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A strong home front is among the most important things in the terrifying survival game Sons of the Forest. Players are at the mercy of nature, mutant cannibals, and a mysterious group of researchers. Initially traveling to the island as part of a rescue team, they are immediately thrown into an unpredictable and chaotic environment where they have to get food, water, and shelter. They must also keep an eye out for cannibals that have multiple camps in the forest and hostile intentions.
Setting up a base is incredibly important because it's how players sleep and save their game. A shelter can look like many different things. It can be something as rudimentary as a tarp tent or a more complex building. Players can build all kinds of things to make their life on the island feel less dangerous and give themselves the most protection.
A few things to remember when setting up a base shelter: the location, the building layout, and customization. After crash landing on the island, players can explore freely to scope out the perfect location, decide what they want and figure out what they need to make it happen.
Building requires dedication since gathering the materials and placing them is done manually, but it's worth the trouble for those who want a home away from home while they're stuck on the island. So this guide includes some tips, tricks, and suggestions for how to build the best base shelter in Sons of the Forest.
Choose a Safe Location
Choosing a good location is the first thing that needs to happen when building a home base. Traits of the best base location include open space with good visibility, near necessary resources, and being secluded from cannibal camps.
Setting up in the first flat space near the helicopter crash may be tempting, but the crash site attracts the island natives. The same can be said for many areas marked on the map, such as the purple GPS locators and the green vehicle trackers.
The forest is massive, so plenty of places work well for bases. Forest clearings, snowy mountains, or beach shores are the safest options for visibility. The cannibals thrive in heavily wooded areas as they can hide and use the trees to travel around. They also set up their camps almost exclusively within the forest, and having a base too close will attract unwanted attention.
Players should also try and build a base near a freshwater source. Hunger, thirst, and energy naturally deplete as they move around, and maintaining them is vital for good stamina. In addition, the rivers can provide water and food, so having one within at least a few minutes of walking saves time. Also, being somewhat close to abandoned camps is helpful because cases and resources all respawn after a few days.
Gather Supplies in Bulk
While technically, all players need to build a useable shelter is a tarp and a stick, there are so many options to create something larger or more secure. However, these more complex building projects require lots of materials such as logs, sticks, rocks, and even bones, which can be gathered by burning dead cannibals.
Sticks and stones can be picked up almost anywhere on the island, but logs will have to be cut down one by one using the forest trees. This process is much faster while playing with others in a multiplayer server or with the help of the AI companion, Kelvin.
Sons of the Forest has a far more complex and ever-learning AI system for the enemy and companion characters. Kelvin is with players from the beginning being the only other surviving member of the rescue team. He is a loyal helper and can be commanded to pick up rocks and sticks and even cut down trees for logs. However, be careful to protect him from attacking cannibals, as he can die, and no game mechanic can resurrect him.
There is also a way to make gathering logs faster by using the rope gun and ziplines. The rope gun, along with rope and grappling hooks, will shoot out a zipline wherever players want to place it. Then, they can put logs on them and slide down the logs to the end of the zipline in a perfect pile.
The rope gun is found deep within one of the cave systems in the forest on the west side, and rope and grappling hooks can be picked up in campsites.
Build a Defensive Wall
A defensive wall goes a long way to slow down the cannibals. Staying in one spot for too long anywhere in the forest guarantees enemy attacks or, at the very least, an investigation. Creating a solid perimeter around the base shelter can deter the cannibals from ambushing. Of course, this doesn't keep them out entirely because they will tear down the walls if they try hard enough, but it significantly helps.
There are a couple of options for a defensive wall. The obvious one is building a wall of spikes. The spikes prevent average and small cannibals from simply jumping over the fence, although they can push the logs over.
Players can access instructions for a spiked wall in the survival handbook by clicking "B." They will place logs side by side and chop the tips into sharp spikes using an axe.
The other option is to build a standard wall with a foundation. This takes a lot more logs and time to do but creates a stronger defensive wall that can't be torn down as quickly. Players must start by laying logs down flat in the shape they want their perimeter to be and then stacking more logs on top with vertical supports between wall sections. These walls can also be built higher up than the spiked wall.
Reference the Build Blueprints
The survival handbook has two modes. The first contains instructions and guides on how to build individual things such as stairs, walls, doors, etc. The second mode has actual blueprints for things that can be placed and then filled with the needed materials to build the structure automatically. This includes small houses, lookout towers, tree houses, traps, furniture, and light sources.
The blueprints make building much easier when players are first getting started, as it does a lot of the hard thinking for them. They can also use it to make benches, chairs, and even a bed which can be used to save and sleep just like a tarp tent.
Rock, stick, bone storages, and animal traps are also included in the blueprints for players running out of space in their inventory. Even decorative options like pathways and torches can be placed to spruce the base up and make it feel homier.
Kelvin can also help with blueprint builds. A specific command option to "Finish Building Structure" makes him gather and place the proper materials when a blueprint is set. Just make sure to give him a break occasionally so he stays motivated to help.
Learn How to Custom Build
The blueprints are helpful and necessary for some things, but players should not limit themselves to them. There are many ways to customize a base shelter using free building mechanics since the blueprints are set in stone and can't be edited. Although, the designs found can be used as a point of reference for ideas and then expanded upon.
For example, manually build the blueprint for the lookout tower and include wanted customization like making it higher or adding a small defensive wall instead of placing the blueprint for the lookout tower.
Players can also make multi-level cabins and fortresses by learning how to free-build. There are endless possibilities regarding what you can build in Sons of the Forest, so trying new things and getting creative will yield surprising results.
Sons of the Forest is available now in early access for PC.