Who are the Sons of the Forest enemies? Mutants, cannibals, it seems like everything is trying to kill you in the survival horror game – as if being stranded in the wild wasn’t hard enough already. It’s worth mentioning that some of these mutants can be friendly, and we’ll be covering those in this list too. That said, be careful who you trust.
The survival game follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, The Forest, with the same cannibals and creepy mutants threatening your life after you’re stranded on a strange island. However, there are a few different gruesome mutants in Sons of the Forest, including one almost entirely made up of fingers. Before you dive into Sons of the Forest multiplayer with your friends, make sure you live long enough to explore the large Sons of the Forest map by familiarizing yourself with all of the Sons of the Forest mutants and cannibals.
Here are all of the Sons of the Forest mutants:
- Cannibals
- Fingers
- Giant
- John 2.0
- Mutant Babies
- Sluggy
- Twins
- Virginia
Cannibals
A classic enemy from The Forest, cannibals are pretty much the same as you remember. Naked, dangerous, feral humans; presumably once survivors here themselves, or the offspring thereof. They come at you fairly early on in the horror game. Cannibals like to keep their distance at first before coming in for the attack, maybe even dragging you to their caves if they knock you out.
There are also masked cannibals in Sons of the Forest, who appear to be less feral and more mentally sound than the other cannibals and are perhaps the leaders of the cannibal subset.
Fingers
Fingers are the confirmed name of one of the mutants in the third trailer, and can be seen in the top image. We don’t know what sort of evolutionary reason could possibly be behind Fingers’ mutation, but it has, well, a lot of fingers. No face, but many fingers. No chest, but many fingers. No arms… well, you get the idea. You’d think this would make Fingers pretty easy to take down, but we’re certain it can hit harder than we expect. Either way, it’s a pretty terrifying surprise to find in the dark Sons of the Forest caves.
Giant
We’re not sure if “Giant” is the official name of this mutant yet, but it’s a fine placeholder for now. The Giant can be seen at the start of the first trailer shortly after the helicopter crash, when a frighteningly large hand comes through the trees and steals away your colleague, killing them in the distance shortly after. What we don’t know is whether this Giant comprises an entire body, or is simply a hand. There is some speculation that the giant may be called “The Flinger” or “Catapult”, and is the reason a cannibal somehow hits your helicopter in the first place.
John 2.0
If you played The Forest, you might recognise the name John. The name was, um, affectionately(?) given to The Worm, a series of small, slug-like mutants all strung together in a wormy formation. John 2.0 is, thankfully, nothing like John, but is still pretty horrifying, and is essentially two cannibals joined at the legs, able to walk on their hands, still cutting a pretty worm-like figure.
Mutant babies
The mutant babies were also in The Forest, and hurled themselves towards you in attack, screeching all the while. In Sons of the Forest, we aren’t sure whether they appear in the same fashion, as we’ve only seen them in the third trailer, when Sluggy can be seen hurling the babies at you as an attack. It appears as though these babies don’t do anything though, each lying lifelessly on the ground after being thrown.
Sluggy
Sluggy is a creepy mutant who uses babies as projectiles, throwing them at you in self defence. This lumpy mutant variant also blocks your path when trying to recover the Sons of the Forest rope gun, so scour the nearby area for something to take it out with.
Twins
Again only briefly teased in the trailers, we know the Twins are similar to John in that they are conjoined cannibals, only this time they are joined at the hip. The Twins crawl around on their hands and even have the ability to climb walls.
Virginia
Virginia is the one mutant on this list you can befriend, and who won’t hurt you. She shares the name and multi-legged appearance of the Virginia mutants from the first game, but doesn’t appear to be the same character, as she has a face and a more formed appearance. She’s an actual NPC who you can befriend, frighten off, or simply ignore, and she can even be seen fighting alongside you in some of the trailer footage.
Those are all of the Sons of the Forest mutants and cannibals we know of so far, but more are sure to crawl out of the woodwork over the course of early access. Make sure you’re fully prepared to survive the eponymous forest by checking out the Sons of the Forest system requirements, as well as the best Sons of the Forest weapons you can get your hands on. We can also give you pointers on how to get Virginia, and what to do if Kelvin dies in Sons of the Forest – aside from feeling incredibly guilty, of course.