Main Base Recommended Amenities - The Forest

This guide will cover all of the amenities that you should be making for your main base. Things like the Drying Rack and Water Collector are obvious but what about the Rabbit Cage, Garden, Tree Sap Collector and other items? Which are useful and worth making and which are not? You will find the answers to many of these in the guide.

If you haven't seen my previous guide, how to determine the best location for your main base I would recommend you read that or parts of that first as this is kind of a part 2. That guide will help you in determining the best location for your main base, a good location is important for when the game ramps up in difficulty past Day 17 and enemies that can easily destroy your base start spawning. There are many locations in The Forest that you can use the terrain to your advantage when building your base and that guide covers most of them.

Below I am going to give an individual section for each of the amenities that I believe you should create in your main base. I'll give you information on what each do and how many you should make and (hopefully) everything else that you need to know.

 

Tip: After you place a Blueprint such as a Log Holder or Stick Holder you can press 'R' while looking at it to upgrade it to a larger size.

 

Skin Racks for extra space

In The Forest you're definitely going to have to make some Skin Racks if you plan to store extra animal hides. You can only carry 10 hides at a time which is a pretty low limit for how many you need for all different things. It's worth noting that the Skin Racks can hold more than the Armor Racks too -- however they take up more space. If you have the space then these will work as a better alternative to storing Lizard Skin for Armor than Armor Racks.

Depending on your goals will determine how many Skin Racks you should make. If you think you're going to be playing this game for 80+ hours and you want to make a fully decorated house or town then I recommend 4 Skin Racks at max. For those of you who are only interested in beating the game then you only need 1 or 2 at the most.

 

Armor Racks to hold Bone Armor and Creepy Armor

Another absolute must have for your house is at least two Armor Racks. You can place Bone Armor, Creepy Armor as well as Lizard Skins onto the Armor Racks but nothing else. I'd recommend you store the Lizard Skins on their own Skin Rack and use the Armor Racks for Bone Armor and Creepy Armor.

One upside to putting Lizard Skins on Armor Racks is that the Armor Racks take up significantly less space than a Skin Rack. The downside of the Armor Rack is they can't hold as many Lizard Skins and you can't put a Lizard Skin on the 'helm' slot of an Armor Rack.

 

Rabbit Cages for an unlimited Small Meat supply

This idea is totally optional and I honestly feel that Gardens are better since they are Food + Water - but you can easily get yourself an unlimited supply of food via Rabbits. When a Rabbit is placed inside of a Rabbit Cage it does not need Food or Water and can survive indefinitely. If you have 2 or 4 Rabbits inside of a Rabbit Cage they have a 10% chance to reproduce each time you sleep.

You can stack Rabbit Cages ontop of each other in your base if you build a foundation overtop the first row of Rabbit Cages and then build more ontop. Alternatively, you can use a Rock Wall and Custom Floors for a cheaper alternative. Farket talks about how to do this in a youtube video.

 

Gardens for an unlimited Water/Food supply

Definitely a must have for any base in my opinion. I have multiple gardens in this game inside/nearby almost all of my bases with Blueberry Bushes planted in them. When you eat Blueberries in this game you'll fill up your tummy as well as quench your thirst making them a one stop shop for your needs.

Typically I create a Garden nearby my Ziplines that way when I am in the middle of farming (typically by sending Logs via Zipline back to my base) I can Eat/Drink without having to take a break from farming. Eat a few Blueberries when I return to my base and am transporting the Logs to whatever I am working on then go right back to deforesting the area.

 

Birdhouses for Arrows

I strongly recommend you create at least two Birdhouses and attach them to the back of your house or a nearby tree. This is listed under Decorations in your Survival Book but has a very practical purpose as well. Each time you sleep in The Forest your Birdhouse will automatically generate between (I think) 5 - 10 Feathers. It seems to also generate Feathers while you're doing other stuff in the game but sleeping definitely creates the most of them.

Feathers are arguably the hardest material to acquire for Arrows - and you will be using a ton of Arrows. The Forest is one of those games where you really do not want to get hit by enemies, getting hit usually results in a large chunk of your health being taken away or a few pieces of Armor breaking. For this reason the Bow is often the preferred weapon of choice.

Birdhouses can be constructed on trees as well as on the side of your buildings right on the wall. They can also be made on many poles that are created during construction, like on the Custom Stairs. Enemies typically will not attack your Birdhouses so you can make them in a frequently visited place other than your base if you'd like.

 

Arrow Holders & Bone Baskets for extra space

This one is almost a no brainer considering the Bow is the most commonly used weapon for most players in the game. What I like to do is create a Bone Basket right next to an Arrow Holder typically ontop of a table in my main base. If you want the best Arrows in the game (Bone Arrows) then you'll need a lot of bones to craft Arrows - so putting these two holders next to each will save you a lot of time running around while you're doing your crafting.

It's up to you how many Arrow Holders you wish to make, I typically put one in every base I make so I can restock where ever and whenever I want. Additionally, I put an Arrow Holder on the overlook near my base's defensive walls. There's nothing worse than running out of Arrows in the middle of your base being attacked so this alleviates that concern.

 

Bone Baskets for extra space

Creating one Bone Basket in your main base is typically all you'll need to store your extra bones. You can store a total of 86 bones in it which is a over 5x the total you can keep in your inventory. If you're a big farmer like me and you plan on making a lot of Decorations/a town then make two Bone Baskets but that's really all you need at your main base.

You will most often be using your Bones for Bone Armor and Bone Arrows but many cool looking Decorations will take Bones too. The fastest way to farm Bones en masse is to create a small bunker at a location where there are multiple Cannibal/Mutant patrol routes and farm them as they all come to your base. Create a Bone Basket at this location too since you'll be getting so many then make multiple trips back to your main base with them when you're done.

 

 

Storehouse if you plan on doing a lot of construction

Last but not least for those of you out there like me who want to build multiple buildings (or even an entire town) I definitely recommend a Storehouse. This is a building where you'll store all of your extra Sticks, Logs, Rocks and anything else that you'd like to that is commonly used in construction.

On the first floor of my Storehouse I keep Logs and Large Rocks, the second floor holds all of my Sticks and on the third I keep Skin Racks and Bone Baskets. In Survival games like The Forest I typically like to farm way more than I need and keep a supply on hand at all times. Since you have to wait for trees to respawn, it isn't such a bad idea to collect an excess of Logs when the trees respawn near your base. I typically drop off all of the Sticks I have collected each time I return to my base too.

I find that the best location for a Storehouse is right in the middle of your base or right next to the entrance/exit Ziplines. Ultimately it's your call where you place this building and how big you decide to make it. As aforementioned I strongly recommend you only make this building if you enjoy base building a lot in these games. The material cost of a Storehouse is very high and you'll need to use it a lot in order to make it worth creating. Worse comes to worse you could always make a Shed instead which can act as a smaller version of a Storehouse.