Underwater Caves on 'The Island': All Locations + Tips

Having trouble finding underwater caves? I'll show you exactly where they all are. NOTE: This guide was made in 2015 during Early Access and is fairly outdated.

Introduction

What Are Underwater Caves?

Underwater caves are basically just a hollow rock at the bottom of the ocean. They are very small compared to caves on land, and are basically just a single room. They all look like a large rectangular shaped rock. Once you've seen them enough times, you'll be able to recognize them immediately from the shape alone. They all have a hole in one side of the rock, which is the entrance. When you go inside, there will be a pocket of air where you can surface inside the cave.

Cave Sizes

Underwater caves have room to build in them, but the amount of space you have depends on the size of the cave. Caves come in three sizes, and I'm going to refer to them as Small, Medium, and Large. All Small caves look exactly the same as other Small caves, as do Medium and Large caves. There are 12 underwater caves on the map: 4 Small, 4 Medium, and 4 Large.

 

Finding A Cave

When you are at the surface of the water above an underwater cave, you should see bubbles under the surface. This indicates that you are in the right place: above the cave. To give you a better idea of where each cave is, I've taken an aerial picture of every cave with an arrow pointing to the entrance. These photos are located later in the guide.

Graphics Settings

View Distance

When I first started looking for underwater caves, I couldn't find them even though I was in the right place. Turns out, I couldn't find them because they were actually invisible! This was because my View Distance setting was on "Low".

Unlike other rocks underwater, the rock that makes up a cave is affected by your View Distance setting in the same way that harvestable rocks on land are. If your setting is on "Low", the they will not render (become visible) until you are very close to them. This makes caves really hard to find.

So when you are out looking for a cave, change your View Distance setting to at least "Medium".

Using it to your Advantage

One thing to note though is that Oil and Clams, player structures, and players themselves aren't affected by View Distance. These will all remain visible, even if the cave surrounding them is not.

This means that, if you change your View Distance to "Low", you will be able to see everything inside the cave from far away. So if a tribe has built inside of it, you'll be able to see that from the outside, as the images below demonstrate.

View Distance on "Medium" (Cave is visible)

View Distance on "Low" (Cave is invisible)

Shadows

There's one more setting that's important to underwater caves: General Shadows. A lot of people put this on "Low" to improve FPS; however, in order for underwater caves to not be extremely bright, your General Shadows setting must be at least "Medium" or better.

General Shadows on "Medium" or better

General Shadows on "Low"

Managing Oxygen

Oxygen

Players need oxygen to survive underwater, and everyone starts out with 100 oxygen as a base stat. This will increase by 20 for each point spent on it. Having more oxygen will mean you can stay underwater longer before starting to drown, while also increasing your swim speed.

While underwater your oxygen will drain at a rate of 3/sec, meaning that 100 oxygen will last 33 seconds. While drowning you will lose health at a rate of 4/sec, meaning that you will lose 100 health every 25 seconds.

Lazarus Chowder

Consuming this food reduces oxygen as well as stamina consumption while in water (it has NO effect on health regeneration, even though the description suggests that it does). It will spoil in 5 hours when carried on your character, and will last for 10 minutes after consumption. While under the effects of Lazarus Chowder, 100 oxygen will last 3 minutes and 40 seconds. This is about 6.67 times longer than normal.

Items needed to make Lazarus Chowder (place in Cooking Pot and light the fire):

• 9 Cooked Meat
  
• 5 Savoroot
  
• 5 Longrass
  
• 10 Mejoberry
  
• 2 Narcotic
  
• A water container that is at least 25% full

SCUBA Gear

Added in v201, SCUBA gear makes underwater exploration much easier. They are unlocked at level 75 and can be crafted at the Fabricator. They are worn in your armor slot, but provide 0 armor value.

Wearing the SCUBA mask narrows your field of view

SCUBA Mask

• Let's you see farther and more clearly while underwater, but narrows your field-of-view

SCUBA Leggings

• Provides 200 hypothermal insulation only while in water

SCUBA Flippers

• You swim much, much faster (faster than sharks, even with no points in oxygen)
  
• You run slower on land (about 50% slower)

SCUBA Tank

• You can breathe while underwater (works even without the mask)
  
• Recovers your Stamina in water when you aren't moving
  
• The item's durabilty measures the remaining oxygen, which slowly decreases while in use
  
• One full tank lasts 1 hour and 15 minutes

Aquatic Creatures

 
There are no enemies inside underwater caves. You heard that right, absolutely nothing! Once you get in, you are safe. The only dangers are the things that roam outside the cave.

Below is a list of every aquatic creature in the game (as of 2015). Aquatic creatures have no oxygen bar, meaning that they can stay underwater forever.

Name	Behavior	Tameable	Land	Pond	River	Bay	Ocean
Plesiosaur	Aggressive	Yes					X
Megalodon	Aggressive	Yes				X	X
Trilobite	Passive	No	X			X	X
Ichthy	Curious	Yes			X	X	X
Coel	Passive	No		X	X	X	X
Piranha	Aggressive	No		X	X	X
Sarco	Aggressive	Yes	X		X	X
Carbonemys	Defensive	Yes	X		X	X
Beelzebufo	Defensive	Yes	X		X	X

Plesiosaur

• Found only in the deep ocean near the edges of the map, often near underwater caves
  
• Always found in pairs, though not necessarily of the opposite gender
  
• Very rare: probably no more than 12 pairs on the entire map at any given time
  
• Will attack you on sight, despite their dossier saying they leave humans alone
  
• Wild ones will not follow you to the surface, and will lose interest if you swim too far up
  
• Easy to knock out and tame if you lure it to a cave that it can't fit inside
  
• Too large to fit through regular dino gates
  
• Surprisingly fast for its size

Megalodon

• Found everywhere in the ocean and bays, and will even swim up to beaches for food
  
• Will lose interest if you are in very shallow water that makes it difficult for them to swim
  
• Very aggressive and has a large aggro radius
  
• Too large to fit through regular dino gates

Trilobite

• Found mostly on the ocean floor, but sometimes on the beach as well
  
• Sometimes they will wander very far onto land, although this is very rare
  
• Usually found in medium sized groups (5 - 8)
  
• Provides Chitin, and a very small amount of Oil and Pearls
  
• A hatchet will harvest more Chitin/Oil/Pearls than a pick

Ichthy

• Found everywhere except in ponds
  
• Very friendly, and will swim up to and follow you or any tamed dinos you have
  
• Will try to save you from drowning by pushing you to the surface if you are low on oxygen
  
• Can be tamed by hand-feeding them meat from your "0" hotkey
  
• Very weak: even high-level ones do not have much health or damage.
  
• Very fast: speed is the best investment for points. An Ichthy with all points into speed is probably the fastest thing on the island, and it's hilarius to see it in action.

Coel

• Found virtually everywhere that there is water
  
• Basically useless: "the dodo of the sea"

Piranha

• Found only in shallow water, like ponds, rivers, and bays
  
• Also found in land caves if there is water inside
  
• Usually found in small to large groups (3 - 12)
  
• Very aggressive and has a large aggro radius

Sarco

• Most commonly found along rivers.
  
• Can also walk on land, but is very slow
  
• Cannot fit through regular dino gates

Carbonemys

• Usually found along the beach
  
• Currently the only aquatic dino that is an herbivore
  
• Easy to tame, as it rather slow and has a relatively weak attack

Beelzebufo

• Usually found in swampy areas
  
• Turns dead insect bodies into Cementing Paste with its tongue attack
  
• Can jump very high

Cave Summary

Temperature

• The ocean is fairly cool from the surface to about half way down (58F)
  
• The deep parts of the ocean, where you will find the caves, are very cold (38F)
  
• Once you're inside an underwater cave, the temperature is perfect (68F).

Resources

• Underwater caves have three types of resource nodes: Oil, Crystal, and Clams
  
• Oil and Crystal nodes will also provide Stone
  
• Crystal nodes will sometimes yield a Rare Mushroom (~5% chance)
  
• Oil and Clams are also everywhere on the ocean floor, outside of the caves
  
• Oil nodes outside of caves give about x4 more Oil than those inside caves

Node Type	Tool Used	Average Yield	Worst Yield	Best Yield
Clam	Hands	3 Silica Pearls	2 Silica Pearls	4 Silica Pearls
Crystal	Metal Pick	1 Stone, 2 Crystal	3 Stone, 0 Crystal	0 Stone, 5 Crystal
Oil (Cave)	Metal Pick	1 Stone, 2 Oil	1 Stone, 0 Oil	0 Stone, 5 Oil
Oil (Ocean)	Metal Pick	3 Stone, 8 Oil	4 Stone, 2 Oil	2 Stone, 15 Oil

PvP Damage

Remember that, like caves on land, structures inside underwater caves take x6 damage.
This can be disabled on unofficial servers.

Small

Entrance ★★★★★ (Easiest cave to defend/block with gates)
Terrain ★☆☆☆☆ (Very sloped with not much room to build)
Resources ★★★☆☆ (Less resources than medium and large)

Medium

Entrance ★☆☆☆☆ (Two entrances; hardest cave to defend/block with gates)
Terrain ★★★☆☆ (Slightly sloped with a decent amount of room to build)
Resources ★★★★★ (More resources than small; about the same as large)

Large

Entrance ★★★★☆ (Need behemoth gates to block the entrance completely)
Terrain ★★★★★ (Mostly flat with lots of room to build)
Resources ★★★★★ (More resources than small; about the same as medium)

Summarized Information

Latitude↕/Longitude↔	Map Location	Cave Size	Entrance faces	Awkward Entrance
10/40 (10.4 / 39.9)	North	Small	W - Left*	Ground is very low
16/10 (16.0 / 10.4)	North-West	Small	W - Away from Island
53/92 (52.8 / 91.8)	East	Small	W - Towards Island	Ground is very high
91/14 (90.9 / 13.6)	South-West	Small	E - Left*
8/90 (8.3 / 90.0)	North-East	Medium	W - Left*
83/10 (83.3 / 10.3)	South-West	Medium	N - Right*	Ground is very high
87/90 (87.4 / 90.2)	South-East	Medium	W - Right*
90/36 (90.1 / 36.4)	South	Medium	N - Towards Island	Ground is very low
10/22 (10.2 / 21.8)	North-West	Large	N - Away from Island
36/91 (36.2 / 91.1)	East	Large	W - Towards Island	Plesiosaur won't fit
50/11 (50.1 / 11.0)	West	Large	S - Left*	Plesiosaur won't fit
91/71 (90.8 / 71.4)	South	Large	N - Towards Island

• Left/Right - If you are standing on the beach looking out at the ocean, the entrance will be on the Left/Right side relative to this viewpoint. I use this instead of N/E/S/W because a North facing entrance will face away from Island if the cave is on the North part of the map, but would face towards the Island if the cave is on the South.

Awkward Entrance

Avoid choosing these caves for your base if possible. They are not ideal because their entrances have some slight terrain issues. It is still possible to block them off, but it requires more effort than the other caves. Read the Cave Locations section for more detailed information.

Local Games & Admin Cheats

If you are playing a local game, or are an admin, you can use console commands to get to the caves faster. These commands will take you right next to the entrance of each cave. Substitute the last number with -14000 to appear at the water's surface above the cave.

Console Commands (Press TAB)

Lat/Lon	Cave Size	Teleport to cave's entrance
10/40	Small	setplayerpos -80500 -316200 -41500
16/10	Small	setplayerpos -316000 -272200 -37000
53/92	Small	setplayerpos 335000 22300 -45500
91/14	Small	setplayerpos -291000 327500 -45500
8/90	Medium	setplayerpos 321000 -331000 -45000
83/10	Medium	setplayerpos -320000 267500 -41500
87/90	Medium	setplayerpos 322000 298000 -45000
90/36	Medium	setplayerpos -111000 321000 -45000
10/22	Large	setplayerpos -226000 -319000 -41000
36/91	Large	setplayerpos 329000 -109500 -45000
50/11	Large	setplayerpos -311500 1000 -42500
91/71	Large	setplayerpos 172000 326000 -45000

Small Caves

Entrance (★★★★★)

• Entrance is a long tunnel, shaped perfectly for a single gate to block it
  
• You can place 10+ gates right after each other, making this the easiest cave to block off.

Inside the entrance looking out

Entrance blocked with lots of gates (opened)

Terrain (★☆☆☆☆)

• About 8 floors wide
  
• About 12 floors long
  
• About 6 walls high near front, 4 walls high near back
  
• Cave is really small, and there is barely any room to build inside
  
• Ground is very sloped throughout the whole cave, making construction difficult
  
• Has a small ledge near the back

View from the front

View from the back

Resources (★★★☆☆)

• Has about 33% less resources than a medium or large cave
  
• Contains on average: 45 Silica Pearls, 20 Crystals, 12 Oil, 16 Stones, 1 Rare Mushroom

Node Type	Least Found	Average Found	Most Found
Clam	11	15	20
Crystal	8	10	11
Oil	6	6	7

Medium Caves

Entrance(s) (★☆☆☆☆)

• Has two entrances; they are very close to each other
  
• Entrances are triangular in shape, making them hard to block with walls/gates
  
• Gates on either side can only be placed 2-3 gates deep, making this the most vulnerable cave
  
• Behemoth gates will fit in the right entrance, making that one pretty easy to block
  
• Behemoth gates will NOT fit in the left entrance, making that one really hard to block

Left Entrance	Right Entrance
Left side blocked with regular gate and pillars	Right side blocked with behemoth gate

Terrain (★★★☆☆)

• About 15 floors wide
  
• About 35 floors long
  
• About 12 walls high near front, 8 walls high near the back
  
• Ground is sloped throughout most of the cave, making construction somewhat difficult
  
• Has a large pillar near the back, taking up a lot of space
  
• Taller than the large cave

View from the front

View from the back

Resources (★★★★★)

• Has about 50% more resources than a small cave
  
• Has about the same amount of resources as a large cave
  
• Contains on average: 75 Silica Pearls, 30 Crystals, 14 Oil, 22 Stones, 1 Rare Mushroom

Node Type	Least Found	Average Found	Most Found
Clam	13	25	27
Crystal	12	15	15
Oil	6	7	9

Large Caves

Entrance (★★★★☆)

• Entrance is three regular dino gates wide, but they aren't tall enough block it completely
  
• A behemoth gate will block this entrance (it will fit, even though the gate looks way too tall)
  
• You can fit 4+ behemoth gates behind each other
  
• Plesiosaur can fit into two of four large caves; the other entrances the ground comes up too high

Inside entrance looking out

Entrance blocked with behemoth gates (opened)

Terrain (★★★★★)

• About 20 floors wide
  
• About 25 floors long
  
• About 9 walls high near front, 6 walls high near the back
  
• Mostly flat throughout the cave, making this the best cave for construction inside
  
• Has a large pillar in the middle, taking up some of the space inside in the cave

View from the right side

View from the left side

Resources (★★★★★)

• Has about 50% more resources than a small cave
  
• Has about the same amount of resources as a medium cave
  
• Contains on average: 75 Silica Pearls, 30 Crystals, 14 Oil, 22 Stones, 1 Rare Mushroom

Node Type	Least Found	Average Found	Most Found
Clam	23	25	28
Crystal	9	15	16
Oil	6	7	9

Small Cave Locations

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Cave 10/40 ~ setplayerpos -80500 -316200 -41500

Entrance faces West, sideways (left) to the island

Awkward Entrance
The ground slopes down so low in the entrance tunnel that there will be a gap above your regular dino gates that people can swim through. However, you can build the gates on top of a foundation to make them taller.

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

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Cave 16/10 ~ setplayerpos -316000 -272200 -37000

Entrance faces West, away from the island

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

_______________________________________________________________________________

Cave 53/92 ~ setplayerpos 335000 22300 -45500

Entrance faces West, towards the island

Awkward Entrance
The comes up so high in the entrance tunnel that there will be places in the middle where you can't place gates. You can still block it off easily, but you won't be able to place as many gates as you would in other small caves.

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

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Cave 91/14 ~ setplayerpos -291000 327500 -45500

Entrance faces East, sideways (left) to the island

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

Medium Cave Locations

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Cave 8/90 ~ setplayerpos 321000 -331000 -45000

Entrance faces West, sideways (left) to the island

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

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Cave 83/10 ~ setplayerpos -320000 267500 -41500

Entrance faces North, sideways (right) to the island

Awkward Entrance
The ground slopes up very high on the left side, making it hard to fit a gate inside it.

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

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Cave 87/90 ~ setplayerpos 322000 298000 -45000

Entrance faces West, sideways (right) to the island

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

_______________________________________________________________________________

Cave 90/36 ~ setplayerpos -111000 321000 -45000

Entrance faces North, towards the island

Awkward Entrance
The ground is very low in the front of the cave, and there is a small hole between the left and right entrances that people can swim under to get in. Make sure you block it off!

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

Large Cave Locations

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Cave 10/22 ~ setplayerpos -226000 -319000 -41000

Entrance faces North, away from the island
The Plesiosaur can fit inside this cave!

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

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Cave 36/91 ~ setplayerpos 329000 -109500 -45000

Entrance faces West, towards the island

Awkward Entrance
The ground comes up too high for the Plesiosaur to fit through the entrance.

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

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Cave 50/11 ~ setplayerpos -311500 1000 -42500

Entrance faces South, sideways (left) to the island

Awkward Entrance
The ground comes up too high for the Plesiosaur to fit through the entrance.

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

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Cave 91/71 ~ setplayerpos 172000 326000 -45000

Entrance faces North, towards the island
The Plesiosaur can fit inside this cave!

View on water's surface above the cave

Looking down on the cave from above (water removed)

[MalarOpossum867]

Since this guide was published, 2 MASSIVE underwater caves were released: The Caverns of Lost Hope, and The Caverns of Lost Faith. Both caves actually contain Artifacts in them, but there are high-level enemies (Exceeds 300 in The Caverns of Lost Hope) that spawn there, they are also untameable.

[Colonel Kalbsleberwurst]

Thank you very much! This was a lot of work and you did it perfect.

[way-o]

I tried to build in the small cave at 10 40 but couldn't build anything, what gives?

[Zen Retrowave]

@Ledah

1. Yes, they fit in all
2. No, but C4 can be used underwater
3. Place them inside the cave, all with point of view on the entrance, and probably most of them up on the rock ledge out of C4 range. You want a big wall of them to attack at the same time. Set at least several to player-only to target people in saddles.

[『 Ledah 』]

Thanks for the guide. I check 2 caves and found both quickly!
I want to build base inside small cave with auto turret in PVP server and I wonder what threat I need to look for? for example:

1. Can Carbonemys the turtle enter the cave entrance?
2. Can people fire handheld rocket launcher underwater?
3. Is it a good idea to place auto turret directly facing cave entrance? and what setting?

Also other tips are very much appreciated!

[Zen Retrowave]

I'll try to keep this old guide useful, but I have not played ARK in 3 years. Any new information you'll have to let me know about and I'll update when I have time.

[Gabrj]

@Typhoon as suggested as @A platyperson it will be very nice to have info about new water dinos ty for your guide very helpfull

[Hunter]

Still helpful even today but SERIOUSLY outdated.

[Platyperson]

hey can you update this for the new larger underwater dinos

[Zen Retrowave]

I should probably just use compass directions, but it is relative to the island. The pointy part of the circles on the map also show what direction the entrance faces.

Swimming is not recommended, since Plesio's love swimming near caves. Dolphins are the best way to get there: easy to tame and will outrun anything underwater.