Getting Started

Discover the best base locations in Sons of the Forest, detailing strengths and weaknesses for survival and creative modes. Find ideal spots near resources and caves.

Below, you’ll find various places to consider the best base locations in Sons of the Forest. They’ll have noticeable strengths, and not too many weaknesses to them. However, don’t take any other location as not viable, as you can have fun building a base almost anywhere you want, and not have to worry too much about things. There’s also a general theme that no matter where you establish a base, there are always going to be weaknesses, or some level of a long walk to reach places. Again, the places below will have many unique strengths, be better situated, and largely offer you a better experience than others.

In another section, you will have the best locations for creative playthroughs in peaceful mode, where you can freely build without worrying about survival or enemies. These areas typically have flat land, or it has a great scenic aspects to them.

Food Bunker Area Base

The areas near the food bunker are very flat and filled with food and medicine plants.

Arguably the biggest strength of this location is the abundance of food. You’re trading fish for plenty of Blueberries, Deer, Squirrels and Rabbits, making it a great area to survive the winter. You can also revisit the nearby Food Bunker area, and get the respawning food in the mess hall, like Ramen Noodles, Bacon Bits, Raw Meat, and more.

If you need meds, Arrowleaf and Chicory spawn in the fields close to the bunker and the lake, while Aloe Vera is more inland towards the larger lakes. Meanwhile, Yarrow is more inland towards the larger lakes bountiful near the Beach Cave. You will have to go out of your way to get the medicine plants, but it’s pretty easy.

When you want to start going for a journey to the caves and bunkers, you’re not too much in a bad position. You get access to the nearby Beach Cave, and of course, the food Bunker. When you need to venture out, finding the Leisure Bunker, its 3D Printer, and its nearby Aloe Vera farm is easy. However, the Slingshot / Shovel cave, and the Rope Gun cave are fairly big walk, which is one downside.

Another mixed point is water access. In almost every season, you can visit the nearby lake to the south and get fresh water. However, it will freeze in winter, so it will be slightly harder to get fresh water when needed. Although, there will be places you can go to get fresh water by looking for areas with flowing water still present.

The other downside is that this is a largely open area, and so, will require lots of defense to manage correctly. Luckily, there’s lots of logs in the area, so it’s not too bad. You’ll need to create a wall, defensive sticks, and traps to keep it secure. You may even want a watch tower inside the base to pepper enemies with arrows.

Map Link: Food Bunker approximate area.

Forest Helicopter Crash Site

This area has more than enough food, defense, and plant access to make the hard mode playable.

One of the three possible Helicopter crash sites is right next to the cave you get the Rope Gun. If you start in the woodland area then you’re in luck. As this is arguably one of the best starting base locations in Sons of the Forest, thanks to its abundance in almost everything you need for hard mode.

The biggest strengths of this location are that it offers plenty of food, water, and earl game medicine nodes. If you get efficient animal traps going, you can get deer plenty of times, especially if you guide their running paths into traps. You can also get lots of fish via Kelvin ready for the Drying Rack and prepare for winter.

If you need medicine, there’s a few nodes of Aloe Vera and Yarrow too, which means you can get some basic meds early on in your wall planters and start getting a steady supply of meds going over a few days. You’re also in prime position to make Energy Mix +, thanks to the abundance of Fireweed, Devil’s Claw and Chicory near the surrounding streams north and east of your position.

The other strength is that ts near some respawning loot. The cave has a Stun Baton outside, and there’s Stun Ammo inside the cave. There’s also some respawning bombs, flares, Zipline Hooks, the Rope Gun, and many more items to utilize via saving, closing the save and reloading. However, there’s a few mutants in the cave to be mindful of.

The other strong factor is that it is close to most POIs and progression caves, bar the Beach Cave and Food Bunker. It means you can get to the 3D Printer easily, and get you the flask, sled, and whatever else you need, and more.

Lastly, you have a solid defense. You can use the river to defend one-half of the base or go above the water source and choose to defend the cliffs instead. Either way, you have several natural defense points to manage, Do be warned it does freeze over winter, so, that becomes a land bridge to your base if you’re not careful.

Map Link: Forest Helicopter Crash

Central Lake

This are of the map has plenty of plant resources, animal spawns, and sits close to most major early game POIs.

The Central Lake is the area where all those streams connect to form the large lake in the central west part of the island. This massive lake has an abundance of fairly close by resources to make herb remedies with, along with plenty of food spawns. The only one you really lack is Arrowleaf, which you may need to trek towards the Food Bunker and Beach area to get lots of those supplies.

The only issue with this location is that it’s not too flat to make decent base structures with. However, if you need to expand, you can move into the lake in winter, as it consumes less logs to build support for structures in the lake, as they are put on stilts, rather than log support beams in the lake.

The other added benefit of this location is the situation from all the major early game story progression points. You’re never too far away from Maintenance A, the Shovel Cave, or the Rope Gun Cave. The Beach, and Food Bunker take slightly longer to get too, but they are not out of the reaches,