When you start your first playthrough of The Forest, one of the biggest problems you’ll face right away is getting your bearings straight. There’s no map when you wake up after the plane crash. And to make matters worse, there doesn’t seem to be any clear objective about what you should do next.
Sure, you can start building a base and gathering some food, but soon, you’ll find yourself getting attacked by cannibals. That’s when things start to get complicated. The good news is that you’ll eventually find a map and a compass in the game, but getting your hands on them can be tricky, especially if you want to avoid dying. Here’s how to do it.
Related
The Forest: Best Base Locations
The Forest is an amazing survival-horror game that has a lot of options for great base builds, but choosing the right location is important.
How to Find the Map and Compass Quickly
The quickest way to find the Map and the Compass in The Forest is to let yourself die once. From fighting cannibals to getting caught in a trap of your own making, there are plenty of ways players can die in the game, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to do.
Once you reach 0 health, a cutscene will start to play in which you get carried off by the cannibals. After the cutscene ends, you’ll find yourself hanging upside down in a dark cave. Use your Lighter to get some light and look around you. The Plane Pickax will be within reach, and you can use it to cut yourself loose.
Death by drowning won’t trigger the cutscene, and will instead cause a game over.
Move forward, and a few steps later, you’ll find a corpse on the ground holding the Map and the Compass. Pick them up and go back to where you were hanging earlier. You’ll see a rope leading out of the dark cave.
How to Find the Map and Compass Without Dying
If the thought of dying doesn’t seem appealing, there’s another way to get the Map and Compass in The Forest. This method involves finding your own way to the cave in a cannibal village in the southeastern corner of the game, instead of having cannibals carry your lifeless body there. What makes things complicated is that you won’t be able to navigate the world as easily without the Map.
The large snowy mountain you can see when you get to any open section will help you get your bearings right. The mountain is in the north, so the south is behind you when facing toward it, and east is to the right.
Once you have a clear view of the mountain, set up a Temporary Shelter with some Sticks and Leaves and rest. Build defenses and gather your essential supplies. You can interact with your Shelter after a certain period to progress the time. You’ll wake up at Dawn, and now you must wait for the sun to rise. Like in real life, the sun always rises in the east in The Forest. After looking at the sunrise, you can piece together the information to figure out your directions. Keep going as straight as possible; you should eventually reach the Southern Coastline.
On the Southern Coastline, watch out for a couple of landmarks. If you see colorful shipping containers, head left. Keep walking until you see a tree stump. Face it and continue heading forward until you see a large tree in the distance. When you get near the tree, you should see a hut near the coastline and a dirt trail nearby. Follow the dirt trail to reach the Cannibal Village.
On higher-difficulty settings, you may need to fight enemies in the Village once you arrive.
What makes things more complicated is that your journey to the Cannibal Village won’t likely be peaceful. There’s a good chance that cannibals will attack you along the way, which could cause you to lose your bearings. But if your heart is set on doing things the hard way, we recommend bee-lining straight for the Cannibal Village instead of fighting the enemies in The Forest.
- Released
- April 30, 2018
- Developer(s)
- Endnight Games