Bio-specimen Containment Unit Artifact — Where It Hides in Outer Banks
Outer Banks' second artifact — a sci-fi specimen jar tucked into the middle Compass route, picked up just after the Compass bait and a money chest and right before the Lost Dimetrodon marker.
▶ TL;DR
The Bio-specimen Containment Unit is the second of six artifacts in Outer Banks, Stage 3 of Scale the Depths. It belongs to the level's middle Compass route: in MrLeLedg's 100% walkthrough the chapter 'Artifact (Bio-specimen containment unit)' lands at 1:28, immediately after the Compass bait (1:03) and a nearby money chest (1:22), and just before the Lost Dimetrodon location marker (1:33). It is collection-only — touch it with the hook and the pickup banks toward your Secrets stamp. Grab it on the way to the legendary fish, not as a separate trip.
◇ Step-by-step pickup
Open Outer Banks from the destination wheel.
Outer Banks is Stage 3, the Graveyard of the Atlantic. It plays as a straight descent rather than a puzzle level, with secrets strung along a few distinct routes. The Bio-specimen Containment Unit lives on the middle Compass route, so set up to work that line rather than rushing the bottom.
Cast and descend toward the Compass route.
This artifact is the second of six and the first stop on the level's middle route. Drop in and follow the line MrLeLedg takes — the Compass route is where the chapter sequence picks up after the early Message and Rat King Plush pickups.
Pass the Compass bait at 1:03.
The Compass bait is the route's signpost — when you reach it you are on the correct line. It is a bait pickup, not the artifact, so do not stop your count here. The Containment Unit is a little deeper along the same descent.
Pass the money chest at 1:22.
A money chest sits just before the artifact. Grab it for the cash if you like, but it is currency, not a collectable for the Secrets stamp. Seeing the chest is your cue that the Bio-specimen Containment Unit pickup is the very next icon.
Reach the alcove and take the Containment Unit at 1:28.
This is the pickup the frames above show. There is no fight and no scaling minigame — bring the hook to the artifact-tagged icon and the Bio-specimen Containment Unit banks instantly. MrLeLedg's chapter 'Artifact (Bio-specimen containment unit)' marks it at 1:28, a tight five-second window in the route.
Continue toward the Lost Dimetrodon marker.
With the artifact banked, the Lost Dimetrodon location marker appears almost immediately at 1:33 — the legendary fish this whole route builds toward. Keep going: four more Outer Banks artifacts (the Sonar Receiver next, then Jar of Dirt, Canned Bread and Spanish Doubloon) are spread across the rest of the level.
◐ Walkthrough Keyframes
✦ Tips
- Use the Compass bait at 1:03 as your route confirmation. If you have passed it, the Containment Unit is the next artifact-tagged icon down — you are on the right line.
- Chain the money chest and the artifact in one descent. They sit seconds apart at 1:22 and 1:28, so there is no reason to make two trips down the Compass route.
- The pickup window is short — about five seconds of footage. Slow your descent as you approach the alcove so you do not overshoot the artifact icon and have to climb back up.
⚠ Warnings
- Do not mistake the Compass bait or the money chest for the artifact. The bait is a fishing pickup and the chest is currency — only the artifact-tagged icon counts toward the Secrets stamp.
- Do not stop once the Lost Dimetrodon marker appears at 1:33. The marker is the legendary fish, not an artifact, and the Containment Unit must already be banked by then or you have missed it on this pass.
- Leaving Outer Banks after only two artifacts is an easy mistake. The Containment Unit is just 2 of 6 — the Sonar Receiver and three more wait deeper in the level.
⌕ Common Questions
Where exactly is the Bio-specimen Containment Unit?
I grabbed the Compass bait but never saw the artifact. Did I miss it?
Does the Containment Unit sell for anything?
★ What you get
- Completion
- Counts toward the Outer Banks 100% Secrets achievement.
- Endgame impact
- One of the six Outer Banks artifacts that, together, complete the Stage 3 Secrets set.
- Sells for
- Bio-specimen Containment Unit cannot be sold. Artifacts exist for lore and 100% completion only.
✎ What Players Are Asking
Real questions from Steam Community discussions, archived as they appeared.
“The Bio-specimen Containment Unit is part of the Outer Banks middle Compass route, not the late-level cleanup — you grab it on the way down to the Lost Dimetrodon, not on a separate sweep.”
Why this matters: Why this matters: players who treat Outer Banks artifacts as a single bottom-of-the-level sweep miss that this one sits mid-route, bundled with the Compass bait and a money chest, right before the legendary-fish marker.
⌬ Related Secrets
Why the game called this artifact a Bio-specimen Containment Unit
Be honest: there is no specific real-world object called a 'Bio-specimen Containment Unit.' The name is generic science-fiction lab flavor — it evokes marine-biology specimen collection and the quarantine of biological samples, and real research stations do use sealed holding and containment tanks to keep live specimens. What makes the joke land is the stage's anachronism theme. Outer Banks' legendary catch is the Lost Dimetrodon, framed in-game as a creature that should not exist in the modern era. Dimetrodon was real, but it was an Early Permian synapsid from roughly 299 to 270 million years ago — a mammal relative, NOT a dinosaur, and extinct tens of millions of years before the dinosaurs even appeared. A 'containment unit' for such an impossible specimen is the gag, and dropping it on the seabed quietly sets up the world's headline catch a few seconds before its marker shows.