Sons Of The Forest is a punishing survival horror game. The enemies hit hard, food is scarce, meds are only located in pretty specific locations, and nighttime is a danger zone. You will likely die a few times before you get to grips with even the basics of survival.

If you want to go in with just a few more resources and tips up your sleeve, we've got a complete beginner's guide to help you get started in the game. Let's get into it.

Hotkeys, Managing Your Inventory, Exploring

Right away, the game is going to give you some prompts to look at your inventory, do some basic crafting, and open up your GPS.

What the game doesn't tell is how to actually use some of the hotkeys in the game, and how to manage your inventory.

First up, there is no quick toolbar in this game. That means you can't just press 1, 2, or 3, to get out an axe. But there is a way to access your items quickly.

How To Use The Toolbar In Sons Of The Forest

• Press "I" to open up your inventory mat
• Click on the Backpack
• Once the backpack is in the middle of the screen, you can now attach or remove items - this is essentially your toolbar
• To access this, you need to hold down "I" and you can select the item you want to pick up and use

Hotkeys In Sons Of The Forest

• You can use "L" to pull out your light source
• You can use "B" to open your build book, and "B" again to close it
• You can use "E" to interact with items - press quickly to pick up, hold down to use or eat

Exploring

Once you've done some initial looting and got to grips with your inventory, it's time to start exploring.

Don't leave the starting spawn area until you've collected all the nearby loot - you'll find it in suitcases and other boxes.

There are loads of different locations marked on your map, from green glowing blobs to exclamation marks. Caves are also marked on the map. All of these locations will probably include some sort of narrative or item-based loot haul, so it's worth exploring them all in time.

• Exclamation Marks - These are story-based events that will push the game forward narratively, but also come with some loot.
• Green Glowing Blobs - These are the locations of 3D Printers that you will need to craft more sophisticated items, like the Sled.
• Caves - These are open-world dungeons and camps where you can find various bits of loot, like Shock Batons, Shovels, Duct Tape - pretty much everything and anything you could want.

There are also areas that are not marked on your map. Your best bet is to take it slow and scour the island, and take it from us - don't explore at night unless you're prepared.

Managing Kelvin

Kelvin is an amazing tool. You can make him fish in nearby lakes and ponds for fish, you can have him cut down trees in the surrounding area, cut logs, build shelters, and put together a campfire.

Look after Kelvin. If he gets attacked too many times, he'll die, and be gone...forever. You don't want to lose out on an asset like Kelvin, so protect him at all costs. Poor little guy.

Setting Up A Base

We cover this in more detail in our base-building guide, but to begin with, you should keep some key things in mind when choosing the site of your future base:

• Near water - Kelvin can fish for days on end without complaining once, and this provides a very consistent source of food in the early game
• Near a 3D Printer - these are useful tools to have nearby, so consider building a base near one of the cave entrances with a printer inside

To sleep, you'll need to build a shelter. You can put together a simple Tarp Shelter with some tarp and some sticks, and Kelvin can set that up for you.

More advanced shelters require logs and different types of logs. If you're not sure how to get planks and cut logs, you can just take the log to the building and your character will automatically shape them as necessary.

You can cut planks by laying logs flat on the ground and standing at their base. Look up the length of the log and then click the mouse button when the red line shows.

Handling The Cannibals

These pesky guys will bother you all game long, no matter what you do. Before you've got traps and walls set-up, the only way to deal with them is with brute force.

The smaller cannibals that crawl around on the floor tend to be pretty scared of you, but they will attack when your back is turned. Dispatch these quickly with a spear, bow, or your trusty axe.

The cannibals that walk on two feet are a bit more scary. Their weapons do a lot of damage. Typically, they won't attack unless completely provoked, or if you start running awake. Aggression is probably your best friend here. Deal with them quickly and get them out of your life.