Summary
- Sons Of The Forest offers atmospheric horror & exploration in a unique survival game experience.
- Free-form exploration is player-directed, with important gear found in specific caves across the map.
- Key locations like Rebreather Cave & Maintenance Bunkers offer crucial tools needed for survival.
Sons Of The Forest is Endnight Games’ sequel to their popular survival game with a supernatural twist. The sequel doubles down on the atmospheric horror and tense, risk-reward exploration that the first game established, and it’s a must-play game for survival fans. Even with many games adopting survival-crafting loops, Sons Of The Forest manages to be a unique proposition in a crowded genre.
Exploration is free-form and mostly player-directed in Sons Of The Forest. The player is given little to start with, apart from a few GPS points on the map to investigate. There’s a lot of useful gear to be found that can help with further exploration, traversal, and survival, and the order that players find these tools can matter a lot.
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The large and obvious purple GPS markers that start the game on the player’s map have useful items, but many vital locations aren’t as signposted. For players who want an overview of the best places to get a variety of useful tools, these are the best locations to explore in Sons Of The Forest, excluding most story-related locations and Purple GPS markers.
1
Rebreather Cave
Underwater Exploration
Location:
- Northernmost part of the map, near the Northern Beach spawn point
Loot:
- Rebreather
- Stun Gun
- Leather Jacket
- Artifact Piece
The Rebreather is an important piece of gear to pick up, allowing for additional exploration opportunities in a lot of caves and other significant areas. The cave where it’s found also contains a Stun Gun, which can be useful early in the game, and some other loot pieces. Players should also make sure to find the laptop with the coordinates for the Entertainment Bunker here, as they’ll need them later.
If players spawn at the Northern spawn point by the coast, then the cave with all this gear is just to the south of that beach. If players have a different spawn, they’ll have to trek up to the northernmost beach on the Northern part of the map (slightly northwest of center) to find the cave.
2
Rope Gun Cave
Traversal Tools
Location:
- Central Western part of the map, North of and near the spawn point there
Loot:
- Rope Gun
- Cross
- Timed Explosives
The Rope Gun is a handy traversal tool, and a required pick-up for exploring certain later locations fully. This cave in the Western part of the map that contains it also gets players the Cross, an unusual weapon that is very effective for fighting demons, but not much else.
There are also some minor loot items like timed explosives in the cave, and to explore the area fully and access the Rope Gun, players will need to destroy a Sluggy (a creepy flailing arm enemy) blocking the way. The cave is near the center of the Western part of the map, not far North of the spawn point in that region.
3
Shovel Cave
Essential Gear
Location:
- Along the Northwest river from the mountain spawn point, central part of the map
Loot:
- Sling Shot
- Shovel
- Wetsuit
- Weapon Flashlight
For those who haven’t played Sons Of The Forest, they might be questioning the importance of exploring to find a single shovel. The item is far more valuable than it appears, though, as players will want it to access some even better loot later on. This cave also contains some other significant items, including the Sling Shot, found right at the entrance.
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To explore this cave fully, players will need the Rope Gun and the Rebreather, and it’s worth going all the way through, as players can find a very useful weapon flashlight attachment, a laptop with the coordinates for Maintenance Bunker A, and, of course, the shovel. The cave is easy to find if players follow the Northwestern-most river coming from the mountain in the Western part of the map. It’s also near the mountain spawn point.
4
Food Bunker
Supply Store
Location:
- Northwestern part of the map, in the center of that region
Loot:
- Food & Harvestable Items
- Crossbow
- VIP Keycard
The Food Bunker contains just what players would expect: a lot of food items, as well as a hydroponics farm with some harvestable food items like blueberries. There’s also a Crossbow to be found, which can come in handy, and players can find a VIP Keycard here, which is needed to access items later in the Residential Bunker.
The coordinates for the Residential Bunker can be found on the laptop in this Bunker as well. The Food Bunker is found in the center of the Northwestern part of the map, but to get in, players will need to visit Maintenance Bunker A first to get the relevant keycard. The coordinates to mark the Food Bunker on the map are also found at Bunker A.
5
Entertainment Bunker
3D Printer And A Lot Of Loot
Location:
- Western part of the map, a little way inland from the Northwestern beach
Loot:
- Guest Keycard
- Electric Chainsaw
- Shotgun Rail
- Guitar
The Entertainment Bunker has some nice loot, as well as a vital keycard needed for some other Bunker access points. There’s also a 3D printer here, although it’s not the only one that players can find. Players will need the maintenance keycard from Bunker A to get all the way in, and once inside, they can find the Guest keycard, which opens more doors here and in other Bunkers.
That’s how players will get hold of the shotgun rail (needed to add attachments to the shotgun) and the electric chainsaw. The Entertainment Bunker can be found in the Western part of the map, a little way inland from the northwestern-most beach in that region (grab the coordinates from the Rebreather Cave to mark it on the map).
6
Cultist Cave
Danger Hole
Location:
- Located under the map’s central mountain, entrances on the East and West
Loot:
- Rifle
- Ancient Armor
- Artifact Pieces
Players will want to go to the Cultist Cave at some point, and it’s an interesting location to explore for several reasons. It’s the largest and most intricate cave system on the map, situated underneath the central mountain and spanning nearly its whole width and length. It contains some nice loot, including the Rifle, the Ancient Armor, and two artifact pieces, but it’s also one of the most dangerous caves to fully explore.
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Players should only venture in once they’re comfortable fighting multiple mutant and demon enemies, and note that they’ll need the Rebreather to get all the way through. The cave system has two entrances on the Eastern and Western sides of the mountain, situated fairly centrally near the lakes on both sides.
7
Maintenance Bunkers A, B, C
Loot Bunkers
Location:
- Northwest, Northeast, and Southwest of the map (coordinates can be found in-game)
Loot:
- Silencer
- Laser Sight
- Revolver
- Firefighter Axe
- Compound Bow
The Bunkers all have some great loot to find, and Maintenance Bunker A in particular needs to be visited to get the maintenance keycard, a necessary step in the keycard chain for fully unlocking all the Bunkers. Bunker A also has the Firefighter’s Axe and a Laser Sight attachment, while Bunker B contains a Compound Bow and a Silencer, and Bunker C has the Revolver.
To get into any of the Maintenance Bunkers, players will need the Shovel. The Bunkers are in the Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest parts of the map, and their coordinates can be found in the Shovel Cave (A), Entertainment Bunker (B), and Maintenance Bunker B (C).
8
Residential Bunker
Nipon Steel
Location:
- Eastern part of the map, Eastern shore of the large lake
Loot:
- Katana
- Pistol
- Space Suit
- Luxury Bunker Access
The Residential Bunker is a location that any player who wants to get to the end of the game will have to access eventually, as it contains the only way to unlock the final Bunker. Players will be directed here by the coordinates found in the Food Bunker, but they can only get in once they have all three keycards needed to access the other bunkers (Maintenance, Guest, and VIP).
The main reward is a rather nice sword, as the pistol found here will likely be just another gun by the time players get here. The Residential Bunker is found on the Eastern shore of the large lake next to the mountain on the Eastern side of the map.
Sons of the Forest

- Released
-
February 22, 2024
- Developer(s)
-
Endnight Games
- Publisher(s)
-
Newnight
- Engine
-
Unity
- Multiplayer
-
Online Co-Op