The survival adventure Sons of the Forest is receiving its final update in February 2024, and for both newcomers & experts, we have here 12 important tips for all areas in SOTF, based on now 500 hours of gameplay experience:
What tips can you expect?
At the start of Sons of The Forest, the game gives you some snack bars and soda cans. However, you will have used these up within a few days of play. Therefore, you must learn how to hunt, collect water, and withstand the seasons.
Quenching Thirst: While in spring, summer, and autumn, you can comfortably drink from rivers, many of them are frozen in winter. To have a reliable water source at your base and also in winter, build rain collectors. You can find this in your crafting book (B) and you need 16x sticks + 1x turtle shell for the construction.
For on-the-go, it makes sense to print a water bottle at the 3D printer, which you can fill with water.
Fighting Hunger: As with water, survival outside of winter is easier, as the eponymous forest is teeming with mushrooms, berries, and wild animals. You can collect mushrooms and berries on your forays through the forest. But don't eat any fly agaric mushrooms or black berries!
You can hunt wild animals directly with a bow and arrow, spear, or firearm. For smaller animals, you can also set traps or build a birdhouse to collect not only bird meat but also their feathers. Once you've caught and killed your animals, you must prepare the meat. For this, you roast the pieces over the fire or hang them on a drying rack.
What does temperature do? If it's particularly warm in summer, you need to drink water more frequently. If it's cold in winter, you need to consume food more often.
From the beginning of the game, you have a GPS in your inventory. You can open it using the M key and even zoom in and out. However, you will never see the full 10 km² of the island at a glance, the zoom doesn't extend that far.
On the GPS, however, all points of interest, such as caves, bunkers, or your base are marked. This way, you won't get lost in the forest anymore and can quickly find your way home or plan your routes through the dangerous thicket to your next destination.
With the 3D printer and corresponding resin, you can create unique items in Sons of The Forest. As mentioned above, this includes the drinking bottle, but also:
Especially at the start of the game, the drinking bottle is critical for staying hydrated on the go. With the sled, you can slide down from high mountains and slopes into the valley without taking fall damage. The red mask protects you, especially at the beginning, from the cannibals -- they are afraid of it.
Right after your landing on the island, the cannibals are hesitant and rarely attack. They scout you, your behavior, and even your interaction with nature. The further you stay away from their villages, the longer they remain calm!
After a while, however, the first groups will attack you, or you'll encounter a more aggressive bunch while exploring. Then, you have no choice but to fight.
Until then, however:
Avoid fights at all costs! This way, you save resources, energy, ammunition, and most importantly, time. You should invest this time and resources into building defensive structures as quickly as possible.
Author's Tip: The more cannibals you kill, the stronger the enemies that storm the field. In addition, mutants take the place of the fallen cannibals, and these are significantly more aggressive and deadly. All enemies & mutants can be found here.
To not be surprised by cannibals in the middle of the night, while cooking, or -- God forbid -- during more intimate activities, you must secure your camp. Sons of The Forest offers enough methods for this:
Weapons in Sons of The Forest are divided into four categories:
Most enemies in the "Cannibals" category are equally susceptible to firearms. However, you should attack mutants with melee weapons, as firearms have a significantly weaker effect here. Demons and the Demon Mother are easiest to combat with the only "magical" weapon in SOTF, the Crucifix (Holy Cross). In the following list, you'll find the best weapons against all enemy types:
Base building in Sons of The Forest should be your number 2 priority, right after food and water. Your base will be your fortress, protecting you from the outside world and the deadly enemies in the forest. You have the choice to either build your base or house according to your own wishes or to use prefabricated blueprints. For starters, you should look for a remote, elevated position to build a shelter and a fire -- this way, you'll survive the first night.
Then, you should look for a permanent location for your base. The following locations have been voted the Top 10 base locations by the Guided community:
These places earned their rank because they are close to bunkers, important caves, or other points of interest, promise a beautiful view, and or are easily defensible. So, if you want to search for a suitable base location yourself, pay attention to the following aspects:
Currently, there are two NPC companions in Sons of The Forest, each covering different areas of responsibility. A third companion, "Timmy," will come with Update 16 in February 2024. For resource gathering, you should bring Kelvin on board. Using a sketch pad, you can give him commands. He can then collect the following resources:
Furthermore, you can tell Kelvin to deliver the resources to specific locations. These locations can be your position, a storage area, or he uses the resources directly for building structures.
What to do if companions die? Should Kelvin, Virginia, or Timmy ever bite the dust, you can revive them. However, this is not possible within the game; instead, you need to access your game files. In the file "GameStateSaveData.json," you will find the points:
To revive your companions, change the file extension from true to False, and reload your save. In the guide linked above, we explain to all those who don't know where the Json file is located, how to find it and provide further assistance.
As mentioned at the beginning, winter is probably the toughest season. There are fewer drinking water sources, less food, and the cold can bring death.
So, to prepare well, you should first build several rain collectors that will collect water for you in winter. Also, you should remember locations on the map where small streams and brooks are not frozen, so you don't dehydrate on trips.
You should increase your food supplies in autumn. Search the coast for driftwood, set many traps, and hunt wildlife. Dry all your food well on the Drying Racks. And stock your shelves at the base with canned goods & cereal bars.
Author's Tip: Food items in bunkers, caves, and at camp sites respawn when you restart the game. You can use this to your advantage, but it breaks the immersion.
You should hunt wildlife not just for their tasty meat, as the fur will be useful in winter. Thus, you can build a fur armor from the pelts of large game like deer and elk, providing you with protection from the cold weather conditions. If you don't want to completely forgo real armor, you can mix armor pieces. Instead of a full bone armor, you insert three or four fur armor pieces in between.
You can improve your weapons with a Solafite smelter, making them stronger. However, you must first find the crafting recipe for the Solafite Forge in a cave. In it, you will also find the raw material Solafite, which you can mine with a pickaxe (which you must find).
Once you have everything together:
Then you can build the forge/Smelter, add Solafite, and insert your weapon. Improving a weapon takes about 5 minutes. During this process, your forge will flash and mutants and demons will appear around you. Defend yourself and your forge until the forging process is finished, and you will receive a golden weapon.
Comparison of the damage output of the best weapons:
Should firearms be upgraded? No, improving firearms with Solafite and the forge is a waste of resources. Firearms do the same damage after the upgrade as before. So far, an upgrade of firearms only serves the appearance.
In Sons of The Forest, you find different means of transport. You already know the sled, with which you can slide down mountains. Three more are:
The first tip is perfect for your start in Sons of the Forest. If you've just crashed, you start with little equipment and are quite helpless. So scour the nearby area and collect everything you can find. Sticks, stones, plants. Everything can be useful. If you find special resources, such as Aloe vera plants for healing, note the location so you can always find it again.
For your first base, you should look for a safe area. Of course, it should not be in the snow biome, where it is too cold. Look in warmer areas and ideally near a water source.
Once you've found the perfect spot, start chopping down trees and building a small hut. Start small to have a safe shelter as quickly as possible. Also build a fence or, better yet, a wall around your base to protect yourself from attacks.
You will find significantly more weapons in Sons of the Forest than in its predecessor, including firearms like pistols or shotguns. However, ammunition is rare, so you should save it for emergencies. To defeat smaller waves of enemies or to hunt animals, it's best to build a bow and arrows as early as possible. But you can also use melee weapons like axes or improvised clubs to fend off your adversaries. Firearms should then be used when stronger enemies, such as mutants, attack your base.
Good preparation is half the battle. This saying actually makes sense here, because hasty actions can mean your demise. So, you should observe the paths of your enemies and avoid them in the early game.
Before you attack, you should see how many enemies are nearby and how they react. They will be better prepared for you than you are for them.
Kelvin is an NPC who survived the helicopter crash with you. Help him and don't leave him to die. He is helpful throughout the game - whether in combat, gathering, or defense. Moreover, you must take good care of him and feed him, or he might stop working and die in the worst case.
Other NPCs that will join you are also to be found in Sons of the Forest. Another person we already know about is the three-armed Virginia, who also appears in the first trailers. Each NPC will require their own tactic to recruit for your purposes in the later stages of the game.
