Sons of the Forest Patch 02 - New Boss, Cave System, Balance Changes, and More

Sons of the Forest has been going through quite a few changes. The early access game has only been out for one month, and already we’ve had two hotfixes and a sizeable patch. We thought the first patch was “an impressive list of changes,” but we didn’t know how much Endnight Games was going to spoil us – just two weeks later, and patch 02 is already here. All we can hope is that other developers that have games in early access take note and replicate this startling delivery speed of quality hotfixes and patches.

Patch 02 brings a new boss fight in the Luxury Bunker’s magma cavern, and a whole new cave system, among other changes. In the first patch, they put a mini-boss into the Food Bunker; these memorable moments and encounters are what were sorely lacking when the game first arrived. We can’t wait to jump in and see what new boss is like.

Sons of the Forest Patch 02 TL;DR Patch Notes:

Changes to enemies
- Added a tougher variation of the puffy
- A new two story cannibal hut
A new cave system
- Moved golden armor to new cave (gold armor has less resistance against demons)
Changes to areas
- Luxury Bunker requires different mode of access (can’t use VIP keycard anymore)
- New surveillance room added to Residential Bunker
In single player, containers now save their state, so they cannot be reopened after reloading game
Can use most left-hand items while hang gliding
Lots of balance changes
- MRE’s provide more fullness and cat food provides less
- Chainsaw charge duration decreased
- Flashlight auto replaces battery sooner
- Rabbits and squirrels run away from player faster
Lots of fixes
- Custom day length settings work correctly
- Fixed item duping using storage holders
- Some cases fixed where enemies spawn inside player bases
- Items can be equipped while not grounded again, excluding books
- Turtle eggs no longer hatch on shelves or player grab bag

Check out the full patch notes below!

Sons of the Forest Patch 02 Notes

Hey everyone,

This patch adds a new cave to explore, and a new boss monster to the ending along with more lore and tons of fixes and improvements for the full list check below.

As always, please continue to post your bug reports and feedback in the Discussions area of the Community Hub.

Features

Added new demon boss to end of hell caves
Added dead cultists to map
New double story cannibal hut type added
Added turtle shell rain collector
Added new tougher puffy variation
New surveillance room added to bunker residential
New cave system added
Added admin panel for admin clients
Additional story elements added
Added auto backup system when overwriting saves

Improvements

Moved gold armor to new cave system
Removed keypad entrance to bunker luxury, will now need to open it an alternate way
Container items will now save their state in single player, so if they are opened or broken, they stay that way
Improved lit fire torch brightness when viewed in first person
Removed instant season switch logic from sleeping
Adjusted the min/max turbulence of wind to prevent extreme mesh distortion at highest intensity
Firewood now crumbles when it’s fuel is used up on fires, and can then be replaced with new firewood
Furniture or ziplines can no longer be attached to doors and gates
Repositioned dead sluggy in bunker residential making it possible to come back inside bunker
Player is now able to use most left hand items while gliding
Closing save menu will go back to game rather than pause menu
Changed face on maintenance keycard to not be player character
Improvements to Finnish and Traditional Chinese text
Improved look of old paper pickups
Added books to bookshelves in bunker luxury
Removed shotgun pickup from bunker luxury
Gold armor pickup visual is now the full armor and is positioned to fit on skeleton burnt model
Improved held location of flashlight and lighter when sliding
Added additional wakeup locations in hell cave

Balance

Increased fullness from eating MRE’s and decreased fullness from eating cat food
Rabbits and Squirrels will now try harder to evade player and run faster
Added unique hit reacts to dining hall bosses and replaced their knockdowns from shotgun with smaller staggers
Player no longer takes survival stat damage while strung up on effigies
Gold Armor now absorbs 70% demonic damage instead of 90%
Increased burn time on camp fires
Increased fire fuel amount provided by leaves & cash by x10
Reduced chainsaw full charge duration
The flashlight will now auto replace the battery sooner so that it happens before the light begins to fade

Fixes

Fixed Item Duping using storage holders
Custom day length settings will now work correctly
Fixed multiple cases of enemies able to spawn inside player built bases
Fixed pops on machete block animations
Fixed bloom on tech armor blowing out visually
General navmesh improvements
Fixed issue where leaving save menu would bring back HUD and leave menu state in pause menu
Fixed locking player movement when starting to dig to fix alignment issues
Floors no longer allow placing walls if there is a leaning beam above
If a held item is set to require both hands, the equip will now also drop any logs the player was holding, fixes glider disappearing when player attempts to equip it while holding a log
Can no longer drink water while swimming
Fixed missing cleanup of the player out of breath audio
Fix for players dying instantly if jumping in water and rebreather was out of air
Camp Fires will no longer set off fire sprinklers until the fire has been lit
Fixed issue with the player getting in to a bad state if they died while performing an interaction in their inventory, such as eating or crafting
Fixed issue where the player could get stuck in a bad state when equipping, stashing and equipping items very quickly
Fixing issue with the player sometimes being able to begin eating by using hotkeys while starting other actions
Fix for binocular visuals getting stuck on screen if the player opens the pause menu while using the binoculars
If the player is not grounded while the tutorial book is out, the tutorial book will be stashed
Items can be equipped while not grounded again, excluding books
Fix for campfires becoming interactable when the player is in another action if the player previously backed away from the fire while trying to light it
Fix for having to look away from the fire after lighting it before it would be interactable
Turtle Eggs will no longer hatch on shelves or on the players grab bag
Fix for GPS locator not being cleared after being picked up and loaded from a save
Fix for clicking anywhere in the grab bag taking an item back from Virginia if the player closed the grab bag while hovering over the missing item
Fix for items not being able to be equipped from within inventory if they were not left or right hand items
Tactical in coffin GPS locator will no longer show up after loading a save where the player has already picked it up
Fix for clients not being in sync with the host for season duration if the starting season was spring
Fixed issue with player out of breathe audio not following the player unless they are running
Fixed hovering over crafted items on the mat not showing the total number of owned items including the ones on the mat
Fix for player getting stuck in falling pose if quick select is opened at the same time as jumping
Fix for the player always triggering the logic to dismount from a rope when dying; This was causing issues with incorrect items being equipped after death
Fix for player being able to pull out their grab bag on fires when they do not have the grab bag
Fix for survival damage not working in save games
Multiplayer clients are now synced with the hosts stat damage and consumable effects settings
Fix for breaking unfinished tree cabin giving infinite logs
Fixed placement prompts staying behind when placement changes from valid to invalid in some cases
Fixed beam supported by walls not propagating destruction properly to linked strutted beam
Fixed some open edges on cliffs around world
Fixed some cases of trees vanishing when walking over some parts of map above caves
Fixed firewood giving different amounts of fuel for Host and client in multiplayer games
Fixed snow appearing on some indoor plants in winter
Blood reveal on Demon should now match the body part hit
Fixed cut ferns flying up into air
Fixed Kelvin being able to burn to death from fires
Fixed some cases of A.I. actors getting into invalid states
Improved A.I. navigation in structures
Prevented some cases of animals and enemies able to spawn on player built structures
Prevented some cases of enemies attempting to move to stimuli they can’t reach
Fix For grab bag still being able to be equipped on garden plots even when the player does not have their inventory
Fix for player clothing blend shapes not applying correctly in certain situations in multiplayer
Fixed issue where other interactions would still be possible while the look animations were playing on equipping the book pickups
Planting seeds in gardens will no longer consume two seeds at a time
Item Crates and containers will no longer look closed if the player opens them, runs away and then comes back to them in single player
Fix for players held items not being re-equipped if the player is wearing the rebreather and exits the water but the mouthpiece was not actively up
Fix for players not getting their items back if the end game cutscene is triggered before they have picked up their dropped inventory
Fix for all items always doing their first look action after the walkie talkie has been equipped
Fixed player stuck with open grab bag if campfire is destroyed while they’re adding something to it
Fixed defensive wall placement UI rendering underneath cliffs
Fixed pillar building decal drawing over hands
Fixed Interacting with light fire prompt multiple times while lighting a fire getting player stuck in falling state