Sons of The Forest was released in the last week of February, and there’s a lot of hype about this game in the gaming community. This survival horror game is rated 9/10 on Steam, and it sold 2 million copies in a single day.
The game, also known as “The Forest 2,” is a masterpiece that is perfect for anyone with a decked-out PC. You will need to have a GTX 1060 3GB or higher (recommended) to run the game.
With that said, be sure to grab some Steam Wallet Codes from OffGamers before diving into this game.
In this guide on Sons of The Forest, we’re going to share tips and tricks to increase your survivability in Sons of the Forest 2.
Sons of The Forest Tips and Tricks to Play Like a Pro
Master the Art of Regaining Health
You need to survive. If you can’t master the art of regenerating your health, good luck trying to beat The Forest 2. Regaining your health is possible in a few ways:
- Health mixes
- Medicine
- Food
When you’re in a pinch and don’t have time to wait for your health to regenerate, you’ll want to use health mixes and medicine to survive. However, if you’re near a cave or a relatively safe area, eat food.
Food will take a while to regenerate your health, but it’s worth the effort because you want to keep your stockpile of health mixes and medicines for as long as you can.
What happens if you’re low on all health regeneration items?
Use armor. Armor is found all over and is easy to replace. If you have a choice of regenerating health or using armor, be sure to use armor. You’ll easily find armor that will keep you alive.
Save Games by Using the Tarp
Now, you’ve mastered surviving, but you will die eventually. The entire game revolves around survival, which means that you’ll die a lot. Don’t lose the progress that you’ve made by dying and forgetting to save.
Use your tarp to save the game.
If you left your tarp at your base, go and get it. The tarp and two sticks are all you need to be able to make camp and save the game. At your base, build a structure that you can return to instead of just leaving the tarp setup.
Pro tip: Tarps will always allow you to save the game. However, if you’re camping near enemies, you’ll lose the ability to sleep. Clearing out enemies first is always a good idea if you plan on sleeping in the tent, but for those moments when you have to go AFK, a tarp will allow you to save and hop back on when you have time.
Kelvin is an Asset – Use Him
Kelvin is a lifesaver, and a lot of gamers are overlooking his importance in the game. He can save you a ton of time – seriously. When you’re in the middle of the game and don’t want to waste the precious time that you have to collect any of the following, Kelvin can help:
- Fish
- Logs
- Rocks
- Sticks
You can make use of Kelvin for these tasks, but there’s something that we overlooked at first. Initially, when we logged back into the game, we thought that Kelvin would go right back to collecting items for us.
We were wrong.
When you log back into the game, you need to give Kelvin new tasks, or he will just keep waiting for you to give him orders. Keeping Kelvin busy will save you a lot of time that is often wasted collecting things.
Don’t Be Afraid to Blow Things Up or Throw Them
You’re surviving longer, using Kelvin the right way, but you also need to fight your way through the forest. Throwing items are powerful, and you need to make sure that you use them at the right time.
The following throwables are perfect for larger groups of enemies or those times when you’re stuck and can’t run away:
- Grenades
- Molotov’s
- Flares
Explosives are the way to go for larger groups of difficult enemies that are too overwhelming for you to kill in any other way.
Boost Attacks with Manual Labor
Hunger, thirst and tiredness are something everyone alive has experienced at some point. Your character will also experience these things. However, just like you, your character will have strength, which is indicated by the muscle arm icon at the bottom of the screen.
You can increase your strength meter, allowing you to hit much harder when you use a melee weapon.
Just like in real life, if you engage in manual labour, you’ll benefit from stronger muscles. You can boost your strength in the game in a few ways:
- Haul logs
- Chop trees
- Etc.
Make Extensive Use of Caves
Caves are great places to explore. Open up your GPS and familiarize yourself with the markers on the map. Green markers are your story quests, but in your quest to find the billionaire, you’ll also want to explore caves.
Entrance markers on the map are often caves, which are often filled with unique items, such as:
- Rope guns
- Shovels
- Keycards
- Other items
You will need to have a flashlight to make your way around the cave.
Wait to Put on the Fancy Golden Armor
Want to equip the golden armor? You might want to think twice before you do. The armor doesn’t offer any defence or survivability, so it looks great, but it’s really only meant for when you’re close to beating the game.
Learn What to Build in the Guide Book
The guide book is with you from the start of the game, but it’s easy to overlook when you’re exploring a fun environment. Tap “B” to open the book. Inside the book, you’ll find a wealth of information about the structures that you can build.
You’ll want to flip through the guide with both your left and right hands to learn about the complex structures that you can make in Forest 2.
Maintain Ammo Stores
Ammo is important and scarce. One major mistake that people make is that they overuse the ammo that they collect. Unfortunately, if you have no ammo, you won’t live long. Melee attacks can help you conserve your ammunition so that when you need to defend yourself against a slew of enemies, you can.
In fact, you should try to avoid using ammo by:
- Leveraging melee attacks
- Sneaking by enemies
One way to conserve ammo is to do preemptive damage to enemies, which leads us to our next tip.
Making Use of Traps
Making your base is a ton of fun. You get to choose the location, ideally near water, and you will use your base as a place to save. However, you also need to protect your “home” because enemies will continue to try and infiltrate it.
So, what can you do because you won’t survive long if you don’t venture away from the area? Trap everything.
You want to place traps all around your base. The goal is to damage mutants before they reach you so that you have an easier time killing them. We like encircling bases with traps because it covers the most surface and will give you a little warning before enemies arrive.
Winter is Harsh
Imagine winter where you live. If it snows and is frigid, you’ll find that food doesn’t grow, animals are seen less frequently, and the weather is harsh. The Forest 2 has harsh winters that you need to be prepared to survive.
How can you live through the winter?
Stockpile the resources that you come across. Winter in the game only lasts for a few days, but you need to be prepared. Having a wealth of resources will allow you to get through the winter months and enhance your chances of survival.
Practice Stealth
Are you used to being stealthy? If not, you need to practice stealth to survive in this game. Additionally, if you can stealth around, you can catch mutants off guard for a surprise attack.
Don’t have the weapons you need to kill enemies?
Sneak past mutants.
Not only can you use this tactic on cannibals and mutants, but you can also sneak up on animals. When you need easy resources, sneak up on an animal and go in for the kill.
Keep Looting Everything You See
Survival games are meant to be difficult. After all, if you’re overloaded with loot, the game becomes much easier. Sons of The Forest has very few resources, and you need to be on the lookout for them from the start of the game.
Make it a point to:
- Scout out all of the areas around you at the start of the game
- Loot any and all items that you find
As a bonus, when you’re at the crash site, be sure to look at everything that you can. You’ll find crates and travel cases scattered about. Loot all of these items because the cannibals will increase in intensity after the first day or two in the game.
Some of the items that are especially helpful to loot are rope, meds, energy bars and a can opener.
Assign Hotkeys
Hotkeys make your reaction time much faster. Anyone who plays PC games competitively will tell you that hot keys give you a major advantage. Sons of the Forest allows you to:
- Hold “I” to bring up your inventory
- Press “E” to pick up an item
- Hold “E” to consume an item
- Press “G” to drop items in your hand
Assign hotkeys to specific items.
For example, let’s assume that you want to swap a weapon. Opening up your inventory is an incredibly inefficient means of swapping weapons while you’re surrounded by enemies. Instead, assign a hotkey to your slingshot, machete, katana or any other weapon that you have.
You can assign hotkeys by following these steps:
- Open up your inventory
- Hover the item
- Tap the hotkey that you want to assign
We found it exceptionally useful to assign keys for melee and ranged weapons. If you’re hacking people with your katana and then notice someone in the distance, it’s a lot faster to set a group of hotkeys for all of these individual weapons.
Even if you’re bad at using hotkeys, give it some time and you’ll love the flexibility that it gives you in Forest 2.
Your Base Should be Near A Water Resource
Your first base is crucial to your survival, but you don’t have a lot of experience in the game just yet. The single biggest mistake new players make is that they do not set up their base properly.
Where should you set up your base? By the water.
Fresh water is one of the most important aspects of your survival. Sure, you can drink the water to survive, but you can also escape in the water, too. Enemies cannot swim in deep water, but you can. If you find yourself in trouble, swim away from your enemies.
Try to Gain Access to the 3D Printer ASAP
Exploration will help you stay alive, especially if you find the 3D printer. You’ll want to open your GPS map and go to the marked caves until you locate the printer. Once you find the printer, you’ll be able to begin crafting.
A few of the awesome items that will help you stay alive when fending off cannibals are:
- Masks
- Sled
- Tech mesh
In the first couple of days of game time, be sure to find the printer and collect any resin you find along the way because you’ll need it to print items out. Trust us, access to the printer will help you fight off dangerous cannibals that increase after a day or two in-game.
Sons of the Forest is an amazing experience for fans of survival games. You’ll need to flex your macro skills to survive. We do recommend that you hop on Twitch or YouTube for updates on the game and playthroughs if you’re having problems.
The community is going crazy about The Forest 2, and you’ll find a lot of great tips from awesome players on these platforms.
