Sons of the Forest: Stats and HUD, explained

When you first drop onto the island in Sons of the Forest, you have absolutely zero idea what’s going on around you. Your chopper has crashed, there’s a strange deaf man rolling on the ground, and mysterious sounds are coming from all directions. To have any chance of survival in Sons of the Forest, you'll need to understand the basics first. 

One of the first aspects you need to understand is your overall HUD. While you don’t have much to go on with your HUD, there are some important elements to keep track of, especially in the lower-right-hand corner.

This is where your mini-map and stats are located. Unlike other games, your stats in Sons of the Forest are primarily related to your overall well-being. 

To find out exactly how stats work and what your overall HUD means in Sons of the Forest, take a look at the guide below. 

All stats in Sons of the Forest

To start, there are several primary stats that you need to monitor in Sons of the Forest continually: hunger, health, stamina, strength, armor, rest, and thirst. Your health and stamina are indicated by the red and blue bars along your mini-map (red for health, blue for stamina). If you take damage, stay underwater too long, or go a while without eating, your red health bar will begin to dwindle. 

Alternatively, if you sprint for too long of a time or haven’t slept in a while, then your blue stamina bar will deplete. If your stamina fully depletes, then you can’t sprint or perform any heavy-duty tasks. There are simple ways to restore both your health and stamina bars in Sons of the Forest, so making sure they both stay full isn’t too difficult of a job. 

As for the other stats, that’s a different story. Below, you can see a list of what icon represents what stat and how they work:

• Hunger (chicken wing icon): Your hunger is represented by the icon that looks like a baby rattle, but it’s really a chicken wing. This stat is simple to keep up, as all you need to do is eat more food to ensure the green ring is always wrapped entirely around the icon. Berries and fish are the best food sources early on. 
• Thirst (water drop icon): Next is thirst, which is another easy stat to maintain. You can increase this stat by drinking water from any water source or a can or bottle. Water bottles and energy drinks are better ways to keep your thirst up, but you can also build structures like the Rain Catcher to always have a source of fresh water. 
• Rest (moon icon): Rest is indicated by the moon icon and directly affects your stamina bar in Sons of the Forest. The more sleep you get, the fuller your rest and stamina bars will be. You can sleep in a tent, bed, or chair. To get better sleep in Sons of the Forest, you can wear outfits that have a high Comfort Level, which restores more of your rest bar. 
• Strength (flexed arm icon): Strength is how you can essentially level up your character in Sons of the Forest. When you start the game, your strength icon will be depleted, with a red bar slowly filling up the icon as you progress. When that red bar fully fills the icon, you’ll see a number inside, which indicates your current level. You can increase your strength by using your weapons and tools. 
• Armor (segmented bars over the health bar): Armor is a stat that can be increased or decreased depending on what you’re wearing. When you equip a new piece of clothing, one of the segmented bars will be filled. There are ten bars in total, giving you ten different pieces of clothing to equip. If you take damage over time, your armor will start to deplete, giving you less resistance against enemy attacks. 

There’s one final stat in Sons of the Forest that’s not immediately visible on your HUD. This stat is stealth, which is only triggered when you are crouching. When crouched, you can see an eye icon appear on the HUD, which becomes less bright the more visible you are to enemies. If you are completely covered, the eye icon remains a solid white color. 

You can increase your stealth stat by wearing specific armor, such as Leaf or Hide Armor. Crouching in thick bushes, behind rocks, etc., also increases your chance of staying hidden. 

Map HUD in Sons of the Forest

The other element to your HUD in Sons of the Forest is the GPS Tracker, which serves as your map. There are a few different icons on the map HUD that you need to be aware of if you want to navigate the island effectively.

You can see what each map icon means below: 

• White icon: The white icons on your map are cave entrances. More often than not, going into a cave in Sons of the Forest yields a special reward, such as the rifle or shovel. You can also find several Artifact Pieces in caves, so they’re worthwhile to enter and explore. 
• Blue K icon: The blue K on your map indicates Kelvin’s location. Most of the time, Kelvin will be right near you unless you command him to do another job. It’s worth noting that Virginia doesn’t have an icon on the map, even if you get her to be your companion. 
• Green circle icon: The green circles serve as your main quest objective points. Travel to the green circles to progress the story in Sons of the Forest. 
• Purple exclamation point icon: The scattered purple exclamation points all across the map are essentially points of interest. These points of interest are often the location of collectibles you can loot, such as weapons, tools, armor, etc. 

That’s everything you need to know about your HUD and all of the various stats in Sons of the Forest. Once you start to play and see the HUD more and more, you’ll know it like the back of your hand.