Cryopod ARK Guide - Making Frozen Dino Nuggies

About
Latest Posts

Emily is a gaming aficionado who has written for The Gamer, Gamerant, GamerBolt, and Valnet, but she has found a home here at Ready Game Survive. She adores writing about Ark: Survival Evolved among other great survival titles, and outside of traditional survival, she loves Legend of Zelda, League of Legends and Fable.

Cryopod ARK Overview

Must be level 51 to craft
Cost 20 Engram Points
Can be crafted in the Obelisk, Tek Replicator, or Supply Crate (also a drop from Loot Crates)
Requires Forge to melt Metal Ingot
Made with Crystal, Fiber, Hide, Metal Ingot, Oil, and Polymer
The Cryopod will discharge completely after one month
You can recharge the pod in the Cryofridge or Tek Sleeping Pod
You can check the stats and such of the creature by hovering over the Cryopod
If the Cryopod dies when a creature is in it, the creature will die and disappear permanently

The Cryopod Science

From A Space Odyssey to The 100, Cryosleep has graced sci-fi movies for decades. In Han Solo’s case, it was to stall his arc in other cases, it was to take them lightyears away without aging.

There are real cryopods available today, but their purpose is to “deliver healing, restorative and longevity benefits to the human body.” Kind of spooky, but at least it’s better than the theory that Walt Disney is still alive but cryosleeping.

In ARK, the point of Cryopods is to transport creatures easily. This doesn’t work on humans, which is kind of a relief because that would be used in PvP. Funny, but after ten seconds, completely psychotic.

Why Use the Cryopod in ARK

Cryopods have a lot of uses in ARK. Their primary use is to transport creatures, but this runs deeper depending on why you want to transport them. There are also a few reasons you may not have thought of.

Transfer Water Creatures

Water creatures can only go in the water. So getting them to your destination is a pain. That’s where Cryopods come in handy. You can don your scuba gear and take your favorite water mount to the water cave.

Take Creatures Into Caves

Speaking of caves, there are many caves on ARK maps that have small entrances but are bigger on the inside. So you can take cave mounts that won’t fit in the entrance into caves with Cryopods. Megatheriums are one of my favorite cave mounts, but they don’t fit in many entrances.

Transport Large Creatures

Whether you’re taking them to your new base or just over the river, Cryopods can be perfect for transporting creatures that are difficult to transport. Sure, Gigas are strong, but they are a pain to get across terrain.

Take Multiple Creatures

It’s difficult to transport more than a couple of creatures. You can get a pack of hyenas or wolves anywhere, but when it comes to the motley crew that I always have, it’s nearly impossible without something like Cryopods.

Unstuck Creatures

If a creature gets stuck behind a rock or under the ground, it can be gone forever if you don’t get them unstuck. I’ve had an Ankylosaurus named Hank stuck in the water before, and I put him in a pod before he drowned, saving his life.

Protect Creatures

Whether you’re getting attacked or have wandered into trouble, putting your favorite dinos in storage can save their lives. This is similar to the unstuck method, but it’s geared toward hostile dangers.

Transferring Servers

If you transfer servers, you can only transfer 20 dinos simultaneously. Outside of this, you can use Cryopods to transfer them as you get 50 item slots to transfer, and Cryopods go in these rather than the dino slots.

Halting Baby or Changing What It Wants

You can put the baby in the Cryopod to stop its growth, make it not hungry, or change what it wants. This is useful when it wants to eat something rare. It’s also great when you’re away and can’t take care of the baby.

Hide Your Trump Card

If you have a strong dino that you want to keep hidden so it doesn’t get stolen or so you can bring it out during a fight, a Cryopod is ideal. You can turn a fight around in an instant.

Where to Get a Cryopod

10× Crystal (on mountaintops)
15× Fiber (anywhere grassy)
5× Hide (most dinos)
2× Metal Ingot (mined around mountains, smelted with Forge)
4× Oil (in the ocean or with an Oil Well post-SE)
8× Polymer (made with Fabricator, or found on beehives or by killing some dinos)

The Cryopod is a crafted item with a few methods to craft and a few that will grant you a Cryopod for free. At one point, there was only one way to make one, but now, there are options for everyone.

Obelisk or Supply Crate

There are three obelisks on each map which you can see on the map. They are blue, green, and red. Supply crates are found all over the maps and have a cooldown timer. You can use the obelisks and supply crates as smithies to craft Cryopods.

Loot Crate

You can’t craft in the loot crates, but you can get Cryopods as random drops. I don’t remember which drops I’ve seen them in, but they aren’t a high-tier drop as that would be armor and weapons.

Tek Replicator

Tek Replicator Crafting Materials (crafted in Obelisk or Supply Crate)

100× Element (not including fuel)
5000× Metal Ingot
600× Crystal
150× Black Pearl
800× Polymer

Tek Replicators are expensive to make, so if you make Cryopods early on, you won’t use a Tek Replicator to do so. Late game, though, it’s the best way, as you can always have one at your base.

Treasure Chest (Ragnarok)

Treasure chests are Ragnarok exclusives that have amazing drops sometimes. You can get Tek Replicators and Cryopods in them. You have to be level 80 to open them and they only spawn near the pirate ship at Viking Bay.

Keeping the Cryopod Charged

It’s important to keep the Cryopod charged. Because I usually use Soul Balls, I’ve never let a Cryopod die. But if you do, the dino in it will die too, which is far from ideal. So make sure you keep an eye on its charge and charge it, or at least slow the discharge, when necessary.

Inventory – putting the Cryopod in your inventory, Preserving Bin, or in a creature will not extend its timer and will not charge it.
Refrigerator – putting the Cryopod in a Refrigerator that is always on will double its time to 60 days. So you can leave it for two months without worrying about it.
Cryofridge – the Cryofridge will keep the Cryopod charged indefinitely. So as long as you don’t have any unexpected visitors, the Cryopod will never die. It actually charged instead at the same rate it would normally decay.

The Soul Ball – My Cryopod Replacement

If you want to keep the core difficulty and inconvenience of the game, I don’t recommend this. But if you’re like me and quality-of-life mods are your friend; It’s called Dino Storage v2.

This mod works well with other mods. It stays updated okay but isn’t great about keeping up with the patches. The entire mod is about the Soul Balls, which are like Pokeballs you can put your dinos in.

With Soul Balls, there is no countdown, and they can be stored in the Soul Terminal. There’s also a Soul Gun to make using them easier. It only cost Crystal to make Soul Balls and you can do it in your inventory.

Dealing with Cryo Sickness

When your dinos leave the Cryopod, they are inflicted with Cryo Sickness. This happens immediately and gives them the Status Effect Cryo Cooldown. This sickness lasts for five minutes.

You can see the sickness countdown on the bottom right of the screen. These creatures under the sickness will receive ten times the damage and will be knocked out (as in they are still sleeping.)

You cannot put them back in a Cryopod while they are sick. You cannot ride them, and they will not respond to your commands. So it’s a good idea not to un-cryopod a creature in an emergency.

Cryopod Troubleshooting

Not Enough Space – this is a common error that occurs when trying to place a dino from a Cryopod in too small of an area. Like if there’s a wall in the way or if it’s indoors.
Underwater Creatures – you can only put water dinos from a Cryopod in the water. This means that you must be fully underwater for some dinos, not just facing the water.
Platform Saddle – if you put a dino in a Cryopod that’s wearing a platform saddle, everything that was on the saddle will break and fall to the ground.
Too Many Dinos– if the tribe or server has too many tamed dinos out in the open, you’ll have to wait or put one of your others up.
Too High Level – if you transfer from another server, your dino overlevels, or the settings change, you won’t be able to summon it.
Incompatible Creature to Map – for example, you can’t take Aberration creatures to other maps unless the settings are adjusted.
Dropped Items (except saddle) – whatever the dino is holding when you put them in the Cryopod will be dropped, and a timer will start. Make sure you pick up what you want.
Claim a Creature – putting the dino out of the Cryopod will automatically claim it, even if you’re not in the same tribe. This is a good way to steal dinos.
Boss Arena/Tek Cave – you can’t put dinos from Cryopods in Boss Arenas or Tek Caves. So if you get an error in these areas, that’s why.

Creatures That Can’t Be Cryopodded

Most of these dinos are untameable unless force tamed. However, even if they are force-tamed, none of these can be put into a Cryopod. If you have modded dinos, they may also struggle to be compatible with Cryopods.

Broodmother Lysrix
Chalk Golem
Desert Titan
Dodo Wyvern
DodoRex
Dragon
Ferox (in large form)
Forest Titan
Giant Bee
Giant Bee
Ice Titan
King Titan
Liopleurodon
Macrophage
Mega Mek
Megapthecus
Rockwell
Tek Stryder
Titanosaur

FAQs

Question: Is a Cryopod Timer on 30 Days Real-Time?

Answer: Yes. That is 30 days in real-time rather than server time. So you can leave for a week or two, and there won’t be any problems unless you are invaded.

Question: What Happens if You Cryopod a Pregnant Dino?

Answer: The pregnancy will reset, and the mother will be on a normal interval again. There is a warning when this happens, so make sure you pay attention to it if you don’t want to abort.

Question: Do Dinos in Cryopods Gain Extra Experience?

Answer: Yes. Dinos in Cryopods gain an extra 5% experience, so they level faster. This is a good way to passively level dinos, just make sure they don’t over-level or you won’t be able to get them back out.

The Importance of Freezing Your Dinos

If you don’t use mods, Crypods are almost necessary for your sanity. Without them, it’s difficult to travel with more than one dino, take water creatures anywhere, or get into many caves.

They are a great quality-of-life addition to ARK. They were added along with Extinction, which was a good move considering the map is trying to kill your entire tribe. Needless to say, it’s not my favorite map.

Cryopods aren’t necessary in ARK: Survival Evolved, but I do highly recommend getting them if you don’t use Soul Balls. Just make sure you keep an eye on their charge. Because if you’re anything like me, losing your Unicorn to a lost Cryopod will make you consider quitting ARK for good.

Cryopod ARK Guide – Making Frozen Dino Nuggies