Sons Of The Forest review: beautiful survival horror with a few missteps

The real treasure was the friends we ate along the way

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

• Developer: Endnight Games
• Publisher: Newnight
• Release: Out now
• On: Windows
• From: Steam
• Price: £25/€29/$30
• Reviewed on: Intel Core i7-10875H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2080 Super, Windows 11

There are moments where Sons Of The Forest matches the sublime paranoia of Subnautica . There’s that same lurching, exquisite tension as you delve deeper and deeper into darkness where you are not welcome, supplies dwindling, footfall echoing, monstrosities skittering about in the black. On my most intense plunge into one cave, I groaned aloud as the path I was praying must be the exit twisted back on itself, sending me first down a rope, and then into a long slide down, down into the earth, back into the spindly clutches of pale, bifurcated mutants. When I finally saw the sun again, I could have cried.

It’s still a bit wonky, but the full 1.0 release makes the Forest a fuller, livelier and more inviting (or else alluringly off-putting) prospect for a wander - even, as in my case, a wholly solo one. Consider this your cue to peel open some skin pouches.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

Let’s start by getting any new foresters up to speed. We open with you flying over an island in a military-ish helicopter, ostensibly dispatched to find a family of missing richo-s. The chopper gets shot down, a mysterious figure comes along and knocks you out, and voila, you’re off, time to make a new life in the woods. It’s the same cutscene as it was in last year’s early access release, except that mysterious figure now has a voice line - and much the same applies to the smattering of other cutscenes you’ll trigger as you explore your way to the finale. The ending itself is now more substantial, but I can’t help but feel the devs have touted a cinematic expansion that isn’t really present.

It doesn’t matter too much. The better story is written in the deserted campsites, bloodied golf carts and secret bunkers of the island, sometimes hiding found footage clips of cultists and goons that provide morsels of context for their grisly remains. As Ollie found in his early access review , the Forest excels at being a forest; all glistening pools and windy treetops, winding trails and scampering wildlife. There are enough encampments and encounters to escape the feeling of emptiness that plagued the initial stumble into early access, plus, with the full release, an implausible number of raccoons which are sweet enough that it pains me to say I think the raccoon dial could do with turning down for realism purposes.

Looking for ways to survive your first few days in Sons of the Forest? Watch the video above for 15 essential tips.Watch on YouTube

It’s possible to behead the raccoons and put their heads on sticks to scare away cannibals. I didn’t do that, obviously, deciding to humanely stick with sticking the cannibals themselves on my warning markers. Again, as Ollie highlighted, those human enemies are a delight, their behaviour imbued with more life and character than I’ve seen in basically any other game. They don’t just attack: they taunt. They’ll hop back and forth, react to a brandished weapon or a turned back, run away when they’re panicked or encircle you when they smell a kill. Interacting with them is a pleasure - but fighting them, sadly, is still a chore.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

Swinging melee weapons around only starts to feel more satisfying once you find chunkier axes and tools that can stagger or amputate with a single strike, but the chopping never stops feeling lacklustre. There just isn’t enough depth to your moveset (light attack, strong attack, block) to keep brawls interesting, or enough heft behind the animations to leave me satisfied with what’s here. The ranged combat also lacks impact, tempering the drama of using up a precious shotgun shell with a muted bang and a barely flinching mutant. You don’t get the same rich behaviour with the more monstrous abominations, either, though they’re often unsettlingly inventive enough to largely make up for it. A particular shout out to Legsy, one of two new mutant types added with 1.0, who likes to lurch around on appendages unknown while sporting upside down legs sometimes disguised as stalagmites. He can jog right on.

Let’s take our hand out of the mixed combat bag and dip into the also mixed crafting/survival bag, starting with Kelvin : your mute, brain-damaged companion who survives that initial helicopter crash. Kelvin is a fine innovation, and I’ll miss him in every other survival game I play going forward. You can tell him to finish any structure you’ve started, fill your holders, repair your tools - or all of the above at once, as of last November’s update that lets you tell him to maintain your base. Early on, I’d sometimes tell him to gather sticks and place them on the floor, then feel guilty when I returned from an expedition to find countless dozens of them spilling out across my entire base. I’m glad you can tell him to take a break, though I did so more out of role-playing than because I ever noticed him getting snippety.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

Semi-sadly, for me, he was the only person I got to boss about. There’s a six-limbed mutant named Virginia who followed me about in the opening hours, popping up every now and then to warily approach my campfires before scarpering whenever I tried to interact with her. Once, I even dramatically rescued her from a cannibal, but away she went - and I never saw her again. For me, she was presumably killed off-screen, like a side-character the writers forgot about, while for Ollie and others she became a beloved companion . That’s what happens when you entrust stories to systems, though. You get magic and you get damp squibs, and for me Virginia’s vanishing lends authenticity to the simulation. There are cannibals out there, man. Girl got ate.

I do have beef with the inventory system, which commits to representing all your bits and bobs on a mat that you have to lay out in front of you whenever it’s time to snarf some dried meat or whip together some arrows. Sure, it’s neat to see tools and weapons get physically cobbled together, in immersion-embracing MacGyver fashion - but it also turns finding your gear into a headache. At one point, I had to Google “Sons Of The Forest where are arrows…” and saw “…in your inventory” immediately pop up as a suggestion. Glad it’s not just me.

It’s also a little odd that building a base is something that you’ll largely do for the sake of it, rather than because it’s actually useful. I found enough food and energy drinks while scavenging to make cooking or purifying water pointless, with plenty of materials to set up little tarp tents wherever I was when I needed to sleep. The 1.0 update improves the system tied to comfort levels restoring more energy, but who needs quality sleep when you can slam 12 cans of Redbull? It would have been a canny move to tie some plot progression into building and base defence, though superfluousness does have the upshot that you can pretty much ignore building if it’s not your speed.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

I’d loop that into a broader and more damning issue that remains unsolved, though, which is the way that all-important sense of The Forest as a real place is sullied by progression blockers that require you to fetch MacGuffin A before you can access doodad B. I was over it from the first time I trekked across half the island to a mysterious GPS locator tag, only to find I needed to first fetch a shovel from God knows where. Unless I missed something, your options are to either comb through every cave you come across and pray you stumble on the right tools in the right order, or to look up a guide that transforms the beguiling horrorscape of the forest into a mercenary series of objective-driven treks. The abundance of golf buggies and newly added trails to drive them along speeds up those journeys, but speeding up can’t resolve a structural issue.

It’s a crying shame, because puncturing that spell is the Forest playing against its greatest strength. It’s a magnetic place, all the more magical for a seasonal shift that blankets the trees in snow and transforms lakes into great sheets of ice that crunches and cracks underfoot, rippling out spacey reverberations into the void beneath. When it wants to, it can scare the socks off you if you’re playing solo, with caves that drip threat and an oh-so-deliberate decision to plunge you into torchless darkness whenever you reload your crossbow.

But familiarity is the fear killer, and there are only so many caves you can crawl through before the monsters become obstacles to sprint past rather than terrors to flee from. If I’d been able to explore more naturally without the threat of excessive backtracking, maybe I’d have shifted to that mindset a little later on - though I still spent many hours quivering through the dark. Creating a Forest that can go toe to toe with Subanutica’s Ocean when it comes to dread is a huge accomplishment, even if the full package still has some leaks.

This review is based on a retail build of the game, provided by developers Endnight Games.

Find out how we conduct our reviews by reading our review policy .

Sons of the Forest

PC

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.

All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.

How to find the 3D printer in Sons Of The Forest

Learn where to find the 3D printer in Sons Of The Forest

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

Looking for the 3D printer in Sons Of The Forest? Sons Of The Forest is a tough survival game, but you can make it a little easier with the 3D printer. No, you won’t use it to make your own custom Warhammer miniatures! Instead, you can use it to print crucial items, such as the flask to store water , or the mask to pacify enemies. If you’re itching to find the 3D printer and don’t know where to look, that’s where we come in.

We’ll break down how to find the 3D printer in Sons Of The Forest, which is no longer in early access after the release of the version 1.0 update. We’ll explain exactly where you need to go to get the 3D printer, and list all of the items you can print.

In this guide:

• How to get the 3D printer in Sons Of The Forest
• How to use the 3D printer in Sons Of The Forest

Looking for ways to survive your first few days in Sons of the Forest? Watch the video above for 15 essential tips.Watch on YouTube

How to get the 3D printer in Sons Of the Forest

The 3D printer is found in a cave that’s marked by a green pulse on the map. You can find the exact location in the image below.

Follow the green pulse above the player in this image. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

Once you arrive at the marker, simply head down the slope and into the cave. Shuffle through the gap to get in, and then continue into the darkness until you see a light up ahead. You’ll find yourself in a corridor that seems kind of like a mysterious underground lab, and the light up ahead leads into a safe room.

When you enter the safe room, you’ll find the 3D printer on a desk by the wall. It’s already loaded with some resin, but you can find more on the shelves nearby.

The exact 3D printer location in Sons Of The Forest. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

How to use the 3D printer in Sons Of The Forest

To use the 3D printer in Sons Of The Forest, you must press “R” on the nearby computer to cycle through the various items that you can print. When you’ve settled on an item (and checked that the 3D printer has enough resin), you can hit the “E” key to start printing.

Below, you’ll find a list of items that you can make using the 3D printer:

• Arrows (50 resin)
• Flask (100 resin)
• Mask (150 resin)
• Grappling Hooks (100 resin)
• Tech Mesh (250 resin)
• Sled (1000 resin)

With the resin available in this room alone, you should be able to make most of the cheap items, or a single sled. We’d recommend getting the flask and mask first, along with some arrows if you prefer ranged weapons.

Before heading out, make sure to also search the rest of the room. You’ll find some Carbon Fiber arrows in the corner, and there is also a bed here that you can use to save and sleep. It’s the perfect shelter!

If you’re not comfortable with lighting a fire and making a tent in Sons Of The Forest to survive in the outdoors, then this is the ideal base.

That wraps up our guide on how to find the 3D printer in Sons Of The Forest. Of course, the items that you can 3D print aren’t the only important tools that you’ll need to survive. If you want to explore underwater, for example, you’ll need to get the Rebreather in Sons Of The Forest . This also allows you to get the Shovel in Sons Of The Forest , which you can use to dig up hidden items. If you’re scared of exploring, consider learning how to get Virginia in Sons Of The Forest first, as she makes an excellent combat companion.

Sons of the Forest

PC

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.