Home
Content Remastered

Sons of the Forest: How to Save Your Game and Not Lose Progress

Last Updated: November 6, 2025

A player building a Tarp Tent in Sons of the Forest to save their progress.

After your helicopter is violently torn from the sky, you awaken in the terrifying wilderness of a remote, cannibal-infested island. Your first moments in Sons of the Forest are a frantic scramble for survival. You grab supplies, craft a crude axe, and hunt for food. But as daylight fades and the forest canopy echoes with guttural screams, the most important question arises: how do you save your progress?

Many players instinctively hit the escape key, searching for a familiar "Save Game" button in the menu, only to find it missing. This isn't a bug or an oversight; it's a core design philosophy from developer Endnight Games meant to deepen the immersion. Saving in Sons of the Forest is an active, in-world action, not a simple menu click. You must physically create a safe space to record your progress. This guide will walk you through exactly how to build the necessary shelters to save your game and offer strategic tips to ensure your hard-won progress is never lost.

There Is No Save Button: Understanding Diegetic Mechanics

The most critical thing to understand is that Sons of the Forest intentionally omits a traditional save-game option in its pause menu. This design is rooted in diegetic gameplay, where essential functions are integrated into the game world itself. Just as you must physically eat to satisfy hunger or build a fire for warmth, you must construct a shelter to secure your progress.

This system forces you to engage with the world on a deeper, more thoughtful level. The act of saving becomes a gameplay objective, requiring resource management, situational awareness, and a moment of relative safety. It elevates a simple utility into a core part of the survival loop, making every save point feel earned. Before you dare to plumb the depths of a dark cave or confront a hulking mutant, the game demands that you first establish a foothold in its hostile world.

Your First Save: Crafting the Essential Tarp Tent

For any survivor, the most immediate and accessible way to save is by constructing a Tarp Tent. This should be your highest priority after the crash. It requires minimal resources and can be deployed in seconds, making it the perfect emergency save point or a temporary forward base for exploration.

Here’s how to build your first save point:

  1. Gather Resources: You need two items: one Tarp and two Sticks. Tarps are frequently found in the yellow equipment crates near the crash site and scattered around abandoned campsites and points of interest. Sticks can be picked up from the forest floor or gathered by chopping down small saplings.
  2. Open Your Survival Guide: Press your build button (default 'B' on PC or up on the D-pad for controllers) to open your survivalist guide.
  3. Select the Shelter: The guide will open in your right hand. Flip the pages to the "Shelters" tab. The Tarp Tent is one of the first and simplest options. Select it to create a translucent blueprint in the world.
  4. Place and Construct: Find a relatively flat piece of ground to place the blueprint. To build it, first place one Stick on the ground at one corner of the blueprint. Then, with the Tarp equipped, approach the Stick, and you'll be prompted to combine them to erect the shelter.

Once the Tarp Tent is built, approach it and interact. You will be given two options: Sleep or Save. Selecting 'Save' will open the save slot menu, securing your progress. The 'Sleep' option allows you to pass time, which is essential for recovering stamina, avoiding the dangers of the night, and advancing the day.

Beyond the Tarp: Permanent Shelters and Save Locations

While the Tarp Tent is an indispensable tool, it offers no protection from the island's aggressive inhabitants. As you become more established, you'll want to build more permanent structures that also function as save points.

Any structure that includes a bed or a designated sleeping area can be used to save your game. This includes everything from the pre-designed log cabins in your guide to fully custom shelters you design and build from scratch.

Building a small log cabin is a significant undertaking, but the reward is a fortified position that cannibals and mutants will struggle to breach. Once you build a bed inside this cabin, it becomes your new primary save point. This progression from a flimsy tarp to a sturdy home mirrors your journey from a vulnerable crash victim to a capable survivor. The game encourages you to create a network of these save points across the island, establishing small outposts near cave entrances, resource-rich areas, or key story locations.

Strategic Saving for Survival

Because saving is tied to a physical structure, when and where you save becomes a critical strategic decision. You can't simply "quick-save" your way through a difficult fight. You must plan ahead.

  • Establish Forward Bases: Before exploring a deep cave system or a known cannibal camp, build a Tarp Tent in a hidden, safe spot nearby. This creates a checkpoint, ensuring that death doesn't force you to repeat a long and dangerous journey.
  • Multiplayer Saving Explained: In a multiplayer game, saving has two parts. The host is the only one who can save the state of the world (buildings, felled trees, environmental changes). All players, including the host, must individually save their own character's progress (inventory, location, health/stamina) by interacting with a shelter. It is crucial for the host to announce when they are saving the world state so that all other players can save their personal progress at the same time.
  • Save Often, Save Smart: After accomplishing any major task—clearing a bunker, acquiring a key item, or finishing a large construction project—make it a habit to return to a shelter and save. The island is dangerously unpredictable, and a surprise mutant attack can erase an hour of hard work in an instant.

Conclusion: A System That Defines the Experience

Endnight Games' decision to integrate the save system into the world is a masterstroke of survival game design. It powerfully reinforces the central themes of vulnerability, preparation, and perseverance that define Sons of the Forest. Creating a shelter isn't just a chore to complete before logging off; it's a moment of triumph—a small, defiant victory against a relentless wilderness. It forces you to think like a true survivor, to plan your expeditions, and to value the safety and comfort of a self-made home. Your network of shelters is more than just a collection of save points; it's a tangible map of your journey and a testament to your will to endure.