Sons Of The Forest: Quick Tips & Tricks Survival Guide

The First 24 Hours – Your Guide to Surviving Sons Of The Forest

Your first day on the island is a wild race against time 🏃‍♂️💨. What you do in these first few hours can make or break your entire game. Nail this, and you’ll have a solid start. Fail, and you’ll be just another spooky story the cannibals tell. This guide will walk you through the key first steps to make sure you see the sunrise 🌅.

Crash Site Triage: Your First Actions

Loot Everything at the Crash Site 🚁. Before you even think about wandering into those creepy woods, scavenge! The area around your downed chopper is a goldmine of suitcases 🧳 and big plastic crates 📦. Open them all! They’re packed with essentials: food, energy drinks, meds, cloth, and the legendary duct tape. This first resource boost is super important.
Open Your Emergency Pack 🎒. When you wake up, you’ll grab an emergency pack. Hit your inventory key (‘I’ on PC) to see your crafting mat, find that pack, and unpack your starter kit. Inside, you’ll find your GPS tracker (your map 🗺️), a lighter (fire and light 🔥), and a tactical axe 🪓. These three are your new best friends.
Understand Your Spawn Location 🌎. The island is huge, and you can crash in a few different spots: a thick forest, a snowy mountain, or a lonely beach. Each spot has its own pros and cons. Most people find the forest spawn is the easiest for a first run since it’s central and close to water, animals, and important locations.
Restart for a Better Spawn 🔄. Don’t feel stuck with a bad start! If you land on a snowy mountain with nothing around and feel totally overwhelmed, just quit to the main menu and start a new game. You’ll get a new random spawn point that might be way easier to handle.

Mastering Your Basic Needs

Master Your HUD ❤️. Your survival depends on the meters in the bottom right of your screen. Keep a close eye on your health (red), stamina (blue), and the icons for hunger and thirst. If any of these get too low, you’re toast.
Manage Your Vitality 🔋. That blue bar is your stamina, but its max level is linked to your overall vitality. If you’re cold, wet, hungry, or tired, your vitality drops, and part of your stamina bar gets blocked off. To be at your best, you need to stay warm, dry, fed, and rested.
Drink Fresh Water Safely 💧. Thirst is always creeping up on you. To drink, make sure your hands are empty, look down at a river or stream, and interact. And remember, you can’t drink the ocean’s saltwater!
Find Food Immediately 🍖. The snacks from the crash site will only last so long. You need to find a real food source. Berries are everywhere, but watch out for the poisonous ones ☠️. Hunting small animals like rabbits and squirrels is a safer bet. Always cook meat over a fire to get the most out of it and avoid getting sick. If you find canned food, you’ll need a can opener.

Your First Night: Shelter and Saving

Build a Shelter to Save 🏠. In this brutal world, you can only save your game when you sleep or rest in a shelter. This makes building a place to save your game the #1 most important job on your first day. Without it, one mistake could wipe out all your hard work.
Use Tarps for Quick Saves ⛺. The quickest and cheapest shelter is a Tarp Tent. You can usually find a tarp in a crate at the crash site. Just place the tarp on some flat ground, equip a stick, and look at the tarp. A ghost outline will pop up, letting you prop it up to create a save point.
Save Frequently 💾. Death comes fast and without warning. Make it a habit to build shelters and save your game a lot, especially after you’ve made good progress, found cool stuff, or before you try something risky like exploring a new area.
Exploit the “Grace Period” 🤫. The cannibals on the island are scary, but they aren’t immediately hostile 👹. For the first day or two, you’ll see them watching you from a distance, checking you out, but they probably won’t attack. This is a “grace period” the game gives you to get ready. Don’t mistake their hesitation for weakness, and try not to attack them on sight. Use this precious quiet time to gather resources, craft gear, and build a simple, defensible shelter. If you’re patient, you’ll have more time to prepare before the real attacks start around day four.

You Are Not Alone – A Companion Guide for Sons Of The Forest

Trying to survive this island by yourself is a huge challenge. Luckily, you don’t have to! Two awesome AI companions can join you, and they both offer amazing help. Learning to work with Kelvin and Virginia isn’t just a good idea; it’s a total game-changer 🤝.

Kelvin, The Loyal Assistant

Recruit Kelvin Immediately 👍. Your first buddy is just a few feet from the crash site. You’ll see Kelvin, another soldier, hurt on the ground. Go help him up. The crash left him deaf and mute, but he’s ready to work.
Use Kelvin for Resource Gathering 🪵. You give Kelvin orders using your notepad. Walk up to him and interact to see a list of commands. His best skill is gathering resources for you. You can tell him to get sticks, rocks, logs, and even fish, which frees you up to explore or build.
Let Kelvin Build for You 🔨. Kelvin can help with building, too. You can command him to build a fire or a simple shelter. Even better, if you put down a blueprint for a big structure, you can tell him to “Finish Structure,” and he’ll gather everything needed and build it for you.
Use Kelvin to Clear Land 🌲. One of his best commands is “Clear Area.” You can tell him to clear out all the trees and plants in a 5, 10, or 20-meter circle. This is amazing for making a big, flat area for your main base.
Command Kelvin to Maintain Your Base 🛠️. Once your base is up, you can tell Kelvin to “Maintain Base.” He’ll then patrol the area and automatically fix any buildings that get damaged by enemies.
Keep Kelvin Safe 🛡️. Kelvin is a lover, not a fighter. He can’t use weapons and will run from combat. He’s good at dodging, but enemies can knock him down. If he gets downed too many times and you don’t revive him, he’ll die for good. To keep him safe, you can tell him to “Stay Hidden” when things get hairy or, even better, leave him at your base when you go exploring dangerous places. He won’t follow you into caves.
Kelvin is Self-Sufficient 😊. You don’t have to worry about feeding Kelvin or giving him water. He’ll take care of himself and rest when he’s tired. Your only job is to protect him from the angry locals.

Virginia, The Elusive Ally

Befriend Virginia Patiently 💃. After a few days, you’ll meet Virginia, a mysterious woman with three arms and three legs. She’s very shy and will bolt if you get too aggressive. The trick to making friends with her is patience.
Holster Your Weapons Around Her 🙏. When you see Virginia, put your weapon away immediately by pressing ‘G’. This shows her you’re not a threat. Don’t chase her. Just do your thing and let her watch you from afar.
Build Trust by Accepting Her Gifts 🎁. As she gets more comfortable, she’ll start coming closer, sometimes even doing a little dance. Eventually, she’ll bring you gifts like berries, seeds, or small animals. Always take what she offers to build her trust.
Equip Virginia with Weapons 🔫. Once you’ve earned her trust, you can interact with her and give her items. Most importantly, you can give her a pistol and a shotgun. Thanks to her extra arms, she can use both at the same time!
Virginia Has Infinite Ammo 🤯. Once she’s armed, Virginia becomes a walking death machine. She has unlimited ammo for any gun you give her, which makes her an incredible defender for your base.
Use Virginia for Base Defense 🎯. Virginia is a fantastic fighter and will automatically attack any cannibals or mutants that threaten you or your base. She can single-handedly stop a huge raid.
Let Virginia Guide You 👉. Pay attention to what Virginia does. She’ll often point towards nearby enemies, acting as an early warning system. Sometimes she’ll even wave for you to follow her, leading you to interesting spots or hidden goodies.
Give Virginia a GPS Tracker 📍. You can find extra GPS locators on the island. Give one to Virginia. This will put a permanent marker for her on your map, so you’ll always know where she is.

The Companion Synergy Loop

Master the Companion Synergy Loop 🔄. Kelvin and Virginia aren’t just separate helpers; they’re designed to work together perfectly, creating a powerful cycle of building and defending. Kelvin is amazing at quickly building structures and gathering all the materials you need for a base. This very act of building—making campfires, shelters, and gardens—is what gets the curious Virginia to come to your location. As you build more, you also attract more attention from hostile cannibals 👹. This is where the loop closes. Virginia, now armed and protecting the base that Kelvin built, becomes its ultimate defender. Her amazing combat skills protect your home from the increased threats, creating a safe zone where you can have Kelvin keep expanding and fortifying. This is the master strategy for your companions: use Kelvin’s building to attract and arm Virginia, then use Virginia’s firepower to protect Kelvin’s work.

Mastering the Craft in Sons Of The Forest

Just surviving is one thing, but thriving is the real goal. To truly own this island, you need to become a master craftsman, turning simple forest junk into the tools and armor of a pro survivor. The crafting system is easy to learn but has a lot of depth, rewarding you for experimenting and collecting everything you see 🛠️.

Your Workshop: The Crafting Mat and 3D Printer

Use the Crafting Mat Effectively 🎒. Your inventory (‘I’ key) is also your crafting area. To make something, right-click the ingredients in your inventory to put them on the mat. When you have the right combo, the gear icon ⚙️ in the middle will light up, letting you combine them.
Spot New Recipes with the Red Exclamation Mark ❗. As you find new stuff, you’ll unlock new crafting recipes. When you have all the ingredients for a new recipe, a red exclamation mark will pop up over the gear icon. Hover over it to see what you can make.
Experiment with Crafting Easily 🔬. The system makes experimenting super easy. When you put an item on the mat, anything in your inventory that can’t be combined with it will be grayed out. This lets you see possible combos without having to guess.
Batch-Craft Items to Save Time ⏱️. For stuff you need a lot of, like arrows, you can craft them in batches. Put a full stack of all the materials on the mat (e.g., a bunch of sticks, rocks, and feathers). Then, just keep clicking the gear icon to craft them one after another.
Unlock Recipes by Collecting New Items 🧠. The main way you learn new recipes is by picking up a new type of resource for the first time. This encourages you to be a hoarder! Collect everything you find. You should also eat every type of berry and plant at least once to learn what they do.
Find and Use the 3D Printer 📠. Hidden in bunkers around the island are high-tech 3D Printers. These advanced stations, often shown as green pulsing icons on your GPS, let you make items you can’t craft by hand. They need Printer Resin, which you can find in supply crates.
Print a Water Flask Early💧. One of the best items to make with the 3D printer is the Water Flask. It lets you carry fresh water with you, which is a lifesaver on long trips away from rivers.
Print a Sled for Mobility 🛷. The 3D printer can also make a sled. It’s not just for fun; it’s a super-fast way to travel downhill, especially in the snowy mountains. You can also use it to move logs around more easily.

Table: Essential Early-Game Crafting Recipes

For a new survivor, all the crafting options can be a bit much. Focus on gathering resources for these key recipes first. They give you the basic gear you need to defend yourself, hunt, heal, and explore.

Item	Ingredients	Primary Use
Torch 횃	1x Stick, 1x Cloth	Essential light source for caves and night.
Crafted Spear 🗡️	2x Sticks, 1x Duct Tape, Utility Knife	Melee weapon with good reach, can be thrown.
Crafted Bow 🏹	2x Sticks, 1x Rope, 1x Duct Tape	Your first ranged weapon.
Stone Arrows	2x Sticks, 4x Small Rocks, 2x Feathers	Ammunition for the Crafted Bow.
Health Mix 🩹	1x Aloe Vera, 1x Yarrow	Basic healing item to conserve Meds.
Bone Armor 🦴	4x Bones, 1x Rope, 1x Duct Tape	Decent early-game protection.
Molotov 🍾🔥	1x Vodka Bottle, 1x Cloth	Area-of-effect fire weapon, stuns some enemies.

Craft a Torch. Your lighter is barely enough to see. A torch is a must-have for exploring dark caves or walking through the forest at night.
Craft a Spear. The crafted spear is a great early-game weapon. Its long reach lets you poke enemies from a safe distance, and you can throw it, too.
Craft a Bow and Arrows. A bow is your first real ranged weapon and changes everything for hunting and fighting. Practice your aim; a headshot can drop a cannibal before they even get close.
Craft Health Mixes. Meds are rare and should be saved for emergencies. You can craft simple Health Mixes with common plants like Aloe Vera and Yarrow. Keep a bunch on hand to heal up after small fights.
Craft Bone Armor. After you fight your first cannibals, don’t let their bodies go to waste. Burn them on a campfire to get bones, which you can craft into Bone Armor. It’s a huge defensive upgrade.
Craft Molotovs. Vodka bottles and cloth make Molotov cocktails. They’re awesome for crowd control, setting a group of enemies on fire, and stunning certain cannibals.

Building Your Sanctuary – Sons Of The Forest Base Building 101

Your base is more than a bed and a save point. It’s your fortress, your workshop, and your safe space in a world that wants you gone 🏠. A well-planned and defended base is the key to long-term survival.

Location, Location, Location

Build Near Water, Trees, and Stone 🏞️. The perfect base spot has easy access to the three main building resources. A nearby river gives you water and fish. A forest gives you endless logs and sticks. And a source of stone is key for stronger fires and walls.
Use Natural Defenses ⛰️. Look for places that have natural protection. A cliff at your back, a narrow piece of land, or a small island can drastically cut down the directions enemies can attack from, making your base way easier to defend.
Avoid Cannibal Patrol Paths 👣. As you explore, you’ll start to see paths that cannibals use to patrol. You’ll also see their creepy camps with totem poles. Don’t build your base right on or next to these busy areas unless you want lots of visitors.
Build on Flat, High Ground ⬆️. Building on flat land makes construction much simpler. If that flat land is also high up, you get a great tactical advantage, letting you see threats coming from far away.

The Two Modes of Construction

Switch Between Building Modes 📖. The game has two different building systems. You can switch between them by pressing ‘X’ while your survival handbook is open.
Use Blueprint Mode for Speed 🏗️. The first is a “Blueprint” mode. You pick a pre-made structure from your book—like a cabin or a trap—and place a transparent “ghost” version of it. Then you or Kelvin just add the materials to build it. This is great for quickly making essential buildings.
Use Free Build Mode for Creativity 🎨. The second mode is a “Free Build” system that gives you total creative freedom. Instead of blueprints, you place individual logs and stones to make custom designs. Your book shows you how to do things like split logs into planks or cut out windows and doors. This mode is for building your ultimate dream fortress.

Your First Essential Structures

Build Storage Holders First 📦. Before you even start on a cabin, build storage holders for logs, sticks, rocks, and bones. This keeps your base clean and gives you an organized pile of materials.
Put Kelvin to Work Filling Holders 💪. Once your storage holders are built, they’re the perfect job for Kelvin. Just tell him to “Fill Holder,” and he’ll work tirelessly to fill it up. This is the best way to use him in the early game.
Build a Drying Rack for Long-Term Food 🥩. Meat and fish spoil over time. To make food that lasts, build a Drying Rack. You can hang fresh meat and fish on it, and in a few days, it will cure. Cured food never spoils and is great for your health, making it essential for surviving the winter.
Build a Water Collector 💧. Find a turtle on the beach and get its shell. You can combine the shell with sticks to make a Water Collector. It will passively collect rainwater, giving you a convenient source of fresh water right at your base.

The Hidden Mechanic of Building

Understand the Strength-through-Construction Mechanic 💪📈. In this game, building isn’t just for making stuff; it’s part of your character’s growth. There’s a hidden mechanic that rewards you for hard work. Every time you cut down a tree, carry a log, or place a stone, you get a little bit of Strength experience. As your Strength level goes up, so do your max health and melee damage. But there’s a catch. The island’s enemies react to you getting stronger. A higher Strength level also makes more dangerous enemies spawn more often 👹. This creates a cool risk-reward system. Building a giant fortress will make you physically stronger, but it will also make the island a much more dangerous place. The best strategy is to build what you need to survive and defend yourself first, then go crazy with huge projects once you’re ready for the island to throw everything it has at you.

Defending Your Turf – Advanced Fortifications in Sons Of The Forest

A simple cabin won’t keep you safe for long. As the days go by, the cannibals get braver, and scarier monsters start crawling out of the caves. To survive, your sanctuary needs to become a fortress 🏰. This chapter covers how to create a base that can fight off even the toughest attacks.

Walls and Traps: Your First Line of Defense

Build a Perimeter Wall 🧱. The foundation of any good defense is a strong wall. Use the free-build system to place vertical logs in a line all around your base. This simple wall will stop casual wanderers and force enemies into a direct attack.
Sharpen Your Walls into Spikes 뾰. A log wall is good, but a spiked wall is way better. Once your wall is up, equip your axe and aim at the top of each log. You’ll get an option to chop it into a sharp point. These spiked walls do a ton of damage to anything that tries to climb over them and are one of the best early-game defenses.
Upgrade to Stone Walls 🪨. For a truly tough fortress, you’ll want to upgrade your log walls to stone eventually. Stone walls are much more durable and can take hits from even the biggest mutants. They take a lot of resources, so save this for when your base is well-established.
Use the Fly Swatter Trap 💥. Traps are your best friend for automating your defense. The best one is the “Fly Swatter” trap. This simple but deadly trap uses a swinging, spiked mace to destroy almost any enemy in one hit. They’re cheap to build, so place them all around your walls, especially near entrances.
Use the Bone Maker Trap 💀. Another great trap is the Bone Maker. As the name suggests, it not only kills enemies but also gives you a nice supply of bones for crafting Bone Armor.
Build Traps Inside Caves 🕸️. Traps aren’t just for your base. When you’re getting ready to clear out a dangerous cave, you can build traps inside. Find a narrow hallway, set up a Fly Swatter trap, and then lure the cave monsters into it. You can reset the trap and do it again, clearing out entire sections of a cave without having to fight directly.

Advanced Defensive Architecture

Build a Raised Base or Treehouse 🗼. Bases on the ground are vulnerable. For max safety, build your main living area on a raised platform, in a treehouse, or as a second floor. This high ground gives you a safe spot to shoot arrows, throw spears, and drop explosives on the enemies below.
Funnel Enemies into Choke Points 🎯. Don’t let enemies attack you from all sides. Design your base defenses to force them into a single, heavily trapped entrance. This creates a “kill zone” where your traps and ranged attacks are most effective. You can make a winding path lined with spike walls and traps leading to your main gate.
Use Effigies to Scare Cannibals 🎭. After you kill cannibals, you can use their body parts to build gruesome effigies. They won’t stop a determined attack, but these scary displays can intimidate weaker cannibal scouts, cutting down on the number of random encounters around your base.

The Ultimate Defense: The Water Fortress

Build an Impenetrable Water Fortress 🌊🏰. The AI in this game has one huge, exploitable weakness: enemies can’t swim. This means you can build a base that is almost impossible to raid. By building on a small island in a lake or on a long pier stretching out into the ocean, you can create a fortress that is totally safe from ground attacks. You only have to defend the one spot where it connects to the land.
Build on Frozen Lakes for a Floating Base 🧊. An even cooler trick is to build on a large lake during the winter. When the water freezes solid, you can build your base right on the ice. When spring comes and the ice melts, your base will stay there, floating magically and completely out of reach in the middle of the lake. The only time it’s vulnerable is the next winter when the lake freezes again. Ocean bases don’t have this problem. For players who just want to build without being constantly attacked, the water fortress is the ultimate strategy.

The Art of Combat in Sons Of The Forest

Eventually, you’ll have to fight. Whether you’re defending your home, exploring a cave, or just get caught in the open, knowing how to fight is key to survival. It takes more than a sharp axe; you need to think tactically, know your enemy, and master your weapons ⚔️.

Table: Enemy Weaknesses and Tactics

Combat can be crazy. Winning often means quickly figuring out what you’re fighting and using its weakness against it. This table is your quick guide to combat tactics.

Enemy Type	Key Weakness / Behavior	Recommended Tactic
Basic Cannibals 👹	Low health, easily staggered.	Stun-lock with any melee weapon.
Face-Painted Cannibals 🎨	Can block attacks, but vulnerable to fire.	Use a torch or Molotov to ignite them, then attack while they are stunned.
Red Fat Cannibals 🔴	Not easily staggered, uses a belly-flop attack.	Bait the belly-flop, then use heavy attacks while they are on the ground.
Tall Cannibals (Chieftains) 👑	High health, powerful attacks that knock you down.	Keep your distance and use ranged weapons (bow, spear).
Fingers (Split Mutants) 🖐️	Knees are extremely weak.	Aim for the legs/knees to stun them repeatedly.
Twins 👯	Fast, relentless attacks, no cooldown.	Do NOT engage in melee. Use ranged weapons or explosives.

Combat Fundamentals

Prioritize Ranged Combat 🏹. Melee is risky and you’ll often get hurt. Whenever you can, fight enemies from a distance. Your crafted bow and spear are your best buds. Use them to take out a few enemies in a group before they can get close.
Aim for the Legs 🦵. This is one of the most important combat tips in the game. Most enemies that walk on two legs, including almost all cannibals, can be staggered or crippled with a good hit to the legs. This will often knock them down, giving you a safe chance to finish them off.
Block and Parry Attacks 🛡️. Most melee weapons can block attacks, which greatly reduces the damage you take. If you time your block perfectly, right as an enemy is about to hit you, you’ll do a parry. This stuns the attacker, leaving them wide open for a killer counter-attack.
Always Wear Armor 🤕. Armor is like a second health bar. Damage from enemies always hits your armor first. Even basic Leaf Armor is better than nothing. As soon as you can, upgrade to Bone Armor and then to the super protective Creepy Armor, which you can get from skinning defeated mutants.
Pause to Heal in Single-Player ⏸️. If a fight is going badly and you’re low on health, you can open your inventory. In single-player, this pauses the game. You can then safely use meds or eat food to get back to full health before jumping back into the action.

Stealth and Evasion

Use Leaf Armor for Stealth 🍃. It doesn’t offer much protection, but a full set of Leaf Armor makes you way sneakier. When you’re crouching in bushes with it on, you can often stay completely hidden from enemy patrols, letting you sneak by or line up a perfect, silent headshot with your bow. It’s also great for hunting deer.
Crouch in Bushes to Hide 🤫. Even without Leaf Armor, the thick bushes are your friend. If you see a patrol coming, crouching in a large bush is usually enough to let them pass without spotting you.
Know When to Run Away 🏃‍♂️. You don’t have to win every fight. If you’re low on resources, outnumbered, or facing a tough new mutant, don’t be afraid to run. You can outrun most enemies on the surface. It’s always better to escape and live to fight another day.
Defeat Basic Cannibals with Stun-Locks. The most common cannibals are weak and easily staggered. A quick flurry of attacks from your axe or club can often stun-lock them so they can’t even fight back.
Burn Face-Painted Cannibals. The tougher, face-painted cannibals are dangerous because they can block your attacks. But they have a major weakness: fire 🔥. One hit from a torch or a Molotov will set them on fire, making them panic and leaving them open to your attacks.
Bait and Punish Red Fat Cannibals. These big red guys are hard to stagger. Don’t try to trade hits with them. Instead, keep your distance and bait out their belly-flop attack. As soon as they land, rush in and hit them with heavy attacks while they’re stuck on the ground.
Use Range Against Tall Cannibals. The tall, chieftain-like cannibals are the toughest of their kind. Their attacks are strong enough to knock you down, and they have tons of health. Fighting them up close is super risky. The safest plan is to keep your distance and slowly wear them down with your bow or thrown spears.
Target the Knees of Fingers. The scary “Fingers” mutant looks tough, but it has a funny weakness: its knees. A single arrow or spear to its legs will make it collapse in a heap, stunned for several seconds. You can do this over and over, making it one of the easiest mutants to beat safely.
Never Melee the Twins. The “Twins” mutant is a fused, spider-like monster. It’s incredibly fast and attacks non-stop. Do not, under any circumstances, try to fight it in melee. Your only safe option is to back away while shooting it with ranged weapons or use powerful explosives 💥.

Exploring the Island – A Sons Of The Forest Expedition Guide

The island is a huge and dangerous place, full of hidden secrets, valuable loot, and crazy horrors. To uncover its mysteries, you have to become a master explorer, able to navigate its tricky terrain and explore its dark depths safely and smartly 🗺️.

Navigation and Preparation

Zoom Your GPS Map 🔍. Your GPS (‘M’ key) is your most important navigation tool. A lot of players don’t realize you can zoom in and out with the middle mouse button. Zooming out helps you see the whole island, while zooming in is key for finding the exact entrance to a cave.
Follow the GPS Icons📍. Your map starts with several key icons already marked. Green pulsing icons are points of interest, which usually have good loot or 3D printers. White icons mark cave entrances. Purple icons show where your fallen team members’ GPS locators are, which usually have essential gear nearby.
Create Custom Map Markers 📌. You can make your own permanent markers on the GPS map. First, find a stick and stick it in the ground vertically. Then, equip a GPS locator and place it on top of the stick. This is an amazing way to mark good resource spots, potential base locations, or caves you want to come back to.
Explore Surface Markers First ✅. When you’re just starting, go for the green and purple markers on your map first. These surface spots often have powerful weapons and tools that are completely unguarded, letting you gear up in a big way without having to fight.
Use Rivers to Navigate 🧭. The island is covered in rivers and streams. They’re great natural landmarks. Following a river downstream will always take you to the coast, while following it upstream will lead you towards the big mountain. They often pass by important locations.
Prepare Before Entering Caves 🎒. The caves are this game’s dungeons. They’re dark, confusing, and filled with the island’s most dangerous monsters. Don’t go into a cave unprepared. Before you go underground, make sure you have a full set of armor, your best weapons, a good light source, and plenty of food and healing items.
Bring a Portable Save into Caves ⛺. Always carry a tarp and a stick with you when you go caving. This lets you build a temporary Tarp Tent inside the cave. Find a safe corner, build your tent, and save your game. This is crucial for keeping your progress before you tackle a really dangerous part of a cave.
Use Flares for Hands-Free Light 💡. A torch or flashlight is essential, but they take up one of your hands, so you can’t use a bow. Flares are the answer. You can throw a flare on the ground to light up a big area, leaving your hands free to fight.
Place Permanent Torches in Caves 🔦. A little-known trick is that any torch you place on a wall inside a cave will stay there—and stay lit—forever. On your first trip through a new cave, place torches along your path. This will not only help you find your way out but will also create a well-lit and much safer area for any future trips into that cave.

The Island’s Darkest Secret

Understand that Opening Caves Increases Surface Difficulty 🤫. The island isn’t a static place; it changes based on what you do. One of its most important hidden mechanics is the link between your progress and the game’s difficulty. Many of the big cave systems are sealed with wooden planks at the start. When you break those barriers to get in, you’re not just opening a path for yourself; you’re letting the horrors inside out onto the surface 👹.
Fortify Your Base BEFORE Major Exploration 🏰. After you open a major cave, you’ll start seeing more powerful and numerous types of mutants roaming around the island. This means there’s a best way to play through the game: fortify before you explore. Before you start the main quest of finding key items like the shovel, you should focus on building a strong, well-defended base with automated traps. Rushing to get the best gear without a safe home to come back to is a recipe for disaster. You’ll find yourself trapped between the horrors of the caves and an undefended base that’s being overrun. Build your fortress first, then, and only then, should you dare to unlock the island’s darkest secrets.

The Survivor’s Edge – Pro Tips for Sons Of The Forest Veterans

You’ve survived. You’ve built a home. You’ve faced the horrors of the forest and won. Now, it’s time to go beyond just surviving and become a true master 🏆. This final chapter is a collection of advanced tips, hidden mechanics, and clever tricks that will take your gameplay to the next level.

Advanced Building and Logistics

🚠 Use Ziplines to Transport Logs and Rocks. The Rope Gun isn’t just for getting around. You can attach logs and rocks to a zipline and send them flying across the map. This completely changes how you gather resources, letting you build bases in faraway places by shipping in materials. It even works uphill!
矛 Create Improvised Zipline Anchors with Spears. If you need to make a zipline but there’s no tree in the right spot, you can make your own anchor. Plant a stick in the ground, then aim at your destination and throw a crafted spear so it sticks upright. Now you can attach a zipline between the stick and the spear.
✨ Build Floating Structures by Removing Supports. With careful building, you can create structures that look like they’re floating in mid-air. You have to build a platform with temporary supports and then carefully remove the supports in the right order. Be careful, this can be buggy.
🪵 Exploit Log Duplication with Blueprints. If you want to build huge structures without chopping down the whole forest, there’s a log duplication glitch. Place the blueprint for the small log cabin, then repeatedly press the dismantle key (‘C’) while looking at a corner from a specific angle to pull infinite logs from the blueprint.
🔄 Duplicate Items in Multiplayer. In a multiplayer game, a guest player can give all their good stuff to the host. The guest then leaves the game without saving. When they rejoin, their inventory will be back to how it was, but the host will still have all the items, effectively duplicating them.

Hidden Mechanics and Obscure Tricks

🤝 Get More Armor with Multiplayer Skinning. When a mutant is killed in multiplayer, if all players skin the body at the exact same time, each player will get a piece of Creepy Armor.
🗺️ Keep Your GPS Steady While Running. Running with the GPS makes the map wobble. To stop this, just hold another one-handed item, like your axe, in your other hand.
💣 Cancel a Grenade Throw. After you pull the pin on a grenade, you can change your mind. Just press the holster key (‘G’), and you’ll safely put the live grenade back in your inventory.
🏹 Look Down to Change Arrow Types. To switch between arrow types for your bow, you have to be looking down at the ground.
🧹 Despawn Loose Logs by Reloading. If your base is messy with loose logs, just save your game and reload. All loose building materials that aren’t in a storage holder will disappear.
🔫 Get Multiple Guns for Virginia by Reloading. After you give Virginia a pistol and shotgun, you can get another set for yourself. Just go back to where you originally found the weapons; they will respawn each time you load your save.
👨‍💻 Access the Admin Console with ‘cheatstick’. On PC, you can open a powerful developer console. In-game, just type cheatstick on your keyboard. Then, press F1 to open the console for god mode, spawning items, and more.
🐇 Throw Logs and Stones at Small Animals. You can kill rabbits and squirrels by throwing small stones or even logs at them.
👋 Nod at Your Companions. If you look at Kelvin or Virginia and nod your character’s head, they’ll nod back.
📻 Place Radios as Structures. To stop your radio from getting kicked around, you can “place” it from your inventory like a building part, which will lock it in place.
🪙 Dig for Extra Bones and Coins. When you dig with the shovel, you have a chance to find extra bones or old coins.
⛺ Use Tarps as Building Materials. Tarps aren’t just for tents. You can use them in free-building to make walls, floors, or ramps.
🛷 Build Ramps for Your Sled. You can use the 3D-printed sled to create fun slides by building long ramps.
🏃‍♂️ Don’t Let Cannibals Escape a Fight. If you fight a group of cannibals, try not to let any of them run away. A survivor who escapes might come back later with a much bigger and angrier group.
😵 You Can Be Captured Once Per Day. The first time you’re defeated on the surface each day, you’ll be captured and wake up in a cannibal camp. You can then escape and get your stuff back. If you’re downed a second time in the same day, it’s game over.
🪂 Use a Hang Glider to Reach the Pistol Raft. The raft with the pistol is a long swim away and is guarded by a shark. A much safer way to get there is to find a hang glider and fly out to it.
💀 Create Decorative Lamp Posts with Skull Lamps. You can make cool lighting for your base by placing skull lamps on top of vertical sticks.
🔨 Build Narrow Boardwalks with Firewood Pieces. You can make detailed paths using firewood pieces (quarter-split logs).
🦴 Burn Bodies to Get Bones. The best way to get bones for Bone Armor is to throw cannibal bodies onto a campfire and let them burn.
🔥 Use a Torch to Warm Up. If you’re cold and wet, just holding a lit torch will raise your temperature.
🤫 Lure Enemies with Small Rocks. You can throw a small rock to make a sound that will distract enemies, letting you set up an ambush or sneak past them.
❄️ Enemies Leave Tracks in the Snow. During winter, enemies leave tracks in the snow, which makes it easier to hunt them if they try to run.
🏌️ Use the Golf Putter to Play Golf. If you find the golf putter and some golf balls, you can actually play golf.
🎯 Use the Slingshot for Hunting. The slingshot is a quiet way to hunt small animals without wasting valuable arrows.
🪨 Reinforce Fires with Stones. You can make your campfires last longer by putting a ring of stones around them.
🐟 Kill Grouped Fish with a Single Cleaving Swing. If you see a group of fish in shallow water, one swing from a wide weapon like the Modern Axe can kill all of them at once.

Conclusion: From Surviving to Thriving in Sons Of The Forest

You’re no longer the scared survivor who crawled from the helicopter wreckage. The forest that once seemed like a terrifying maze is now your playground 🌲. Its resources are your tools, its dangers are your toys, and its secrets are your goals. You’ve learned to use the island’s grace period, to work with your amazing companions, and to build a fortress before waking up the horrors sleeping underground.

You know that building isn’t just for shelter, it’s how you forge your own strength 💪, balancing your power against the island’s growing anger. You know the weakness of every creature that hunts in the dark, and you’ve built a home that even they are afraid to attack. The island is still a very dangerous place, but it’s not your prison anymore. It’s your kingdom 👑. Take this knowledge, survivor. Go forth and conquer.

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for Sons Of The Forest belong to the developer Endnight Games Ltd.

Find the game here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1326470/Sons_Of_The_Forest/