Survival Basics – Sons of the Forest

As is to be expected in a survival crafting title, survival is a key aspect of Sons of the Forest. Whether its finding food and water, creating shelter, or simply getting some rest, you’ll have to know how to take care of your basic needs in order to survive more than a day or two on the island. In this guide, we’ll go over all the basics of staying alive in Sons of the Forest.

Basic Needs

There are 3 basic needs in sons of the forest: Water, Food, and Sleep. These are all represented in the bottom right corner of your screen, above the minimap. (The other two icons to the left are for stealth and strength, respectively, and function somewhat differently.)

Over time, the three basic needs meters will deplete. To fill them, you’ll naturally need to drink water, eat food, and rest. While the first two tasks are simple conceptually, it isn’t always immediately clear how to find water or food. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered there:

• How to Get Food
• How to Get Water

Water can be drank straight from a river or lake, and food can generally be eaten where you find it — both are done by holding / / . If you have food or water you’ve previously collected, you can go into your inventory (/ ) and consume it by pressing /. Some foods need to be cooked before consumption (see our guide on food for details on cooking). While you can eat raw meat, it won’t fill you up as much, and you’ll lose some health in the process.

Sleep is a bit more involved, but only slightly — you’ll need to create some kind of shelter in order to rest. At the start of the game you can find a tarp at the crash site. Go into your inventory and pan to the upper right to find the tarp (1), then equip it with /. Place it on the ground with the same button, then equip a stick. Look at a corner of the tarp and you’ll see a white arrow pointing upwards (2) — press /to place the stick, propping up the edge of the tarp. That done, you’ll now be able to both rest and save by pressing the indicated button below each icon (3).

You can also build a larger/more complex shelter if you so choose. It doesn’t affect your rest of provide any benefits, but it can be fun!

• How to Build a House

How Basic Needs Affect Your Character

Currently, there are no serious consequences for being hungry or thirsty. There are a few effects, however:

• Low Hunger/Thirst meters will cause your Rest meter to drain more rapidly
• Low Hunger/Thirst/Rest meters will lower your maximum Stamina

You can see your current maximum Stamina by inspecting the right half of the ring around the minimap (1). The lighter blue color represents your current stamina you have available — the darker blue is missing maximum stamina due to your basic needs not being met.

Sprinting, swinging your axe, and other actions can deplete your current stamina. You can see your stamina being depleted by observing the inner section of your stamina bar becoming dark blue (2).

We hope this guide on basic survival in Sons of the Forest was helpful! Drop us a line in the comments below if you have any questions or suggestions.