immediately. The adults’ response is the central hazard. Avoid lingering to search other nests unless your escape route remains clear and you have deliberately accepted the added risk.

3. Break pursuit using terrain, distance, or a prepared trap

Fly the route you planned before the theft. If you prepared a trap, guide the pursuer into it only if doing so does not put the egg and mount at greater risk. A trap is an option, not a guaranteed solution; a design that works on one map or server may fail on another.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
Rank #2
Sale
ARK: Survival Evolved - Xbox One
  • Capture and Tame Dinosaurs: Discover over 100 different dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures on the island, finding ways to tame them into useful additions for your tribe's dino herd
  • Survive Above All: Hunger, thirst, basic safety, and protecting yourself from the weather are all part of the game
  • Harvest, Hunt and Build: Cut down trees and turn them into a basic home, which you can quickly expand into a Jurassic estate. Hunt for meat, scavenge for plants (or start your own garden!)
  • Customize Everything: An extensive crafting system invites you to mix and match materials scavenged from the island, while also modifying the colors, textures, shapes, and styles
  • Explore the Island: Solve the mystery of The ARK as you explore this massive island, discovering Explorer's Notebooks (filled with clues!) throughout

4. Secure the egg after extraction

Once you are away from the nest, move the egg to the location where you will control temperature and monitor the hatch. Do not begin incubation until you can remain nearby long enough to correct temperature problems or respond to the hatch.

Incubate the wyvern egg

Incubation requires temperature control. You can regulate the environment with suitable temperature-management structures or use an Egg Incubator. The official wiki gives an incubation time of about five hours under perfect temperature stability in an Egg Incubator. That is a best-condition reference, not a timer that applies unchanged to every server.

Temperature instability can extend the process or prevent the egg from progressing. Before placing the egg, confirm that your method can maintain the required conditions and that you can check it during the incubation period.

Incubator decision

  • Egg Incubator: Gives you a dedicated way to manage incubation and is the clearest route when you can provide stable power or the required infrastructure on your server.
  • Other temperature control: Can work when an incubator is unavailable, but the result depends more directly on the surrounding environment and your ability to keep the temperature stable.

The five-hour figure should therefore be used for scheduling, not as a promise that every egg on every server hatches at that exact time.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Raise the hatchling with Wyvern Milk

A baby wyvern does not eat Raw Meat before adulthood. Its required food is Wyvern Milk, and the baby can also request milk as part of imprinting. You must arrange a milk supply before the egg hatches; discovering afterward that you have no source can put the hatchling at risk.

Where Wyvern Milk comes from

  • Knocked-out wild female: A wild female wyvern can provide milk when subdued. This requires another dangerous encounter, so plan the capture and retrieval route before the baby needs food.
  • Alpha Wyvern: Killing an Alpha Wyvern provides 50 Wyvern Milk, according to the ARK Official Community Wiki. This is a high-risk source and should not be treated as an easy emergency refill.

Later generations still need milk. Breeding your adult wyverns does not remove the requirement to obtain milk from wild females or Alpha Wyverns for each new baby.

Rank #3
ARK: Survival Evolved (Nintendo Switch)
  • Capture and Tame Dinosaurs: Discover over 100 different dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures on the island, finding ways to tame them into useful additions for your tribe's dino herd
  • Survive Above All: Hunger, thirst, basic safety and protecting yourself from the weather are all part of the game. Run too far and not only will you be exhausted, but you will also quickly get hungry and thirsty. Weather effects are based on real-world climates, and so you'll need to hide out from rain and snow, while making the most of sunny days
  • Harvest, Hunt and Build: Cut down trees and turn them into a basic home, which you can quickly expand into a Jurassic estate. Hunt for meat, scavenge for plants (or start your own garden!)
  • Gather Resources, Customize Everything: An extensive crafting system invites you to mix and match materials scavenged from the island, while also modifying the colors, textures, shapes and style of everything from the walls of your home, to your character's armor, weapons and more
  • Explore the Island: Solve the mystery of The ARK as you explore this massive island, discovering Explorer's Notebooks (filled with clues!) throughout. Make your way to the final boss and figure out why you've been dropped into this Jurassic-era experience

Understand the food numbers

The wiki records one Wyvern Milk as 1200 food for the baby and an approximate consumption rate of one food every ten seconds, or 360 food per hour. At that cited rate, one milk represents roughly three hours and twenty minutes of food:

1200 food ÷ 360 food per hour = 3.33 hours

This calculation is a planning baseline, not a universal milk schedule. Consumption and effective capacity are affected by the baby’s level and your server’s settings. Lower-level babies can have an effective food capacity below 1200 and may need milk force-fed rather than being able to hold a full milk’s value automatically.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Plan supply instead of guessing a total

There is no single authoritative milk total that applies to every wyvern. The amount needed changes with maturation multipliers, the baby’s level, food capacity, and how often you can check it. Use the 1200-food and 360-food-per-hour figures to estimate the next check, then monitor the actual baby and keep reserve milk available.

Imprint the baby and manage maturation

During growth, a baby wyvern can issue imprint requests. Respond to those requests whenever possible, including requests for milk. Imprinting is separate from keeping the baby fed: a baby can have food and still lose an imprint opportunity if you ignore a request.

Maturation time is controlled by server settings and multipliers. A Lightning Wyvern egg page on the official wiki cites approximately three days and twenty hours to adulthood under its referenced settings. That is an example for that page’s conditions, not a universal timer for every map, difficulty, or unofficial server.

Setting or condition What it changes How to plan
Temperature stability Controls whether incubation progresses reliably and how closely the hatch approaches the ideal timer. Prepare the incubator or temperature-control setup before taking the egg.
Maturation multiplier Changes how long the baby remains dependent on milk and how many imprint opportunities fit into the growth period. Use your server’s actual multiplier rather than the three-day-plus example as a default.
Baby level and food capacity Can make a milk’s full 1200 food unavailable as stored capacity. Check the baby more often and be ready to force-feed milk when required.
Imprint interval Determines when requests appear and whether you can answer every request before adulthood. Be online or arrange a schedule around the server’s interval; do not assume requests follow the incubation timer.

What changes by map and server

The core process is consistent, but the workload is not. Map layout determines how exposed the nests are and whether a prepared trap is practical. Server settings determine incubation, maturation, and how frequently you must return with milk.

What’s actually slowing this PC down?

Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
Rank #4
Sale
ARK: Survival Evolved - Xbox One (Renewed)
  • Capture and Tame Dinosaurs: Discover over 100 different dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures on the island, finding ways to tame them into useful additions for your tribe's dino herd
  • Survive Above All: Hunger, thirst, basic safety, and protecting yourself from the weather are all part of the game
  • Harvest, Hunt and Build: Cut down trees and turn them into a basic home, which you can quickly expand into a Jurassic estate. Hunt for meat, scavenge for plants (or start your own garden!)
  • Customize Everything: An extensive crafting system invites you to mix and match materials scavenged from the island, while also modifying the colors, textures, shapes, and styles
  • Explore the Island: Solve the mystery of The ARK as you explore this massive island, discovering Explorer's Notebooks (filled with clues!) throughout
  • Map: Nest placement, terrain, flight corridors, and available building locations affect the theft and escape more than the egg itself.
  • Difficulty: Changes the danger posed by adults and the resources you may need to survive a milk run.
  • Temperature setup: Determines whether the five-hour incubator reference is realistic for your location.
  • Maturation multiplier: A faster server may shorten the milk dependency while compressing imprint windows; a slower server may require a longer reserve and more scheduled checks.
  • Trap availability: Building rules, structures, and terrain can make a trap useful, ineffective, or impossible.

Because these variables interact, there is no single best combination of mount, trap, milk count, and schedule for every player.

Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Support on Ko-Fi

Common problems and fixes

The adults kill your mount during the theft

Cause: The mount was too slow, exhausted, overloaded, or sent into a route without a clear exit.

Fix: Use a faster expendable mount, reduce carried gear, scout the route first, and reserve a fallback landing area. If you use a trap, build and test it before taking the egg rather than improvising while pursued.

The egg does not progress toward hatching

Cause: Temperature is outside the required range or is fluctuating beyond what your setup can correct.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Fix: Move the egg to a controlled setup, stabilize the temperature, and treat the five-hour figure as conditional on perfect stability rather than as a guaranteed countdown.

The baby’s food falls faster than your estimate

Cause: The 360-food-per-hour rate is approximate, and a lower-level baby may have effective capacity below the 1200 food represented by one milk.

Fix: Check the baby more frequently, keep reserve milk, and force-feed when the baby cannot hold the full value of a milk. Do not calculate the entire raising period from one universal milk total.

You miss an imprint request

Cause: Imprint timing follows maturation settings and can occur while you are away obtaining milk or preparing another run.

Free tools Windows power users keep installed

One-click scans. No signup required.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Fix: Schedule checks around your server’s maturation multiplier and respond to each request when possible. Feeding and imprinting are related but separate responsibilities.

You try to breed different wyvern types

Cause: Standard wyverns can only breed with the same elemental type.

Fix: Pair Fire with Fire, Lightning with Lightning, Poison with Poison, and Ice with Ice. Every resulting baby still requires Wyvern Milk during its own raising period.

A practical raising checklist

  1. Select the elemental egg type you want: Fire, Lightning, Poison, or Ice.
  2. Prepare a fast expendable flying mount, food, water, healing supplies, and an escape route.
  3. Scout the nest and, if appropriate for your map, prepare a trap before the theft.
  4. Take one fertilized egg and leave the nest area immediately.
  5. Move the egg to stable temperature control or an Egg Incubator.
  6. Arrange access to milk from a knocked-out wild female or an Alpha Wyvern before hatching.
  7. Monitor the hatchling’s food, remembering the 1200-food-per-milk and approximately 360-food-per-hour baseline.
  8. Force-feed when the baby’s effective capacity requires it, and keep reserve milk ready.
  9. Answer imprint requests whenever possible.
  10. Continue feeding until adulthood, then breed only with the same elemental type.

The bottom line on wyvern taming

A wyvern tame is an egg-raising project, not a knockout tame. The decisive preparation happens before the theft: choose the egg type, plan an extraction route, establish temperature control, and secure a milk source. Five hours is the cited perfect-stability incubation reference; one milk provides 1200 food against an approximate 360-food-per-hour consumption rate; and maturation can range from the cited Lightning example of about three days and twenty hours to very different times on servers with other settings. Treat every figure as conditional, monitor the baby directly, and keep enough reserve capacity to survive an unexpected milk run or missed schedule.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.