Survival Gets Tougher with Sons of the Forest Patch 06

Sons of the Forest, the indie horror game and follow-up to 2018's The Forest, has just released Patch 06, which includes new features and a challenging hard survival mode. Along with its creepy setting of a dense woodland populated by cannibals and mutants, the game is also known for its base building mechanics that allow players to set up camp and try to survive as long as possible. Despite being in early access since February, the developer has been consistently releasing updates to fix bugs and add new content, with Patch 06 introducing even more features for fans to enjoy.

The Sons of the Forest Steam page has released Patch 06, which introduces a challenging survival mode along with custom effigies and an advanced log sled. The update also includes various improvements and balancing tweaks, such as optimizing water sounds and visuals and making sleeping outdoors less rewarding than indoors. Additionally, the hard mode reduces food spawns in crates, decreases stamina regeneration in cold environments, and imposes heavier penalties for consuming raw or rotten meats.

The hard survival difficulty setting in Sons of the Forest seems to be a deliberate move by the developers to transform the game into a brutal survival experience, similar to popular titles like Rust or 7 Days to Die. The recent Patch 06 introduces some adjustments to Kelvin, the NPC who assists players in navigating the forest, including the ability to pick up stones and fixing a bug that prevented him from collecting dropped arrows. Despite its initial success and subsequent decline in popularity, Endnight Games is dedicated to enhancing the horror game in preparation for its official launch.

Sons of the Forest Update 06 Patch Notes:

Features

Stone pickups have been introduced to the game's world, making it easier for players to gather resources. Additionally, a new survival mode has been added, increasing the game's difficulty. Players can now construct stone walls, columns, beams, and fireplaces to help them survive. Customizable effigies are also now available, allowing players to personalize their game experience. The advanced log sled has been updated to carry a variety of materials, including logs, rocks, stones, sticks, and bones.

Countdown clocks have been installed in the dining area of the food and dining section. The exploded bathroom in the bunker luxury now features blown apart limbs for added realism. The cooking pot and flask can now be emptied by right-clicking with the mouse. If a player is holding the pot while interacting with the fire, the pot will be placed on the fire immediately. If the fire breaks while the pot is cooking, the contents will be reset back to water, but the recipe will be retained if the pot had finished cooking. Improvements have been made to the water movement in the pot when it is not boiling, as well as the steady water drip FX in caves. Lava sound and visuals have been fixed and improved, and thunder sounds have been added to lightning strikes in the space city view of the gold room cutscene. The rain catcher will no longer show the refill icon until there is enough water for one drink, and the pot can now be re-added to the fire even if it has a completed recipe. The hotkey UI will no longer show up in quick select and grab bag menus, and only be visible when in the inventory. Loading hints have been added for comfort rating, sleeping indoors vs outdoors, and cooking bonuses. Fish traps now run in game time instead of real time to work better with pausing and sleeping, and fish caught in traps will no longer go rotten. UI for current cooking bonuses and cooking recipes has been improved, while a new equip/unequip animation for the shotgun has been added for a smoother blend. Cannibals will sometimes drag their dying friends away from the player, and AI are no longer blocked by defensive stick spikes, but still take damage. Kelvin can now pick up stones and fill the log sled with sticks, rocks, and stones. Additionally, oversaturated animal spawn areas have been reduced and spread out more, and dead bodies in the beach cave will no longer float in multiplayer games when the host player is not in the cave. Finally, player effigies now cause fear to cannibals based on the number of body parts they contain, and spearing multiple fish will visually stack on the spear instead of overlapping.

Sleeping outdoors now provides less rest compared to sleeping indoors due to the modification of the player's rest gained by their comfort rating. The chance of finding meds in crates has also been lowered. Additionally, players may encounter Large Demons above ground after completing the game. The recipe for Lumberjack juice has been reworked to make it easier to craft in peaceful games. Cooking buffs now last for 4 hours in game time instead of 8 hours, and hard survival mode has been added to the start difficulty settings. Food spawns in crates have been reduced, and in this game mode, item storage crates do not respawn on load. Fish and animal spawns have also been decreased, and players will experience slower health and stamina regeneration while cold. Finally, there is an increased penalty for consuming raw or rotten meats.

Fixes

Added missing translations for cooking, fixed issue where player doesn't receive effects when drinking the last bit of liquid from their pot or flask. GPS locators on standing sticks now show the selected icon and retain it after saving and loading, with improved positioning of 3D model on stick. Can no longer interact with cooking pot while refilling container from it. Utility page button color fixed. Stick amounts needed changed from 48 to 60 for advanced log sled. Fixed skinning on gold armor pickup. Lake volumes no longer poke out through terrain. Protein Shake recipe spelling corrected. Lens flare occlusion now works correctly with blood or cold post processing active. Fixed issue where player gets stuck when quickly closing grab bag after opening it on things such as storage, fires, and Virginia. Perishables no longer get desynced on shelves when multiplayer client removes and fake drops them. Player no longer gets into an unrecoverable state if they eat something in inventory immediately after loading a save game. Screen space reflection now always disables correctly. Various memory improvements made. Doors and hatches no longer get into a desynced state for multiplayer clients in some cases. Stumps now appear outside after loading a save game inside a bunker or cave. Female cannibal broken neck and head gimbal flipping in hit with Molotov cocktail reaction animation fixed. Equipping the lighter with the rope gun held no longer looks odd. Popping on crossbow animations fixed. Kelvin can now pick up and drop arrows. Muddy Cannibals now stay near trees by player and sometimes trigger too often. Audio on Knight V no longer gets stuck. Audio when cutting tree with chainsaw fixed. Navigation cutting fixed when placing walls in ground that slopes up. Player's grab bag now closes when interacting with a fire that has gone out. After loading a save game, when drinking from a pot on a fire, the player now receives the correct recipe stats instead of water.

Audio

Improved audio for various elements such as pot lid bumping, ambient events, mutant footsteps, water splatters, Demon Boss sequence, pot filling with water, chopper leave sequence, Knight V on mud and water, emptying cooking pot and flask, gold room vista lightning, and guitar playing audio interruptions have been fixed in Sons of the Forest early access version for PC.

Source: Steam