How to Revive Companions in Sons of the Forest

The entire point of survival games like Sons of the Forest is to make you conscious of the finite nature of not just your resources, but life itself. If you were stranded with a buddy somewhere and they drop dead, they’re gone forever, with no remains but bones. That said, since it is a video game, the boundaries of life and death can be made a bit more… flexible. Here’s how to revive companions in Sons of the Forest.

How to Revive Companions in Sons of the Forest

Technically speaking, you cannot revive your companions in Sons of the Forest, or at least you’re not supposed to be able to. In the event your friends Kelvin or Virginia meet their proverbial makers, whether at the hands of the island’s hostile residents or your own out of morbid curiosity, they cannot be revived by any in-game means. You just gotta live with that.

Related: Can you Kill Kelvin in Sons of the Forest? Answered

However, if they die, there is a way to bring them back to life. All it requires is a bit of external tinkering with the game’s files; nothing severe, and it can be easily undone if you feel bad about cheating (and boy howdy, is there no cheating like cheating death). This method has been confirmed by the game’s community, and should not have any adverse effects on your other game files or achievements.

Reviving Through File Editing

Firstly, you need to find the spot where your local files for Sons of the Forest are stored on your PC. It’s not located in your Steam folder; rather, it’s found in the appdata folder. You can easily jump to this folder by using the Windows Run application and typing “appdata” into the prompt.

From the appdata folder, follow this file path:

• LocalLow
• Endnight
• SonsoftheForest
• Saves

Once you’re in the save folder, find the folder with your Steam account name on it. If you’re playing the game by yourself, open the SinglePlayer folder, and if you’re playing online, open the MultiPlayerClient folder.

In this folder, you’ll find another folder containing your save data. At this point copy and paste the save data folder somewhere you can find it later. You should always make backups of save files in case something goes sideways.

Open the save folder, and you’ll see two files named GameStateSaveData.json and SaveData.json. These two files can be opened and edited in Notepad.

Open GameStateSaveData.json and do the following:

• Find “IsRobbyDead\”:true” and “IsVirginiaDead\”:true” (use ctrl+F to find things quickly)
• Change “true” to “false”
• Save and close the file

Next, open SaveData.json and do the following:

• Find “TypeId”\9” for Kelvin and “TypeId”\10” for Virginia. Near these stats will be another called “State\”:6″.
• Change the “6” to a “2”
• Find “Health\”:0″
• Change the “0” to “100”
• Find “PlayerKilled\”:1″
• Change the “1” to a “0”
• Save and close the file

Launch the game, and if you did everything right, Kelvin and/or Virginia should be back on their feet and right as rain. In the event they kick the bucket again, you can repeat this trick to revive them once again. Or, y’know, just try not to let them die again.

For more (less meta) interactions with your companions in Sons of the Forest, check out our guides on equipping Kelvin and whether or not you can give him a hug. Visit our Facebook page as well for more news and guides.