Sons of the Forest makes it easy to build a simple base or a massive one depending on how you want to play. With that said, your base probably has a door that loves to swing open the second someone walks into it. That can be troubling when it’s a cannibal, leaving players to wonder, can you lock doors?
The last thing you want is an enemy running into your base when you’re busy cooking or building. Or even perhaps just an enemy surprising you when you’re away from the base. This is why another common question in the community is how to build gates to protect the area around your base.
Can You Lock Doors in Sons of the Forest?
How to Lock Doors Using a Stick
Don’t let this dude wander into your base through a freely swinging door.
When we first wrote this guide on March 8, 2023, there wasn’t a way to lock doors in Sons of the Forest. However, the developer’s first major update added a simple feature that makes it so you can now lock doors. Even though it won’t provide any extra durability to your door, you can now prevent NPCs from running inside.
This content update also brought with it a way to create gates for your outer walls. Despite the door lock being easy to break, your gate won’t fall apart as easily. Regardless, once you’ve placed your door, you’ll need to pull out a stick. If you don’t already have one, feel free to grab one off the ground.
This simple locking mechanic will prevent everyone from walking inside so long as they don’t destroy the door.
After equipping a stick, you can look at the door from either the inside or outside to attach the stick. However, you can only lock it from the inside. If you’re having trouble getting the door lock prompt to appear, try looking near the middle or lower area of the door. This will reveal a dashed arrow pointing toward the wall as shown in the screenshot above.
Once you’ve attached the stick, simply interact with the door by holding E, by default. This will change the locked icon to an unlocked one, even though it’s now locked. You’ll no longer be able to run through the door from either side. So make sure you have another way in if you plan on leaving with a locked door.
This door with a lock on it only takes about three Tactical Axe hits so I can’t imagine it being that strong against enemies.
How to Build a Gate in Sons of the Forest
Try to create a safe perimeter around your base by taking advantage of defensive wall gates in Sons of the Forest.
If you played before the major update on March 9, 2023, you wouldn’t have had access to a large wall gate. This is now part of the building journal where you can see the different ways to build structures. However, you won’t need the journal to build a gate so don’t worry. First, you’ll need to make a wall using five large logs as pillars.
Make sure those five pillars are attached in a straight line otherwise you won’t be able to make the gate. Next, grab a separate log and place it alongside the wall. You can do this from both the inside and outside without it making a difference. Although, the direction the log is facing will impact the way the gate swings outward.
Once you place the log against the wall, you’ll then be able to open it by using the button prompt.
For example, if the log placement is from the bottom right to the top left, the gate will open from left to right. Whereas if it’s from the bottom left to the top right, it’ll open from right to left. Fortunately, if you get the placement wrong, you can still remove the log and place it right back onto the wall.
Unlike certain structures, you won’t lose the log or have a split log like when you place a roof. Also, you can still cut the top of each pillar to make it spiked. This can make the gate look a bit shorter even though it should still get the job done. However, I did notice the slinky mutant/Caterpillar went right through the wall.
Original Article below with makeshift lock ideas:
Build a Stick Fence on the Inside
It’s not much but it’s home.
This was the first strategy I tried even though it’s a simple one that may not be quite perfect. Regardless, this strategy revolves around creating a stick fence behind your front door. By doing so, nobody will be able to walk through the door since they’ll get stuck trying to walk through the fence. As such, you’re more likely to have a cannibal whack way at the door.
Unless maybe you get lucky and the AI can’t figure out what’s going on. But, I haven’t tested this strategy against cannibals enough to see how well it works. The main reason we use a stick fence is because you can’t place logs on your wooden floors. So you’re stuck with a much more flimsy locking system instead.
When you’re ready to head back inside, you’ll need to walk into the door and then hold C to remove the stick. I haven’t had it remove the door instead, but I imagine this could happen.
If you haven’t built a stick fence in Sons of the Forest yet, don’t worry, it’s relatively simple and only requires three to four sticks. Simply look down at the ground and make sure you can see a circle with dashed lines. If you see two small twigs instead, you’ll need to right-click to switch. Then, place the stick to the left of the door and another one to the right.
As long as they’re close enough to each other that a line connects them, you can then place a stick on them. In order to reinforce this fence/locking system further, add another stick to finish the fence. Then, add rocks to the base of both outside sticks. This same trick works for other stick-based structures, such as standing torches or traps.
Use a Paper Shooting Target
You’d think putting a target on your door would draw more attention from the neighbors.
If you thought the first tip for locking your door in Sons of the Forest was simple, this one goes even further. You don’t even need to build anything which makes this almost a comical trick. All you need to do is find a paper shooting target and place it on your door. Regardless of whether you place it on the outside or inside of the door doesn’t matter.
Despite this trick being extremely simple, it may be one of the better ideas. I’m a little mixed on it for a few reasons. First, I tried breaking the target myself and couldn’t, so I’m assuming it’s indestructible. Therefore, the enemy is more likely to break your door and the entire door frame first. Which even still, the paper target will stay there floating.
I’m just going to assume some there’s some magic at work behind this target still floating.
The main issue with using a paper target is that you need to find it. This is because there doesn’t seem to be a set location where you can find one. Instead, you’ll need to search the many boxes that are spread throughout Sons of the Forest. And cross your fingers that a box with random loot has a paper target inside.
With that said, when you want to enter your base, you can remove the target and walk inside as normal. Similar to the stick fence strategy, you would just remove a stick in that setup instead.
Create an Airlock System in Sons of the Forest
Cannibals hate this one trick.
This may be my favorite trick for sort of locking your door but not really. This setup is similar to the Reddit post I saw, but this one actually worked for me. Unlike the stick fence, you’ll be building an airlock in front of your main door by using logs.
As such, you’ll need to chop several more trees down to set up the airlock since it’s another square attached to your base. First, it’s important to mention my base in this example is built on short log posts. This is the shortest length you can get when chopping out the middle piece of a log.
You can see here how the back wall of the airlock uses short log posts, while the front uses medium ones. This is so you can place a log across.
Now when you build the airlock, you’ll need to place two medium-sized logs as the posts for the front part. This is important for how we’re going to create a door lock/block the front. As far as medium logs go, they’re the middle piece that gets pushed out when chopping the middle of a log. You can chop the middle part out by placing it on another log first.
Afterward, you’ll need to build the left and right walls as well as the floor inside. I recommend building a ramp up to the floor so you can get inside a little more easily too. Once you’ve finished doing so, you’ll need to place a normal-sized log across the two front medium-sized posts.
After removing the log to get inside you can easily place it back down across the entrance.
At this point, you’ll have a short obstacle near your feet that prevents you from walking inside. Regardless of whether you build a roof in your airlock or not, you’ll want to place a log across the top. This will prevent an enemy from simply jumping over the lower log blocking them.
I know some Sons of the Forest players still worry about enemies leaping over their short walls. However, this setup worked fine for me when a swarm of several cannibals tried raiding me. The main issue with this door-locking strategy is that enemies can still break it.
I tried placing an arch support and realized you can only place one in this example. It’s possible it makes it harder for cannibals to destroy, but I can’t say for sure.
But, you can use a Repair Tool to fix the lower log while they try to break inside. You might be thinking what’s the point since they’ll eventually get in. However, this is the fun part, while trying to break it, they tend to hit each other a lot as well.
That’s all there is to this in-depth guide answering the question, can you lock doors in Sons of the Forest? Even though there originally wasn’t a way, the developer did add a simple mechanic as we predicted they would. Expect more quality of life tweaks and perhaps content updates throughout its development.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.