Sons of the Forest Rebreather Guide to Underwater Cave Diving

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Alex Maksymiw

Having learned the tricks of the trade regarding games journalism at Veryali Gaming, Alex is now a key member of the Ready Game Survive team, and loves nothing more than grabbing a controller and bracing himself for a devastatingly brutal battle for survival. Outside of traditional survivals, Alex loves immersive RPGs, has spent more time in Skyrim than he dare admit, and he also loves playing guitar.

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• Sons of the Forest Rebreather Guide to Underwater Cave Diving - June 24, 2023

Sons of the Forest is not just a survival horror game that pits you against monstrous creatures and flesh-eating cannibals.

It’s also a dark adventure game that requires the player to have curious and explorer characteristics. The Rebreather is a gadget that will open up the island, allowing you to explore the depths of flooded caves and the silt bed of lakes.

You won’t get far in Sons of the Forest if you seldom build a base and live off the land fishing and hunting animals. 

Your main goal as a demon hunter is to solve the mystery of Site B, find the Puffton family, and discover what happened to the Puffton Corporation.

This adventure will take to all corners of Site B, from the top of the mountain to the depths of the maze-like cave and laboratory structures hidden within the island.

Sons of the Forest is my favorite survival game of all time. It’s got everything from adventure, mystery, survival, and horror, and you can see all that in this Sons of the Forest Rebreather Guide.

You can’t help but feel like a modern-day Indiana Jones digging up abandoned bunkers and cave delving to find artifacts. Only in this scenario its a lot more horrific.

Key Details Up-Front

I’ll cut to the chase. You’re only here for one thing… The Rebreather! So I’ve placed all the key information you need here:

• You will need to obtain Rebreather and Rope Gun before you can explore the Shovel Cave.
• The Rebreather can be equipped on land and won’t impact your movement speed. However, the Wetsuit will significantly slow you down.
• The Rebreather requires Oxygen Tanks for it to operate. Oxygen Tanks cannot be crafted and can only be picked up while exploring Site B.

Why You Need the Rebreather

Why do you need a Rebreather, I hear you ask? While you may be scared of deadly sharks and orcas that patrol the shoreline of Site B. There is no way of getting around it. You need the Rebreather to progress through the story.

Without the Rebreather, you won’t be able to explore the Shovel Cave and find pick up the Shovel, which will allow you to dig up the entrance to the Maintenance Bunkers, Food and Dining Bunker to pick up the Maintenance Keycard, Fire Axe, Shotgun, Revolver and many more key items that will both progress the story and keep you alive on the island.

Where to Find the Rebreather

As you can see, the Rebreather is extremely important for advancing the story of Sons of the Forest.

As a result, you should aim to pick it up from the Rebreather Cave, either before or after obtaining the Rope Gun in the Rope Gun Lakeside Cave. However, this greatly depends on your spawn.

In Sons of the Forest, your spawn position is randomly chosen from three helicopter crash sites. Your helicopter can crash over the snowy mountaintops near the Shovel Cave.

If so, I recommend you restart your game unless you’re hardcore roleplaying. The second crash site spawns in the forest next to the Rope Gun Cave, while the third crash site spawns you on the beach less than a minute walk to the Rebreather Cave.

If you’re unlucky enough to spawn elsewhere, the Rebreather Cave can be found in the large cove on the northwest peak of the island.

Speaking from experience, I recommend that you build a shelter outside the Rebreather Cave, or any cave for that matter, so that you can save your game and replenish your hunger, energy, and water.

Caves are no joke; they are the most dangerous locations in the game, and although you are given an extra life in caves, one wrong move could kill you from a flurry of mutant attacks.

Rebreather Beach Cave

The Rebreather Cave is comparatively short when compared to the Shovel or Rope Gun Cave; nevertheless, it’s filled with creepy crawlies. In the Rebreather Cave, you will have to face the following:

• Puffies: The most common mutant variant in the game, these mutants resemble cannibals but don’t underestimate them. They act docile when inactive. But when triggered, they are fast and rush to claw at you to land attacks quickly. To make matters worse, they will attack you in groups.
• Fingers: These are the big baddy mutants that mostly appear on their own but, on occasion, will spawn in groups of two or three. Fingers mutants can kill easily kill you if you’re not protected with adequate armor.
• Sharks: You didn’t expect this one to be on the list, did you? You will have to kill a shark in the flooded chamber section of the cave. This is simple if you have a gun. Otherwise, you will have to swim as fast as you can!

Before you descend into the cave, make sure to pick up supplies at the entrance of the cave. If you have the required weapons, you can stock up on explosives, flares, and even ammo.

I’ll assume you have yet to find a gun if you are exploring the Rebreather Cave. Therefore I highly recommend you bring explosives and molotovs, especially if you’re going to tackle the optional right passageway to acquire the Leather Jacket and Stun Gun.

Rebreather Cave First Chamber

To arrive at the first chamber, you will need to navigate a narrow passageway; this is easy enough. However, the chamber, on the other hand, poses a significant threat.

You will find several puffies and possibly a fingers mutant. In my first playthrough, I was only attacked by puffies. However, I recently returned to the cave for research to create this guide and was attacked by fingers.

So you will want to make sure that you keep enemies in front of you and methodically kill each enemy one by one.

Running through this cave is not recommended as there are many areas that become narrow, leading you to become overwhelmed by enemies from the front and behind.

The first chamber is wide and has a large open area. I recommend lighting the area up with flares, as you never know what could be lurking next to you. If you can, try to slowly creep forward and take out a puffy before the others are alerted, this will make the upcoming fight a lot easier.

If you are attacked by a fingers retreat back to the first corridor to bottleneck your enemies, making them easy cannon fodder from your explosives.

Once you’ve cleared all enemies from the first chamber, keep walking forward to reach a fork in the cave. At this point, you have two options:

1. You could continue left to enter the flooded chamber and Rebreather gadget.
2. Or you could travel right through a narrow passageway to retrieve supplies, a Stun Gun, and Leather Jacket.

No matter your decision, I suggest you build a campfire at the fork in the cave to replenish your health and craft Bone Armor from the pile of bones lying around in this area. You can also find raw fish here thats perfect for cooking.

Rebreather Cave Right Passage (Optional)

The right passageway is the most dangerous area of the Rebreather Cave. In the narrow passageway, you will find a large group of puffies and fingers mutants.

Do not let them get behind you, as you will have nowhere left to run if you’re overwhelmed. The first time I explored this cave, I was low on weapons and only had the 9mm pistol, and it was a pain to get through.

Therefore I recommend only tackling this cave section if you have a supply of Molotovs and explosives, whether thats frag grenades or makeshift time bombs.

Since you can build some structures in caves, you could build a Bonemaker trap to burn multiple enemies to death. Or you could use the Spring Trap, my favorite trap in the game, a one-shot-kill that launches enemies into the air. Remember that large mutant variants like fingers won’t trigger it.

Once you’ve fought to the end of the passageway, you will be able to pick up some supplies from a dead soldier, consisting of Stun Gun ammo.

At the back of the cave by the window and creepy sluggy mutant, you will find the Stun Gun and the Leather Jacket outfit hanging from the ceiling. You can equip the leather jacket for bonus stats.

This also unlocks the outfit for Kelvin; however, it’s purely aesthetic, but you must admit he looks cool!

Rebreather Cave Flooded Chamber

You should be free of any more mutants for the rest of the cave. However, stay vigilant, as you never know when a new group of enemies could spawn. Walking down the left passageway will lead to a flooded cave chamber where you will find the Rebreather gadget.

In this chamber, you will find MREs, a watch, the Rebreather, along with other survival items, so use this time to replenish your hunger, energy, and stamina. You’re going to need it for the upcoming challenge.

Rebreather Location

Around the water, you will find copious amounts of body parts and limbs. If that wasn’t suspicious enough, if you look close enough, you will see ripples in the water… SHARK!!!!

Thats right. Before you take your Rebreather out in the water for a spin, you will need to deal with the shark thats made the cave its home. You can actually feed the shark by throwing meat into the water.

The shark will jump out of the water snatching the limb or meat with its sharp gnashers. You can exploit this animation and kill the shark with a gun or bow.

If you don’t have any weapons to kill the shark, you can either take your chances in the water or backtrack through the cave since the flooded chamber only leads to the cave’s exit, surfacing you in outside in the cove.

Step-By-Step Rebreather Guide

Now that you’ve got the Rebreather, you’re probably wondering how this gadget even works.

Well, it’s pretty simple, the Rebreather allows you to swim underwater for long periods of time. However, you must know the following key points to make the most out of the Rebreather:

• To use the Rebreather, you must have Air Tanks.
• You can swim faster by wearing the Swimsuit, allowing you to save time and precious oxygen.
• One Air Tank lasts approximately eight and a half minutes.

Previously in The Forest, you would have to surface to change your Air Tanks; however, in Sons of the Forest, the Rebreather will automatically load a fresh Air Tank once the active one has been depleted. You will hear the sound of air escaping when changing the Air Tank.

Since you cannot see your inventory in the water, it’s a good idea to always know how many tanks you have left. You can very easily drown if you run out of air while at a high depth.

You can’t craft Air Tanks, so you must rely on finding them around the island:

• 2 Air Tanks can be found a the entrance of the Rebreather Cave.
• 1 Air Tank can be found at the entrance of the Shovel Cave.

Items will always spawn once the game has reloaded, allowing you to spawn infinite air tanks.

Swim Faster with the Wetsuit

The Rebreather is a fantastic fun bit of kit that’s very immersive. It just makes me want to jump into the ocean and go treasure hunting! Air Tanks last for just under ten minutes.

However, they can be hard to come by, so you’ll want to make the most of your time in the water. Enter the wetsuit!

This outfit increases your swimming speed in water and lowers your movement speed on land. More importantly, it’s the best outfit in the game to keep you dry.

In Sons of the Forest, you must do more than fight off cannibals and exorcise demons. You must look after your character by feeding and keeping them hydrated, warm, and dry.

Shovel Cave Wetsuit Location

The wetsuit is found in the Shovel Cave located west of the mountain spawn. However, you won’t be able to access this cave until you’ve acquired both the Rebreather and the Rope Gun. Inside the entrance, you find an air tank underneath the zipline.

To get to the wetsuit, you will need to take the zipline across to the other side of the entrance and swim through the flooded tunnel using a Rebreather. However, before you do so, loot the supplies on the dead body near the zipline tether.

Once you’ve surfaced from the flooded tunnel, a group of puffy mutants will attack you. You can take them on with a Modern Axe or explosives; however, I recommend kiting them into the flooded tunnel that you surfaced from.

All enemies, whether mutant or cannibal, will drown when submerged in water. This is a great trick for saving ammo and explosives.

Once you’ve killed all the mutants, travel forward through a chamber, looting the bodies for ammo and meds. I recommend building a campfire and replenishing your stats before moving on, as there is no turning back from this next part.

Exiting the puffy chamber will cause you to slip down a slope and slide into an underground pool of water. Your only option now is to press on through the cave. Several lootable red crates mark the path.

There is something about the Shovel Cave that gives me the creeps. I can’t help but feel trapped, knowing there is no way back Endnight Games deserve credit for capturing the bleak and terrifying claustrophobic feeling of the Descent.

Twins Mutant Chamber

Walking through the passageway will reveal a pitch-black cavern so dark that it could be mistaken for a solid wall, but to reach your hand out or throw a freshly lit flare would destroy the illusion.

Watching your flares sail into the darkness reveals a pack of Twins mutants patrolling their lair.

The wetsuit is in this chamber, but you’re going to have to fight through the mutants to get to it. Normally, I’d save my ammo, but it’s times like these that you want a shotgun for close encounters.

However, you probably won’t have this weapon at this point in the game unless you’re returning to pick up the wetsuit.

So here is my strategy for you. You could aggro the mutants and kite them to the bottleneck at the entrance of the chamber and throw explosives down. Make sure that you save your grenades for later, as the Shovel Cave is significantly bigger than the Rope Gun Cave and Rebreather Cave.

Alternatively, you could craft traps such as the Flyswatter Trap or Bone Maker Trap. Molotovs also work well here and don’t neglect your spears. You can use them in both melee and ranged attacks.

Annoying Baby Mutants will also be lurking in this chamber. However, I recommend dealing with them after the Twins.

You will find several bodies in the twins chamber, so explore the area theres a ton of loot to pick up. In addition, you will find a red laptop that will reveal Maintenance Bunker A on your map.

• The wetsuit can be found on the body leaning on the right side wall at the twins chamber exit. It’s easily missed if you’re not looking at the floor.

Wetsuit Location

Endnight Games Are Just Getting Started

In conclusion, the Rebreather is an awesome aquatic gadget that will enhance your Sons of the Forest experience by unlocking new areas to gather loot and allow you to progress through the story.

The Rebreather was previously an end-game item in The Forest, and I think Endnight Games made a fantastic decision to make it one of the first gadgets to acquire in Sons of the Forest.

Theres something immersive and exciting swimming through dark, murky water listening to your character inhale and exhale, watching the Air Tank meter fall.

However, at present, there are not enough underwater tunnels to fully utilize the Rebreather and recreate those tense moments of The Forest where you’d have to swim through long tunnels that gave you just a little oxygen in your reserve to keep you on your toes.

But we may yet get that experience, as Endnight Games is only just getting started with Sons of the Forest in Patch 5.0. The team added 79 new ponds and 34 new lakes to the map, brightening the future for Sons of the Forest fans.

Sons of the Forest Rebreather Guide: FAQs