If you’ve spent any time building high-tier gear or advanced structures in Ark Genesis 2, you know obsidian is one of the most valuable non-element resources you can get. It’s required for everything from polymer production to crafting advanced weapons, tek components, and even certain building pieces. But if you’re new to the Genesis 2 map, you might be wasting hours hunting for small nodes instead of hitting reliable, high-yield spots. This guide breaks down exactly how to get obsidian in Ark Genesis 2, with routes, tool tips, and tricks to avoid losing your haul to roaming threats.
How to Get Obsidian in Ark Genesis 2: Best Spawn Locations
Genesis 2’s split biome layout means obsidian spawns are concentrated in three specific zones, no random scattered nodes to waste time chasing. All these spots have enough nodes that you can fill a dinosaur’s inventory in 10 minutes or less, as long as you come prepared for the local threats. The top spots are:
- Corrupted Rockwell’s Inner Garden Cliffs: The jagged black cliffs on the edges of the corrupted biome, just west of the Rockwell boss arena, have the densest obsidian spawns on the entire map. You’ll find 30+ nodes in a 200-meter radius, though you will have to fend off occasional corrupted reapers and therizinosaurus.
- Eden Biome Northern Mountain Range: If you don’t want to deal with corrupted creatures, the snow-dusted mountains at the far north of the eden side have plenty of obsidian mixed in with stone and crystal nodes. The only threats here are occasional wild mammoths and argents, which are far easier to fight off than corrupted enemies.
- Space Sector Asteroid Fields: If you have access to a tek suit or a flying mount that can survive in space, the asteroid fields above both biomes have massive obsidian boulders that drop 10x more resources per hit than surface nodes. Just watch out for roaming astrodelphis and voidwyrms that will attack on sight.
If you’re farming obsidian for the first time, start with the northern eden mountains until you have the gear to handle the corrupted zones. I prefer the corrupted cliffs for most runs, especially if I’m farming with a team, because the density means we don’t have to travel between nodes to fill up. If you’re playing solo, the northern eden mountains are a much safer bet, even if the yield per node is slightly lower.
Best Tools and Dinos for Fast Obsidian Farming
You can harvest obsidian with a basic stone pickaxe, but you’ll get tiny yields and wear out your tool in minutes if you do that. To farm efficiently, you need the right gear, and ideally a creature that can harvest and carry your haul without slowing you down. The best tool for hand harvesting obsidian is a metal pickaxe, which gives you 2-3x more resources per hit than a stone version, and lasts 10x longer. If you have access to tek gear, a tek pickaxe is even better, as it harvests 5x more per hit and never breaks as long as you have element to power it.
When it comes to dinos, three options stand out for obsidian farming, each with their own pros and cons. The Ankylosaurus is the most accessible option for early to mid-game players: it has a 75% weight reduction for obsidian, so you can carry thousands of units without getting encumbered, and its tail swing harvests multiple nodes at once. You don’t even need a saddle to ride it if you’re willing to lead it around, though a saddle makes runs much faster.
If you’re further into the game, a Magmasaur is even better. It harvests obsidian 2x faster than an Ankylosaurus, has the same 75% weight reduction, and can fight off most mid-tier threats on its own so you don’t have to stop farming to fend off wild dinos. The only catch is you have to steal a magmasaur egg from the volcanic biome to tame one, which can be tricky for new players.
For space runs, the Astrodelphis is the best option. It can fly through the asteroid fields, harvest obsidian nodes with its melee attack, and has a 50% weight reduction for obsidian, so you can fill its inventory and fly back to base in seconds without dealing with surface threats. Obsidian runs usually take 10-15 minutes max when you use the right dino, so it’s easy to fit a quick run in between other tasks like taming or base building.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Farming Obsidian
Even if you know the best spots and have the right gear, it’s easy to lose your entire haul if you make one of these common mistakes I’ve made dozens of times on public servers. The first and biggest mistake is farming without a way to defend your haul. I once lost 12k obsidian last year when I stepped away from my Anky for two minutes to answer a text, and a corrupted giga wandered up and ate it. Don’t make that mistake. Always bring a combat dino or a friend to watch your back if you’re farming in high-risk zones, or keep a cryopod on you to stow your farming dino if you run into trouble.
Another mistake is not checking your weight limit before you head out. Obsidian is one of the heaviest resources in the game, so even with an Ankylosaurus’s weight reduction, it’s easy to get encumbered halfway through a run and get stuck. I always leave 20% of my dino’s inventory space empty for extra stone and crystal that you’ll pick up alongside obsidian, so I don’t have to throw away valuable resources to get moving again.
On PVP servers, never farm the same spot at the same time every day. Griefers love to camp high-yield obsidian spots, especially the corrupted cliffs, because they know players will show up with full inventories of valuable resources. Switch up your run times and routes every few days to avoid getting targeted, and don’t leave your farming dino unattended even for 30 seconds while you run to grab a drink.
Smart Uses for Your Obsidian Haul
Once you’ve got a stockpile of obsidian, it’s tempting to hoard all of it, but it’s best to prioritize certain crafts first to make your future runs even easier. The first thing you should make with new obsidian is polymer, since you need polymer for almost every high-tier craft from saddles to tek gear. You can make polymer by combining obsidian with cementing paste in a mortar and pestle, or use a chemistry bench for faster production.
Next, use extra obsidian to craft more metal pickaxes and upgrade your tools to tek versions if you can. Having high-quality tools cuts your farming time in half, so you can spend less time hunting for resources and more time exploring or building. If you play on a PVE server, you can also trade extra obsidian for other rare resources like element dust or black pearls with other players, since many new players don’t know where to find high-yield obsidian spots.
If you have a massive stockpile, you can use obsidian to build reinforced structures that are much harder to break than stone or wood builds. Obsidian walls can withstand 3x more damage than stone walls, so they’re perfect for building core base sections or vault rooms where you store your most valuable gear. Just don’t waste obsidian on decorative builds, since it’s far too valuable for that unless you have tens of thousands of units saved up.
At the end of the day, learning how to get obsidian in Ark Genesis 2 doesn’t have to be a frustrating, time-consuming chore. Pick a spot that matches your gear level and playstyle, bring the right tools and dino, and avoid the common mistakes we covered, and you’ll have more obsidian than you know what to do with in no time. Don’t be afraid to test out different routes and farming setups to find what works best for you, whether that’s safe solo runs in the eden mountains or fast high-yield runs in the corrupted cliffs with friends.