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How to zipline in Sons of the Forest

There’s a bit more to knowing how to zipline in Sons of the Forest than just collecting the well-protected rope gun, so here’s how to get flying.

How to use the Sons of the Forest zipline: Image shows the players legs dangling from a height as they zipline across a ravine

Not sure how to zipline in Sons of the Forest? Yeah, took us a while too. Not only do you need to suffer through the arduous journey to collect the rope gun in the first place, but it’s not totally obvious how to use it, and you need an additional resource to make it work.

You need the Sons of the Forest rope gun to be able to collect hard-to-reach items in the survival game, including the Sons of the Forest shovel. Once you’ve defeated the Sluggy mutant to reach the rope gun, there’s more to it than simply pointing and shooting. So, if you’re having a hard time getting into the air, here’s how to zipline in Sons of the Forest.

Sons of the Forest zipline: The rope gun sits in a red case in the inventory UI

Using the rope gun to zipline in Sons of the Forest

There are two ways of using the rope gun to zipline in Sons of the Forest: one is using an existing rope, and the other is by firing a rope where you need to go. Which method you use depends on whether there’s already a zipline rope in place at your location on the Sons of the Forest map.

Using an existing zipline rope

An example of this is the cave where the shovel is located. Just inside the cave, a rope stretches out in front of you over an unscalable wall of flesh and bone. However, there’s no obvious way of using the rope to get across. When you have the rope gun equipped, you can walk up to the end of the rope near you, press ‘E’, and zip across to the other side.

Anchoring a new zipline rope

This is the slightly harder option and it requires an additional resource: a zipline rope. Rope can be found throughout Sons of the Forest, and must then be combined with a grappling hook to make a zipline rope that can be loaded into the rope gun. The grappling hook, though, cannot be found in the wild, and must be crafted at the 3D printer.

Once you have zipline rope, you can use the rope gun anywhere you want. Whether it’s to transfer logs faster, reach a high vantage point of your base safely, or access otherwise inaccessible areas of the map, the possibilities are almost endless.

With the rope gun in hand and a zipline rope available, press ‘R’ to reload your gun, aim where you want to anchor one end of your rope, and shoot the rope gun. You then need to anchor the other end, so aim and shoot again and you’ll be able to travel along the zipline by pressing ‘E’. Once you reach the end – or if you misplace your zipline – you can gather the rope back up. Just walk up to the rope and press ‘E’ again.

Now you know how to zipline in Sons of the Forest, you’ll be able to travel swiftly – and stylishly – through the air to wherever you want. As we briefly touched upon, this can be particularly useful in defence, so you can build a tower at your base that’s unreachable to those dangerous Sons of the Forest mutants. If you’re not sure how to do that, you’re in luck, we have a handy guide to building in the horror game, as well as some other Sons of the Forest tips to help you in both survival and combat. If you’re looking for a completely different experience, check out the best PC games to discover a list of critically acclaimed titles.