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These Sons of the Forest tips should help you survive the first night and those early hours when it's all very confusing. From building shelters to saving, crafting and so on, there's a lot to work out. You can do a lot just by trying things out and exploring - as the game intended - but a few pointers will certainly help you out with the basics.
That's why I've prepared these Sons of the Forest tips from my own experience of getting through the opening hours. Whether it's things I discovered, chanced upon, or facepalmed when I realised what to do, they're all very useful things that will help you out as you play.
Sons of the Forest quick tips
- Use GPS markers to get started
- Locate the 3D printer to get a water bottle
- Craft a spear quickly but avoid fighting if you can
- Craft shelters all the time to save your progress
- Use tarps to build reusable shelters in caves to save
- Collect and eat everything at least once to unlock crafting recipes
- Kelvin can fetch fish for a steady food supply
- Use quick inventory to get what you need fast
- Don't attack enemies unless they attack first
1. Check out all the map markers for a guided intro
While Sons of the Forest basically leaves you to work things out for yourself, all the markers on your GPS generally lead you to supplies and useful gear. Your best bet at the start is to head to the nearest dots on the map to see what you can find. It should set you up with plenty of handy items and show you around a little. You might want to avoid the caves overall initially as, while they have incredibly useful gear like the rebreather, rope gun and Sons of the Forest shovel, they are basically tough, monster filled dungeons. So not great starter activities. However, as we're about to explain, one dot is an almost essential destination…
2. There's a water bottle and a bed at this GPS Marker
If you do nothing else with the GPS system, use it to find the cave marked here on the map. While most caves are dangerous monster filled placed to be attempted when you're better established, the first one you can reach is full of supplies, as well as a bed to sleep and save in, and a 3D printer. The printer can make a few things but the most important is the water battle which will let you collect and carry water with you.
3. Craft a spear first chance you get but avoid fighting if you can
The Sons of the Forest crafting recipe for a spear is easy - two, sticks, some tape and a knife to sharpen it. It's an easy to make weapon and worth having, so make a few the first chance you can. However, don't attack anyone unless you have to. The cannibals you meet generally outside make a lot of noise and can sound scary, but it's often mainly for show. So if they're not actually attacking you, don't provoke them. Generally you want to avoid fighting as much as possible until you're confident and well supplied, and enemies in the forest are easy to sneak around and avoid. The caves are a little different as almost everything in there will attack on sight, which is why you want to avoid them until you're ready.
4. Craft shelters all the time to save your progress
You can build shelters easily in the forest with logs, sticks and stones. Because you need one to save, and can build them basically whenever you want outside, build them a lot. Anytime you make some progress, or are about to try something risky - build a shelter and save. It takes minutes to find the resources so there's no cost beyond time.
5. Use tarps to build reusable shelters, especially inside caves
Shelters are incredibly useful to save your progress, but when you're exploring caves you can't really find any trees, branches or stones to build wooden structures. Use tarps, with a single stick to build a basic tent you can still sleep in and save at. Best of all you can dismantle it and take the tarp with you when you want to move on.
6. Collect and eat everything at least once to unlock crafting recipes
As you collect things you'll unlock more crafting recipes, so it's worth picking up everything once just to see if it lets you make anything new. Dropping things in the area where you craft will also grey out anything it can't be combined with if you want to test things. For a similar reason you'll want to eat everything you find at least once to find out if it's food. Some things will hurt you, but it's usually a tiny amount of damage and the offending items will be marked red after that so you'll always know.
7. Use Kelvin to get fish for a steady food supply
Usually in a survival game finding a sustainable supply of food and water is a priority. That's less of a case here as you're rarely far from water and can get a water flask easily. And Kelvin can fetch fish for you on command. You technically need to be near somewhere you could get fish from, but you don't have to worry about looking too hard - if the option appears on the notebook you use to tell Kelvin what to do, they're nearby. Just tell him to go fetch, and bring them to you and he'll drop a them at your feet regularly until you tell him to stop.
8. There's no hot keys but there is a quick inventory to get things fast
The lack of any Sons of the Forest hotkey weapons or quick item selection is a bit of a pain and makes things feel clunky if you need to grab things fast. However, while there's no ability to hotkey items to specific buttons, you can access a quick inventory by holding the button down rather than tapping it. That will basically bring up a clump of things you probably want to get at quickly, and let you grab them in game rather that layout your inventory on the floor.
9. Don't attack enemies unless you have to
This should go without saying but don't go looking for a fight. The cannibals that occasionally circle you making loads of noise don't always attack, so don't cause any trouble if you can help it. A fight can get out of control quickly and if they're not directly attacking you, don't risk the damage. Obviously at night, enemy's being around can interrupt Sons of the Forest sleep but you might be better off trying to wait until day, or going somewhere else as fighting the dark can be especially dangerous.
