Sons of the Forest Map Guide: Caves, Bunkers and Keycards

The Sons of the Forest map is easiest to understand as two connected layers: a large surface island with GPS markers, and an underground network of caves and bunkers that only becomes legible as you find tools, laptops, and keycards. This route guide organizes those gates so you can plan a first run without treating an old interactive map as a mandatory script.

TL;DR: Find the Rebreather, Rope Gun, and Shovel before attempting the deepest cave route. Marked caves appear on the GPS, while bunkers are a separate hidden system revealed by laptops and opened with Maintenance, VIP, or Guest keycards. The island has a useful dependency order, but not one official, linear checklist.

What does the Sons of the Forest map show? (quick answer)

The GPS is your working map. It shows the island's surface, points of interest, caves, and some resources or equipment markers once they are available to your save. Steam describes the game as an open-world survival experience with exploration above and below ground, and the current community wiki separates the locations into surface points, marked caves, bunkers, camps, and other discoverable places.

That distinction matters because a map search often collapses every underground entrance into one category. A cave is normally a GPS-marked exploration site. A bunker is a hidden facility with a laptop reveal and a keycard door, although the exact combination of tools and cards differs by location. The building, caves, and bunkers guide has the broader structure count and bunker naming reference; this article is about route decisions and the order in which to make the island readable.

Key takeaways

• Treat the Rebreather, Rope Gun, and Shovel as the first serious exploration gates.
• The current wiki documents 9 marked caves and 1 additional unmarked location called the Hell Cave.
• Bunkers are not just larger caves. Their entrances can be hidden until a GPS laptop is found, and their doors use keycards.
• The three keycards to plan around are Maintenance, VIP, and Guest.
• The island has coast, dense forest, rocky high ground, and a snow-covered mountain region, but it does not use a class or level system that forces a zone-by-zone order.
• Build a small surface shelter near a reliable route before committing to a long cave run. A dead-end expedition is much cheaper when you can save, rest, and resupply nearby.

Sons of the Forest map route: the practical progression

This is a dependency route, not a claim that Endnight requires these steps in a single sequence. The island allows detours, and multiplayer groups frequently split jobs. Use each step as a readiness check.

Step-by-Step

1. Establish your surface reference points: After the opening, use the GPS to identify the coast, nearby freshwater, surface camps, marked cave icons, and any obvious equipment markers. Put a shelter and storage near a route you expect to repeat. Do not rush inland simply because the first visible cave is close. A quick save point turns every later discovery into a usable route instead of a one-time sightseeing trip.

2. Get the tools that unlock underground travel: Prioritize the Rebreather for flooded passages, the Rope Gun for rope lines and cave traversal, and the Shovel for dig sites. The exact order you personally find them can vary with the route and difficulty, but the practical rule is stable: if a passage is underwater, vertical, or buried, return after checking which tool the entrance is asking for. The shovel is especially important because it changes which maintenance locations on the surface are worth visiting.

3. Clear marked caves for equipment and story clues: Marked caves are visible on the GPS, but they are not interchangeable loot rooms. One can be an early tool check, another can provide equipment, and another can push you toward late-game story material. Carry a light source, healing items, food, and a way to retreat. The weapons guide covers the confirmed 21-weapon roster; for route planning, the important point is to bring a dependable ranged option and leave room for the tools you expect to collect.

4. Use the Shovel to open maintenance dig sites: Once you have the Shovel, revisit surface markers that look like buried maintenance entrances. The bunker pages distinguish Maintenance A, B, and C, and they are not the same as the nine marked caves. Dig sites reward a deliberate return trip: place a GPS marker, carry building materials for a small shelter, and avoid starting the descent at night unless the group is ready for a long fight.

5. Collect keycards as the bunker network becomes visible: The Maintenance, VIP, and Guest keycards are separate progression items. Use the card name on the door and the laptop-revealed location on the GPS to decide which bunker to revisit. A keycard is not a universal pass for every locked facility, and a bunker icon does not mean the interior is safe or fully cleared. If a door does not respond, check the card requirement and whether the relevant laptop has been found before assuming the save is broken.

6. Reserve the deepest facilities for a prepared run: Bunkers can contain dense combat, story information, equipment, and routes that connect to the endgame. When a location is clearly beyond your current tools or healing supply, retreat and record it. The boss guide is useful preparation for the three confirmed boss encounters, but ordinary mutants and cannibals can make a bunker run fail long before a named boss appears.

7. Return to the surface with a route you can repeat: A finished cave is not only a loot event. It is a new travel node. Add a shelter, drying rack, storage, or small defensive perimeter near the exit if you expect to farm the area. Kelvin can help with building and maintenance, as the complete Sons of the Forest hub explains, but he does not replace the player's combat plan inside an underground facility.

A cave marker is only the beginning of the route. Check the entrance, tools, light, and retreat path before committing to the interior.

Caves, bunkers, and the Hell Cave are different map categories

The current wiki lists nine marked caves plus the unmarked Hell Cave. The marked cave icons make exploration easier to schedule, but they should not be read as a difficulty ranking. Some locations are tool checks, some hold equipment, and some carry story or late-game context. The safest way to use the map is to track the reason you are visiting each location: a tool, a card, a blueprint, a note, or a route to another facility.

The bunker list is smaller and more structured. The wiki documents Food and Dining, Entertainment, Residential, Luxury, and Maintenance A, B, and C. Maintenance A, B, and C are associated with shovel-accessed dig sites. Luxury is accessed through a control panel inside Residential, which is one reason a flat list of bunker coordinates is less helpful than an access relationship.

Do not assume that a visible facility is currently accessible. A laptop can reveal an entrance on the GPS, a shovel can expose a maintenance hatch, and a keycard can open the door after you reach it. Those are separate gates. A player who has found the GPS marker but lacks the right item has found the location, not completed the route.

An equipment check before a cave run is more useful than carrying every item at once. Leave room for tools and keycards you may find underground.

Keycard planning without a misleading checklist

The keycard system is a common source of contradictory search results because guides often use “the bunker keycard” as if there were only one. There are three named cards: Maintenance, VIP, and Guest. Treat them as separate inventory goals and read the door text before planning the next descent.

The simplest planning method is:

1. Locate the laptop or surface marker that reveals the facility.
2. Check whether the approach needs the Shovel or another traversal tool.
3. Identify the card named by the door.
4. Bring a save shelter, food, healing, light, and enough combat supplies for a return trip.
5. After opening the facility, mark the entrance again and record any new control panel or locked door.

This method stays useful when an update changes a location's loot or when a co-op group reaches an area in an unusual order. It also avoids a common failure mode: spending an hour searching for a card at a cave entrance when the card belongs to a different bunker chain.

Surface zones and seasonal travel

Sons of the Forest has no character-level map where the north is automatically a level 20 zone. It does have meaningful surface differences. The coast offers water and open sightlines, the forest offers timber and dense cover, rocky ground changes movement and visibility, and the mountain and snow areas make warmth and route planning more important. Steam explicitly lists changing seasons as part of the survival loop.

Use those differences to choose a base and travel window, not to invent a rigid zone order. A forest base near a stream is convenient for early building. A snow-region expedition benefits from warm clothing, food, a shelter plan, and a route that does not depend on a single exposed bridge or cave entrance. The map is more valuable when it answers “what can I safely reach from here?” than when it tries to assign a level to every patch of ground.

Tips for reading the map in a real save

• Save before entering a new cave, especially in co-op. If the route goes badly, you want the surface world and your inventory in a known state.
• Use different GPS markers for unfinished cave gates, completed cave exits, bunker doors, and supply shelters.
• Take a screenshot of a confusing entrance when a marker is close to a cliff, lake, or dig site. GPS distance alone does not explain vertical routes.
• Do not burn a keycard run on a half-stocked inventory. The card opens the door, but it does not remove the enemies, traps, or return journey.
• Keep a second surface route to a major facility. Seasonal visibility and night travel can make the shortest line a poor emergency route.
• Check the mods guide before installing a map or convenience mod. The verified mod scene is real but small, and multiplayer compatibility is not universal.

GODEEPER: The map tells you where a bunker is, but the card and tool gates determine whether you are ready to use it. Sons of the Forest Building, Caves and Bunkers Guide breaks down the structures and underground categories in more detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an official Sons of the Forest map? Steam confirms an open island with above-ground and underground exploration. The community wiki documents the GPS categories, but your in-game GPS is the authoritative map for the markers and reveals in your save.

What should I find before exploring the deep caves? Prioritize the Rebreather, Rope Gun, and Shovel. They cover the main underwater, vertical, and buried access checks that stop an underprepared route.

How many marked caves are in Sons of the Forest? The current wiki lists nine marked caves plus the unmarked Hell Cave. Their roles and access checks are different, so the number is not a difficulty ladder.

What are the Sons of the Forest keycards used for? The Maintenance, VIP, and Guest cards open different bunker doors. Read the door requirement and use the GPS reveal rather than assuming one card opens every facility.

Are bunkers shown on the GPS immediately? Not always. Bunker entrances can require finding a GPS laptop before the location appears clearly on the map.

Is there one correct Sons of the Forest progression order? There is a practical tool-gated route, but the open island does not require one universal checklist. Use traversal tools, laptop reveals, and card requirements as your route logic.

References

• Sons of the Forest on Steam
• Sons of the Forest wiki: Bunker
• Sons of the Forest wiki: Caves
• Sons of the Forest wiki: Keycard
• Sons of the Forest wiki: Locations
• GoTo Gaming keycard location video

Related Reading

• Sons of the Forest Complete Guide Hub
• Sons of the Forest Bosses Guide
• Sons of the Forest Weapons Guide
• Sons of the Forest Building, Caves and Bunkers Guide
• Sons of the Forest Mods Guide