Sons of the Forest best base locations

Looking for the best base locations in Sons of the Forest? Sons Of The Forest chucks you onto an island that's almost idyllic, until you come face-to-face with those nasty cannibals. They're going to spend most of their time hunting you down, which means you need to hastily construct a nice, warm base. Of course, the safest bases make use of the best base locations in Sons of the Forest, which we've scouted out just for you.

In this guide, we list the 5 best base locations in Sons of the Forest. We'll point out where to find each of the best base locations on a map, and break down their pros and cons.

North-West island base

This base location might only offer a small island, but where there's water, there's safety. Enemies cannot swim in Sons of the Forest, so the deep water around this island offers easy protection from their attacks.

This North-West island, which you can see on the map above, is an excellent early-game base, because the enemies roaming the island won't be able to reach you until Winter. There are also plenty of trees on the island that you can cut down to quickly whip up a base on the first night without needing to haul logs from far away.

You'll need to be prepared, though, because when the cold comes, the water around the island will freeze and allow enemies to finally mount attacks on your fort.

Of course, the water around this base does also offer a slight disadvantage. Kelvin, the best boy that everyone loves, cannot carry stuff over to or from the island, as he also can't swim.

This means you'll need to build a bridge if you want to give Kelvin easy access. This opens you up to enemies earlier, but it's still an easily defensible chokepoint to kill baddies as they approach.

If you're not bothered about having him cross over to the island, you can make a handy zipline system using the Rope Gun, as shown above. Simply ask Kelvin to gather logs on the shore nearby, and then build a zipline crossing over to the island. Interact with the zipline while holding logs to send them rocketing over the water and onto the island.

Water base

If you want to build a base anywhere on the water, then you're in luck! There's an easy way to do it, but you'll need to wait until Winter.

When Winter arrives, head to a large body of water to find that it has frozen over. We used the large lake on the East side of the snowy mountain, near where you find the Golden Armor, but you can use any lake around the island.

Once the lake has frozen over (this happens immediately when it becomes Winter), you can haul logs onto the ice and start building. It seems that you cannot use pre-constructed bases on ice, so you will need to build it yourself the hard way. Take the Winter to build a base, and make sure it has floors.

When Winter passes and the lake thaws out, your base will automatically add struts underneath to support it on the water, allowing you to have a base that floats. This is one of the best base locations in Sons of the Forest because, as with the island base above, enemies won't be able to attack outside of Winter.

Of course, this comes with the same caveat - outside of Winter, Kelvin also won't be able to haul items over to your water base, so you might want to build a bridge so that he can run over all year round. Just make sure to build something thin and easily defensible, so that you can quickly kill any cannibals that use it to attack.

Mountain cave base

There is one cave in Sons of the Forest that is directly connected to the overworld without a loading screen. There's no cracks to shuffle through here - you just waltz on in.

That means, as shown in the image above, that you can build inside the cave. That makes it one of the best base locations, as there is only one entrance/exit to defend from enemies.

This cave is found on the South side of the snowy mountain, as shown on the map above. As you approach, you'll see the usual cave symbol marking it on your in-game map. Upon entering, you should also find some wooden crates that you can smash to get a few cans of food.

While the space here is a little tight, you can easily place down everything that you need, such as a tent and a fire. The cave walls offer natural protection, and the tight tunnel entrance means cannibals will usually stream in one-by-one when they attack.

Beach base

The Northern beach is one of the potential crash sites in Sons of the Forest, and it's also one of the best base locations. While transporting logs over to build the base might be a nuisance, the beach offers a wealth of advantages that make it a top spot for your base.

The beach marked on the map above is largely flat land, with a creek running through the middle. This allows you to easily build structures on the beach, and they'll be near a water source so you don't need to worry about thirst. You can even bring Kelvin along and ask him to fish there while you build!

It's also very open, with no trees looming over your base. This means cannibals can't climb trees and spring out at you as you leave your base, offering a bit of extra safety. The flat land also means you'll see any cannibals coming, so you'll know when they're on the attack before they arrive.

Of course, the lack of trees does make actually building the base a bit of a pain, but you can use a zipline from the nearby forest to propel logs over to the beach, hopefully speeding up the process a bit.

For those early on, this is also a handy base location because it's near the Rebreather, which you'll need if you want to get the Shovel, and the Machete is also found nearby.

Endgame bunker base

Our final pick for our list of the best base locations is a hill near the secret bunker in which the Sons of the Forest ending takes place. The top of this hill has a long, flat stretch that's empty, with plenty of trees around the edge that you can use to build.

The hill is found on the North-East side of the island, as shown on the map above. The flat land makes this an excellent spot to build a base near the endgame bunker, and there's even a short path that you can walk down to find a creek flowing past the bottom of the hill.

This area is also largely safe from cannibals. The nearest camps are South of the nearby creek, so they'd have to trek up the hill to reach your base. That gives you plenty of time to see them coming and start defending.

This base has almost everything you'd want, with one clear caveat. Lots of key weapons and tools in Sons of the Forest are found on the West side of the island, so making this your starting base will lead to lots of long adventures back and forth.

That's why we recommend this as an endgame base, as it's situated perfectly for playing through the ending whenever you're ready.

That wraps up our guide on the best base locations in Sons of the Forest. If you're after some top weapons that you can use to defend your base, take a look at our guides on how to get the Shotgun, Pistol, and Revolver. If you run out of ammo for your guns, you can also get Virginia as a companion in Sons of the Forest and hand them over to her. She's a crackshot, and has unlimited ammo with which to mow down any enemies that approach.