North West Cave is referred to as "Northwest Hollow" in ARK: Survival Evolved MobileNorth West Cave
| “ | Cave in the North-Western Snow-Area of the Island. | „ |
Interior Map
Location
The North West Cave is a cave in the northwest of The Island. It contains the 
Artifact of the Skylord, needed to summon the 
Dragon. Its entrance barely fits players on foot (mounts are too large to enter the cave organically). The inner tunnels are extremely narrow, often requiring crouching to explore. Watch your feet and take it very slow, as there are pitfalls that deal 5000 instant damage - even if you descend with a grappling hook. If you fall into these pits, retrieval of your gear is only possible by grappling your body out of the pit.
Your body may fall through the world if you die to the pits, making it impossible to retrieve your gear without cheats.
After the update, this cave contains very little loot, excluding the artifact.
Creatures in the cave include Araneo and Onyc and spawn at normal levels.
Dangers
- Insta-death pits
- Very narrow tunnels
- Extreme Cold
- Easily lost
- Mega Rabies (Bring plenty of antidote and/or medical brew to treat)
Recommended Equipment
Chitin Armor, Fur Armor- Torch
- Pike or other melee weapon
- Shotgun or other ranged weapon
- 30 × Cooked Meat
- Medical Brew
- Crossbow and Grappling Hooks
- Bug Repellant
- Canteen or Jar of water
- Metal Pick to destroy metal rocks that block some paths
- Lesser Antidote
- otter for extra fortitude and holding artifacts. (not necessary but makes life easy)
- Some Grenades to weaken Araneo as they walk toward you
Strategy
- Hug the right wall to reach the Artifact of the Skylord quickly with grappling hooks.
- You can access the artifact without jumping/grappling by approaching the artifact from the southern cliff. Carefully position yourself on the edge of the cliff to grab the artifact, but take care - if you fall onto the artifact's platform, it's nearly impossible to exit the artifact room without a Grappling Hook.
- Players can escape the artifact platform to the south by jumping onto the left edge of the southern cliff from the obsidian rock.
- Avoid bringing any tames other than shoulder pets. Even dimorphodons can be instantly killed in the pits while flying/attacking falling enemies.
- Enemies in this cave are scarce and easily die to handheld weapons, so bringing other tames/companions is unnecessary.
- Melee weapons do not work when prone. Bring plenty of ammo. There are some areas in which you can stand so check constantly with the prone key (default X)
- Several loot crates within this cave are only accessible via grappling over pitfalls. Bring several grappling hooks to maximize rewards from the cave and easily exit the artifact platform.
- Do not build a foundation within the cave or near the entrance, since this can prohibit the spawning of loot crates.
- Speed-Run option for Mobile: This path bypasses all loot crates and most creatures spawns. Bring 1 foundation and 1 ceiling. Enter the cave and travel along the right wall. You'll come to a passageway that is mostly obscured until you reach it, which leads to a narrow ice bridge with an explorer note on it. Build the foundation on the very edge of the bridge. Place the ceiling in front of the foundation to extend the bridge. Cross the bridge and jump to the ledge; it will lead you directly to the artifact container. After obtaining the artifact, simply take the same path back out of the cave. You can use photo mode to find the correct path and to scout for any creatures.
- Bug Repellant can help prevent mobs from sneak-attacking.
Creatures
Compatible Tamed Creatures
This table is incomplete.
You can help us by adding the tamed creatures you know can enter the cave. If the creature can't enter, please exclude it.
Accessibility Ratings:
- Excellent: Full-Cave Access (Entrance-to-Artifact)
- Limited: Can Access Portions of the Cave Safely
- Not Recommended: Can Get Stuck/Unable to Leave Cave
| Creature | Accessibility | Rideable | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 Archaeopteryx
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Compy
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Dimorphodon
|
Limited | No |
|
 Dodo
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Dung Beetle
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Hesperornis
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Jerboa
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Kairuku
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Mesopithecus
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Microraptor
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Otter
|
Excellent | No |
|
 Vulture
|
Excellent | No |
|
Notes
- The North West Cave is all about your jumping skills. It is a very narrow cave, you will be crouching mostly. You won't encounter many enemies.
- Watch your feet. Pit fall deals 5000 absolute damage to anything that falls in, instantly killing almost anything.
- If you die in the pits, it is sometimes possible to use a grappling hook to retrieve your body. Bring quite a few; it's kind of like fishing.
- If your corpse becomes an item bag (eaten by a bat) or glitches into the terrain, it's irretrievable. Take lesser gear that you can spare.
- Users of Grappling Hooks will find that the pits will kill you far before you actually reach the spikes. Be cautious when using a Grappling Hook to swing over pits.
- To recover your body in SinglePlayer you must use the cheat God and Infinitestats at the same time as well as ghost or fly to retrieve your body.
- This cave is so narrow, even dropping items in this cave will cause them to spawn above the cave's roof - permanently lost.
- A SinglePlayer bug on all platforms causes the artifact to not spawn. Hosting a non-dedicated server is one workaround.
- In Rockwell The Island Explorer Note #13, Rockwell went to this cave for spelunking as a brief vacation and found the artifact while exploring.
Gallery
Cave Entrance
Original interior of the cave prior to 252.0 redesign
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