Dragon Hoard Key

A treasure map tied to Drakelings

A loot map from the Fantastic Tames DLC, the Dragon Hoard Key appears in ARK: Survival Ascended. It points the way to a Dragon Hoard, and the in-game description sets the conditions: "Requires a mounted Drakeling to ping the location of a Dragon Hoard. Have this in your inventory when you're within the vicinity."

Getting a key from your Drakeling

Keys come from stored experience, per the ARK Wiki. Carry a Drakeling of any kind on your shoulder while you earn experience, and it banks that experience. Once at least 5,000 is stored, you can pull a key out of the Drakeling by handing the experience to any creature: equip the Drakeling Weapon, switch to its Stored Experience ability (R on PC) and right-click the creature. Storing more experience gives a higher quality key, with a cap of 30,000.

Using the key

Use the key from your inventory and it marks a location to travel to. Bring a shoulder-mounted Drakeling along: when you reach the spot, it summons the hoard, which you can then claim.

The key weighs 0.1, has a stack size of 1 and spoils after 48 hours (2 days). Our records list it on 7 maps, among them Scorched Earth, Ragnarok, Valguero and Astraeos.

What a hoard can hold

The wiki marks its loot list as incomplete. Examples from it:

• Tek Sword, Assault Rifle, Flamethrower and Whip
• Riot Helmet, Tek Leggings and Arctic Scout Mask
• Rocket Propelled Grenade, Shocking Tranquilizer Dart and Advanced Sniper Bullet
• Exceptional Kibble, Extraordinary Kibble and Enduro Stew
• Megaraptor Saddle, Quetz Platform Saddle and Mosasaur Tek Saddle