In Sons of the Forest, the sooner you get started with collecting resources, crafting recipes, and building yourself an epic base and shelter, the better chances you'll have of surviving. For that reason, we've put together a list of essential tips and tricks to get you off to a good start.

Looking for something in particular? You can use the links below to jump quickly to each section:

• General Tips and Tricks
• Tips for Exploring
• Crafting and Cooking Tips and Tricks
• Combat Tips and Tricks

General Gameplay Tips and Tricks

• There's fall damage.
• If you see a cluster of suitcases, be sure to open them! Suitcases will often contain essential loot that you would normally need to craft. Tape, arrows, food packs, and medicine can all be found inside, so get looting from the start!

• When it comes to edible items, green is safe, and red is to be avoided. When you first find things that are edible, you'll see a question mark above the item. If you eat or pick everything the first time you see it, and the next time you encounter them, they'll show up either green or red.

• Avoid combat when you first begin the game. You'll have a bit of time before the cannibals start to get aggressive and turn up in packs, so for the first day or so, let them check you out but don't initiate combat. This gives you time to explore and collect resources relatively undisturbed.
• Craft the Red Mask using the 3D Printer to put this over your face and stop cannibals attacking. Put it over your face before you go towards their camps, and they should leave you alone.
• When you die for the first time, you'll find yourself tied up in a cannibal encampment. Wait until they disperse, then grab your knife, free yourself and grab your stuff. Loot the camp, then get out of there! The cannibals will stalk you for a bit, but the AI is adaptive to your actions, so unless you outwardly attack them, they shouldn't give you too much trouble at the start.

• If you die in a cave, this will be different. You'll wake up in a sac and need to cut yourself out. But you'll be inside a cave still when you wake up.
• Use Quick Pack to equip items faster. You no longer need to fully open the crafting mat to equip items. Just hold the inventory button to open your Quick Pack for faster item equipping. Tap I (or the inventory button) to open the entire crafting mat, and also swap items in and out of your backpack.

• When crafting, it's easy to see what items cannot be combined. When you place something on your pack to combine it with other items, you'll quickly know what items can't be combined with the item you chose. Black bars will appear over all the ineligible items.

• GPS locators can be combined with sticks to make your own markers. As you explore the forest, you'll find GPS locators. Place a stick in the ground first (without snapping it), then attach the GPS locator.
• Make the most of your AI companion. When you start the game, you'll wake up, get your essentials and survival pack, then need to go over to Kelvin to help him up. After this, use your little notepad to instruct Kelvin on what to do. Have him help collect resources, bring them to you, and even craft fires.

• You can quickly check what you can currently craft. When you open your crafting mat, and there's a red exclamation mark on the cog, this means there are recipes you're able to craft. A number will tell you how many recipes are available to craft, from the items you have, and even better, if you hover over the cog, it'll tell you the exact recipes you can craft.

• Fire spreads in Sons of the Forest, so be careful where you create one. Near some leaves? If you place a fire down, it's going to spread. Although, this can be useful if there are cannibals and mutants around.
• Kelvin's commands are sometimes situational. For example, if he is near a fish source, the option for him to collect fish will be in his list of commands, but won't be if you're not near a fish spawn area. Another example is, if you've been hunting with arrows, or just finished a battle with cannibals where you used arrows, you can command Kelvin to run around and collect all of your loose arrows that are just sitting on the ground.
• Winter first starts on day 10. When you get started in the game, you'll want to prepare for this. It ends on Day 15 and if you don't feel like facing it, you can sleep through it to skip.
• Get the Winter Jacket before winter arrives and stock up on Dried Meat, Dried Fish, Animal Hide, and Non-perishable food.
• When you are freezing and wet, warm yourself up with a Torch. No campfire is necessary.
• Virginia and Kelvin will warn you when there's danger about. They'll both point but Virginia will also make noise
• Enemies unaware of your presence can be lured by throwing a Small Rock in the area. This can help set up an attack or assist with sneaking past them.

Exploration Tips and Tricks

• You can zoom in and out on your map. Press the middle mouse button, to see more of the map, or zoom in to show you exactly where a cave entrance is.

• GPS locators will beep rapidly as you get close to them. The more frequent the beeping, the closer you are to a GPS locator.
• Use a torch when you venture inside a cave. All you need to craft a torch is a stick and a piece of cloth. Having a torch inside a cave will illuminate much more than the little lighter will, and proves doubly useful if you're ambushed by an enemy.
• Leave no wooden crate unopened. When exploring Cannibal camps, you'll find resources hidden inside wooden crates that must be broken open with the likes of your axe.
• There are two caves on the map that are on either side of the mountain. These are just frozen caves, without any danger, and filled with resources.
• Running with the GPS Tracker out will make it wobble all over the place. Equip something else in your right hand, to keep the map steady.
• Need a better angle for your Zipline to carry you over a gap or slight incline, but there are no trees around? If where you want to go is within the Throwing Range of a Crafted Spear, try planting a stick in the ground by your feet and then throw the Crafted Spear so it sticks up out of the ground where you want to go. Attach a Zipline between your Stick and your Crafted Spear for a better chance to get over some troublesome gaps. However, keep in mind this trick may not work in many locations, and may result in accidents if your Zipline runs too close to obstacles or terrain.

Crafting and Cooking Tips and Tricks

• Press X to switch building modes. This allows you to either quick build or use pre-built structures.

• You can quick build, basic things in real-time like tents and fires. You can just place a tarp down, then equip a stick to make a quick shelter. Alternatively, you can snap some sticks to make a fire.
• Kelvin can clear the space around you when you're making your base.
• The more sticks you break, the bigger the fire.
• Add stones to reinforce your fire further.
• Eating meat that's fully cooked is better than raw meat. Throw it onto the fire, then let the meat darken. This will give you a bigger boost and keep hunger at bay much longer than raw meat will.
• When you want to craft multiple of one item, drop a bunch of ingredients on the crafting table. For example, if you want to craft a lot of Stone arrows, place all the sticks, stones, and arrows you have on the crafting table, that way you can just keep clicking the cog wheel until you've either maxed out on arrows or are out of materials.
• Modern Axe, Katana, or any cleaving melee weapon can kill many grouped fish all in a single swing

Combat Tips and Tricks

• Killing mutants gives you plenty of creepy armor. When you kill mutants, you can skin them and get creepy armor. Equip as much as you can, and the armor bar will appear showing you how much protection you have.

• You can also mix and match different types of armor.
• If you're in danger and need to heal, you can pause time (in single-player). Open the crafting menu, take meds, and just wait for your health bar to restore fully before getting back into a fight.
• Changing your ammo type when using the bow requires you to look down at the ground. Once you've done this, then you can swap between ammo types.
• You can use logs to damage enemies.
• After pulling the pin out of your Grenade, you can hold the live Grenade until you're ready to throw it. You can also Cancel your throw by pressing G on PC and the grenade will go back into your inventory.
• Some weapons will let you Parry melee attacks with a well-timed tap of the Block Button. When successful, the enemy will become vulnerable to your next attack, briefly
• Aim for the legs. Most bipedal enemies will either be crippled, staggered, or killed by shots (or repeated shots) to the leg, Works great with retrievable projectiles like arrows and crossbow bolts.
• A full set of Leaf Armor improves stealth when crouching, making it easier to hide from cannibals, sneak past them, or sneak up on them for the perfect silent arrow headshot. But be careful because Leaf Armor doesn't offer much in the way of armor, so be sure to have a defensive armor in your inventory you can switch to if you are spotted.
• You can also use Leaf Armor to make it easier to sneak up on prey like the skittish deer. You will be able to get closer to them before they notice you take your shot
• Enemies leave tracks in the snow, making it easy to find them if they flee.
• Need a shotgun and Pistol to arm Virginia with, but still need weapons for yourself? Just give Virginia your shotgun and pistol, then go collect another shotgun and pistol again from the same places you got them before. The guns will respawn each time you load your save file.