ARK Gacha feeding penalty is a new limit for tribes deploying more than 100 Gachas in ARK: Survival Ascended’s v97 update. It changes how often the animals eat, and the name is a little misleading: Gachas above the limit eat less often, not more often. That’s an important difference if you’re troubleshooting a large farm.
This changed with v97 on 6 November 2026. If your farm suddenly seems to be feeding less often, check how many Gachas your tribe has deployed before changing food supplies or server settings.
ARK Gacha feeding penalty: exactly when it starts
The limit is based on the tribe’s total deployed Gachas. At 100 or fewer, they normally eat every 20 to 30 seconds. At 101 or more, the interval becomes 60 to 90 seconds. That is what Wildcard calls the feeding penalty.
| Deployed Gacha count | Feeding interval | Penalty? |
|---|---|---|
| 100 or fewer | Every 20 to 30 seconds | No |
| 101 or more | Every 60 to 90 seconds | Yes |
| Return to 100 or fewer | Back to every 20 to 30 seconds | Removed immediately |
Do Gachas use more food above the limit?
No. The ARK Gacha feeding penalty triples the time between feeds at the default settings. A Gacha that fed every 20 to 30 seconds now feeds every 60 to 90 seconds. The notes do not say it eats three times as much food or gets hungry faster.
The patch also doesn’t give a new crystal-production formula. You can compare your farm’s output before and after the update, but the feeding intervals alone don’t prove a precise crystal-yield percentage.
How to remove the ARK Gacha feeding penalty
Reduce the tribe’s deployed Gacha count to 100 or fewer. The regular feeding interval returns immediately. There’s no reset timer or special item to use.
The Gacha tooltip shows the tribe’s current deployed count, the limit and whether the penalty is active. Check that before rearranging your farm. The count is tribe-wide, so a second base can push you over 100 even if your main farm is smaller.
Game.ini settings for unofficial servers
Unofficial server admins can change the ARK Gacha feeding penalty through these Game.ini values. Ordinary players on official servers can’t edit the thresholds.
NumGachasPerTribeForPenalty=100
GachasOverTribeLimitPenalty=3NumGachasPerTribeForPenalty sets the number of deployed Gachas a tribe can have before the penalty applies. The documented default is 100. Wildcard says setting it to -1 disables the limit. GachasOverTribeLimitPenalty is the penalty multiplier, with a default value of 3.
The default multiplier of 3 matches the new 60-to-90-second feeding interval. Add the values using your server host’s normal configuration method, then check the in-game tooltip. Don’t copy an unverified file path or INI section from a guide written for a different hosting setup.
How to disable the Gacha threshold
To disable the threshold on an unofficial server, set NumGachasPerTribeForPenalty=-1. That affects the server’s rule, not just one player’s character. The ARK Gacha feeding penalty can therefore differ between official and privately configured worlds.
If the tooltip still shows an active penalty, verify that the server is on v97 and that the host applied the setting. Editing a local game file won’t change the rules of somebody else’s server.
Other ARK v97 changes for large tribes
The ARK Gacha feeding penalty arrived alongside new caps for Tek Cloning Chambers and Replicators on platform saddles. If your tribe is running a large operation, it’s worth checking those too before you plan another expansion.
Our Tek Cloning Chamber limit guide explains the new placement caps. For everything else, see the v97 patch notes. If your Gachas are feeding less often, the first number to check is your deployed tribe total.
Official source: Studio Wildcard, v97 Gacha feeding balance and server settings.
