Finding the Shovel: The Ultimate Guide
As an experienced Sons of the Forest player with over 200 hours exploring the island, I‘ve uncovered many of its hidden secrets – including the ultra-rare shovel. This versatile tool lets you dig up secret stashes or open new pathways, making it an invaluable addition to your inventory.
However, actually getting your hands on the shovel requires grit, skill and inside knowledge of navigating the game‘s treacherous underground cave systems.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share hard-won tips to locate the shovel along with other vital gear you‘ll need for this daring expedition deep below the surface. Let‘s get started!
Must-Have Gear for Your Descent
Before you embark, ensure you‘re locked and loaded with equipment to safely traverse strained terrain and combat enemies lurking within the caves:
- Rope gun: Enables zip-lining across gaps while scaling cliffs
- Rebreather: Allows extended underwater exploration
- Climbing axe: Essential for mining tough rock surfaces
- Upgraded armor: Protects against fall damage and attacks
- Medicine: Treat injuries from mutants or the environment
- Explosives/Weaponry: For dealing with cave beasts and mutants
I also highly recommended bringing at least 5 soda cans, 7-8 energy bars, 3-4 bandages and a full complement of throwing weapons like Molotov cocktails before entering the caves.
Retrieving the Rope Gun
According to the SotF wiki, the rope gun has only a 13.2% drop chance from a single cave, making it a rare find.
The closest cave entrance lies just west from the plane crash site near the southern tip of the peninsula. Chop past the wooden barrier with your axe and continue into the darkness.
Keep pressing forward while eliminating mutants, until you encounter "Sluggy" – a hulking gelatinous mass blocking the route ahead. Chuck explosives at the creature and push forward once it‘s out of the way.
Eventually you‘ll enter a huge cavern with headless bodies suspended from the ceiling by ropes. On one corpse hangs the rope gun itself. Now grab hold of nearby wall anchors with your axe to traverse over the precarious drops, taking care not to fall. Retrieve your prize reward!
Braving the Rebreather Cave
Onward to the rebreather, vital for underwater mobility. Its cave lurks along the northern peninsula hills, not far from anchorage point Delta.
Breaching the entrance, you‘ll discover climbing ropes, corpses, artifacts hinting at failed past expeditions. Spelunk deeper, battling spiders and vicious flytraps until reaching partially flooded areas.
Take a deep breath and dive into the submerged tunnels, following the path laid by floating life preservers. On the other side, claim your rebreather from a corpse above water.
Surviving the Treacherous Shovel Descent
Finally, we tackle the deepest level – the treacherous caverns guarding the shovel.
Its cave entrance awaits near anchor point Foxtrot, beneath the snowy peaks. Rappel down a rope anchor to cross the initial sinkholes. Battalions of mutants will ambush you from here on.
Fight through the hordes until locating an underwater segment. Don the rebreather and follow this flooded pathway to emerge in a blood-soaked ritual site – you‘re on the right path.
Vanquishing the tougher mutants here unlocks dual forked routes. I choose the right passage first to acquire a flashlight attachment for better visibility, before returning to take the left path toward the shovel.
This passage ends abruptly by solid stone. Sliding through cracks leads to a spacious cavern where lies the shovel at long last…at the bottom of a spiked pit!
Carefully descend to claim your prize. But don‘t relax yet, for the toughest battle awaits against three ferocious cowman mutants. Utilize guerilla hit-and-run tactics; sprint between cover while targeting their legs to cripple movement. Once you‘ve won, dash up nearby footholds to escape the pit then brace for waves of smaller mutants. You‘re nearly home free!
Escape and Summary
With shovel finally in hand, locate the effigy statue beyond the pit and blast the barricaded tunnel behind it – creating a shortcut back to the cave entrance while avoiding the sprawling labyrinth you came from.
Our epic multi-cave plundering expedition is finally complete! With rope gun and rebreather also claimed from extremely isolated caves, you now wield the tools to access the island‘s most well-hidden secrets.
As you journey home flush with rare loot, be sure to use your new shovel to uncover hidden underground caches or tunnel into restricted ruins and bunkers hidden throughout Sons of the Forest. But brace for further deadly encounters with the island‘s uncanny inhabitants…
So concludes my deep-dive master guide to retrieving these ultra-rare artifacts. Follow my hard-won methods here while keeping wits sharp and weapons ready, and you might just survive this intense quest into Sons of the Forest‘s most dangerous depths. Let me know if this helped guide you to shovel success!
