ARK The Island · caves, bosses and ascension

All ten artifacts on The Island

The Explorer Map marks cave entrances and artifacts separately. Select your edition there. This table matches each artifact to its cave and Guardian. It is an orientation guide for finding each route.

Approximate entrance coordinates are for Survival Evolved and are listed latitude first, longitude second. Select Ascended in the Explorer Map because several entrances use different coordinates there.

1. Start with Lower South Cave. Look for its rock entrance in the ravine inland from Sandy Cove. Bring spare armor, medical brews, water and, where it fits, a sturdy Baryonyx. Fight at chokepoints and mark junctions on the way in.
2. Pack for the cave. Bring cold protection and spares for Snow Cave, a gas mask and spare for Swamp Cave, grapples for drops and adequate diving equipment for the two ocean caves. Test the equipment and mount before entering the deep section.
3. Bring each artifact back to a labelled box sorted by boss. Navigate to the cave entrance marker on the map; the artifact coordinate itself can be elsewhere inside the cave.

Broodmother, Megapithecus and Dragon

Gamma is a practical first test for saddles, breeding stats and commands. Higher tiers require extra creature tributes. Check the full list for your difficulty at the terminal. The entry level does not indicate whether your army is strong enough.

1. Prepare separate attack and follow groups. Gather healthy, fed and saddled tames inside the teleport area. Verify that all mounts are eligible before activating the arena at the obelisk.
2. Broodmother: Send Megatheriums to the boss and take advantage of their buff from killing insects. Keep the Yutyrannus out of direct melee, roar and maintain the group.
3. Megapithecus: Keep tames clear of the cliff. Wait on safe ground, draw the boss to you and send the group in only where there is enough room.
4. Dragon: Use bred Therizinosaurs with vegetable cakes and strong saddles. Move the group away from hazards and attack when the Dragon lands. Its breath deals percentage-based damage, so simply adding health is not enough.
5. Collect the element and the correct trophy after each victory. Keep all three trophies from the same difficulty for the Tek Cave.

Tek Cave and Overseer

The Tek Cave is inside the volcano. Gamma/Beta/Alpha require level 60/80/100 and all three Guardian trophies of the matching difficulty. Beta and Alpha require additional items. Check the entrance terminal before committing to the run.

Beta adds one Alpha Raptor Claw, Alpha Carnotaurus Arm and Alpha Tyrannosaur Tooth. Alpha requires those same three plus one each of Alpha Megalodon Fin, Alpha Mosasaur Tooth, Alpha Tusoteuthis Eye and Alpha Leedsichthys Blubber.

1. Prepare equipment for hot and cold sections, spare gear, ammunition and healing. Bring eligible tames only. Organize small follow chains and line the group up before opening the entrance.
2. Guide tames past lava and turns in controlled sections. Avoid sending the whole group on an uncontrolled attack. Watch for buried Purlovia and move the tames only after clearing the path.
3. Assemble the allowed fighters at the teleporter. In the Overseer fight, move away from dangerous attacks, control drones and defense units, and exploit vulnerable windows during the boss forms.
4. Defeating it completes Island ascension. It raises the character level cap by 5, 10 or 15 according to difficulty. These three bonuses from the same ascension do not stack.