Upper South Cave

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Cave in the Northern South of the Island

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Interior Map

Location

Map

The Island

Location

68.2° Lat, 56.2° Lon

Loot

Artifact of the Pack
73.0° Lat, 61.0° Lon

Artifact level

25

Loot quality

Blue

The Upper South Cave is a cave to the north of the swamp on The Island. The cave contains the Artifact of the Pack, needed to summon the Megapithecus. This large cave was considered one of the hardest caves prior to the Snow Cave and Swamp Cave, added in PC Update v252.0

Dangers

Cold (-5c)
Swarms of enemies underwater
Risk of drowning in underwater tunnels
Mega Rabies from Megalania or Onyc
Arthropluera in the upper parts can one-shot most armor.

Recommended Equipment

Flak Armor, SCUBA, or Tek Armor.
Torch
Crossbow
Cooked Meats
Medical Brews
Lazarus Chowder to compensate for low oxygen
Fria Curry or an Otter are needed for some armor combinations
Grappling Hook are needed for reaching the Artifact quickly, lets you mostly skip contact with water, or alternatively a Zip-Line Anchor when riding a Ravager
Shotgun with Shotgun ammo.
GPS for if you get lost you can look at it and find where the artifact is or find where the entrance of the cave is to get out.

Tips

A very large part of the cave is underwater. You will likely need 3-5 points in oxygen or Lazarus chowder to get through the underwater parts. Note that the water is cold.
If you are planning to use a SCUBA Tank to cross the water sections, it is advised to bring along more than one. If you get dismounted the Piranha and Sarco will cause it to break very quickly.
Bring a Baryonyx. They are good for this cave as they perform well under water because they do not require oxygen, can recover stamina underwater and are quite fast. Their speed underwater allows you to even travel through the water tunnels without any points in oxygen and get out the other side, if you are quick.
Follow the green glowing moss on the floor in the tunnel that will lead you to the artifact.

Creatures

Compatible Tamed Creatures

Now that cryopods are very easy to obtain (available on every map, crafted in supply drops) it's possible to bring in every creature in any cave, as long as the area is big enough to deploy said creature.

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	Can be carried in and out by player.
Argentavis	Limited	Unofficial/ Single-Player	Official Servers: Cannot mount in cave. Unofficial/Single-Player: Requires server setting -ForceAllowCaveFlyers to mount.
Baryonyx	Excellent	Yes	Easy way in and out.
Beelzebufo	Not Recommended	Yes	Very difficult to get back out of the cave due to 'invisible wall'
Carbonemys	Limited	Yes
Carnotaurus	Limited	Yes
Castoroides	Not Recommended	Yes	Gets stuck in narrow passageway
Chalicotherium	Limited	Yes
Coelacanth	Limited	No	Can only be brought in using a Fish Basket . But can only be released in the water inside the cave.
Compy	Excellent	No	Can keep one on shoulder or bring a whole pack.
Daeodon	Limited	Yes
Doedicurus	Limited	Yes
Dilophosaur	Excellent	No
Dimorphodon	Excellent	No	Can keep one on shoulder or bring a whole flock.
Direwolf	Excellent	Yes	Enters the cave easily through the narrow path. Can exit also via the narrow path with some right-to-left-to-right adjustments to your walking direction.
Dodo	Excellent	No	Can be carried in and out by player.
Dung Beetle	Excellent	No	Can be carried in and out by player.
Enforcer	Excellent	Yes	Can bypass the "invisible wall" by simply dropping down into the pit. Can exit by teleporting or climbing back up the same way. Fits through all other narrow passages, though the bottleneck into the first enemy area requires teleport/wall climb finagling to pass.
Equus	Excellent	Yes
Gallimimus	Limited	Yes
Gigantopithecus	Excellent	Yes	Can mount and ride one or bring a whole troop.
Hesperornis	Excellent	No
Hyaenodon	Excellent	No	Can bring one or bring a whole pack.
Ichthyornis	Excellent	No
Iguanodon	Limited	Yes
Jerboa	Excellent	No	Can be carried in and out by player.
Kairuku	Excellent	No	Can be carried in and out by player.
Kaprosuchus	Limited	Yes	Cannot pass the narrow pathway to reach the deeper cave areas, but can easily reach the first few packs of enemies, including the first Dung Beetle spawn location.
Kentrosaurus	Limited	No
Lystrosaurus	Excellent	No
Megalania	Excellent	Yes	Can climb walls and reach the artifact chamber easily.
Megaloceros	Excellent	Yes
Megatherium	Limited	Yes
Mesopithecus	Excellent	No	Can keep on shoulder or can bring a whole troop.
Microraptor	Excellent	No	Can be carried on shoulder.
Moschops	Excellent	Yes
Onyc	Excellent	No
Otter	Excellent	No	Can be carried on shoulder.
Oviraptor	Excellent	No
Ovis	Excellent	Yes
Pachy	Excellent	Yes
Pachyrhinosaurus	Limited	Yes
Parasaurolophus	Limited	Yes
Pelagornis	Excellent	Unofficial/ Single-Player
Pegomastax	Excellent	No	Can be carried on shoulder.
Phiomia	Limited	Yes
Piranha	Limited	No	Can be brought in using a Fish Basket . But can only be released in the water inside the cave.
Procoptodon	Limited	Yes
Pteranodon	Excellent	Unofficial/ Single-Player	Official Servers: Cannot mount in cave. Unofficial/Single-Player: Requires server setting -ForceAllowCaveFlyers to mount.
Purlovia	Excellent	No
Raptor	Excellent	Yes	Can mount and ride one or bring a whole pack.
Ravager	Excellent	Yes	Can enter and leave the cave without problems. Use Zip-Line Anchor to reach the artifact.
Sabertooth Salmon	Limited	No	Can only be brought in using a Fish Basket . But can only be released into the water inside the cave.
Sabertooth	Limited	Yes	Cannot pass the narrow pathway to reach the deeper cave areas, but can easily reach the first few packs of enemies, including the first Dung Beetle spawn location.
Scorpion	Excellent	Yes
Spider	Excellent	Yes
Terror Bird	Excellent	Yes	Can be used to glide over most underwater portions. Can also mount and ride or bring a whole flock.
Thorny Dragon	Limited	Yes
Thylacoleo	Limited	Yes	Cannot pass the narrow pathway to reach the deeper cave areas, but can easily reach the first few packs of enemies, including the first Dung Beetle spawn location.
Triceratops	Limited	Yes	It can't pass the narrow path and cannot get to the first room of enemies.
Troodon	Excellent	No	Can bring one or bring a whole pack.
Vulture	Excellent	No	Can be carried on shoulder or bring a whole flock.

Notes

This cave is not on Mobile
Bring Cryopod to be certain your mount can exit.
The underwater part is teeming with Piranhas and Sarcos. If mounted bring some good leather armor and fiber to repair midway, or multiple sets of flak.
Once you get to the bottom of the cave (the above-water portion, anyway), you will reach a point where there is a water hole on the left side of the path and what looks like an underground river on the right side. Many of these water sections either loop back and connect with each other or reach dead ends. The easiest path to take in order to reach the artifact is to face the river, then jump in and follow it to the left. This is where you'll be doing underwater sections. At the second above-water section, you will see a bunch of purple crystals right as the tunnel makes a 90-degree turn to the left. Look carefully at this turn and you'll notice an easy-to-miss narrow side tunnel branch off inside the 90-degree turn of the main tunnel. That path will lead you to the artifact. The other main path after a lengthy and very arduous journey simply connects back to the large room with the water pool across from the river, so continuing along it is not recommended. Once you've reached and collected the artifact by taking the side tunnel, you can jump from the ledge there into the water below and swim to the left for a quick way out. Be fast to get out of the water here, as this large pool can contain a huge number of piranhas along with a few Sarcos. You can then simply follow the path back up and out of the cave.
you can grapple to the artifact tunnel hidden behind roots when you swim near the ruins at the bottom of the cave.
There's a glitch to kill piranhas by tricking them to go above water

Gallery

Cave Entrance
Inside the Cave
Inside the Cave
Inside the Cave