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Sons Of The Forest Shelter Tent: How to make a Tent to save your game

Learn how to construct your first Shelter Tent in Sons Of The Forest

A Shelter Tent on the beach in Sons Of The Forest.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight Games

Want to know how to make a Tent in Sons Of The Forest? The Shelter Tent is the simplest kind of shelter you're able to create in Sons Of The Forest, and it's a good idea to place one down early on so you can sleep away that first ominous night. Shelter Tents are cheap and easy to set up once you know how - far easier than trying to construct an entire wood log cabin before the sun sets for the first time!

Read on to learn how to craft a Shelter Tent in the full release of Sons Of The Forest, and how to use it to sleep or save your progress at any time. We'll also explain where to find the components you need for each Tent, and how to give your Tent different configurations to change its look.

Looking for ways to survive your first few days in Sons of the Forest? Watch the video above for 15 essential tips.Watch on YouTube

How to make a Shelter Tent in Sons Of The Forest

To make a Shelter Tent in Sons Of The Forest, you need two items: a Tarp, and a Stick. You can find Sticks on the floor near trees and shrubs, and you can also use your Axe to chop down larger shrubs, bushes, and plants to get Sticks.

As for Tarps, you should find at least one Tarp by opening all of the suitcases and crates around your spawn point at the very start of the game. After that, you can find Tarps in underground locations and other lootable areas just by exploring the map.

Once you have a Tarp, open your inventory and click it to equip the Tarp in your hands. Your Tarps can be found in the top-right corner of your inventory. Once it's in your hands, find a spot of flat ground nearby where you can set your Tent Shelter up. If you're in a flat, unobstructed area, then a white square marker will appear on the ground. Left-click to place the Tarp flat on the ground.

The player in Sons Of The Forest prepares to place down a Tarp on the beach.
Use the white lines to guide where you would like to place your Shelter Tent. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Endnight

The next step is to look down at one corner of the Tarp until a white arrow marker appears. Left-click to place a Stick under the Tarp, turning it into a Shelter Tent. As long as you have at least one Stick in your inventory, you'll be able to do this without even equipping the Stick in your hands first.

This is all you need to do to make a Shelter Tent. You can also place another Stick at one of the adjacent corners to the first to raise the Tarp up more evenly, but it's not necessary and doesn't make any gameplay difference. With either Tent configuration, you can now interact with it to either sleep or to save your game in Sons Of The Forest. This is very important, as there's no autosave feature in this game. So Shelter Tents are very important, and you should keep the materials for one on you at all times in case you need to quickly save!


How to make other kinds of Shelter

Once you're a little further into Sons Of The Forest, you should look towards crafting bigger and stronger Shelters than just a Tarp with a Stick propping it up. To do this, open up your Book, which contains templates and instructions for many of the different builds and structures in the game. Change the Book mode until you're holding it in your left hand, and then flick through the Shelters section for a preview of each Shelter type and the materials you'll need to craft it.

Now that you've learned how to create a Shelter Tent in Sons Of The Forest, you should look towards satisfying your other needs. Use our guides to learn how to build a fire in Sons Of The Forest to cook food, or on how to get water in Sons Of The Forest to make sure you don't die of thirst early on. We also have guides on how to find important tools such as the Rebreather and the Shovel.

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