It’s another busy week for survival games. Nightingale entered early access on Tuesday, survival driving game Pacific Drive launched today, and last year’s survival horror smash Sons of the Forest is back because it just hit version 1.0.
More Sons of the Forest
Sons of the Forest cheats: Spawn more Kelvins
Sons of the Forest shovel location: How to dig
Sons of the Forest keycard locations: Gain entry
Sons of the Forest rope gun location: Ziplines online
Sons of the Forest rebreather location: Dive deeper
Yep. After a year in early access, you can now grab your loyal buddy Kelvin and jump back in to play the full release of Sons of the Forest. If you’re wondering what’s new in the 1.0 version of the terrifying survival game… well, there’s kind of a lot.
Along with a new title sequence at the start of the game, there’s a new choice-based ending, and more cutscenes have been added. Remember Timmy from the original The Forest? He’s back and is now voiced by none other than Shawn Ashmore (Lamplighter from The Boys, Iceman from X-Men, and Jack from Quantum Break).
As for actual gameplay stuff, there’s now a sickness system that comes from drinking bad water or eating spoiled food, and a couple of mutants are joining the chaos: one is named Legsy because it has a lot of legs, and the other is named Holey for reasons I don’t want to speculate on. Gliders are now foldable so they can fit snugly in your tremendously massive backpack, and the world contains more paths, caves, and points of interest to discover.
I’m excited to see there’s also a new creative mode that will let you play without restraint, including an inventory filled with all the items you need. You don’t even have to wait for build animations in creative mode: just pop a structure down and it’ll appear. The only catch is you have to unlock creative mode by finishing the game.
And one big mystery is about to be solved. Sons of the Forest updates over the past year have added pieces of an artifact for players to collect, but no one was able to finish building it. That changes today. Not only can you fully build the artifact, it apparently had more than one purpose. As the patch notes put it: “You can now *(Spoiler)* or create a *(Spoiler)* with the combined artifact.” Mysterious!
Check out the massive list of patch notes below, and keep in mind that, according to developer Endnight Games, this isn’t everything: it’s just the “biggest features, improvements and balance changes” and “beyond this list there are many more small fixes and improvements.”
Features
New title scene and end credits details, visuals and musicAdded new choice alternate endingAdded 5 new cutscenesRevised and added new voice acting and details to dining room, gold room, get down son and Jianyu intro cutscenesAdded new voice acting to Sahara confidential found footageAdded proximity voice chat with filters for in caves & underwater along with adding additional filtering to the walkie talkieAdded creative mode, with a new alternate creative inventory, and ability to skip build animations (unlocks when players complete the game story)Added Raccoons and gave ability for squirrels and raccoons to climb treesAdded 2 new mutants; Legsy and HoleyAdded new stronger puffy variation ‘Spotty’Added higher tier gold armor level for cannibalsAdded new sickness system tied to drinking unclean water or eating bad food. Drinking clean water or eating meds will cure sicknessMany new story item pickups added and most story item pickups re-worked, along with new in world decorative notes and magazinesRenamed glider to Foldable glider and it can now be hot-keyed and stashed to inventoryGolf Carts now come equipped with radio decks and a GPS screenAdded new world details, more paths, partially dug tunnels by excavators, new Jianyu camps, 14 new mini caves and cellars and many other environment tweaks and updatesRevised hell cave door opening, will now require additional steps to openAdded NPC Timmy to hell caveAdded 2 final artifact pieces and final artifact can now be craftedYou can now *(Spoiler)* or create a *(Spoiler)* with the combined artifactJianyu helicopters will now take off and leave from bases around map, and may occasionally hover over player structures to check on themAdded dying tactical soldiers with red flares that can be seen from a distance to help direct players towards locationsAdded new findable dead Tactical and Worker dudes with GPS locators that appear when nearby, helping direct players towards interesting locationsAdded campfire smoke plumes to cannibal villages that can be seen from a distance and will go out if there are no cannibals there to tend to the fireAdded various details to the snowy mountains; outdoor Solafite areas that attract lightning, snowmobile versions of carts, and small radar dishesAdded new cave (unlocks after end game sequence)Added a new Arrow Storage structure and a new explosive storage structureAdded new nice chair and nice couch buildable structuresAdded 2 new platform prefab structures and ability to snap them to built structuresAdded new auto foundation system for some prefab structures ( including small cabin, lean-to and lookout tower, and platforms)Added 3 new trap structuresAdded option to extend camp fire with logs to turn it into a bonfireAdded a range and valid target readout to the rope gunAdded 4 new findable blueprint structures, including a glider launcher, and 3 mystery structuresAdded strikeout to the message window UI for tutorials or ingredient counts that have been completedAdded additional achievementsAdded seed items for Twinberries and Snowberries and a new Jam RecipeAdded new soft opening video to bunker foodAdded new rotten textures for rotten meat, oysters & fishAdded PVP damage setting, and made it available in the multiplayer admin menuAdded AMD Fidelity FX™ Super Resolution 3 (FSR3) supportAdded a new weather occlusion system for buildings to provide much more accurate weather visuals & Reworked interior space warmth system to be more accurate
Improvements
Player can now carry up to 4 stones at once and can now place multiple stones at once, as many as currently heldReworked stone wall so that upper rows require only 4 stones instead of 5Hell cave lava, lighting, effects, details and audio re-worked and improvedAfter player sleeps Kelvin will be found also sleeping somewhere nearbyVirginia & Kelvin will now wear outfits you’ve given them in cutscenesGPS screen now more accurately reflects the world, showing cliffs, paths and clearingsMoved many items and pickups to better locationsAdded support for weather occlusion to structure tarpsAdded new system to ensure multiplayer clients see completed ghost structures transition smoothly to the built version regardless of networking conditionsSlightly increased size of the tarp sleep trigger so its easier for all players to sleepGrounded beams fake pillars now remove snow around themPowered cross and leg lamp now have a fixed snap point for the wirePlacing a new stone floor will now orient it to place in front of where player is aiming instead of the default calculated position which might be outside viewportImproved some placement UI to better reflect position of the snap pointPlacing stone beam on ground now displays more accurately where the stone will be placedAdded snow remover to snow golf cart plowAdded sound effect when relocating structuresFlyswatter and Bone-maker traps can now be moved after placedFurniture supported by other furniture is now linked, preventing the dismantling of the supporting one, destruction is also applied to the supported furniturePlayers can now trade bonesBunker Luxury entrance reworked and set dressing improvedAll bunkers relit, and additional details added in some of themStone beams and floors now use a more subtle place animationMushrooms, Twinberries and Snowberries can now be grown in plantersLarge female cannibals have new full-body taunts and short yell animationsAdded boots to players pajamasOyster greeble layout improvedImproved some areas in Cave D where players were getting stuckAdded a tutorial message for zooming the tracker.Improved placement of tree structuresAdded more golf carts to golf courseGolf carts and Hang Gliders now appear on the GPS screen when nearbyEagles now sometimes land on logs and dead treesAdded some additional animal zones around mapImproved fall detection to avoid triggering fall animation when walking over small ledgesStripped crunch from all textures smaller than 1024 to improve performanceVirginia Beckon locations now save and added many more locations for her to take you toAny consumable, including drinking dirty water straight from a body of water, will now play the bad food eaten audio event on the playerAdded Loading screen hints for sickness and toggling creative inventory modeEnabled count readouts on all items on shelves that are not 1 to 1 visualsImproved case where muddies would run to water or food and back to trees before finishing eating or drinkingFlashlight and shotgun no longer respawn upon loading if you already have them in inventorySolar panels cannot be placed anymore in occluded areas (underground cellars)Reduced shader variant counts & added shader warm up in loading to remove first time shader compile hitchesThe GPS Tracker will now remember the current zoom level when re-equipping itBlueprint structures that are being relocated will now retain their previous facing directionUpdated strength hint in loading screen to include damageWhen a structure is dismantled, it can now spawn bundles of itemsChanged it so that the last tabs on the blueprint book stay open longer if the mouse is moved off themAdded LODS to armor racks and armor on shelvesImproved the debug free camera system which now uses the main camera, so assets around it load properly, and now works with gamepad (’Freecamera on’ through the debug menu)All held items will now play a stash audio event when they are unequipped.All held items will now play their mouse over audio event when the item is equipped.Optimized all colliders in inventory and sped up how long it takes for items to appear when inventory is openedAdded an area light to the screen of the held GPS tracker to give it some glowCloth in inventory now has a stack of five that will fill upDoubled the speed of the item hover animations in the inventoryItems can now be batch added and removed from the mat in inventory by holding the button downReduced the out of breath sound when the player has reached their minimum vitality when all their stats are reducedImproved the interaction and animation of throwing items from the grab bagButton can now be held to continue throwing items from the grab bagYou can now hold the button down to keep eating berries in inventoryAdded watch pile on the crafting matRemoved small river rocks from lake greebles to reduce asset intersectionsImproved nav mesh for hell cavePlacing walls under leaning beams on ground is now possible if they are levelUpdated lean-to blueprint, using walls instead of apexes for the surrounding pieces and added one sided apexes to fill gaps on the sidesLowered CPU cost of having lots of idle structuresNow only the structure being actively placed turns red when placement is invalidLog plank and variants now throw with the same orientation as logsImproved look of solafiteAdded Timmy drawings and Jianyu notes as world detailsReworked and improved many temp art assetsAdded toss stone animation when adding stone to structuresAdded extra snow sled to help direct players from snow crash to the first ice caveRemoved extra locator on GPS for cave FImproved look of skin on creepy Virginia and ArmsyFixed some objects in world being dynamic that should be staticIncreased headlights brightness on Golf CartsAdded ‘search parties frequency’ and ‘building resistance’ settings to custom game menuAdded pause menu icon over players in multiplayer ( appears as a cog over their name )Improved creepy Virginia ragdollCave entrance bat flocks can happen at any time of day nowImproved Ai interactions around village objectsAdded burning sound and light when an actor is on fireRequired Ingredients UI will now no longer show an available count higher than the required countAdded a tutorial for when the player has been killed and needs to pick up their backpackTab for the currently active page is now kept active instead of only when hovered overBoth held books now have a close UI prompt at the bottomUpdated the UI text and added localization for when a battery or air tank is used to recharge the equipped itemSome items can now be added to storage more than one at a timeRemoved the page numbers from the top of the page in the blueprint book since the tabs now stay open for the current pageAdded a flashing Exclamation mark and bright red light to discoverable laptopsAdded a loading screen hint for drying racks placed by fire drying things fasterGold Armor renamed to Ancient ArmorAdded Drink and Dump Out UI for the flask and cooking potFire arrows and Torches will now ignite bodies when the arrow impacts or the torch performs its downward thrust attackUpdated Cooking buff UI notifications to include the cooking pot iconZiplines will now have visual harnesses when attaching stones or logs to the ziplineAdded a cooking pot stand for when the pot is placed on a fire to avoid it visually floatingRequired Items UI for structures is now hidden when the player is in caves or bunkersAdded a pulsing light beacon to the dropped inventory bag to make it easier to find in the darkAdded close UI when holding a story page itemLakes will now visibly freeze when players are nearbyVarious memory and CPU optimizationsNew dead Puffy poses added to the worldOther players names are now hidden when riding in the golf cartIncreased host not responding delay from 5 to 6.5 secondsTexture streaming budget will now update when changing texture resolution optionsOptimizations to streaming system to improve movement around the world and remove risk of leaving things active when moving fastRenamed Kelvin ‘take item’ order to ‘take clothing’Reworked game save code to be more robust in case of error during the serialization processAll blueprint pickup items are now called blueprint instead of the recipe name to avoid spoilersAdded audio event notification on game savedUpdated default bindings for golf cart, will now use RT and LT by defaultWhen giving items to other players using the grab bag, the UI on the item will now say GIVE instead of USEThe mini-map view is now zoomed out a bitImproved flashlight on the hanging tacticalUpdated the inventory visuals for the Ancient ArmorStory Objectives are now displayed in redAdded a tutorial to build storage the first time the player fails to pickup an item due to full inventoryImproved billboard texture memory usageAction cameras are no longer fake dropped. If the player collects the camera and already owns the video clip, they are notified with a UI notificationAdded UI notification to display how many people are waiting to sleep in multiplayer to let others know its time to sleepAdded UI to inform the player how to change the icon on held GPS locatorsAdded bones and skulls to some of the clay pots when brokenAll blueprint structures should now properly clear grass and bushesCampfire and standing fires now use new fire burning audio eventsIf the bow does not have an arrow loaded but the player does have an available arrow type available in inventory, it will be automatically loaded into the bowStorage will now drop certain items in bundles when the structure is destroyedOnly one person can interact with a campfire at a timeStructure dismantling is now X instead of C to prevent clashing with adding items to storageYou can now drink water when holding a spearYou can now add twin and snow berries to shelvesImproved some spittle layout in cavesAdded a UI notification for when the player is interrupted sleeping from enemies nearbyDead tactical soldiers now wear balaclavas and have bloody clothingMountain fog layout improvedTorch smoke trails improvedAdded terrain anisotropic graphic settingPlayer now has idle and moving animations when holding artifact piecesPlayer can now look down further before the spear switches gripRebreather mouthpiece is now moved offscreen when leaving the waterEating berries while in inventory is much fasterHeavy cannibals can now wear winter clothesGlowing Puffies now have more unique looking materialsFix some issues with cannibal facial deformations not matching on carried bodies and not darkening when burnedAdded more variations to the enemy search party eventsImproved texture loading speed of items in inventoryAdded Holosprings logo to screens in bunkersImproved look of walkie talkieRe-worked look of bunker icons on GPS to be distinctSmaller cave icons on GPSAdded UI to show player current strength levelA.I. Can now better navigate around player built furniture and small structuresImproved AI navigation in player basesAdded AI pathing to rope bridgesImproved blood and wetness of creepy Virginia and on babiesImproved physics of bushes when cutDead stumps react better when cutMore saturated coin visuals to be able to see them better in inventoryKelvin can now walk over logs ( also fixes pushing them through terrain )Inventory now gets the correct fake ground applied every time the inventory is openedAll items in the inventory now have hover animationsSetup LODS for preset tarp elementsOptimized construction database to reduce amount of CPU usage and lower amount of data to send over network in multiplayer gamesSetup combined LOD system and added 4th LOD to optimize rendering cost of stone floorsImproved look of defensive wall LODsMade rendering of the Construction UI more consistent visuallyBroke up tiling on frozen lakesAdded shoreline wetness to the cliffsRainbows will now show up after it rains
Balance
Babies are now single hit kill from any weapon in normal modeIf a player sleeps in unprotected location, they can now sometimes be interrupted by enemy search party’Containers don’t refill on load’ set to True by default in Normal games. Can be set in a Custom game.Players max strength level has been increased from 50 to 100Each level in strength now increases melee and tree chop damage by 1%Adjusted Hang Glider ‘down force’ when pitched up to make it easier to gain altitudeNo printer resin by default in printers, instead you need to find and add itPlayers name tag will now be hidden when crouching in multiplayer gamesLarge cannibals running now drains more energySea turtles now respawn at rate of 1 per day (4x faster)Added 10 more sea turtle zonesExplosions will now cause break damage to all armor pieces hitAdded more golf carts to golf course and around map and made more connecting paths to drive them onAdjusted the rates at which the players skin temperature changes and the rate at which the player gets wet and dries offThe player will now get soaked from snow much slower than when in rainIndoor temperature is now clamped within a range so that indoor temperature is not always the same as outsideFire sources are hotter now so the player will dry off fasterAdjusted the amount of rest the player gets indoors and outdoors and how comfort modifies itEnergy Bar Fullness increased from 15 to 30Some item counts in inventory have been reduced to match their visuals in the inventory and to encourage using storageCat food and Oysters can now rotIncreased the raw fullness of some of the perishablesAdjusted spawn logic of cannibals in villages so stronger types won’t spawn at villages close to player start points at start of game. Fewer Elise spawns, and added a few Franks in villagesIgor, Henry, and Elise can no longer appear in early game search partiesIgor, Henry, and Elise can now appear in nomad families starting day 8Rotten items can no longer be used in cookingDried perishables will no longer go rottenCooked foods now take twice as long to rot compared to rawAir tanks now drain 25% fasterStone Storage and sled now carry 28 stones instead of 27Updated eggnog recipe to use 4 eggsThe taser stick now only has 3 charges per batteryThe player downed time before respawning has been greatly reduced. Also sped up the skull animation to give more sense of urgencyBuckshot count reduced from 15 to 8, and cone spread reduced from 25 to 20Slug ammo will cause now cause shotgun hit reacts on enemies even if armoredFence electric wire now sustains damage when electrocuting something (can fire 6 times before being destroyed currently)You can now carry 20 SolafiteFat cannibal Health increased from 140 to 170Heavy cannibals now can wear armorIncreased chance of spawning head armor and body armor pieces on enemiesTweaked all enemy armor valuesCannibal head damage multiplier from sharp melee reduced from 2x to 1.5xDemon attack increased damage by 25% and increased Coop game health up to 30%Adjusted the enemy spawns in some caves and bunkersRegular male cannibals run & walk 20% faster and are 5% larger on averagePuffy attacks have increased speedCreepy plating attack changed from 1 to 2 waves (each wave slightly smaller) It will also now include the new creepy mutant typesBalanced enemy structure damage and fixed some creepies, demons and large female cannibals being unable to damage structuresSet structure distortion at 70% of structures max HP and partial collapse at 20%Stick spikes and electric fences are now more fragile
Audio
Improved audio for open areas like fields and on mountainIncreased volume of batsAdded updated music for Jianyu introAdded music to get to chopper cutsceneAdded new Hell cave audio and reverb snapshotUpdated and retimed the music on opening crash cutscenesAdded ‘stone’ pickup audio and mouse over when in inventoryRemoved ducking of music on settings menuAdded Player getting a little sick soundsTuned open air audio and default ambienceMade mutants in caves footsteps louder, made cave wind louderTuned mutant epoxy footstep distancesTuned Demon Boss distance vocal eventsFixed old weapon hits lasting as events longer than their audioAdded bunker announcement events to underwater group and tuned rebreather soundsAdded better audio for Big Boss introMade ambush event 2DAdded events for moving structures and changed reverb on in cave objectsReduced steam hiss soundTuned Golf Cart audioTuned squirrel foot sound distances
