- Progression order
- ~10 major caves
- Rebreather → Rope Gun → Shovel
Sons of the Forest cave order
The island is open from the start, so it's easy to wander into a cave you can't finish. Do the tool caves in the right order to unlock everything smoothly — here's the full progression.
The best cave order, step by step
- Step 1
Flashlight
EarlyGrab the flashlight first — hands-free cave light makes every dive far easier than holding the lighter. It's an early, low-risk pickup.
The single most important early tool. The rebreather lets you breathe underwater, which gates most of the primary caves — including flooded tunnels you simply can't cross without it. Its cave sits on the northern coast near the river mouth and needs no other tools to reach.
Exact location & guideNext, the rope gun fires ziplines to descend shafts and cross chasms — it opens several caves and, together with the rebreather, is required to finish the shovel cave. Get it before attempting the shovel.
Exact location & guideOnly now tackle the shovel cave — it has a flooded section (rebreather) and shafts (rope gun), so it's a dead end without both. The shovel then lets you dig up buried graves, dirt mounds and covered hatches all over the island, opening new loot and caves.
Exact location & guideA late-game tool found stuck in Solafite ore deep in a cave. It mines Solafite and lets you climb frozen ice walls to reach the endgame caves — don't head for the deepest caves until you have it.
Exact location & guide- Step 6
Cross
LateRepels demons — essential for the demon-infested late-game caves. Pick it up before the final dungeon push.
Don't rush the deep caves. Around 10 major caves hold key items, with bunkers to visit in between. Entering a late cave early usually means hitting a flooded tunnel, a sheer shaft or an ice wall you can't pass yet — so clear the tool caves above first. Track everything on the interactive map, or filter straight to every cave entrance.