Sons of the Forest may be filled with dangerous cannibals and mutants, but there is one mutant you can become friends with. So if you’re one of many players wondering how to befriend Virginia, this guide is for you. It’s easy to get confused because she’s quite timid when you first meet her.
And as such, she’ll repeatedly run away from you if you don’t follow certain rules and clues to befriend her. Even though she can’t perform nearly as many actions as Kelvin, she still has her benefits as a companion.
How to Befriend Virginia in Sons of the Forest
What to Do When Virginia Wanders Nearby
You may not even notice her the first time she appears as she wanders over quietly.
When you first start playing you’ll probably run into a couple of cannibals before you even meet Virginia. However, she’ll eventually start to wander near you or your base out of curiosity. Don’t try to approach her or interact with her in any way. Until she starts to become less afraid of you, you’ll need to just essentially let her exist on her own.
With that said, the number one rule you need to follow to befriend Virginia is to unequip your weapon. Since we don’t know for sure what qualifies as a weapon in Sons of the Forest, unequip whatever you’re holding. Even if you’re just holding a rock or a pebble. For all you know, she might see that as aggressive too.
Make sure you don’t accidentally attack her or else you may lose a lot of progress toward getting her as a companion.
By holding a weapon out, you’re more likely to scare Virginia away when she’s trying to wander nearby. However, if you do scare her away or she just naturally runs away on her own, don’t worry. This is still somewhat common in the beginning. You may notice she’ll put her hands up in fear and then turn and run.
As long as you put your weapons away when she’s nearby, you’re on the right track. Also, if you notice her pointing at a nearby cannibal, make sure you take them out. This is generally a good idea regardless since you don’t want those enemies to attack her. Especially if she dies permanently, because you won’t be able to befriend Virginia.
Getting a raid 40 days into Sons of the Forest filled with dangerous mutants makes for a rough time.
Fortunately, some players have figured out that you can edit certain files to bring back Virginia or Kelvin after they’ve died. But, if you don’t want to mess with the files, you’ll need to do your best to keep them alive. I noticed in my main save that she suddenly disappeared early on.
While I can’t say for sure if she died, it did seem that way since she stopped appearing for almost 30 in-game days. Then, suddenly when the first major Sons of the Forest update hit, she started appearing constantly. So even if you don’t edit your files, there’s a decent chance she may reappear after an update. I can’t say the same for Kelvin though. Also, this happened before I befriended Virginia.
Even though Virginia can supposedly eat from your planters and Drying Rack, don’t try to to feed her by hand. She’ll likely see what you’re holding as a weapon.
The Sons of the Forest community has speculated several other tricks that may help with befriending Virginia. While I can’t confirm these actions, here they are:
- Lighting unlit fires she’s near.
- Watching her dance as mentioned in the next section.
- Picking her back up if she takes enough damage to get knocked down.
- If she eats plants from your Wall Planter or Standing Planter.
- If she eats food from your Drying Rack.
How to Tell If Virginia is Becoming Friendly
It’s hard to see her far away, but she’s stretching at a tree way in the back.
Regardless, as you get more friendly with Virginia, she’ll start to act differently. But, you still should avoid approaching her, especially with a weapon out. At this point, she’ll start to do things like dancing far away, stretching against nearby trees, sitting, and sometimes eating off the ground.
She’ll even start to feel a bit safer approaching you and may get extremely close. By now, you’ve almost befriended Virginia and shouldn’t have to wait too much longer. This entire process can take around a few in-game days as it did for me.
When Virginia Approaches You With a Gift
I’ve seen other players mention Virginia bringing a variety of gifts, but she’s only brought me Aloe Vera once.
The final moment that she becomes friendly is when she approaches you with a gift. First, she’ll slowly walk toward you with something in her hands. While you may be able to walk toward her, I wouldn’t risk it personally. Once she finally reaches you, she’ll drop the gift on the floor. In my case, she dropped Aloe Vera leaves on the floor in front of her.
After grabbing the Aloe Vera leaves, I noticed that she now had a backpack icon when near her. This button prompt reveals that Virginia is now a companion and will often stay near you. Even though she can still wander off on her own, she’ll follow you and stick around most of the time.
Giving Virginia a GPS Locator and Other Items
By default, you can hold E while near Virginia to give her items. The first tab has clothing that you can give her. While the second tab from pressing Q shows weapons and the GPS Locator.
By interacting with the backpack button prompt, you can give her a GPS Locator to always know where she is. Which can be great if she’s always going missing. If you don’t have any, you’ll need to explore your GPS a bit more and track them down. These are the pulsating circles on your map. They’ll also beep as you get close to them.
Aside from giving her a GPS Locator, you can also give Virginia a Pistol and/or Shotgun. The cool part about this is that she doesn’t need ammo. And, she can equip both of them simultaneously. Fortunately, there are a few of both weapons in Sons of the Forest so you can try to find another one. The main annoying part is that you can’t have two in your inventory at once.
Can Virginia Drown in Sons of the Forest?
Having Virginia around while you’re dealing with enemies can make a huge difference.
Before ending this guide, I noticed one more bit worth mentioning. Even though enemies in Sons of the Forest will drown when entering water, this doesn’t seem to be the case for Virginia. She managed to fall into deep water several times near my base without dying. Unfortunately, she tends to get a little stuck and repeatedly runs into a wall if she can’t get out.
With that said, I did notice one time that she sort of climbed but also teleported out of the water. Otherwise, you can try running far enough away or sleeping at a bed to force her to teleport out. That’s all there is to this guide on how to befriend Virginia in Sons of the Forest.
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.