What part of the Island is the most dangerous?

[Doctor]

What part has the most carnivores, and high level stuff?

[zerassar]

Swamps.

[esthergray]

The caves have the most high level dinos and most numbers coming at you at one time. The snow cave would be my pick.

[retsam1]

Originally posted by The Doctor:

What part has the most carnivores, and high level stuff?

Swamps, caves, carno island, snow biome, redwood biome, ocean... simply pick your poison.

For actual "high level" that's going to be caves and the bosses. Caves have untamable aggressive dinos that can spawn far about the normal tamable levels.

[Blazer Wifle]

How bout the Carnivore Island with the Cave? But any Cave should do. Just remember That Dinos in Caves do extra dmg + there regular dmg.

[Liralen]

Aside from the caves, generally the farther north you get, the harder it gets. Although zerassar is right, the swamps are harder than the areas immediately north of them. However, that might be due visibility issues, i.e., you can't miss a Yutyrannus and his carno buddies in the snowy areas and the fact that you can wander into the swamps from newbie/starting zones.

[Teratus]

Not much of the open world is too dangerous really, it more depends on your gear and level etc.
How prepared you are makes a big difference.

Snow biome has some dangerous creatures like Yuti's, Pigs and Wolf packs which demand caution.

The Swamps are also full of nasty things like Snakes and Crocs and your visibility is pretty limited.

Deep oceans are also pretty dangerous if you're unprepared, very easy to get stunlocked and ganked to death down there.

The various mountains can surprise you with a Giga if you're not paying attention, even a low level one can wreck your day if given a chance.

Redwoods can be pretty dangerous too if you're careless.


As others have said though Caves are going to be the main challenge.. mostly because of how limited you'll be in them and because some of them have significantly high enemy levels.
Until you get access to Cryopods or use a mod that has similar functions such as Dino Storage you will not be able to take many tames into caves to help you deal with the creatures in them.

Caves have a lot of enemies usually in decent sized groups.. bats that give you mega rabies and bugs that can wipe your entire armour off you in a single attack.
You'll get swarmed often in them so you'll need some good tames to help you, although without the ability to take tames in with cryopods or mods you will be limited to only tames that can fit through the doorway.

Baryonyx is by far the best cave tame on the island in my opinion since it can enter almost all of them and is capable of dealing with pretty much everything within them.
The only exception being the eastern water cave which is one of the hardest due to large enemy swarms and giant squids which are extremely dangerous to anything that they can grab.. which is almost every tame in the game.

The two water caves, one Ice cave and the Swamp cave are all considered dangerous due to them all containing very high level creatures, none of which can be tamed.
Normal creatures max out at level 120 on the island but inside these caves enemies can be found all the way up to 300+ plus some of them can contain very powerful Alpha variants as well.

The two Ice caves are also notable because you cannot ride a tame through their entrances.
These caves will need to be completed on foot if you don't have cryopods or mods to help you get tames inside.
It is not advisable to take tames into the NW ice cave however due to the insta death pitfalls and the very narrow tunnels, enemies here are standard level anyway so it's not a difficult cave to get through with a good shotgun.
(Note in single player the artifact in this cave is bugged and has been for years so it will not spawn without console commands.. why they never fixed this i'll never know)

The other ice cave however is definitely advised to take tames.. yes tames plural in there with you if you can as there are tons and tons of high level enemies in this cave including wolf packs, purlovia which will stun you and very tanky yetis making it exceptionally dangerous to explore on foot and requiring a large amount of ammo should you choose to do so.
The water in this cave also deals damage so keep that in mind.

[🦊 Hermit]

I'd have to say swamps too, even over caves and the north. Kaprosuchus dragging you off your mount, sarco dragging your mount off you, baryonyx tail swipe stun, snek narco venom and leeches all equate to an utterly terrible time in general.

Next I'd say the river north of the redwoods, and it's banks. You have the risk of thylacos and terror bird packs from the redwood forest, spinos and piranahs in the water, plus many rexes, alphas and the occasional giga tumbling down from the volcano.

Then the caves and snow biome, about equal imo. Risky, but so long as you're very prepared you should be able to survive there without too much issue.

Underwater can be dangerous at first, although once you get a decent tame it becomes much less threatening.

Carno island and the rest of the north aren't too bad - more dangerous than the south, but a seasoned player should be able to last pretty well in these areas if they know what they're doing. Biggest dangers are alphas popping up close to your base.