A helicopter crash, a small axe in your hand, and Kelvin at your side—a concussed but loyal companion ready to work on command. The much-watched island-horror sandbox Sons of the Forest has finally left Early Access with a substantial 1.0 release! Alongside the completed main-story finale, the update adds enjoyable drivable golf carts, portable gliders and launch platforms, and enticing golden armor and ultimate artifact fragments. Gather your friends and return to the island: cut trees and build a seaside mansion by day, then face waves of mutants with shotguns by night!
Why Does Sons of the Forest 1.0 Offer So Much Multiplayer Fun?
- The relaxing experience of letting AI handle the logging: Cutting trees and hauling logs is often a long, tedious task in survival games. Here, write Kelvin a note telling him to cut down the trees and stack the logs neatly on a rack, and he happily gets to work. Your squad can focus on architectural design: fireplaces, galleries, cliffside suspension bridges, and even modern seaside homes with helipads!
- Happy travels with golf carts and gliders: The island is enormous. Version 1.0's golf carts carry teammates along forest trails at speed, and their headlights illuminate roads late at night. With a glider that folds into your backpack and an aerial launch platform, your squad can dive from a snowy mountaintop and glide across the whole island.
- Mutant caves and frightening spatial audio: Explore dark, damp stalactite caves with flashlights and crossbows as shrill cries of many-armed mutants and blind aberrations echo from every direction. Teammates must stay close back to back: one lights the way, another covers with a shotgun, and another throws Molotov cocktails for intense combat.
Avoiding Pitfalls: Why Use a Separate Dedicated Server?
Large-scale 3D vegetation destruction and cave generation demand substantial host performance. When a player's computer hosts the game, teammates speeding in golf carts far away can easily cause stutters and frame drops. A dedicated server running 24 hours a day lets everyone log in and keep building whenever they want:
- Server AppID:
2465200(anonymous SteamCMD download) - Core communication ports:
UDP 8766(main communication port),UDP 27016(Steam handshakes), andUDP 9700(internal communication) - Configuration file:
dedicatedserver.cfg(world-save slots, enemy respawn multipliers, and Peaceful/Hard mode) - Complete setup guide: For installation and settings, see Sons of the Forest Dedicated Server Setup and dedicatedserver.cfg Explained.
An Easier Way to Manage Your Squad's Server
We recommend our open-source LanGame Server Manager (LGSM) (GitHub: SZSLGJCOM/LanGame-Server-Manager). LGSM's Sons of the Forest template provides one-click startup, automatic listening-port planning, and scheduled backups of the island's building and world saves, protecting the grand villa you built together against raids by cannibals!
Playing Across Networks and Joining the Server
- With a public IP: Forward UDP ports 8766/27016/9700 on your router. Friends can search for your server name on the join screen or enter
public-IP:8766to connect. - Without a public IP on rental or campus networks: Everyone can open the LINK feature in LanGame OS Orbit, create an encrypted virtual LAN, and connect using the generated virtual network adapter IP. The high-speed encrypted P2P tunnel makes island progression stutter-free!