Jar of Dirt Artifact — Where It Hides in Outer Banks
The fourth Outer Banks artifact and the stage's cheekiest pull — a sealed jar of plain dirt sitting one beat past the Sonar Receiver bush, begging to be swept up in the same dive as the Canned Bread.
▶ TL;DR
Jar of Dirt is the fourth of six artifacts in Outer Banks, Stage 3 of Scale the Depths. It opens the world's middle chain: you reach it the instant after the Sonar Receiver's bush pocket, and the Canned Bread follows immediately after, which is why the smart line grabs both in one pass before taking the southwestern shortcut. MrLeLedg's 100% walkthrough chapters it as 'Artifact (Jar of dirt)' at the 2:08 mark. Like every artifact it banks toward the Outer Banks Secrets stamp the moment your hook touches it, and it sells for nothing.
◇ Step-by-step pickup
Open Outer Banks from the destination wheel.
Outer Banks is Stage 3, the pirate-haunted barrier-island level off North Carolina. By the time the Jar of Dirt is in reach you should already have the Rat King Plush, the Bio-Specimen Containment Unit and the Sonar Receiver banked — this is the start of the middle chain, not an opener.
Finish the Sonar Receiver bush pocket first.
The Jar of Dirt is the very next pickup after the Sonar Receiver, which hides in a tight bush/kelp pocket at the 2:04 mark. Clear that one, then keep your hook moving forward — don't surface to bank a single artifact when two more are seconds away.
Push past the bush into the open middle stretch.
Frame 1 above shows this: once the hook clears the kelp the route opens into the middle chain. The Jar of Dirt sits a short reach ahead, plainly tagged with the artifact icon. There's no puzzle gate here — Outer Banks is a descent level, not a pressure-plate level like Huatulco.
Touch the Jar of Dirt — artifact 4 of 6 banks at 2:08.
This is the pickup in frame 2. MrLeLedg's walkthrough catches it as the chapter 'Artifact (Jar of dirt)' at 2:08. Hook contact is all it takes; the jar banks instantly toward the Stage 3 Secrets set. It cannot be sold, so there's nothing to weigh — just collect and continue.
Stay down for the Canned Bread at 2:23.
Do not retract. The Canned Bread is the next artifact in the same chain, only fifteen seconds of video later. Frame 3 shows the line you want — keep descending toward it and sweep both collectables in one dive before the route bends toward the southwestern shortcut.
Take the southwestern shortcut once both are banked.
With Jar of Dirt and Canned Bread both secured, the southwestern path is your fast line deeper into the stage toward the Spanish Doubloon. Bank the pair, then commit to the shortcut — backtracking to re-grab a single jar is the kind of wasted trip this whole pass is meant to avoid.
◐ Walkthrough Keyframes
✦ Tips
- Treat Jar of Dirt and Canned Bread as one objective, not two. They are back-to-back in the middle chain, so a single uninterrupted dive grabs both — surfacing in between just burns a descent.
- Use the artifact icon, not the model, to spot it. A jar of plain dirt is visually unremarkable on the seabed; the on-screen pickup tag is what reliably marks it in the open stretch after the bush.
- Anchor your count on the chapter list. This is artifact 4 of 6 — the Sonar Receiver came just before it and the Canned Bread comes just after, so if your tally skips from 3 to 5 you blew past the jar.
⚠ Warnings
- Don't confuse the Jar of Dirt with the Sonar Receiver's bush pocket right before it. They're seconds apart in the same stretch, and players who grab the Sonar Receiver sometimes assume that pocket was the only collectable there.
- Resist the urge to retract after the jar. The Canned Bread is fifteen seconds further in the same chain — surfacing to bank one artifact forces a second descent to reach the other.
- Once you've taken the southwestern shortcut, looping back for a missed jar costs real time. Confirm both middle-chain artifacts are banked before you commit to the shortcut.
⌕ Common Questions
Where exactly is the Jar of Dirt?
Should I grab the Jar of Dirt and the Canned Bread in the same dive?
Does the Jar of Dirt sell for anything, since it's literally just dirt?
★ 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
- Jar of Dirt 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.
“Sweep the Jar of Dirt and the Canned Bread together in the middle chain — they sit back-to-back, so don't split them across two dives.”
Why this matters: Why this matters: the most common Outer Banks time-waster is banking the Jar of Dirt alone and then re-descending for the Canned Bread, when a single pass grabs both before the southwestern shortcut.
⌬ Related Secrets
Why the game called this artifact a Jar of Dirt
Be honest: this one is a pop-culture wink, not an archaeology lesson. It's a Pirates of the Caribbean reference. In Dead Man's Chest (2006) the swamp witch Tia Dalma hands Jack Sparrow a jar of dirt as protection against Davy Jones, who can set foot on land only once a decade — so Jack carries a little 'land' with him everywhere. Johnny Depp improvised the gleeful line 'I've got a jar of dirt!' on set, and it became a lasting internet meme. The collectible carries no real historical or museum meaning; it's a nod to pirate-movie culture, which is fitting for a pirate-haunted barrier-island stage. The Outer Banks are the real Graveyard of the Atlantic, where Blackbeard's flagship Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground and sank off this same coast in 1718. A jar of nothing, dropped into a sea full of wrecks, is exactly the kind of joke this stage earns.