Tek Cave
This page may contain spoilers related to the background-story of ARK: Survival Evolved.
If you want to experience the story ingame, you probably shouldn't continue reading on this page.
The Tek Cave is a cave located at Volcanic Maw, the summit of the Volcano. Completing said cave, the player will teleport to the Hall of History, which leads you to the game's final boss.
Note that the Cave entrance only opens for 5 minutes, so bring in your tames in time. After that, you have 60 minutes to complete the cave and start the boss fight. This includes that you must have passed the entire Hall of History. Everything that stays in the Hall of History after the timer has expired dies. If you try to teleport into the Hall of History via cheat commands, you die if the boss fight has already started (or is still in progress).
In Singleplayer there is no timer for clearing the cave, but the door still closes after a short time has passed. You can bring 50 creatures max
Tribute Requirements
The following items are needed to open the Tek Cave entrance. These items are not consumed in the process:
Item Required | Gamma | Beta | Alpha |
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Player Level | 60 | 80 | 100 |
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It is worth noting that the greater difficulty trophies can be used to open the Tek Cave entrance at lower difficulties (i.e. the Alpha Broodmother,
Megapithecus and
Dragon trophies can open the Tek Cave at Gamma difficulty).
Tribute Spawn Commands
Uses these commands to give yourself all the items needed for tribute:
Gamma |
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cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Trophies/PrimalItemTrophy_Broodmother_Gamma.PrimalItemTrophy_Broodmother_Gamma'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Trophies/PrimalItemTrophy_Dragon_Gamma.PrimalItemTrophy_Dragon_Gamma'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Trophies/PrimalItemTrophy_Gorilla_Gamma.PrimalItemTrophy_Gorilla_Gamma'" 1 0 0
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Beta |
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cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Trophies/PrimalItemTrophy_Broodmother_Beta.PrimalItemTrophy_Broodmother_Beta'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Trophies/PrimalItemTrophy_Dragon_Beta.PrimalItemTrophy_Dragon_Beta'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Trophies/PrimalItemTrophy_Gorilla_Beta.PrimalItemTrophy_Gorilla_Beta'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaRaptor.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaRaptor'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaCarno.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaCarno'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaRex.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaRex'" 1 0 0
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Alpha |
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cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Trophies/PrimalItemTrophy_Broodmother_Alpha.PrimalItemTrophy_Broodmother_Alpha'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Trophies/PrimalItemTrophy_Dragon_Alpha.PrimalItemTrophy_Dragon_Alpha'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Trophies/PrimalItemTrophy_Gorilla_Alpha.PrimalItemTrophy_Gorilla_Alpha'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaRaptor.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaRaptor'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaCarno.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaCarno'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaRex.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaRex'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaMegalodon.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaMegalodon'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaMosasaur.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaMosasaur'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaTuso.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaTuso'" 1 0 0|cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Resources/PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaLeeds.PrimalItemResource_ApexDrop_AlphaLeeds'" 1 0 0
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Recommended Equipment
- This is the hottest and the coldest place you can find on The Island.
Ghillie Armor is crucial to deal with the unbelievable heat in Tek Cave. Then the temperature will turn upside-down after you pass the border dividing the cave from the terminal, requiring player to change to
Fur Armor. It's highly-advised to use charged
Tek Armor to deal with both extreme environments.
- You will want to bring some
Calien Soup and
Fria Curry along with reserves of water and food, as well as
Medical Brew: If you are burning or freezing, your natural health regeneration is suspended.
- You will want to bring some
- You will need a lot of powerful weapons. It is best to use ascendant quality gear, such as a
Tek Rifle,
Tek Grenade, or any other weaponry.
- Bring any kind of ranged weapons (even a Primitive
Crossbow is fine) to aggro lots of wild animals in the cave and make them fall in the lava pits. It makes the cave much easier, especially if you can send the Giga in the lava. Gigas, however, do not spawn on Gamma difficulty. There will still be a Giga guarding the entrance to the terminal area.
- Bringing sacrificial tames such as
Carbonemys is a good idea to send them into the lava once you have shot it with a
Pheromone Dart using a
Longneck Rifle, drawing wild Dinos with it.
Lesser Antidote will work fine if you get
Mega Rabies from
Megalania.
- It is completely possible to do the entire cave in around 35 mins with a set of
Ghillie Armor and using some
Cactus Broth, Where you just crawl through the cave and get zero aggro and no chance of losing tames; however, you cannot ascend unless the final boss is beaten (introduced in patch 267.0).
Dangers
- Lava pits. Your unridden animals can easily fall into the lava from the narrow bridges, especially when they are on neutral and fighting the wild dinos. Because of this, it is recommended to bring more players rather than bringing in unridden dinos.
- Getting knocked off your mount by wild
Purlovias.
Grenade can force unburrow the Purlovia, or you can use a Yutyrannus with its fear roar
- Massive swarms of high level dinos.
- The
Giganotosaurus or
Carcharodontosaurus guarding the entrance to the portal. If you don't want to fight it, make sure to lure it into the lava with ranged weapons where it will eventually die from exposure (although this could take a long time).
- Extreme heat and chill: 60℃ in Tek Cave, -28℃ at the terminal, Hall of History, and Overseer Arena. It will burn/freeze players if they do not have corresponding gears equipped.
- The lava in the caldera in front of the gate (before entering the cave) hurts a lot, so make sure your Dinos don't step into it. Make sure you bring enough
Raw Meat (or
Sweet Vegetable Cake for herbivores) in case one of your Dinos misstep to be able to heal them to max health if lava burned them.
- Lava does 200 damage if you or your Creatures step into it
- Both riders & following dinos can be stuck in the cave's geometry. For this reason, ensure that there is adequate distance between players & that each player carries a small subset of unridden dinos behind them, similar to a conga line.
Tek Cave Strategy
Island-only
Item and General
- It is highly advised to make all Dinos follow each other, similar to a conga line or the way ants follow each other and make their follow distance low as they might tighten the knot and fall. More players mean shorter chains of your tames if you like to.
- On Singleplayer it may be preferable to not take any dinos at all since unridden once can fall into lava easily and can't be recovered.
- If you must take Dinos, use as few as possible when clearing out the cave (bulk of dinos can wait at the top where it's safe with no lava), and ones with short turning radius like Therizinosaurus or Allosaurus and use the "move all to" whistle often as it's more precise for controlling them than following.
- alternatively you can clear out the cave on your own, utilizing whatever weapons and gear you like (preferably tek), while the dinosaurs wait at the top for you, ready to be guided down into the cave once it's safe. Since you have unlimited time, this strategy is more viable than on servers and minimizes the risk of unridden dinos falling into lava when fighting/being feared.
- If the section looks dodgy to clear directly, utilize ranged weaponry to lure the wild creatures either near you, or into the lava pit where they can't get back up.
- Use an extra group to clear the way for the overseer fighters.
- The Tek Helmet can show burrowed purlovias - even though they don‘t attack players on big mounts like Rexes or a Yutyrannus until attacked, changing your mount during their presence turns fatal quickly. Their jump can stun when dismounted.
Creatures
Otter can provide insulation at the cold point of the Cave, especially at Overseer Arena.
Yutyrannus can buff the group of dino to attack wild creatures standing in the way, and scare
Purlovia out of their burrows.
Daeodon can heal the group if needed.
- Basic attackers like
Rex and
Therizinosaur are your main point to attack wild creatures in front, or used as a group to deal with Overseer at its arena.
Megalosaurus can be used in place of them due to sheer power, but are only widely active at night time.
Carcharodontosaurus fits through the cave entrance and can be used to clear the crowd instead, but it cannot be warped to the Arena, so it must be podded at the end of the Cave.
- Be wary when bringing small creatures smaller than Yutyrannus; its fear roar can induce them to run into the lava, potentially killing them almost instantly.
DLC-inclusive
Item and General
- Where possible, utilize
Glider Suit Skin and
Climbing Pick where necessary. Be wary of wild dinos inside the cave.
- If you have access to the Genesis (both) DLC, the high quality saddles that can be gained from missions will prove useful for getting through this cave.
Creatures
- Mate-boosted
Shadowmane can buff (Male) nearby creatures with its roar, or hides (Female) nearby creature intended for Overseer fight if the wild creatures gets too close to them. They are susceptible to
Yutyrannus fear roar, and must be careful around it.
Sinomacrops can get you up high if you somehow got separated from the group.
Velonasaur and saddled
Andrewsarchus can be used to either lure the dino, or as a DPS mounted turret.
- In the event of survivor's death,
Fjordhawk can bring the item back, as long as they are on the deceased shoulder at the time of death.
Creatures
Allosaurus
Alpha Carnotaurus
Alpha Raptor
Alpha T-Rex
Arthropluera
Baryonyx
Carcharodontosaurus
Carnotaurus
Compy
Daeodon
Dilophosaur
Dimetrodon
Direwolf
Giganotosaurus
Kaprosuchus
Megalania
Megalosaurus
Microraptor
Pulmonoscorpius
Purlovia
Raptor
Rex
Sabertooth
Spino
Tek Raptor
Tek Rex
Terror Bird
Therizinosaur
Thylacoleo
Titanoboa
Yutyrannus
All creatures found in Tek Cave spawn above level 300 (with the exception of Giganotosaurus, which spawns at level 600, but can't be tamed), rendering them impossible to tame.
Creatures restrictions
Cryopods cannot be used to deploy tames inside the Overseer Arena, or inside or near the Tek Cave.
Due to the opening size of the Tek Cave entrance upon opening, only certain size of the dino or creatures can fit into the cave.
Once the cave is sealed, no creature will be able to leave the cave until the Overseer in its arena is defeated. Any creature still alive in the arena will be transported to the entrance of the Tek Cave.
The following creatures are too big to fit into the cave entrance and will not be able to enter by any means:
Amargasaurus
Astrocetus
Brontosaurus
Giganotosaurus
Magmasaur
Megachelon
Reaper
Rock Elemental
Spinosaurus
Titanosaur
Titans
Wyvern
The following creatures cannot be warped into Overseer boss fight, but can enter the Tek Cave:
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 |
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Excellent | Yes |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Limited |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | No |
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Excellent | Yes |
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Excellent | No | |
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Excellent | No |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Limited | Yes |
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Limited | No |
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No | Yes |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Unofficial/ Single-Player |
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Excellent | No |
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Excellent | No | |
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Excellent | No |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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No | Yes |
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Limited | Yes |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | No |
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Excellent | No | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | No | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes |
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Limited | Yes |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Not Recommended | Yes |
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Excellent | Yes |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Limited | Yes |
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Excellent | Yes | |
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Excellent | No | |
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Excellent | Yes |
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Notes
- In
ARK: Survival Evolved Official PVE only, cryopods were allowed to be used at cave entrance and before the door closes, as well at at a ledge just before the entrance to the cold zone.
- Once the gate is opened, players must wait until it is closed to select another difficulty, regardless there are players inside the cave or not.
- If the player dies out or use ghost command to get out, reopening the gate will eliminate all tamed creatures still inside the cave.
- Upon Ascending, you will have to select your character and respawn as if you had disconnected while traveling across servers. This also means that items will be kept, but the
Element will be lost and all the Tek Gear will be discharged. Creature inventories share the same behavior, but it might be safer (due to bugs) to store valuable equipment there, specially if playing console versions.
- There is a bug where if you bring a shoulder pet and you ascend with it on your shoulder, it won't spawn at the entrance of the cave until you beat the cave again.
- You will need to be level 60, 80, or 100 to open the door corresponding to each difficulty level. However, entering the Tek Cave while the entrance is open has no level requirement.
- It is impossible to send a buried
Reaper King or
Basilisk into the Tek Cave from the entrance; they will only move to the top of the gate and not inside when whipped towards the open gate. However, the Basilisk can enter the cave without problems when out of the ground.
- When inside the cave itself, you are not able to use the Jetpack on the
Tek Chestpiece, the
Grappling Hook, or even the
Climbing Pick. Moreover, the jump function from
Managarmr cannot be used as well. After teleporting to the Hall of History, however, the jetpack and the ability to jump with the Managarmr will now be available for the rest of the journey, including the
Overseer encounter.
- This is the only boss arena to permit Tek Tier equipment. Every other Boss Arena disallows such thing, excluding both the Rockwell Arena and Extinction arenas. The System Root also allows Tek to an extent though only weapons as the restriction on
Tek Armor still applies.
- When using the ghost cheat to get into the Tek Cave, the
Overseer will be at Gamma level, and no Creatures will spawn inside the cave.
- After the introduction of the
Carcharodontosaurus, it has since replaced the
Giganotosaurus that guards the portal on Beta and Alpha. That said, however, the
Giganotosaurus now appears on the Gamma Tek Cave making a Gamma run more of a pain than it was before.
- Although upon entering a cave there is a message saying that a max of 10 riders and 50 tames are allowed in the cave, It is possible to bring more players. The portal after the Tek Cave will allow a max of 10 players and 20 creatures per teleport and as long as the overseer boss is not initiated, another batch can port in.
- There is a bug which can cause the game to crash during the final ascension cinematic. For this reason, once the overseer is defeated and you have placed yourself in the correct platform, make sure to dismount.
- There is a bug at the gate. If players keep running towards the gate while riding a tame (especially some animals with mounting seat far beyond their collision-box), they can get stuck inside the gate and take 9,600 true damage, which is a insta-kill with no corpse left over—all the items carried by the player will be lost forever.
- An extremely rare bug is when the creatures from the front of the cave glitch on to the surface and CAN be tamed this is very use for megalosaurs as they have no sleep timer and can be bred if it happens again but this bug is a little too rare to do twice.
- Another bug is when all the creatures fall out of the mesh and out of the world and for some odd reason megalosaurs don't fall out.
- Kapros fall through the ground very often.
Repairing
Servers that have lost their interactive Tek Cave entrance terminal can spawn it back in with this command while looking at the terminal:
cheat spawnactor "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Structures/TributeTerminal_TekCave.TributeTerminal_TekCave'" 160 0 0
Changelog
Patch | ![]() |
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257.0 | First released. |
259.0 | Removed boss arena and Tek Cave timers in non-dedicated. |
259.3 | Fixed tribute crafting at the Tek Cave terminal. |
260.0 | Tek Cave door now stays open longer in singleplayer. |
261.0 | Added Yutyrannus to Tek Cave. |
262.0 |
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263.0 | TEK Cave pool now refills your element, as well as causes you damage if you're not wearing a full element set |