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The safest opening in The Forest is methodical: strip the crashed plane for medicines, tray food, cloth and other supplies, take the plane axe near the exit, then establish a small shelter, fire, food supply and defensible position before night. Build and gather in daylight; once darkness arrives, stay near protection and avoid unnecessary fights.
What you are trying to achieve on the first day
The Forest begins with your character as the lone survivor of a passenger-jet crash in a hostile forest. The official Steam description frames the game around staying alive against cannibalistic mutants, combining exploration, construction, scavenging, stealth, traps and perimeter defenses. It was released on April 30, 2018 by Endnight Games Ltd.
Your first-day objective is not to locate every landmark or enter a cave. It is to make the first night predictable. By sunset, you want a place where you can save and sleep, a fire for warmth, enough edible supplies to avoid a desperate search in the dark, and a position that gives you time to see or hear danger before it reaches you.
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- Inventory risk: collect the supplies already available at the crash site.
- Tool risk: obtain the plane axe before leaving.
- Exposure risk: stop wandering and choose a camp while visibility is good.
- Night risk: finish a shelter, fire and basic food preparation before darkness.
- Combat risk: use distance, stealth, traps or a defensible position instead of seeking fights.
The game does not require you to rush into hostile territory during the opening minutes. A controlled retreat to shelter is a successful first day; a long expedition that leaves you outside after dark is not.
Step 1: Empty the plane before exploring
The wreck is your safest, most concentrated source of early supplies. Make one deliberate inventory pass before following a trail or walking into the forest.
Search the passenger rows
Check the rows for medicines and other usable items. Eat the food in the trays while you are still at the wreck rather than treating the plane as scenery. The opening minutes are an inventory exercise: look at each accessible seat and collect what the crash has left behind.
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Check the rear section
Move through the back of the plane and collect the supplies there. This rear-area sweep is part of the recommended opening sequence and prevents you from abandoning resources that are difficult to replace immediately after the crash.
Take the plane axe near the exit
Do not leave without collecting the plane axe positioned near the exit. It is the tool that makes early wood gathering practical and gives you a basic way to deal with obstacles and emergencies. Treat it as a required pickup, not an optional weapon.
Use a repeatable crash-site routine
- Walk the rows and collect medicines and other visible supplies.
- Eat the food from the trays.
- Search the rear of the plane.
- Return toward the exit and take the plane axe.
- Only then choose a route away from the wreck.
Keeping the plane in mind as a reference point is useful during the first outing. You do not need to memorize the entire map immediately; you need a known place you can recognize if you decide the route is becoming unsafe.
Step 2: Choose a low-risk route from the crash site
Once the plane is stripped, follow the early survival loop rather than chasing distant objectives: chop trees, gather food, look for a suitable camp area and return before night. The first route should be short enough that you can reverse it in daylight.
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What to look for
- Safety from patrols: prefer an area away from routes where hostile mutants are likely to pass.
- Water and food access: a nearby source of water and edible supplies reduces the need for risky trips.
- Trees and building materials: you need practical access to wood for a shelter, fire and later defenses.
- Visibility: open sightlines help you notice approaching enemies and avoid being surprised.
- Escape routes: leave yourself more than one direction in which to retreat.
These factors compete. A position with excellent resources but no visibility may be harder to defend than a slightly less convenient site where you can see movement. Likewise, a location that is close to the crash site is useful as a reference, but proximity alone does not make it safe.
Do not turn the first trip into an expedition
The forest rewards preparation, not distance covered. If you are still gathering basic materials when daylight is fading, stop extending the route. Return toward the area you intend to use as camp, finish the shelter and fire, and postpone wider exploration until you have a place to sleep.
Step 3: Build a shelter that lets you save and sleep
Put down a small shelter or lean-to as soon as you can gather the required materials. The lean-to is an efficient beginner structure because it provides the two functions that matter immediately: saving progress and sleeping through a dangerous period.
Place it with patrols and visibility in mind
Do not automatically build beside the plane or in the first patch of trees you see. Choose a spot away from likely patrol paths, with enough open ground to observe an approach and enough nearby material to avoid long hauling trips. Keep an escape route rather than enclosing yourself against a slope, dense vegetation or another obstacle.
Use the shelter as your first checkpoint
After the shelter is complete, treat it as a checkpoint for the rest of the opening:
- Save before taking a longer resource trip.
- Sleep when continuing outside would expose you to night travel.
- Return to this point if you encounter enemies before you are ready to fight.
- Use it as the center of a small, progressively improved camp rather than immediately attempting a massive base.
A larger base can come later. The first shelter’s value is reliability: it turns an improvised crash response into a repeatable daily cycle.
Step 4: Secure warmth and food before darkness
A shelter alone does not cover the opening risks. Start a fire for warmth and collect edible supplies while it is still light. Steam’s feature description presents fire, food scavenging, shelter, traps and defenses as connected parts of the survival loop; do not treat any one of them as a replacement for the others.
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Fire first, experimentation later
Build the early fire near the shelter but not where it blocks your view or leaves you trapped against terrain. Its immediate job is warmth and a dependable point around which you can organize the camp. If the area feels exposed, prioritize a clear approach and an escape path over a perfectly central layout.
Gather food without overextending
Use the plane’s tray food immediately, then collect edible supplies during a short daylight loop around camp. The goal is to have something available before night, not to map every source in the surrounding forest. If collecting more food would take you far from shelter near sunset, return and preserve the safe position you already have.
Keep the first camp simple
For the first night, a compact arrangement is easier to manage than a sprawling construction project:
- Lean-to or other small shelter for saving and sleeping.
- Fire for warmth.
- Nearby space for watching approaches.
- Enough open ground to move away if enemies appear.
- Access to wood and food without a long exposed walk.
Step 5: Treat night as a defensive phase
The official gameplay loop is explicit: “Explore and build during the day. Defend your base at night.” Apply that rule literally during the opening hours. Stop long gathering runs before darkness, return to shelter and use the night to remain protected, observe threats or make only short, necessary movements.
When an enemy approaches
Your first response does not have to be an attack. If you have not established a safe fighting position, retreat toward the shelter and maintain awareness of the route behind you. Stealth can reduce the chance that a situation escalates. If an enemy reaches the camp, use crude weapons, traps or perimeter defenses only when they are available and the position gives you room to disengage.
Why early fights are usually a bad trade
Combat consumes health, time and attention that are more valuable during the first day than a small amount of territory. Fighting also keeps you outside longer, increasing the chance that you will be caught away from your shelter after dark. Avoiding a confrontation while you gather materials is not passive play; it preserves the resources needed to make the next daylight cycle safer.
Use the night to reset your plan
Once you are sheltered, decide what the next daylight trip will accomplish before leaving. Pick one priority—wood, food, a better position, or a defensive improvement—rather than wandering until supplies are exhausted. A clear objective makes it easier to turn back while you still have daylight.
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How to evaluate a first camp location
No single location is universally best. Compare candidate areas using the same questions so that convenience does not hide a serious defensive problem.
| Criterion | Questions to ask | Why it matters in the opening |
|---|---|---|
| Patrol safety | Is the area away from likely hostile routes? | Fewer early encounters give you time to establish tools and shelter. |
| Water and food | Can you reach basic food and water without a long trip? | Shorter trips reduce exposure and make the day/night cycle easier to manage. |
| Building materials | Are trees and other needed resources close enough to gather efficiently? | A camp that requires repeated long hauls delays shelter and defenses. |
| Visibility | Can you see movement approaching the shelter? | Early warning lets you retreat or choose stealth instead of reacting at close range. |
| Escape routes | Can you leave in more than one direction? | A dead end turns a manageable encounter into a forced fight. |
| Saving and sleeping | Does the planned structure support saving and sleeping? | Without that function, the camp does not solve the first-night problem. |
If a location fails several categories, move the shelter before investing heavily in a larger base. If it is merely imperfect but safe enough for one night, use it as a temporary checkpoint and relocate in daylight.
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The exact clock time varies with play conditions, so organize the day by priorities rather than a rigid minute count.
Crash-site phase
- Search the rows for medicines and other supplies.
- Eat the tray food.
- Collect the rear-of-plane supplies.
- Take the plane axe near the exit.
Route-and-material phase
- Move a short distance while keeping the crash site as a reference.
- Gather wood and look for food.
- Assess patrol safety, visibility and escape routes.
- Stop extending the route if daylight is becoming limited.
Camp phase
- Build a lean-to or other small shelter.
- Save your progress and confirm that the structure can be used for sleeping.
- Start a fire for warmth.
- Gather enough edible supplies for the night.
- Arrange the camp so you can see and leave the area.
Night phase
- Remain near shelter instead of starting a distant resource run.
- Use stealth and distance if mutants approach.
- Defend only when necessary, using your crude weapons, traps or perimeter defenses.
- Sleep when continuing outside would add more risk than value.
Common opening mistakes and their fixes
Leaving without the plane axe
Symptom: you reach the forest with supplies but no practical early tool. Fix: return to the exit area and collect the axe before committing to exploration. Make it the final item in your crash-site checklist.
Ignoring the rear of the plane
Symptom: you begin the first resource run short on basic supplies. Fix: perform the row sweep, tray-food stop and rear-section search before leaving.
Building wherever you stop
Symptom: the shelter is finished, but you cannot see approaches or retreat safely. Fix: evaluate patrol safety, visibility and escape routes before expanding the camp.
Chasing distant resources near sunset
Symptom: darkness arrives while you are away from shelter. Fix: set a daylight cutoff and return as soon as the shelter, fire and food priorities are covered.
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Starting fights to clear the area
Symptom: health and time are spent on encounters that do not improve the camp. Fix: use stealth, retreat and defensive positioning; reserve attacks for situations where you cannot safely disengage.
Attempting caves or hostile territory immediately
Symptom: the opening becomes an uncontrolled combat or navigation problem before you have a safe checkpoint. Fix: postpone those trips until the first shelter, fire, food supply and return route are established.
What to build after the first safe night
Once you have survived one night, improve the camp in the order that reduces the next risk. Strengthen your material supply, make food and water trips shorter, and add traps or perimeter defenses when you can do so without abandoning visibility and escape routes. The official feature set supports both small shelters and larger bases, so expansion is a progression rather than a first-minute requirement.
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Improve reliability before size
A second dependable shelter or a better-organized camp is more useful than a large structure that is difficult to defend. Keep saving and sleeping available, retain a clear route away from danger, and avoid building so densely that you cannot observe the perimeter.
Turn daily trips into loops
Use the shelter as the center of a repeatable loop: leave in daylight, gather one category of resource, return before dark, save, and reassess. This rhythm gradually increases what you can carry and build without gambling the progress made at the crash site.
Performance and installation context
The current Steam listing reports 5 GB of available storage for the minimum PC configuration. That is a storage requirement, not a guarantee of a particular frame rate or survival outcome. No controlled survival-probability or gameplay-performance figure establishes how often a new player should survive the first night, so judge your progress by practical milestones: crash-site supplies collected, axe obtained, shelter usable, fire lit, food available and night approached from a defensible position.
Quick Recap
First-night checklist
- Plane rows searched for medicines and supplies.
- Tray food eaten.
- Rear section searched.
- Plane axe collected near the exit.
- Short route chosen with the crash site as a reference.
- Patrol safety, visibility and escape routes considered.
- Small shelter or lean-to built.
- Shelter confirmed as a place to save and sleep.
- Fire started for warmth.
- Edible supplies gathered before darkness.
- Long exploration stopped before night.
- Stealth, retreat, traps or defenses preferred over unnecessary combat.
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