How to set hotkeys in Sons of the Forest


Trying to figure out how to set hotkeys in Sons of the Forest? You're not alone. Though it's early days for the game yet, hundreds of thousands of players have jumped in already, and they're largely all asking the same question. So we're going to answer it.

An essential part of The Forest for some was the inclusion of hotkeys. And it makes sense. Being able to map some necessary actions to some easily accessible buttons cuts out of a long of the struggle with multi-key commands, allowing you to react at a moment's notice or avoid clunky menus.

Check out our Sons of the Forest guides hub to see the full list of helpful hints and how-to's we've put together already. We're always working on more, too, so come back often to find out things like how to get the rebreather, and the best base locations you should seek out.

How to set hotkeys in Sons of the Forest

Hotkey support came to Sons of the Forest shortly after launch, arriving via Hotfix 2 on February 28, 2023.

The release patch notes post made a quick mention of how to use the new feature, with follow-up updates released to streamline the process and change the default behaviours of some hotkeyed items (like equipping legs instead of eating them).

To set hotkeys in Sons of the Forest, just open up your inventory and hover your selection cursor over the item you want to hotkey. At that point, just press the numerical buttons 0-9 to set the item to your preffered key.

From then on, you'll be able to press the registered button to quickly use the item you assigned.

For more Sons of the Forest guides, check out our blueprints locations list for all the crafting recipes we've found so far. And if the Warm Suit is back, click that link to learn how to make it.

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