Sons of the Forest Enemies & Mutants

The most common cannibal. It shadows you and tries to goad you into a fight before turning fully hostile. Fast and agile, it can wear any armor you can except Tech Armor, and dresses heavier in winter.

Where:

Everywhere on the surface — alone, in patrols and in camps

Attacks:

Melee weapons · Climbs trees · Hit-and-run

Unarmed and the least eager to fight. It runs if it sees many of its tribe killed, but fights back when pursued, and returns to mourn or eat a fallen cannibal. The rare armored ones behave like the males.

Where:

With other cannibals, sometimes alone

Attacks:

Defends itself when chased

A normal-sized cannibal wearing the Gold Mask that marks a tribe's leader. Brutes wear the mask too. Killing it does not drop the mask.

Where:

At the head of certain tribes; every village has its throne

Attacks:

Melee weapons

The biggest cannibal and usually a tribe chief, often in a gold mask. It tries to scare you first, pointing its club or tossing aside a cannibal you killed, then charges with swings and kicks that floor you.

Where:

Camps (often on the throne), sometimes wandering

Attacks:

Heavy club swings · Knock-down kick · Outboard-motor 'chainsaw' (rare)

Mud-caked cannibals that scuttle on all fours. They hide and watch, and leave you alone unless provoked — though they get bolder late in the game. Unarmed, quick to flee, and in the late game sometimes in Creepy Armor.

Where:

Bushes, leaf piles and trees, in packs

Attacks:

Leaps from behind · Throws small stones

Our earlier page called them ambushers that pounce on sight; the wiki's Enemies list rates them Neutral. The Neutral rating is shown.

The female counterpart of the muddy cannibal: same look, same mix of caution and late-game aggression.

Where:

With the muddy packs

Attacks:

As the males

A huge, bright-red, naked cannibal that jogs fast and soaks up damage. Its lunging belly flop floors you, and it tears through defensive walls faster than other cannibals — yet a single headshot kills it.

Where:

Surface

Attacks:

Belly-flop lunge that knocks you down · Breaks walls quickly

A large cannibal that throws itself at you belly first on sight. Clothed or naked, it fights the same way.

Where:

Surface

Attacks:

Stomach-first leap

Night-time cannibals in fluorescent body paint. They never spawn by day and act like the regular tribes, only a little more aggressive. The game has a female id too (PaintedFemale).

Where:

Night groups of four or five

Attacks:

As regular cannibals

A painted or gold-masked cannibal with a flashlight or headlamp taped to its head. Seen only at night, and the light gives it away from far off. A gold-masked one leads its tribe.

Where:

With nomad tribes at night

Attacks:

As regular cannibals

A rare cannibal that lights itself on fire with a Molotov and charges, swinging while it burns. Its damage is huge. It does not appear while it rains or snows.

Where:

Leads some nomad families; never in rain or snow

Attacks:

Sets itself alight with a Molotov · Burning melee

The wiki's list gives Day 10 as its spawn day but also says it leads families from Day 8.

Carries three crafted spears and throws them while you are at a distance, then fights with a bone up close like other cannibals.

Where:

Surface

Attacks:

Throws 3 crafted spears at range · Bone in melee

Carries an effigy on its back and plants it near your base, or next to you if you run into it. The effigy draws and riles up cannibals around it and makes them likelier to attack buildings in its range.

Where:

Near your base

Attacks:

Plants an effigy

Bulky, fast and evasive, wearing a sewn-on skin mask with a gaping mouth. Its armor improves the longer you have been on the island, up to full Creepy Armor. It can't be knocked down and outruns you, so ranged weapons are the answer.

Where:

Leads some tribes

Attacks:

Heavy melee · Dodges your swings · Cannot be knocked down

The wiki marks this Day 15 spawn as needing further research.

Wears a sack over its head with sharpened sticks on top and rams you head first from a distance, knocking you down. The charge lasts until it hits or you get well away.

Where:

Surface

Attacks:

Head-first ramming charge · Melee up close

A fast female cannibal with sharpened bones worn like gloves. She rolls in, strikes, leaps at you from a distance and dodges your swings — parry or use ranged weapons.

Where:

Surface

Attacks:

Barrel roll · Bone-glove strikes · Jump attack from range

The commonest underground enemy: a pale, gaunt mutant with skin grown over its eyes and mouth. It hunts by sound, screeches to call others, and circles you to confuse you. Tougher than a cannibal — it takes several pistol shots.

Where:

Mostly caves; sometimes near open cave entrances and ruined camps

Attacks:

Scratching · Body slam

Less common than the male and a little worse at locating you — sometimes it just stands there as you walk past.

Where:

Caves; rarely outside with a pack of males

Attacks:

As the male Puffy

A taller Puffy that pulses blue in the dark and survives several shotgun blasts. It adds a spinning attack and a lunge to the normal Puffy's moves.

Where:

Cultist Cave; rarely the surface late in the game

Attacks:

Spin · Lunge (both knock you down)

Glows like the male but is much faster, and jumps high enough to clear defensive walls.

Where:

Caves or the surface after day 30 — very rare

Attacks:

Very fast · High jumps over defensive walls

A high-level Puffy marked with black spots, with a lot of health and damage. In the dark it is hard to tell from a regular Puffy.

Where:

Caves and the surface

Attacks:

Spin · Lunge

An armless mutant whose huge mouth is ringed with fingers. It charges and swings its body, hitting hard. Shooting or striking a leg stuns it for a few seconds; bombs and ranged weapons are safer than melee. The cross makes it back off.

Where:

Mostly caves, with Puffies; cave entrances at night

Attacks:

Swings its whole torso, reaching almost all the way round

Two bodies fused at the pelvis. It stalks low and fast, climbs walls, can rise out of holes in the ground, and leaps from behind. Badly hurt, the female half goes limp while the male half retreats.

Where:

Mostly caves; the surface at night once their cave is open

Attacks:

Claw swipe · Bite · Running leap

A crawling infant mutant that comes in hordes. Its leap is easy to dodge — it screeches first — and it has little health, but a group overwhelms you fast. Grenades and Molotovs clear a horde.

Where:

Almost every cave and some bunkers; near your base later

Attacks:

Throws itself at you

A tube of flesh with a torso at each end that cartwheels one over the other. Among the fastest enemies, wrecks structures and fights cannibals too. Very weak to fire: a Molotov and a couple of stone arrows finish it.

Where:

Surface

Attacks:

Slam · Swing

The wiki's list gives Day 15, but its own description of the same row says Day 10.

An upside-down-looking mutant that walks on finger-like tentacles. It jumps high, chases fast, waits on cave ceilings, and has a lot of health. Added with the full release.

Where:

Surface; Shovel Cave and Cave D; cave ceilings

Attacks:

High jump attack · Fast pursuit

A huge three-legged, armless mutant covered in openings. It charges you down and leaps onto roofs, flattening buildings in a few hits — fight it away from your base. After landing it stays down for a moment, your opening to strike.

Where:

Mostly the surface, rarely caves

Attacks:

Charge · High jump over walls and onto roofs

The wiki's Enemies list says 2 pieces of Creepy Armor; the Holey page says 3.

A towering, many-armed mutant on three hoofed legs. It stomps and growls before charging. It loses track of you easily mid-fight, but can swing all around itself; it resists bullets better than melee or explosives.

Where:

The surface, alone, once you finish the story and stay

Attacks:

Ground-stomp warning · Charge · Arm swings that knock you down

A spider-like late-game mutant that keeps running at you, jumping as it comes. No relation to the companion Virginia.

Where:

Rarely the surface

Attacks:

Relentless running and jumping

A huge mass of flesh and limbs that blocks cave passages. Explosives blow it apart and clear the way. The wiki says it doesn't spawn as a roaming enemy — and the game's own id for it ends in _Deprecated.

Where:

Wedged in cave passages; in a late story cutscene

Attacks:

Only in cutscenes

A skeletal, four-legged mutant that lives unharmed in the lava caves. Alone it mostly taunts; in groups it flanks you from the sides and the ceiling. The cross stuns it, sets it alight and scares it off — three strikes kill one. Golden Armor protects best against it.

Where:

The Hell Cave under the Luxury Bunker (the wiki counts 14–21); later the surface

Attacks:

Scorpion-like kick over its back · Flurry of arm stabs · Drops from the cave ceiling

The mutated billionaire, fought together with his wife. He is the slower, heavier half of the duo — leave him for last.

Where:

Banquet hall, Food and Dining Bunker

Attacks:

Jumps · Swipes that knock you down

The wiki's Enemies list puts this fight in the Entertainment Bunker's last room; its Edward and Barbara pages and the fight's own write-up say the Food and Dining Bunker banquet hall.

Faster and more aggressive than Edward, darting around the arena. Focus her first.

Where:

Banquet hall, Food and Dining Bunker

Attacks:

Hit-and-run · Spinning lunge

A much bigger, tougher and more agile demon, met as a mini-boss at the end of the lava caves. Crosses hurt it, but the wiki rates that a poor plan for this fight.

Where:

End of the lava (Hell) caves; rarely the surface after the ending

Attacks:

Demon attacks · Knock-down leap

The wiki's list labels its location "Late Game / VIP Bunker", while its description puts the fight at the end of the lava caves.

The game files call it BossMutant; the wiki identifies it as Jianyu Zhang, mutated by the Cube. Agile despite its bulk, it leaps to floor you and spawns mutants from its body. Fight it with firearms, ranged weapons and bombs.

Where:

VIP Bunker helipad

Attacks:

Knock-down leap · Births Mutant Babies and Twins from its body

Great-white-like sharks of varying size that all deal the same damage. They guard the Survival Raft. Pistols and arrows kill them easily near the surface.

Where:

Sea away from the coast; around the Survival Raft; a flooded tunnel of the Rebreather Cave

Attacks:

Swims straight at you

Passive until attacked, then it charges away and knocks down anyone in its path. Takes far more arrows or bullets than a deer.

Where:

Groups of 2–3, mainly the east side

Attacks:

Tramples you when it bolts

The wiki's Moose page calls it passive; its Enemies list calls it sometimes hostile. They also disagree on the meat and hide it gives, so we leave those out.

Killer whales swim in pods offshore and sometimes leap. They can be killed but drop nothing and sink.

Where:

Pods in deeper water; some beached on the coast

The wiki's Orcas page (edited August 2026) says they are passive and swim away; its older Enemies list calls them very hostile. The newer page is shown.