Wooden Cage

A portable cell for captives

The Wooden Cage is a carry-along enclosure in ARK: Survival Evolved that the game describes as "A portable cage in which to imprison victims." It can hold small creatures as well as humans. The ARK Wiki compares it with the Tent: the cage is protective and light, but it does not shield anyone from the elements.

Keeping a player locked up

Since patch 231.7, a player inside the cage can no longer hurt themselves by punching its walls. For the wiki, that makes the cage a dependable way to hold a prisoner, with no risk that they punch themselves to death to get out.

Pens for creatures and breeding

Small creatures can live in one too, which keeps wanderers such as the Oviraptor from straying. To get a creature inside, set it to follow and sprint while staying roughly 5–7 feet behind the cage; walk too slowly and it goes around the cage instead. The wiki also rates it highly as a breeding pen for shoulder-mounted creatures: the space is smaller than a floor foundation, and the pair never wanders far enough apart to interrupt mating.

Crafting and toughness

The engram needs level 12 and 10 engram points, with the Wooden Foundation and Wooden Wall listed as prerequisites. One cage takes 5 seconds in the inventory, gives 9 XP and uses 110 Wood (or Fungal Wood), 30 Thatch and 25 Fiber. It weighs 8 and stacks to 1.

It counts as a wooden structure: hands, stone weapons and non-explosive ranged attacks cannot damage it. Some aggressive creatures cannot either; the wiki's list includes the Raptor, Direwolf, Sabertooth, Titanoboa, Kaprosuchus and Velonasaur. Crates can contain the cage as well, for example the Genesis Blue and Genesis Cyan crates on Genesis Part 2. For dyeing, it has 6 paint regions, among them the cell bars, the latch and the rope. The wiki dates it to patch 227.0.