Sons of the Forest Beginner's Guide: Emergency Pack, Kelvin, First Shelter and Saving

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1. Choose the difficulty deliberately When you start a new game you pick a difficulty. Peaceful removes enemies and leaves exploration and building. Normal is the intended experience. According to the wiki, the later Hard Survival mode has fewer food spawns and animals; it's not recommended for a first run.
2. Open the emergency pack Once you're out of the wreck, pick up the Emergency Pack and open it in your inventory. The community wiki lists its contents as a tactical axe, GPS tracker, lighter, guide book and walkie talkie. These are core tools for the whole game; the axe chops trees and defends you.
3. Help Kelvin up Kelvin survives the crash and lies injured near the wreck; go over and help him. He lost his hearing and speech in the crash, so you give him written orders through a notepad: follow me, fetch logs/sticks/stones, build a fire, build a shelter, clear an area and so on.
4. Give Kelvin his first job Tell Kelvin to gather sticks and stones, then logs. The wiki notes he can carry two logs at a time and can finish blueprints you place from the guide book. He gathers materials while you focus on food and exploring.
5. Pick flat ground near water For your first base choose a flat spot near the shore or a lake. Water, fish and travel all get easier. A very exposed beach makes you easy for cannibals to spot; the edge of a wooded area is safer.
6. Build a shelter and fire from the guide book Open the guide book with B, pick a fire and a simple shelter from the prefab structures and place them. The blueprint appears as a see-through ghost; add the required materials and the structure completes. Light the fire with your lighter; you need it to warm up, dry off and cook.
7. Learn how to save The game doesn't save constantly. According to the wiki you save or sleep by interacting with a tarp tent, hunting shelter, stick bed or the tents found in camps, and sleeping and saving are separate options. Save as soon as your first tent is up.
8. Open the GPS and explore Open the GPS with M. Kelvin shows up as a K and points of interest are marked. In the first days, skip distant caves and explore nearby camps and the coast instead; gather food, medicine and materials.

• Get more out of every treeA felled tree gives logs, and your axe can split a log into halves, quarters and planks. In the Custom Buildings system you use these pieces for walls, floors and roofs. With prefab blueprints the game usually handles the splitting for you.
• Strength comes from hard workThe wiki says strength goes up to level 100, with each level adding 2 percent max health and 1 percent melee damage. Swinging an axe and lifting logs raise it; walking and building don't. Don't leave all the chopping to Kelvin early on.
• Don't sleep in the openAccording to the wiki, sleeping somewhere unsecured can get you woken by a cannibal search party or a mutant horde. The game only treats a spot as safe when it's fully enclosed by defensive walls. It won't let you sleep with hostiles nearby.
• Sleep skips timeSleeping restores energy and cures sickness but moves the clock forward about 13 hours. Higher comfort means more energy restored, and sleeping indoors beats sleeping outside.
• Don't stay wetBeing wet makes you vulnerable to the cold. Standing by a fire or carrying a torch dries and warms you fast. Start looking for warm clothing and stockpiling food before winter arrives.
• Be careful what you eat and drinkAccording to the wiki, unclean water, spoiled or unhealthy food and poisonous plants make you sick, and sickness lowers your max health. Check an unfamiliar plant's info in your inventory before eating it, and always cook meat.
• Don't spook VirginiaVirginia is wary at first and trust comes slowly. The wiki says the developers compare her to an independent cat: kind, non-threatening behaviour makes her warm to you, and she starts bringing gifts. Scare her and she runs; if she's killed she's removed from the save for good.
• Mark places with GPS locatorsGPS Locators you find on the island can be attached to a stick to mark your base, cave entrances or resource spots on the map. The wiki notes that giving one to Virginia makes her position appear on the GPS too.
• Don't charge into cannibalsIn early encounters cannibals may watch you from a distance. Taking on a large group alone is the fastest way to an early death. Keep a tree or wall at your back, block with right click and plan your escape route in advance.
• Set up your backpack for quick accessHolding I opens the backpack quick select, letting you reach frequently used items without opening the full inventory. Put your axe, food and meds there; it saves time in a pinch.

• Going a long time without saving: the game doesn't save all the time, so playing for hours without a tent can wipe out your progress with one death.
• Hitting Kelvin by accident: swinging your axe wildly in a crowded fight hurts your companion.
• Building your base somewhere exposed: a base in the middle of a beach sits on cannibal patrol routes and gets frequent visitors.
• Entering caves unprepared: without light, meds and food it's easy to get lost and run into mutants.
• Not preparing for winter: when the cold sets in food gets scarce and staying warm becomes a problem; stockpile in autumn.
• Acting threatening around Virginia: a startled Virginia keeps her distance and the friendship starts over.

This guide was written for version: This guide reflects the current version as of September 2026. Keys are the default PC bindings and can be changed in the settings menu. Numbers come from the community wiki and may change with updates.

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