Where and how do you build the best base in Sons of The Forest, how do you defend it, and what tricks are there to help you achieve the perfect base? All this I, Kevin Willing, will reveal to you in this guide!
Here's what you'll find in the guide: With around 400 hours in Sons of The Forest, I (Guided editor-in-chief Kevin Willing) have already built, tested, and torn down countless bases! For this guide, I've delved deep into the game and will answer the most crucial questions about base building in Sons of The Forest:
You can see all the described places a bit further down on a map.
This could be it, the definitively best location for a base in Sons of the Forest. It's located in the west between a lake and in the east by a river. In total, 78 players voted for this location.
The second choice of the players is roughly at the level of the first place but is oriented towards the west coast and is also (north) by the water. This place attracted 61 players.
Yes, the third place is also occupied by a spot in the Deep Forest. However, this one is located southeast close to the mountains in the center – with a river on the west side. With 52 votes, this ground is very popular. Above in the picture are the 10 most popular places among the community for establishing a base. (Sons of the Forest) Above in the picture, you see the 10 most popular places among the community for establishing a base. (Sons of the Forest)
Just slightly fewer castaways – namely 49 – moved further south across from place 3 into the Valleys. The selected spot is practically right under the third place by a small lake, ensuring thirst is never an issue here.
Only the fifth place deviates a bit from the voting pattern, as it is located in the quasi-central north of the island at the south end of North Beach. Here too, a water stream flows by in the west. Does the proximity to the sea perhaps indicate the vacation readiness of 40 players?
To return to voting normality, the sixth rank is located in the Southwestern Deep Forest – almost exactly at the level of the third place. By poll result, 38 players supply themselves with river water here. Are you looking for teammates or want to discuss Sons of The Forest and share your experiences? Then join us. All our guides can be found in one place. The community members' choice focuses on the Deep Forest region. (Sons of The Forest, Image source: Fandom)
Well, look at that: The next two places are also located in the Deep Forest, precisely in its center. Both spots are on the north side of the same, somewhat wider river and were chosen by 35 and 33 survivors, respectively, as the best places for building a base.
With a total of 21 votes, the northern west coast secures the ninth place in the Reddit survey. This place is near the West Beach and has a water supply to the east, although a small distance must be traveled to reach it.
Even though the last rank is only a bit north of the first place on the southeastern edge of the Deciduous Forest, "only" 20 people decided to build a base here. However, this position is understandable since a base would be built near a small lake.
To build a first base, an ax is already sufficient. With it, you can make all parts and cuts. However, it's faster if you expand your toolbox with the following items:
You can rely on four different resources to build your base:
Tip from personal experience: Before you start building your base, you should craft some storage options for your needed resources. You can set up storage for logs, branches, stones, and rocks. Fill these storages before building to avoid having to stop midway. Instructions for the storages can be found in your survival book under storage.
How you want to build your base is ultimately up to you, but at the beginning, you can choose between a prefabricated blueprint and free building. We'll show you now how free building works:
To ensure your base in Sons of The Forest is secure, you must erect fences and walls. To erect a wall, take a tree log and aim it at the ground. You can then ram the log into the ground. Next, you can work the tip with your ax to create a spiked post. Mutants and cannibals can no longer jump over it but will try to tear down the wall. You can make your wall even more secure by using spikes. You can set these up in front of the wall:
Similarly, you erect a fence. Take a stick in hand and aim it at the ground – You might need to switch modes with a right-click so that you see a small circle on the ground. You stick the stick into the ground with a left click and can then build a fence from there with 3 more sticks.
If you want to make furniture like beds or chairs, you can select them from your notepad and place them over the appropriate blueprint. Then, you need to gather the necessary resources, often sticks or tree logs, and simply attach them to the furniture piece by pressing the E key until it's completed.
In your survival handbook (Key B), you'll find two categories in the "Traps" section:
I've noticed while playing Sons of The Forest that one often scares away animals from their surroundings. Therefore, build your traps at some distance from your camp so that they actually catch something. For traps against cannibals — or is it for cannibals? — you should reverse the thinking and place the traps right outside your front door. Cannibals and mutants will visit and scout you out repeatedly. Before they can harm you, you can take some of them out. However, alarm systems should be set up some distance away, 50 to 100 meters, to give you enough time to prepare for the mutants' approach. Alarm systems and electric fences, though, require power.
Author's Tip: I've often set traps near the cannibal villages — spawn camping, so to speak. Occasionally, while exploring, you'll hear a BANG or crash and know: "Another one in the trap."
With the solar panels in Sons of The Forest, you can operate the new traps and alarm systems as described above. However, you also use them to equip your base with electricity, i.e., light. Here's how:
Now you have power in your base, and you can thread the wire along your beams in the house at ease. This way, the wire doesn't hang around annoyingly.
Congratulations, you've mastered all the basics of building a base in Sons of The Forest. You now know where to build your base, how to create free and predefined structures, generate power, and defend yourself. In the next step, we'll reveal the pro tips for building in SOTF.
In this section, you can expect the following building tips and tricks:
There are 3 ways you can build a base on the water/in the sea.
Base on the water in winter: In winter, the lakes on the island in SOTF freeze over. You can now build your base on the frozen surface as if it were normal ground. This method is naturally limited to lakes. You can't build like this in the sea.
Building a base in the sea: You can build a base in the sea by using a certain building technique. You only need a stick and about six tree logs. And this is how you build your sea base:
Building a base on the water with cheats: Probably the easiest method to build your base on the water is with cheats. For this, you need to download the tool "WeMod", which allows you to cheat with the press of a button. I've tried it, and building has never been easier, here's how:
The two commands ensure that the water visually and mechanically disappears. You can now simply walk and build on the seabed. If you drop tree logs, however, they float up to where the surface would be. After you've finished building your base, simply type the two commands again to restore the sea. Save your game, close the game, and restart it without WeMod. Sons of The Forest without water
Maximum building height: The same test for the amount of building was also our test for building height. After 3,000 logs and 93 floors, it was the end for the server. Technically, we could have built our tower even higher. So it seems here too: How high you can build in Sons of The Forest depends (in singleplayer) on your hardware power.
Maximum amount of building: According to my tests in singleplayer, the amount of building elements is purely limited by your PC's hardware power. In multiplayer, I was able to use about 3,000 tree logs with 4 teammates before the server gave out and the game save started to desynchronize or crash repeatedly.
Currently missing in Sons of The Forest is a building structure that the first part, The Forest, already offered: the barricade. This was built in the first part out of 7x tree logs and served as a kind of improvised tank trap set. Good against cannibals and mutants alike. In Sons of The Forest, we can laboriously imitate such a barricade and thus build an impenetrable defense.
And with that, you've learned everything I can teach you about base building and defending in Sons of The Forest! If you liked this guide, feel free to leave feedback and feel free to join our Discord with around 1,400 members & our social media channels (via Linktr.ee).
