If you are early to mid game then I suggest going up the volcano on the island

(I play ark mobile) as on top it has all the obsidian,metal and crystal you want. The volcanoe is much better than caves to get crystal I think because you dont have to think about all the possible threats as once on top off the volcano I found that there were no dangerous animals. I could suggest building a base their because off all the crystal and material but it would probably be late game

⬆️ this if you found it helpfull

Magma best anky second best metal pick is better than mining laser IF you dont want to use a bunch of resources mining laser gives more otherwise + better

On the island if you spawn the normal spawn the base spawn or spawn zone 1 the island right next to it that you can sometimes see spinos spawn on in the top there is metal and crystal so great for early game

Ankylo is better than metal pick

The funny thing is that it says that the metal pick gets more crystal than the Ankylosaurus. But the Ankylosaurus harvested more than double than my metal pick harvested.

Ankylosaurus harvest more crystal, obsidian, and metal than metal pickaxes… I don’t know why it says metal pickaxes are better than ankylosauruses at harvesting these.

Use an anky with high melee to maximize crystal

I tested on official 1x with a mastercraft mining drill, a 370 melee magma and a 919 melee x anky. And the results were 12 with drill, 24 with anky, 44 with magma. Magma is the best at gathering crystal, as well as metal and obsidian(I tested all three). Up this so everyone knows the truth.

On the island, there is a little mountain near the footpaw I think that has a few small crystal nodes. It isn’t much, but in the early game it’s the easiest source of crystal for spyglasses and water jars

Swamp