How to Survive in the Forest Biome – Icarus

The forest is probably where you’ll start your Icarus adventure, as it is where most of the beginner prospects land you. While not without its dangers, it’s a relatively safe place to learn the ropes of the game and start leveling up. In this guide, we’ll take a look at how to prepare for the forest, what you can expect to find there, and how to deal with the dangers this biome presents.

Preparing for the Forest Biome

Since this will usually be your first ever Biome, you won’t be able to prepare per se. However, you can certainly check out our beginner’s guide, which will walk you step-by-step through all the basic stuff you’ll want to do when you first arrive on Icarus.

Essential Tools

• Stone Axe – The Stone Axe is easily crafted by picking up a few stones and harvesting a few bushes, and is required for harvesting wood from trees.

• Stone Pickaxe – The Stone Pickaxe is crafted as easily as the axe, and is the only way you’ll be able to get Oxide and keep yourself breathing.

• Stone Knife – The knife is your first and last line of defense against predators, and also allows you to skin animals for their resources.

• Wood Rag Torch – It can be pretty hard to navigate at night, especially if you’ve got any glare on your monitor or aren’t tweaking video card settings. The torch will make night-time navigation easier, and you can also set it down to work at night (just don’t put it down on any plants).

What to Bring with You

You can really find everything you need in the Forest Biome — Oxite is abundant, so you won’t want for O₂, and there’s plenty of game animals and wolves to kill for meat. Water can sometimes be difficult to find, so it’s not a bad idea to bring water with you if you’ve got the appropriate tech.

What to Do in the Forest

Collecting lumber is among the best early methods to gain experience. You are likely to have some hidden caves nearby that pose little risk and provide enough resources for most of the Tier 2 crafting. It’s easy to avoid danger by sticking to your landing location until you have better weapons, but you will probably find wolves quite simple to handle – especially when compared to the wolf packs of the Arctic biome.

Hunting large deer and predators is an efficient method to acquire experience points starting mid-way through Tech Tree Tier 2 (level 15 or so). While pursuing hunting, figuring out how to deal with the biome’s most dangerous dweller, the bear, will be a crucial step in preparing for the challenges of the Arctic biome.

Threat Management

The forest only has two real dangers: wolves and bears. Storms can sometimes cause fires, but you’d have to be AFK to die because of one.

Dangerous Wildlife

Bears

The biggest threat you’ll face in the forest, bears are aggressive, fast, and can sneak up on you if you aren’t on the lookout. In fact, they’re so dangerous we created a whole guide on how to deal with them. Here, we’ll just take a look at some of the basics:

• Avoid Them – The best way to deal with bears is to see them before they see you, and stay out of their way. Sticking to the edges of the area you’re in helps with this, and try to sneak if you ever don’t have good line-of-sight around you.
• Build a Prospector Pen – By using wooden railings, you can build a small pen that bears will have to destroy to get to you; you can use a bow or your knife to attack them from over the railing.

Wolves

A single wolf isn’t a big threat, but they sometimes travel in packs. They are a great source of food and other resources, so it’s usually a good idea to kill them — if they’re alone.

If you see more than one, you’re better off avoiding them. As with Bears, sneaking is a good strategy, and you can also utilize the Prospector Pen strategy with wolves as well.

Weather

The weather tends toward mild in the forest, but it’s not always sunny and safe. Storms can limit your movement and experience, and can even burn your shelter down.

Storms

Rain and wind will do minor damage to your structures, and you’ll need to craft a Repair Hammer to fix your walls and protect whatever’s inside. More dangerous are Lightning Storms, which can sometimes set fire to the forest, or to your shelter. Craft a Fire Beater and use it to put out any flames that threaten your precious stuff.

Wood and Thatch structures are vulnerable to storms, but once you unlock the Masonry Bench, you’ll be able to create stone structures that won’t catch on fire.

Available Resources

The forest doesn’t lack for resources, but if you’re looking for rarer or high-level materials, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.

You are not likely to find Ice in the Forest biome at large, but it becomes highly abundant inside the transition areas leading to the Arctic biome. Also note that with the exception of Oxite, Sulfur, and Silica, the ores of the Forest biome are found exclusively in caves.

We hope this guide on the ICARUS forest biome was helpful! Please leave us any questions or suggestions you have in the comments below.