Swimming

Swimming is an important part of ARK: Survival Evolved. Players can mount tamed creatures and swim on their backs, which allows them to travel quickly and access areas that are not as easily accessible without swimming equipment. Swimming also allows players to access underwater caves.

Being submerged consumes a player's  oxygen, so players must occasionally come to the surface, or use swimming equipment. Swimming also consumes stamina. Swimming on the surface of the water is slower than being completely submerged.

Swimming-related Items

Gear

•  SCUBA Mask — allows players to see more clearly.
•  SCUBA Tank — supplies oxygen to players wearing it.
•  SCUBA Leggings — provide a large amount of hypothermal insulation when in water.
•  SCUBA Flippers — multiply a player's movement speed by 2.5x while underwater, but have less movement speed while walking on land.

Consumables

•  Lazarus Chowder — Eating will significantly decrease the rate at which you consume oxygen for 10 minutes. (The ingame description mentions 15 minutes, which is an error)

Rideable Swimming Creatures

The following creatures can be mounted by players.

Species / Common Name	Diet	Temperament*	Saddle Level	Amphibious	Water Breathers	Surface*
Anglerfish	Carnivore	Aggressive to small fry, otherwise skittish	No Saddle Required	No	Yes	No
Basilosaurus	Piscivore	Passive	60	No	Yes	No
Baryonyx	Piscivore	Territorial (Aggressive at close range)	49	Yes	Yes	Yes
Beelzebufo	Carnivore	Defensive	40	Yes	Yes	Yes
Carbonemys	Herbivore	Defensive	10	Yes	Yes	Yes
Castoroides	Herbivore	Defensive	61	Yes	No	Yes
Diplocaulus	Piscivore	Skittish	No Saddle Required	Yes**	Yes	No
Dunkleosteus	Carnivore	Territorial (Aggressive at close range)	44	No	Yes	No
Ichthyosaurus	Carnivore	Curious	13	No	Yes	No
Kaprosuchus	Carnivore	Patient	39	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manta	Carnivore	Aggressive	28	No	Yes	No
Megalodon	Carnivore	Aggressive	47	No	Yes	No
Mosasaurus	Carnivore	Aggressive	78, 93 (platform)	No	Yes	No
Plesiosaur	Carnivore	Aggressive	64, 84 (platform)	No	Yes	No
Sarco	Carnivore	Aggressive	35	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spino	Carnivore	Territorial (Aggressive at close range)	71	Yes	No	Yes
Tusoteuthis	Carnivore	Aggressive	91	Yes	Yes	Yes

* Tamed terrestrial creatures that will surface if unridden.

** Diplocaulus, while amphibious, cannot be ridden on land. The player must open the radial menu to ride them, while the dino is in the water; the player will be forced to dismount once they reach a point where Diplocaulus and the player begin to walk.

Tips

• Swimming on the surface of the water is slightly slower than swimming under water.
• Swimming consumes  Stamina. If you run out of Stamina, you will swim much slower, and surfacing will take much longer, causing potential death by drowning.
• Players can swim indefinitely, although at a slower speed once stamina is exhausted (even if encumbered). Land-based animals though, tamed or wild, mounted or unmounted, will drown once stamina is fully exhausted.
• Increasing  Oxygen skills also increases your swimming speed.
• By putting  Oxygen on a non water dinosaur will gain it a bit of speed.
• Certain creatures, such as  Karkinos,  Enforcer,  Arthropluera,  Rock Elemental and  Titanoboa do not swim. Instead, they move along the ground as if the water was not there.
  • Similarly, the  Bloodstalker will walk on the water.
• Certain structures and items cannot be placed, or do no work underwater. For example  Beds cannot be placed underwater, and Campfires and Refining Forges cannot be turned on.
• Some weapons can not be used while swimming. This includes most guns and torches.
• Akin to falling most consumables cannot be eaten while underwater(but can be while riding a creature that is swimming)

Note

• The Ocean biome in the Genesis Simulation is more forgiving towards the survivor on how long the oxygen lasts before suffocating.

Changelog

Patch	ARK: Survival Evolved Changes
170.0	Getting "Winded" in water no longer prevents you from swimming upwards completely -- you now just swim upwards more slowly, and so are less likely to absolutely drown.
174.0	Non-water Dinos will now attempt to swim to the surface and not drown.
186.0	Fixed a case where by swimming at a certain angle you could almost completely avoid losing  Stamina.
188.0	Swimming backwards on a dino no longer desyncs with the server.
193.0	Aquatic dinos swimming against water surface is now perfectly smooth, doesn't result in a hard-stop of your character anymore.
259.0	Land creatures now only receive 50% of their regular additional speed increase while swimming (does not include Spino or amphibians).
260.0	Added swimming animations that were missing to some creatures. All land dinos now have proper sounds for walking in water and swimming in water.