Sons of the Forest: How to Find and Collect Water

As a pretty classic survival game, much of Sons of the Forest‘s gameplay revolves around gathering resources. As you probably already guessed, water is one of the most valuable resources in the game. While water is also one of the more common resources relatively speaking, it can be surprisingly difficult to find and collect water whenever you need it most.

So if you keep finding yourself in need of a drink in Sons of the Forest, here are some of the best ways to find and eventually collect some much-needed water.

Gather Drinks at the Start of the Game

You should find a variety of stranded suitcases near the starting area of Sons of the Forest. Search those suitcases and you’ll find some drinks. These drinks will provide your earliest sources of water in the game and should be acquired and consumed immediately until you’re able to find more sustainable sources of water

It’s possible to find more drinks scattered throughout the game, but they are certainly not common. As such, you’re going to want to rely on other sources of water for most of your adventure.

Sons of the Forest: How to Drink From Rivers

You’ll likely be relying on rivers for most of your water in Sons of the Forest. While you’ll probably stumble upon most of those rivers through the natural course of gameplay, there’s a pretty easy way to spot one if you ever get lost.

If you’re looking for a river, simply pull up your GPS by hitting the “M” button (if you’re using default controls). From there, you’ll want to click the middle mouse button in order to change the size of the map and find a river. Some can be hard to spot if you’re zoomed too far out, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for thin bodies of inland water.

On that note, be sure to never try to drink from the ocean no matter how thirsty you are. If you don’t know why you shouldn’t drink from the ocean…well, how did you make it this far?

In any case, there’s a weird mechanic in Sons of the Forest that prevents you from drinking water if you have anything equipped in your hands. So, if you’re holding a weapon or something like that, you’ll want to unequip it first by hitting “G.” From there, you should be able to crouch down by the river and use the interact button to drink from it. This should refill your thirst meter and keep you safe for a little while longer.

Eat Yarrow and Berries

So what happens if you’re not near a river, you’re out of drinks, and you suddenly find yourself getting very thirsty? Well, your best bet will usually be to look for nearby Yarrow or berries.

Eating the various berries in Sons of the Forest (including Blueberries, Salmonberries, and Blackberries), will actually restore a tiny amount of your thirst meter. They won’t keep you alive for long, but they will stave off dehydration in an emergency.

Your better bet is to look for Yarrow. Those are the white flowers that you’ll find scattered throughout the map (including in underground and inland sources). Eating one of those flowers isn’t quite as good as drinking from a river, but it is much better than eating a berry. You’re going to be relying on Yarrow often until you’re able to collect water.

Speaking of which…

How to Collect Water in Sons of the Forest

There are two main ways to collect water in Sons of the Forest, and the first method involves creating a Water Collector out of a turtle shell.

First, you’ll want to head to a beach area and look for the large sea turtles that sometimes wander close to the shore. Just note that you’re looking for some of the larger turtles. Killing the smaller ones won’t do you any good (for our current purposes).

Once you’ve found and killed one of those sea turtles, be sure to collect its shell. Place that shell on the ground, and it will collect water whenever it rains. With enough shells, you can usually create a pretty sizeable water reserve for yourself. Of course, the considerable downside to this strategy is that it’s really only useful for storing water at set locations. That’s why you’ll usually drop turtle shells near your base.

The far better (but much more difficult) method for water collection involves creating a flask. To do that, though, you’ll first need to find a 3D printer. Yes, there’s a 3D printer in the game, and it’s incredibly handy.

Remarkably, the 3D printer is located pretty close to the crash site where you start the game. That means you can technically access it very early on, though it’s very easy to miss. This video will show you the quickest way to reach the 3D printer from the game’s starting point.

Before you can use the 3D printer, though, you’ll need to find printer resin. This is where things get tricky. Resin is incredibly hard to find and will likely slowly be gathered across the course of the game as you loot it from chests and ground drops. So while you can find the 3D printer very early on, you won’t be able to do much with it until later when you’ve acquired enough resin. Specifically, you’ll need 100 resin to craft the Water Flask.

Once you have the Water Flask, though, you’ll be able to collect and carry water wherever you are. That obviously makes it one of the most valuable craftable items in the game.