Tools - Sons of the Forest

Unlike many similar titles, you can’t make everything you need in Sons of the Forest. Instead, you’ll have to explore — scattered across the island, hiding in caves, or buried beneath the ground are myriad tools and equipment that you need in order to progress through the game. In this guide, we’ll list all of the game’s tools, and briefly go over how to use them.

Tools List

Note that there are many tools that double as weapons, hence the inclusion of things like the tactical axe and the utility knife. Here are all the tools you can find in Sons of the Forest:

Can opener
Firefighter axe
Flashlight
GPS tracker
Lighter
Modern axe
Rebreather
Rope gun
Shovel
Tactical axe
Utility knife
Walkie talkie

The GPS tracker, Walkie talkie, lighter, tactical axe, and utility knife are all found in your emergency kit at the start of the game; the rest of the tools are found in caves, bunkers, in a camp, or on a corpse.

How to Use Tools

Tools vary in terms of where and how they can be used, however one thing that remains consistent is that they can all be equipped from the inventory screen. First, tap /to open your inventory. Then hover the tool you want to equip, and press / to equip the tool. Some tools also have dedicated inputs that allow you to quickly pull them out:

Utility – On controller,cycles between the GPS tracker and the walkie talkie if you’re in a multiplayer game, otherwise it just takes out the GPS tracker. On keyboard+mouse the controls are separated:
- GPS Tracker –
- Walkie Talkie –
Lighter/Light Source – /
- Before you find the Flashlight, this button will only be for the lighter. However, once you have the flashlight, this button can be used to take out/put away the flashlight. For this to work, you’ll need to first equip the flashlight from your inventory — and once you do so, you’ll need to equip the lighter the same way if you want to take it out.

Some tools have unique quirks or ways they need to be used, so let’s take a look at those now!

Flashlight

While tools themselves don’t currently wear out or need to be repaired, the flashlight does require batteries. These can be found in crates or other loot spawns like camps or bunkers. You can see how much battery power is left in the flashlight by looking at the handle.

Rope Gun

The rope gun can be used to create zip lines that allow you to quickly travel up and down cliffs or over obstacles; this is especially useful near your base, to expedite travel to surrounding high or low ground. You’ll need to use the 3D printer to craft grappling hooks — these serve as ammo for the rope gun that you can then use to create zip lines.

To create a zip line, equip the rope gun, then aim at where you want the zip line to start and press / to fire. Then go to where you want the line to end and fire the rope gun again. Doing so will create a zip line between the two points you targeted, and you’ll be able to press //to ride the line.