The Forest v0.08 - New Buildable Items and Weapon Upgrades

The Forest v0.08 is one of the largest updates to survival sandbox game. It includes a new weapon upgrade system, many new buildable items and a whole new stealth mechanic. A new forest animal and a several new weapons top off a great update for The Forest.

Although it's the devs first pass at weapon upgrading, the principle is off to a good start. Upgrades gives the player the chance to infinitely improve their weapons by combing teeth, feathers and glass shards to increase their damage rating as well as speed.

The Stealth system is also a major improvement to the game, allowing players to use cover to play hide and seek from mutants - who now have a smaller range of vision, more akin to human front facing sight. This means you can hide behind bushes and trees whilst you play the hunter, launching surprise attacks from behind that now inflict instant kills if taken by surprise.

Let's take a look at each of the major features from the Changelog

New Buildable Items

A bunch of new buildable items have been added to the Survival Book. They include an addition to the treeshouse schematic called an Alpine style treehouse. A meat drying rack and small animal trap for your hunting needs. There's also a new defensive trap called the Spike Barrier for fending off mutants.

Animal traps are now more important because you can't pick up rabbits - you have to catch them first.

All new buildable items:

Alpine style treehouse - for protection in high up places
Meat drying rack
Bonfire - to keep you warm, cook food and light the area
Walkway - building structure
Small animal trap - for catching food
Gazebo - building structure
Defensive spike barrier - trap

New Craftable Items

In addition to the great list of buildable items there's also a small collection of craftable items added in v0.08. They include two new weapons; a primitive club made from a skull and an inventive headbomb for those moments when you're outnumbered!

Energy mix (made from chicory and coneflower) which grants health restoration
Headbomb - a bomb made out of a mutants head! Awesome!
Club weapon - crafted from skull and stick

Weapon Upgrading

Mentioned above, players can now upgrade their weapons using resources gathered from dead enemies and other random drops. Feathers for arrows, tree sap, teeth and shards for melee weapons. All upgrades improve the damage rating for your weapons and can be repeated an unlimited number of times, giving you a stronger weapon over time.

Cloth can also be combined with some of your weapons and then set on fire for a flaming assault weapon.

Stealth and Stealth Attacks

Mutants have a limited field of vision now, which restricts them to forward facing detection only. Melee attacks from behind that catch mutants unaware will grant you a bonus attack which deals instant death.

You can use cover such as bushes, trees and other natural objects to conceal your location as you move silently through the forest. Mud also works correctly in v0.08 meaning you can really take on the Arnie role from the Predator film.

Interestingly, mutants will attempt to chop bushes down to find you!