How to use the zipline rope gun in Sons of the Forest

Where to find the zipline/rope gun

While the zipline/rope gun sounds rad in theory, it has rather limited practical use in Sons of the Forest. You can get creative with it, but it’s very situational. However, it does have one way in which it makes itself indispensable; it is necessary to traverse some of the game’s caves. Not least of these caves is the one that holds the mythical shovel. Regardless of whether or not you have an interest in ziplines, you’ll need to grab the tool if you want to finish the main storyline.

The zipline gun can be found in a cave west of the snowcapped mountain near the lake that breaks off into numerous rivers (it’s hard to explain, reference the screenshot.)

Be prepared; the cave is rather dangerous. Grenades and timebombs are good for clearing out the subterranean nudists quickly, but supplies for them are precious. For most of them, I find the club works best, as it knocks them over and allows you to hit them as they lie helpless. It’s also a rather long trek, so you may consider throwing down a tarp and propping it up with some sticks to give you a save point.

Also, whenever you kill one of the slimy exhibitionists, you can shave some skin off and staple it to your clothing as makeshift armor. It’s gross, but trust me when I say that it can really mitigate some of the damage you’ll probably take.

The cave is rather straightforward, and at the end of it you’ll find a line already set up to test it. Point your cursor at it and press the action button to ride it down to a quick exit.

How to use the zipline rope gun

The rope gun can be a bit finnicky, but it’s more straightforward than you might think. For clarity, you can use ziplines to both ascend and descend from heights. The whole ascension thing might fly in the face of physics, but we already threw those away with the indestructible sled.

To use the gun, you just point at one place and fire to anchor it; either your starting point or your destination. Then point it on the other end of where you want to go and fire again. Note that you can only plant an anchor when you can see your reticle in the environment. There’s a pretty strict range to it (unfortunately).

Once you have both ends planted, a wire will immediately connect the two points. To traverse it, all you need to do is point at it and hit the action button. Again, it works in both directions, regardless of the incline.

Weaponized anchors

You may be wondering if you can anchor it in the skull of a cannibal (ie. can you use them to kill?) The answer is yes, but it’s not worth it. The rope gun does very little damage. I was able to knock someone to the ground with a headshot, but I kept feeding additional shots into them and they weren’t impressed. The hook also doesn’t add an anchor point, so you can’t then fire another shot into a tree to watch them get retracted into it. You’re better off with bows and arrows.

One other thing; you can make ziplines using a 3D-printed grappling hook and a rope. However, I found fully made ziplines were extremely easy to come by on their own. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life, but I feel like ziplines aren’t even worth the rope.