The 4 Realms
Fjordur is unique because it isn't just one map. It consists of Midgard (the main map) and three separate realms accessed via a massive teleportation cave.
Realm Breakdown
- Midgard (Main Map) A cold, mountainous landscape featuring autumn forests, massive dwarven ruins, and deep oceans. This is where you spawn and build your primary base.
- Asgard A vibrant, golden realm filled with mutated creatures from Aberration (like Rock Drakes) and lightning wyverns. You fight the mini-bosses Hati and Sköll here.
- Jotunheim An incredibly hostile, freezing realm. The cold here will kill you in seconds without high-level fur armor and fortitute. Home to Ice Wyverns and the Steinbjörn mini-boss.
- Vanaheim A lush, toxic swamp realm. Excellent for farming rare resources and taming poison wyverns. Beware of the dense foliage hiding predators.
The Portal Cave & Teleportation
There are two ways to travel between the realms in Fjordur:
1. The Hidden Portal Cave (Midgard)
Coordinates: 40.1° Lat, 47.7° Lon. Hidden behind a massive waterfall, this cave leads to a spectacular terminal room with three giant portal gates (Asgard, Jotunheim, Vanaheim). You can safely walk your dinosaurs through these portals.
2. The Realm Teleportation Menu
Hold the reload button (R on PC) to open the Realm Teleport menu. This allows you to instantly fast-travel to specific compass points (N, S, E, W) within any realm. Warning: You will drop any artifacts you are carrying when using this menu, so use the physical Portal Cave when transporting artifacts.
Best Base Locations
Helm's Deep / The Moria Ruins (Midgard)
Coordinates: 31.0° Lat, 65.0° Lon
A massive, pre-built Dwarven fortress carved into the mountain. It has huge metal gates and an enormous cavernous interior perfect for breeding massive boss armies. The ultimate Alpha tribe base.
Autumn Island (PvE)
Coordinates: 55.0° Lat, 70.0° Lon (approximate region)
The golden/orange forest islands on the east side of Midgard are gorgeous, mostly flat, and relatively safe from large predators. Ideal for beautiful aesthetic builds.
Resource Hotspots
| Resource | Location / Biome | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mutagel & Element Ore | The Space Cave (Midgard) | Coords: 56.5° Lat, 84.6° Lon. A zero-gravity cave replicating the Genesis 2 space biome. |
| Black Pearls | The Poison Trench (Vanaheim) | Found scattered along the toxic rivers. Highly dangerous due to Poison Wyverns. |
| Polymer (Organic) | Jotunheim / Swamp Island | Hunt Kairuku (Penguins) in the freezing Jotunheim or kill Mantis on the volcanic island. |
Unique Creatures
Fjordur brings some of the most mechanically complex and useful creatures to the game.
Desmodus
A giant, rideable bat that thrives in the dark.
- Taming: Passive tame with Blood Packs. Let it grab you and drain the packs from your inventory.
- Utility: Can fly in caves (where other flyers are banned), has echolocation to spot enemies, turns invisible at night, and crafts a special "Sanguine Elixir" that instantly grants 30% taming progress to any creature.
Andrewsarchus
A prehistoric war-boar that drifts like a rally car.
- Taming: Drop honey to distract it, sneak up, mount it, and play a rodeo mini-game to break it in.
- Utility: Its saddle functions as a literal tank turret. You are completely immune to dismounts (like purlovias or kapros) while inside, and it can fire a high-caliber minigun.
Fjordhawk
A loyal shoulder pet that acts as your personal item retriever.
- Taming: Kill large creatures and let the Fjordhawk eat the corpses.
- Utility: If you die, the Fjordhawk instantly grabs your entire inventory and teleports to your spawn bed, saving you from losing your gear in lava or the void.
Runes System
Scattered across Midgard and the three realms are 200 red glowing Runes. Collecting them is mandatory if you want to reach the maximum player level.
- Collecting 100 Runes grants you +5 Max Player Levels.
- Collecting all 200 Runes grants you another +5 Max Player Levels.
- Each rune also gives a small burst of XP, making early-game leveling incredibly fast if you fly around collecting them.
Boss Progression & Fenrir
Fjordur has the most complex boss hierarchy in ARK. You cannot just fight the final boss; you must climb the ladder.
| Tier | Boss | Summon Requirements | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Mini-Bosses | Beyla, Steinbjorn, Hati & Skoll | Runestones (dropped by Alpha creatures) | Relics (Beyla Relic, Steinbjorn Relic, etc.) |
| 2. Island Bosses | Broodmother, Megapithecus, Dragon | Artifacts + The Mini-Boss Relics | Trophies (Dragon Head, etc.) |
| 3. Final Boss | Fenrisúlfr | Broodmother, Megapithecus, and Dragon Trophies | Tek Engrams & The Fenrir Cryopod |
Unlocking the Fenrir
The Fenrir is an ice-wolf creature that cannot be tamed or bred in the wild. The only way to obtain a Fenrir is by defeating Fenrisúlfr. Upon victory, a Fenrir in a Cryopod will spawn in your inventory. Defeating the Alpha difficulty yields a level 225 Fenrir with exceptional stats.
Marked Locations & Coordinates
Every location we have marked on Fjordur with its in-game coordinates — 7 in total, across 2 categories. Same data as the interactive artifact map, laid out so you can read it without clicking around. Each category says whether it is the full set or a selection — resource nodes in particular are the big ones worth a trip, not every node on the map.
Artifact
6 locations · a selection
| Location | Coordinates |
|---|---|
| Artifact of the Brute | 50.0° Lat, 14.3° Lon |
| Artifact of the Clever | 20.9° Lat, 57.3° Lon |
| Artifact of the Devourer | 3.3° Lat, 3.2° Lon |
| Artifact of the Massive | 71.7° Lat, 1.1° Lon |
| Artifact of the Pack | 15.4° Lat, 60.8° Lon |
| Artifact of the Skylord | 7.6° Lat, 23.5° Lon |
Portal Room
1 location · a selection
| Location | Coordinates |
|---|---|
| Realms Portal Cave | 40.1° Lat, 57.7° Lon |
These coordinates come from the same file that powers the interactive map, so the two can never drift apart. If a location is missing here it is missing there too — and it will be added to both at once. A category only reads “all of them” when something backs that up; everything else is a selection, so treat a missing node as unmarked rather than absent from the game.