Finding the best Sons of the Forest base locations is essential to your survival, and should encompass both your ability to defend from attack, and your access to sustenance. After your first day or two in the cannibal-infested hellscape, you want to consider building a sturdy, permanent place of residence, and its location can make or break its practicality.
As we discuss in our Sons of the Forest review, the longer you survive in Endnight’s horror game, the worse the horrors become, and more dangerous Sons of the Forests mutants will start appearing around you. As such, you can’t stay in a tarp tent forever and will need to utilise Sons of the Forest building mechanics to put some stronger wooden walls around you. Here are some things to consider when looking for the best base locations in Sons of the Forest.
The best base locations in Sons of the Forest
We’ve marked as few good base locations on the map above, taking into consideration the things we’ve mentioned. Of course it’s purely down to personal preference though, so if you see a nice area that you just want to call home, then go for it – just make sure there’s some basic resources nearby.
Sons of the Forest base locations explained
Some things to consider when looking for the best base location in Sons of the Forest are:
- Food and water
- Bodies of water
- Space and terrain
- Temperature
- Caves
- Enemies
Food and water
Of course, one of the key elements to surviving in Sons of the Forest is knowing how to get water, and where to forage for food. Some of these things are more readily available in certain areas of the map, so placing your base somewhere with plenty of deer, rabbits, and mushrooms, as well as streams for fish and water, will ensure you have sustenance available to you year round.
Bodies of water
You can easily tie this into the point above, but placing your base near a lake or river. Of course water is essential for keeping your thirst down and your stamina up, but larger bodies of water also keep you safe from enemies as they can’t swim. There is a small island in the north-west corner of the map, but we recommend (as you can see in the map above) building in an area mostly surrounded by water, so you and Kelvin still have easy access to the mainland (Kelvin can’t swim either), and it’s easier to get resources to your base, but if you’re surrounded on most sides by water, you only have one angle to defend – until winter.
Space and terrain
Now, this one’s up for debate – or let’s call it personal preference. We were of the original opinion that building among Sons of the Forest trees not only gives you excellent access to resources, but acts almost like protection from cannibals and mutants. However, since they follow you much further than they did in The Forest and climb trees, you may find you’d rather build in an open area so you can easier see what’s coming towards you. After all, cover for you is also cover for them. Perhaps a clearing like the one we’ve marked on the map above, which is still surrounded by trees for building.
Terrain itself is slightly more obvious, try and fight as flat an area as possible. Aside from anything, it’ll be far easier to build in, but again gives enemies less places to ambush you from.
Temperature
When it comes to the winter ‘months’ (read: days), water sources freeze over and surviving becomes that little bit trickier. However, the central area of the Sons of the Forest map is always covered in snow – and cannibals – and is much harder to survive in. If you spawn in this area, come down to warmer, greener land before considering building your base.
Caves
Another great thing to consider when picking your Sons of the Forest base location is whether there are any caves nearby. Caves are one of the best places to find tools, weapons, and resources, as well as providing access to underground bunkers. You’ll need to access most of them during your survival escapades, so building your base somewhere in the north-west of the map – the area most densely populated with caves entrances – makes this easier for you, makes travel to each one much quicker, and therefore requires less resources each time you explore.
Enemies
Finally, limit the chance of those feral cannibals surrounding your base by finding somewhere they aren’t. Of course they’re everywhere, but they are far fewer the more distance you put between yourself and cannibal camps, and the further away from forestry you are.
With that, you should be ready to go and build a substantial base, but don’t forget to get Kelvin to do some of the heavy lifting too. One of the best things to remember about building, especially if you’re doing so in a tricky area, is that you can move logs using the Sons of the Forest rope gun, so make sure you have one – and plenty of zipline rope – handy.