How to control Kelvin in Sons of The Forest

In Sons of the Forest, you can brave the island dangers solo or with a friend or two. However, no matter how you decide to tackle the surrounding threats, you don’t really need to do it on your own. Kelvin is a friendly NPC partner in the game, and you can use him to make survival life a whole lot easier. You just need to know how to control Kelvin in Sons of The Forest, but, thankfully, it’s not so hard.

Note: For more information, check out our Sons of the Forest guides and features hub.

Sons of the Forest: How to use Kelvin, your friendly companion NPC

When you wake up from your crashed helicopter in the game’s intro, the only survivors seem to be you and dear Kelvin. Our poor boy got severely injured in the crash, and can no longer hear or speak. But he still knows how to read. Controlling Kelvin in the game is as easy as sharing notes in class. Well, probably because that’s what you need to now do.

You can control Kelvin by interacting with him in the game. Walk up to Kelvin and hold down the key prompt, which is binded to ‘E.’ After that, you’ll hold out a note pad with a list of instructions you can cycle through using the ‘W’ and ‘S’ keys. Pressing the ‘D’ key lets you choose one of several options:

• Follow me
• Build
• Clear
• Take a break
• Clear
• Get
• Stay

Hitting the ‘D’ key opens more options and/or chooses what you want Kelvin to do. You can ask him to build a fire or shelter, which is something you should consider before your first night. Asking him to build a shelter will cause him to stop, drop some tarp, and prop it up with a branch he wanders about and finds. With a shelter, you can sleep or save your game.

The other commands are also useful, mostly. Asking Kelvin to “get” an item lets you choose branches, logs, fish, or rocks. You can then have him follow you with the logs, or drop them at a specific spot. He will keep doing this, allowing you to plan out your builds while he gathers the resources. Asking him to “Take a break” just has him stop where he’s at. He’ll either wander in circles, or pick at some nearby berry bush. You can get the same result with “Stay,” and even ask him to keep out of sight.

The Clear option orders Kelvin to clear an area of trees in a 5, 10, or 20-meter radius around him. This is great if you’re planning to build a larger base.

All in all, Kelvin is a fantastic soldier to command in Sons of the Forest. He makes the busywork of survival far less busy. Kelvin won’t fight your battles, sadly, but if you pay attention, he does point out nearby threats. Of course, if you don’t want his help, you can always kill him. But that just feels cruel, doesn’t it?

He’s such a good boy. Screenshot by PC Invasion

Sons of the Forest is available via Steam.