Sons of the Forest: How to Save Your Game

Sons of the Forest doesn’t include an auto-save feature, so it’s important that you know how to save your game and do so frequently. If you don’t preserve your progress often and end up dying, you’ll have to either load your last file and lose some progression, or you’ll have to restart your game and lose everything.

Saving Explained in Sons of the Forest

Knowing how to save is as important as knowing how to heal. There are two primary ways to so in Sons of the Forest: 

• Interacting with a Tent
• Interacting with a Bed

You can record your progress by interacting with any Tent or Bed you find, but building them gives you more control over when you can save. Note: sleeping does not save your game.

How to Build a Tent to Save

One of the earliest buildings you should construct in Sons of the Forest is the Tent. You can find the blueprint recipe in your Guide Book, but you’ll need:

• x1 Tarp, which you can find in the crates around the crash site. Tarps can also be found in various other caches, tents, and buildings.
• At least x1 Stick, though you can put up to x4 depending upon how many corners you want to be raised.

You can build a Tent by equipping the Tarp from your inventory and placing it on the ground. Then, while holding a Stick, look at the Tarp on the ground. You’ll get a prompt to prop up the corners of the Tarp and create a Tent.

Screenshot by Gameskinny

Once the Tent is complete, you have the option to Save your game (hold “E” by default) or Sleep (hold “Z” by default). Again, it’s important to note that sleeping does not save your game.

Screenshot by Gameskinny

How to Craft a Bed

The second way to save your game is by using Beds, which offer the same prompts as a Tent. Beds can be found in caves that have modern architecture hidden in them and various structures around the island, or you can build your own Bed as you build your base.

Unlike the Tent, buildings in Sons of the Forest, such as the Log Cabin or Lean-To, don’t offer a save or sleep option by default. In these cases, you need to build a Bed.

You can find the blueprint recipe for a Stick Bed in your Guide Book under Furniture (switch Book modes from right to left to find it). As this is a guided crafting system, you can choose where you want to place the bed, and its outline will appear. Then, you can fill it in with the proper materials until it’s completed.

Screenshot by Gameskinny

Once constructed, you’ll be able to sleep and save your game using your Bed. You can also build a Bed in random locations to save if you wander far from your base in order to reduce the risk of losing progress.

As a survival-horror game, Sons of the Forest puts you in a situation where you can die at any time, and knowing how to save means you won’t have to start over. Even food and water are essential since you can take damage from starvation and dehydration (if you don’t turn it off in options). But we’re here to help you with our Sons of the Forest guides, such as how to make a fire or how to play multiplayer.

Featured Image by Gameskinny.