Summary
The Forestis an amazingly funhorror-survival gamewhere the player crash-lands on an island, finds their son taken from them, and discovers the entire island is infested with cannibals and mutant horrors.
As if the hungry hordes of zombie-like monsters weren’t bad enough,The Forestplayers must also face the problems of food, water, and shelter. All of these are required to survive long enough to get Timmy back, but where is the best spot to try and put down a base that’ll last and has resources nearby?
Updated on June 14, 2025, by Rhenn Taguiam:Although The Forest and its sequel, Sons of the Forest, have yet to receive any major updates in the last two years, the game, especially its prequel, remains quite an interesting take on the survival genre. After all, not only do players need to survive on a peninsula by foraging for food and gathering materials, but they also need to fend off mutated villagers. Its immersive story component also involves finding the player’s lost son somewhere in the peninsula. For players who prefer the game’s survival element (especially with friends), they might be wondering where the best location to build their base is. Thankfully, the game does offer unique locations for base-building, especially if players understand how to use the terrain to their advantage. This includes a special vehicle at sea, and locations to the far east with a decent vantage point.
15The Yacht
The Perfect Solo Paradise
The mutants fromThe Forestare among the most terrifying horror game villains players could encounter, and not just because some of their stronger variants look horrific, but they are especially relentless. Thankfully, there’s one thing they can’t do - and that is to swim. This makes theYacht,previously just a mere story-oriented location, the perfect site for a “base” for players.
When playing solo,the Yacht regularly restockswith supplies and possesses a bed that is technically safe to rest in. Its relative proximity to (and view of) the Peninsula makes it an ideal solo base. Should players desire, they can slowly build a boathouse to position beside the Yacht and create a zipline to the mainland for easier access.
14Fertile Lands
Enjoy Builds With A Defensible Access Point
Players who want to remain in the Peninsula but still get access to minimal threats can build their base inFertile Landson the eastern edge of the map, close to the Island Chain. There are only around a village or two in proximity here, making threats extremely manageable (not to mention guaranteeing a source of food and bones). Should players run out of immediate supplies, going to Wiggle Ridge to the north-west via a zipline network can get them access to yet another safe base-building spot.
Base-wise, the Fertile Lands is a relatively risk-free zone with the sea to its immediate east and easily-defensible chokepoints to the north and south. Having Tree Cliff to its west means an almost impassable entryway into the camp, making Fertile Lands a decent vantage point to see distant threats to know where best to proceed next.
13Isolated Beach
Convenient Access To Materials, Escape
The shore is often an ideal location to run off to inThe Forestfor players who need to escape a band of mutants or if they just want to get a clearer view of those who are chasing them. And among the shores of the Peninsula, it’s perhaps theIsolated Beachthat offers the most ideal defensible location, given its location in the southern edge of the map, just beside the Island Chain.
Access to the sea on the south means the Isolated Beach can get the occasional turtle respawn with no risk of attacks from every other direction except north. While cannibal villages are indeed directly up ahead, gathering resources westward will bring players closer to the Yacht, yet another safe location.
12Big Island
Isolated And Safe At The Edge Of Paradise
Players who want to go all-out in their base building can treat the entirety of the Peninsula as a “danger zone,” with the comfort of safety only accessible from their fortress in theBig Island- a large island at the right-most side of the map. Compared to other locations inThe Forest, its location in isolation makes it next to impossible for mutants to randomly spawn there, yet it’s likely large enough for players to establish a defensible camp with basic food sources.
The ideal strategy for using the Big Island would be forming a defensible sleeping area and a small farm, and then creating a zipline network to Fertile Lands and even the Island Chain. Although going to the core forested lands to the west does mean encountering more mutants, Big Island does have easy access to some of the game’s safest locations - Fertile Lands to the north, the Island Chain to the south, and Isolated Beach just south of that.
11The Islands
Freedom From Cannibal Attacks
When first trying the game,it will be tempting to run to one of the nearby small islands just off the main one. Is this a good idea? Well, it certainly does provide an escape from the cannibals, which will be the first thought of many coming intoThe Forest. No cannibals will spawn on the smaller islands, and they can’t get across the stretch of ocean required to attack the base.
However, while water collectors can be placed to catch rain and gardens planted to provide some food, it won’t be enough long-term, and players will be required to go far afield for most of the materials needed to progress in the game.While the islands are safe, they are barren, and the trek back and forth to even reach the base will be painful, not to mention unnecessary, since other options provide better measures of safety as well as supplies.
10Beached Boat Cove
Perfect Hidden Cove Free From Danger
As with any great base spot, players have to choose between having resources and being in the middle of potential enemy attacks or escaping it all and living on a remote beach. If players, particularly newer ones, are looking for the latter, then they should consider checking out this remote spot on the far south of the map inThe Forest.
While this spot isn’t the most packed with resources and can be difficult to reach walking around the coast, it allows players complete freedom from attack, and they will likely not need many resources for a base, since the position requires few traps or walls to defend it. The beached boat cove is a picturesque and pleasing location for players willing to go off the beaten track enough to find it at the very southernmost tip of the map.
9Goose Lake
Plenty Of Resources In A Beautiful Spot
How about a calming base down by a lovely lake, where players can feed the many local geese and drink from the water? Goose Lake is a hugely popular spot for players because of the access it provides to a cave within the lake and also to others nearby. There are lookout posts on the lake, and it is a beautiful location.
But more than that, there is a cliff near the lake that is impassable for cannibals and other enemies. If a base is built up against this side, there are fewer directions from which that one can be attacked. It offerssafety and resources, both of which are found in a centralized location near many of the significant cave systems that players must explore to complete the game. This is a great place to start in a multiplayer server with people who haven’t played the game before.
8The Snow Biome
Harsh Environment But Relatively Safe
The Snow Biome is an almost entirely impractical place to build a base, which is part of what makes doing so ingenious. The northern part of the island, near the mountain, is covered in eternal snow, which makes it uninhabitable for any playernot wearing a warm suitunless there is a lot of fire around all the time.
Nevertheless, the Snow Biome can be a smart place to try and put a base down.Normally, it’ll be easier to accomplish this later in the game, but that is precisely when players will need a place away from cannibal attacks. The attacks intensify as the game goes on, and it will be difficult at times, but if players build in the western part of the snowy biome, they will avoid a lot of cannibal presence and find an abundance of mushrooms as food to forage in the area.
7In The Trees
Living Above The Danger
It might initially seem like an unusual idea, but a tree house is completely possible for a build in-game and is an interesting and potentially beautiful build for a base. It should be noted that updates toThe Forestmade it possible forcertain types of mutantsto attack the tree if they see the player enter the base.
However, while this means a tree house isn’t a foolproof escape plan, it is a useful base to have.It can make dangerous but resourceful areas much safer, as long as players remember not to put a fire inside at night. This would make the base visible for an extremely large area.
6The South Beach
Good Visibility & Resources
Another space with natural defenses on multiple fronts is the south beach up against the ocean, where players can run if they are surrounded. It is also near an early-game cave with resources, the yacht is close at hand, and a camp is left behind. This, combined with plenty of nearby trees with space between to see attackers coming, makes for a strong defensive position that’s easy to hold later in the gamewith stronger weapons.
While dead sharks on the beach don’t make for the best company,the site is extremely useful and easy to mark and remember on the map. Seagulls are the only usable animals around for food, but there are blueberries nearby and plenty of other materials between the camp and the caves.
