While in its Early Access period, Sons of the Forest is getting regular updates for bug fixes, story progression, and new items and features. One of these features is the ability to lock doors after placing them on a log cabin or base shelter. Locked doors will help keep out visiting cannibals as they try to knock down logs and break into shelters.
The building mechanics are similar to The Forest, but they added more customization and free building features. Players can use one of the blueprints to add materials or use the Survivalist Handbook as a guide to place walls, floors, roofs, and more. They can place a door and lock for protection whenever they have an enclosed building, but there isn't much clear guidance on how to add one. So, here's how to add a lock to a door and use it in Sons of the Forest.
How to Lock Doors in Sons of the Forest
Before experimenting with locks, players must build a shelter and add a door. The blueprints have one log cabin, but anything more extensive must be manually conceptualized. Of course, a stick and a tarp can be used to make a tent, but they offer no protection and are not sturdy. Furthermore, the longer players stay alive on the island, the more cannibals start to appear, and they get significantly more hostile. Even worse, the cave mutants will start traveling above ground once they reach about ten or more days.
Logs are needed to build and must be farmed from the surrounding trees by cutting them down. Multiple axes are hidden around the island, but the chainsaw is the most efficient way to chop down trees. It is battery-powered and slices through them the fastest. Players can also recruit the help of their AI companion Kelvin to gather material like logs, sticks, and rocks, although he is a lot slower and buggy at times.
The player character (PC) can carry up to two logs at a time or use a zipline to send them wherever they want. After building the desired shelter and placing a door on it, players can now add a lock. To add a lock, equip a stick and approach the door.
An arrow pointing to the right will appear, indicating to place the stick by right-clicking. Players will know they did it successfully when the stick is attached with a lock icon above it. Doors can only be locked or unlocked from the outside.
How to Reinforce Doors
Cannibals cannot unlock doors, but those who want even more protection can add reinforcements to their entrances to give them more time to fight off or run from the cannibals. The cannibals are automatically programmed to start tearing down any structures, so they might even ignore players for a moment to get to the building. Reinforcing a door will require at least three logs.
Place one of the logs against the wall on the right or left side of the door. There will be a guiding dotted arrow when close enough with a log in hand. Then, place the second log on the other side in the same spot. Finally, use the third log by splitting it in half and placing the blank across the door logs. Players can do only one or fill it in entirely, but they must manually remove the planks to get by them.
Sons of the Forest is available now in early access for PC.