Have you ever tried going out of your way to forage for berries but you’re too preoccupied thinking about what the island dwellers will do to your insides? Is spelunking a big no-no for you because you fear that someone will be waiting for you on the other side of the tight squeeze you’re crawling through?
These questions may or may not plague your mind while you’re out and about but it’s always best to be prepared for the worst.
If you enjoy living in The Forest, then consider reading through the 20 tips we’re about to give that will guarantee your survival under any scenario.
Sons of The Forest | 20 Tips & Tricks
When it comes to survival, one of the many things you tend to think of first is self-defense.
This doesn’t always mean that you have to beat your opponent to death, but with the war crimes you’ll be doing after reading this guide it won’t be long until things escalate into full-on jungle warfare!
#1 Let your map guide you
You’re lucky enough to even get a signal out of this thing so make the best use of it as you head deeper into the woods. Keep track of landmarks that are important to you that the GPS doesn’t recognize, and keep one item on your other hand handy to lessen the movement sway of the device.
You won’t believe how disorienting it is to look at a map while on the move! Oh, also the device lets you zoom in on it, in case your eyes start to water from all the squinting.
#2 Use your quick slots
There’s no way to assign your favorite item to a hot bar, the closest you can get to that is your backpack. It will be available to you at the very beginning so feel free to attach what you can to that thing while accessing your inventory.
To pull it out simply hold on to your inventory key longer and you will see your backpack along with all the items you glued to it. Try pulling the pin on the nade, and see what happens!
#3 Build a chair, get comfortable
A bench also works, you’ll be staying on this island for a while and that will definitely take a toll on you. Sitting on a chair will restore your energy, that’s the moon icon sitting on top of your stamina bar.
You never want that to go red as you’ll have more difficulty moving around, something you would never want while in the middle of the fighting.
#4 Navigate your guidebook
As per tradition, the game doesn’t really explain things to you in a clear manner. You might be tempted to click on the tabs to go through the blueprints available and just go, “What that’s it?”
What you should do is click on the labels at the bottom of the page to move on to the next.
Now you won’t think of how much content the game is lacking!
#5 Make use of Kelvin
Kelvin still has some of his mental faculties intact, take advantage of that by telling him to gather your fish. Build yourself a few drying racks nearby and tell him to drop anything he gets, it’s a better alternative compared to him stealing from your own wood supply.
#6 Eat raw fish
Think of it as sushi, you won’t get any negative effects from it until the devs say so. This is another reason why you would want Kelvin to keep fishing for you as it restores a sizeable amount of food and stamina.
Keep in mind that it’s raw fish you want to eat, not rotten!
#7 Check your notebook often
Check the list of commands you can give Kelvin every now and then, the more stuff you build around your camp, the more commands will be made available to you.
For example, if you build the container for your sticks you can tell an additional order to Kelvin to place it in the container that you just made instead of leaving it lying around. This applies to your rocks and wood supply too!
#8 Build shelves
Although your storage space is quite massive, it’s still limited. It’s good to go out of your way and wander aimlessly to get materials, you’ll need some of those for later. Just be sure to have extra storage space back at home to stow those items away for future use.
A great thing to have at your base are Shelves, just dump what you don’t need over and build another one when necessary!
#9 Follow the tips on your HUD
Soon as the game gives you full control of your character you’ll be given tasks and other pieces of useful information on the lower left of your screen.
Before you start terrorizing the locals it would be wise to read up on those tips as they’re quite useful to have! That and you really wouldn’t want them to hover down there for the rest of the game.
10. Make birdhouses
Building a birdhouse early on will supply you with feathers for your arrows. Place it against a wall and shoot down anything that lands on it in your free time for an unlimited supply of feathers.
To think that you only need 18 sticks to make something so broken useful.
11. Item Abuse
This can make or break your experience but it’s best to let you know so it doesn’t come off as a shocker later on. You can duplicate items in containers, how? By simply pitching a tent and sleeping next to the containers you wish to loot again.
This can be done inside the bunkers as well, provided you have a place to sleep. So now you’ll know what you need to do if you’re ever short on meds. It’s highly likely that this will get patched given that it’s just as broken as the treehouse.
12. Cross hostile areas to survive
The game is riddled with places you absolutely need to visit to get better gear. It’s a high risk, the high reward so doesn’t just go into a bunker empty-handed thinking that you’ll be able to yoink everything that isn’t glued to a shelf.
Bring meds and the most lethal weapon you can defend yourself with anytime you plan on paying the locals a visit.
13. Retreat when possible
Survival doesn’t mean going out of your way to murder everything that moves in the shadows, that’s just you being a homicidal maniac like everyone else on the island. If you have the slightest inkling that things aren’t going in your favor then start running, lose your tail, and live to fight another day.
14. Make use of Virginia
You’ll see her wandering the island on her own, don’t approach her with a weapon in your hand as she will simply run away at the mere sight of you. Let the game run, do your own thing for a few days and she’ll eventually go to your camp and get comfortable.
Now give her a pistol and watch her do unspeakable things with it. Also, she has unlimited ammo while wielding the shooter so if you don’t want that to go away then best make sure to keep her alive.
15. Do not fire until fired upon
Yeah, they’re always in the trees watching, but you’re never too sure of their intentions. Are they attacking, or just measuring? If your neighbors leave you alone, then simply do the same.
They’re just as wary of you as you are of them, maybe they’ll understand you better once you have a shotgun in your hand, but until then you might as well keep your distance.
16. Don’t die twice
The game can be quite forgiving, if one of the human meat enthusiasts ever gets the jump on you for the first time you’ll wake up at their camp. Most of the time you wake up with them far enough for you to be able to get your belongings and hightail it out of there.
Let this happen a second time and you’re gone for good, keep a save handy if you don’t want to lose too much of your progress.
17. Cut down a tree without dying
Since we’re on the topic of death we might as well talk about another factor that causes it, getting crushed by a tree. If you’re new to the game and have Minecraft in mind then you’ll be in for a rude awakening in the afterlife.
When cutting down trees you need to move in the opposite direction before you make your last hit, that way it will fall away from you or your base. This saves you the headache of having to rebuild more than once!
18. Turn off structure damage
If you want a more peaceful approach to building without having to go on full creative (something you won’t have access to at the beginning anyway) go to your options and turn off structure damage.
That way you don’t have to worry about trees falling into your log cabin, this only saves structures you built so don’t get any bright ideas of standing under one that’s about to collapse!
19. Location matters
Once the fear of getting eaten alive wears off you start considering other things. One of those would be choosing where to live until help arrives, if you happen to be the unlucky one who crashed in the mountain area then you should pack up and head down as soon as possible.
If you’re in the market for some island real estate, then give this guide a quick read to know some of the best spots the forest has to offer!
20. Follow the rivers
Rivers have always been an important aid when it comes to traveling, especially in the olden days when roads aren’t readily available. These rivers can have an enormous effect on how you move about on the island as most landmarks and points of interest never really stray too far from them.
This is especially true for the western side of the island. If you wish to visit these places without getting lost then consider looking at the Sons of the Forest interactive map to see just how much stuff you can find that’s sitting next to a river.
Now go out there and explore before the sun sets!
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