How to survive in Sons of the Forest: 15 useful tips for beginners

Sons of the Forest just went into early access, but the game, even in its unfinished form, is full of content and various mechanics. Portal rockpapershotgun.com collected 15 beginner tips to help new players survive.

Sons of the Forest begins with the player waking up at the crash site. And the first thing to do is to collect the contents of the containers scattered around the location. Inside you can find many useful items, from rope to energy bars, medicines and a can opener, which will allow you to eat cat food for the first time. Take up the study of the world around you only after you fill your inventory.

The first version of Sons of the Forest, which went into early access, forced players to open their inventory every time they wanted to pick up a different item. Of course, the developers have provided a quick way to change equipment, but now the usual hotkeys have appeared in the game. With their help, you can quickly switch between melee and ranged weapons.

To assign a hotkey to an item, open your inventory and hover your mouse over the desired item. Then press any number key. After closing the inventory, you can pick up the item by pressing the selected key. In addition, we advise you to remember that the G key by default throws an object in your hands on the ground and closes the cooking menu when interacting with fire.

There are several good reasons to build a camp on a river. First, rivers provide a limitless supply of fresh drinking water. Secondly, opponents cannot swim in deep water, which will allow you to quickly find cover if necessary. Once you’ve collected resources from the crash site, open your GPS and head to the nearest river: it’s a great place for a campfire and a simple shelter.

There is no auto-save in Sons of the Forest: in order to save progress, the player needs to rest in the hideout. And the simplest shelter that can be built in a short time and with modest resources is a tent, for which you will need a tarp and a stick. The first can be found at the crash site, the second – literally anywhere. If you are playing online, then each player will need their own tent.

Don’t ignore companions in Sons of the Forest. Virginia will not immediately begin to trust the player, but Kelvin can help from the very beginning. After you rescue a deafened, shell-shocked soldier, he will be able to follow simple orders: from collecting sticks, logs and food to clearing the area for buildings. We recommend sending him fishing first – hunger is a real threat at the beginning of the passage, so a simple source of fish will be of great help. Kelvin can also be ordered to build a shelter while you go in search of more exotic resources.

In most other survival sims, cutting down a tree is as simple as pressing and holding the mouse button. However, in Sons of the Forest, the ax realistically cuts pieces of wood out of a log depending on which part of the tree you are chopping. To make the process go faster, do not click on the same point: instead, work the tree evenly in a circle.

Find a 3D printer as soon as possible

The 3D Printer is one of the most important items in the game, and the sooner you find it, the better. The device is located in one of the caves marked on your navigator and uses resin to create unique equipment and resources not found anywhere else. We advise you to immediately craft a mask for yourself – it will be able to scare away the most dangerous cannibals in the first days of passing. In addition, using the printer, you can create a sled or fiber needed for crafting special armor.

The inhabitants of the island where the events of Sons of the Forest take place have unexpectedly sophisticated artificial intelligence. They do not always attack the player: at first, the mutants will only watch an unfamiliar creature. If you don’t want to provoke them then try not to attack the cannibals except in self-defense. Almost immediately after you attack the mutants, they will become much more aggressive and start attacking in groups. If you suddenly stumble upon one of the cannibal camps, mark it in the navigator for the future in order to bypass it in the future.

On the mini-map, in addition to the icons of hunger, thirst and fatigue, there is also an icon of a muscular arm – it indicates the physical strength of the player. The more you do labor, like chopping trees and transporting logs, the higher it gets. And the higher the strength, the more damage melee attacks will begin to deal.

At the beginning of the passage, the player receives several tools, and the manual is one of them. It can be opened at any time either through the inventory or by pressing the hotkey B. The guide contains instructions for creating buildings, as well as a lot of other useful information. To scroll through the directory, click on the bottom of the open pages, or click on the bookmarks that translate to specific categories of buildings.

In addition, the guide can be held in different hands, and this is a very important detail. If you hold it in your right hand, the book will tell you how to build simple structures like walls, floors, stairs, and fires. If you take the guide in your left hand, it will work much the same as in the original The Forest: you can select more complex blueprints and place them in the world, so that you can then simply store the necessary resources at the selected point.

The building system in Sons of the Forest turned out to be much more flexible and ambitious than in the first part. Of course, the ability to build a primitive hut according to ready-made blueprints is tempting, but the mechanics provide a lot of freedom of action if you build structures manually. You can individually position each log and cut out the windows, which will help make the future shelter more comfortable and practical.

You are unlikely to find ammo (or ranged weapons in general) on your first day on the island, but keep in mind that it remains a scarce resource throughout the game. Ammo, whether it’s bow arrows or revolver and shotgun shells, isn’t worth wasting without a good reason. Hold them until you need some serious firepower.

After you build your first camp, the next step in the passage will be the study of the markers marked on the map. The green ones mark important story locations, so if you want to find the missing billionaire as soon as possible, then they should be a priority. But besides them, the map also shows the entrances to the caves, where unique items are often stored: for example, an oxygen mask, a shovel or a harpoon. Some also hide loot that can only be obtained by having certain keycards scattered around the island. We advise you to explore these caves before advancing through the main plot.

In Sons of the Forest, unlike the first part, a dynamic change of seasons is implemented. As winter approaches, the days will get shorter and the nights colder. Food will become an extremely scarce resource, and mutants will begin to behave much more aggressively from hunger. Because of this, be sure to keep the onset of winter in mind and try to prepare a supply of food in advance. It will be easier to wait out the cold if you take care to build a reliable shelter. Even before the cold weather, it is advisable to explore the island far and wide, because. travel will be more difficult in winter.

You may have heard somewhere that you can find golden armor in Sons of the Forest – it really exists. But don’t rush into treasure hunting: this armor set offers no protection whatsoever. It is only needed to get to the end of the game. Until then, even if you find the armor, just keep it in your inventory.