Overview
Welcome, in this guide, you are most likely a player who has just bought the game, and has come here to get some tips and/or guidelines to start playing your first night. If you are already familiar with the game, this guide does NOT apply to you.
Author’s Notes
Please know that this is a work in progress, and that with every new update and every new week, I tweak and modify this guide so that it is the best it can possibly be to guide you to a successful journey in this game.
If you have found that this guide has helped you, please make this guide more known for new players by giving it a like and a good rating.
Thanks, and I hope this guide helps!
Last Updated: Nov 17, 2017
Controls and How to Play
The controls of this game may be new to you, and it’s always good to know how to actually control what you’re doing.
For normal things
Left-Click: The attack button. Usually swinging an object.
Right-Click: For most weapons, it’s the block button. However, for spears it’s to hold it up and get ready to throw it (left-click). Either way, you need to keep the button held.
Left-Control: Crouching (used to hide from cannibals).
Shift: Hold to run.
Space: Jump.
E: Picking items up / confirming location of a buildable.
R: Rotating the 3d model of a buildable. Also for upgrading / downgrading the 3d model of a blueprint.
L: Turn on/off your lighter.
G: Drop item / weapon in hand.
C: Place/Remove food items from drying rack.
B: Open your booklet. (Used for construction and ‘quests’)
Q: (Multiplayer only) Turn on/off your walkie talkie to communicate with other players online.
In your inventory
Left-Click: To put items into your crafting menu.
Right-Click: To craft / equip items.
Your Stamina, Health, Food, and Thirst
The large circle at the bottom right of your screen is a whole mess of different things.
- The white bar all the way to the left: Represents armor. Mutant armor is the best, followed by Bone armor, lizard skin, then stealth armor, then deer skin.
- The red bar to the left: Represents your health. You can heal with meds or with health mixes made by herbs.
- The Water Symbol: Represents your thirst. You can drink sodas (found in your inventoy) or drink water from ponds and water collectors.
- The Stomach Symbol: Represents hunger. You can eat snack bars, or cook / dry food to eat as well.
- The light blue bar to the right: Represents energy. Holding shift reduces it to a certain level, then letting go regenerates it.
- The dark blue bar all the way to the right: Represents stamina. Lowers due to you overusing energy or getting hungry. You can bring it back up by sleeping or eating.
Choosing a Game Mode
To start out in your first adventure in the forest, you can choose between 4 game modes. (5 After you complete the game).
- Peaceful
- Normal
- Hard
- Hard Survival
- Creative (only obtained after completing the game)
Although most newer players tend to believe that peaceful mode is the best way to start this game, trust me, it isn’t. Normal mode is the best way to go, because not only do you learn the basics of survival, but also you learn all the mechanics and basics related to the cannibals as well. Therefore, you learn much more. Additionally, you cannot complete the story of the game on Peaceful mode.
The difference between Hard and Hard Survival is that in Hard Survival, you’ve only got one life, so you have to make it count.
Your First Night
-When playing The Forest in peaceful mode, it is important to know that you CAN NOT COMPLETE THE STORYLINE IN THIS MODE. Peaceful mode is for the players who have gotten this game as their first ever video game, rather than a starting out mode.
-Peaceful mode is exactly as it sounds like: peaceful. It has all the regular game mechanics of this mode, except that cannibals and their mutants do not spawn.
Waking up in the plane
When you first start the game, you will run through the first cutscene which gives you the option to skip. It is not recommended to skip this cutscene, it is very important to the story.
Once you wake up in the crashed plane, you must do 3 things:
- Search the rows of the plane seats for meds (little white prescription bottles) and eat all the food in trays. You should eat everything to bring yourself to max hunger and thirst
- Go to the back of the plane, and collect everything you can. (The plane passenger list is not important in peaceful mode).
- Once you have collected everything, head to the open part of the plane to collect a plane axe from a dead flight attendant.
Once you have jumped out of the plane, try and open as many suitcases as you can find by looking straight down at one, and, with your axe in hand, left-clicking to break it open. Collect as much cloth, meds, and alcohol as possible. You will need these later on.
Finding a suitable location to live
The best locations are at memorable landmarks, such as the sinkhole, the peninsula with the large tree, the boat, etc…
If you don’t find these places, use a landmark (which you can find in your book by pressing B, and flipping through until you find it).
Building your house
Press B to open your booklet, and flip through the pages until you find the option to build the ‘Temporary Shelter’, the ‘Hunting Shelter’, the ‘Small Log Cabin’, the ‘Large Log Cabin’, or any tree house blueprint. To obtain the logs needed to build, you must swing your hatchet at a tree until it begins to fall. Trees drop 3-6 logs. (Falling Trees CAN HURT YOU).
- Temporary Shelter: Takes sticks and leaves to build. Worst shelter you can start with. This shelter will break after you sleep in it once.
- Hunting Shelter: Takes 6 logs, and several sticks and rocks to build. This is the recommended house for people who don’t want log cabins. However, this shelter will leave you exposed outside, and therefore a higher chance of you waking up in the middle of the night due to cannibals.
- Small Log Cabin: Takes 13 logs to build. This is the recommended starting house, no matter what game mode you start in.
- Large Log Cabin: This is not a recommended starting cabin, unless in a team.Takes 89+ logs to build (Depending on how high you build it). It is recommended to build log sleds to speed up construction.
- Tree house: _ logs, 1 rope. Materials depend on the tree. Best method of housing to protect yourself only from cannibals and mutants.
You can also use custom builds or use defensive walls to section off an area to yourself. (To change walls into doors, press R when looking at the blueprint).
The log cabins are used to save your game so that you can load it later, and to sleep through the night.
The goal is to build a shed as fast as possible to make sure you can skip your first night to avoid being assaulted left and right in the night by cannibals.
Other buildables
In your booklet, you can build storage units for logs, stones, sticks, and can construct fireplaces, drying racks, and water collectors.
- Storage Units: Take sticks to build. If you have enough space, press R on the blueprint (white 3d model) to make it larger. Sticks and stones are found on the floor, but you can obtain more sticks if you break bushes and tiny trees.
- Fireplace: Used to cook fire, boil water, and to burn cannibals to keep others away. (Leaves are obtained by breaking bushes).
- Food Buildables: Drying racks, like storage units, take sticks, and can be upgraded. For water collectors, the turtle shell needed can be found by killing turtles (hitting them in the head) at the beaches.
Food and Water
It is important to invest in drying racks and water collectors to make sure that if you run out of snacks and sodas, you still have something to drink or eat. You can kill rabbits and lizards for their hides and for food (Best way is to throw spears). You can also kill deer for hide and meat, and turtles/tortoises (which can be found on beaches and in the northern area (with alligators)) also give meat as well. Birds give meat, but can only be cooked. Fish can be found at the beaches in the water, or in ponds. Use spears to get the fish.
Cannibals
Although cannibals only come after you after the first night, charging at them or disturbing their villages will definitely start a fight. Try and stay away from them, crouching is the best way to hide.
Multiplayer
Playing multiplayer is best when you are with groups of friends, because friendly people love to come on and help you out. They also make their own little communities, making a nice island of people. Or you can join someone else’s island, and help them out. However, it is recommended to save frequently, because hackers do come online to mess things up, and man does that suck.
Tips and Tricks
Axes
The plane axe that you are given tends to be very weak when cutting down trees. The crafted axe (1 stick, 1 stone, 1 rope) is much more efficient, but uses more energy in each swing.
Weapons
The weak spear (2 sticks) can be made into an upgraded spear with 2 cloth and 3 bones.
The crafted club can be made from a stick and a skull. Stonger weapon compared to the axe or spear.
The cannibal club can be obtained from certain cannibals. Better than crafted club.
Cannibals
Burning cannibals on campfires breaks the bodies into bones to be used for bone armor to protect yourself. Also makes other cannibals less willing to fight you.
Your Booklet
Your booklet is smarter than you think. It keeps track of your character’s stats, your ‘to do list’, every item you’ve discovered, every plant or animal you’ve discovered, and every cannibal you’ve discovered. This is all useful information to know when surviving.
Taking it Further
After you have survived your first night, you can continue to build up your house, or you can go and search for adventure. Caves are your best bet for obtaining new and exciting items, that will enhance your gameplay and put you further into the story.
But hey, this is only a beginner guide. You can search for my other guides, to advance you to finish the storyline or just to have a better time.
Good luck with your first night, and enjoy the game!