The developer console in Sons of the Forest is one of the least-documented features in the game, partly because Endnight Games never advertised it and partly because the activation method is genuinely strange. There’s no setting to toggle, no launch flag, and no menu entry. Instead, you literally type a magic word while playing. This guide walks through exactly how to open the console on PC, lists every verified cheat command, and explains the quirks (keyboard layout, casing, what breaks multiplayer) that trip most players up.
For context: Sons of the Forest is the survival-horror sequel to The Forest, built by Endnight Games Ltd and published under their own Newnight label. It launched into Early Access on February 23, 2023, and hit its 1.0 full release on February 22, 2024. It has continued to receive patches since — a major content update on January 15, 2025 (rafts, a procedural wall system, refined aiming) and a Unity security patch on October 3, 2025. There’s no Endnight-announced end of support, so the console method below should hold for the foreseeable future.
How to Enable the Developer Console
The developer console is PC only and is unlocked by typing a passphrase during active gameplay. Here’s the exact sequence:
- Load into a game and make sure you are in active gameplay — not in your inventory, not on the map, not in a pause menu, and not inside any text box.
- Type the word
cheatstickletter by letter. As you type, the letters appear in the top-left corner of the screen, confirming the game is registering them. - Press F1 to open the developer console.
Two things commonly go wrong here. First, the letters must be typed consecutively — any stray keypress in the middle cancels the sequence and you have to start over. Second, console input is built around the US keyboard layout. If you’re on a non-US layout (AZERTY, QWERTZ, and so on) and either cheatstick won’t register or commands won’t run, switch your system input to a US/English layout first. This is documented behavior, not a bug you can configure around.
Once the console is open, type any of the commands below and press Enter. Command casing in-game is generally lowercase, so stick to lowercase to avoid commands silently failing.
Verified Console Commands
The following commands are confirmed working. Many are toggles that take on or off as an argument; a few take a value or item reference.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
godmode on/off | Makes you immune to all damage. |
invisible on/off | Makes you invisible to enemies. |
killallenemies | Kills every enemy currently on the map. |
killradius [number] | Kills enemies within the given radius around you. |
aidisable on/off | Disables all AI, including companions Kelvin and Virginia. |
additem [name or ID] | Spawns a specific item into your inventory. |
addallitems | Adds all items to your inventory. |
buildermode | Adds a maximum amount of nearly every item. |
loghack on/off | Gives infinite logs. |
stonehack on/off | Gives infinite stones. |
buildhack on/off | Build structures with no resource cost. |
speedyrun on/off | Run extremely fast. |
superjump on/off | Jump much higher than normal. |
cavelight on/off | Surrounds you with a bright light (useful in caves). |
setstat [type] [value] | Sets a stat — health, stamina, fullness, hydration, or temperature. |
season [summer/autumn/winter/spring] | Changes the in-game season. |
save | Saves your current progress. |
A few usage notes worth calling out:
aidisableturns off your companions too. Kelvin and Virginia are AI-driven, so disabling AI freezes them along with the cannibals and mutants. Toggle it back on withaidisable offif you still want their help.setstatis the surgical alternative to godmode. If you only want to top off hydration or fullness without becoming invincible, set the individual stat instead of enablinggodmode.buildermodeandbuildhackdo different things.buildermodedumps items into your inventory;buildhacklets you place structures without consuming resources at all.- Use
savebefore risky experiments. Spawning items or killing everything on the map can put your world in an odd state — a manual save first gives you a fallback.
One honest caveat: killallenemies and save are confirmed by multiple community guides but were not listed on every official source we checked. They’re treated as genuine because three or more independent host and guide sources corroborate them, but if a future patch changes behavior, those two are the most likely to shift.
Console Cheats and Multiplayer Servers
The developer console is a client-side feature you trigger on your own machine during gameplay. That makes it perfect for testing a solo world, learning enemy spawns, or recovering from a bug — but it’s a different thing entirely from administering a dedicated multiplayer server.
Sons of the Forest supports a free standalone dedicated server (SteamCMD app ID 2465200, anonymous login). The server is configured through a JSON file named dedicatedserver.cfg, where you set things like the server name, password, game mode, and player cap. Here’s the verified default shape of that file:
{
"IpAddress": "0.0.0.0",
"GamePort": 8766,
"QueryPort": 27016,
"BlobSyncPort": 9700,
"ServerName": "Sons Of The Forest Server (dedicated)",
"MaxPlayers": 8,
"Password": "",
"LanOnly": false,
"SaveSlot": 1,
"SaveMode": "Continue",
"GameMode": "Normal",
"SaveInterval": 600
}A couple of things matter here for anyone running a server. MaxPlayers is capped at 8 — that’s the game’s hard co-op ceiling, so setting it higher won’t add slots. The valid GameMode values are Normal, Hard, HardSurvival, Peaceful, Creative, and Custom; note that hardcore is the string HardSurvival, not literally “Hardcore.” Setting Custom tells the server to read its CustomGameModeSettings block.
If you’d rather skip the SteamCMD-and-config wrangling, a managed dedicated Sons of the Forest server handles install, ports, and the config file for you, and our Sons of the Forest documentation covers panel setup step by step. For the full DIY route, see our walkthrough on how to set up a dedicated server for Sons of the Forest.
A Quick Note on the Studio Behind the Game
The console’s hands-off, “type a secret word” design fits Endnight’s style. Endnight Games Ltd is an independent studio based in Vancouver, Canada, founded by former visual-effects artists and built around immersive first-person survival horror. They made their name with The Forest (full release 2018) and followed it with Sons of the Forest, which sold roughly 4 million copies in its first week. The companion AI — Kelvin and Virginia — is a defining design pillar, which is exactly why aidisable sweeps them up with the enemies. If you want the deeper background, we cover it in our Endnight Games studio profile.
Will the Console Work on Your PC?
The console doesn’t add any extra hardware demand — it runs inside the game you’re already playing — but it’s worth confirming the game itself runs well before you start spawning hordes of items. Here are the official Steam requirements:
| Spec | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | 64-bit Windows 10 | 64-bit Windows 10 |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 3 3300X | Intel Core i7-8700K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600X |
| Memory | 12 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB / AMD RX 570 4GB | NVIDIA 1080Ti / AMD RX 5700 XT |
| DirectX | Version 11 | Version 11 |
| Storage | 20 GB (SSD preferred) | 20 GB (SSD preferred) |
For a full breakdown of what to expect performance-wise, our Sons of the Forest system requirements guide goes into more detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I open the developer console in Sons of the Forest?
During active gameplay, type cheatstick — you’ll see the letters appear in the top-left corner — then press F1 to open the console. You must be in normal gameplay, not in a menu, map, inventory, or text box, and the letters have to be typed consecutively without interruption.
The console won’t open or commands won’t register. What’s wrong?
The most common cause is a non-US keyboard layout. Console input is built around the US/English layout, so switch your system input to US, then try typing cheatstick again. Also make sure no stray keypress interrupted the word, and keep commands lowercase.
Is the developer console available on consoles?
No. The developer console is a PC-only feature. There is no equivalent cheat console on console versions of the game.
Do console cheats disable my companions Kelvin and Virginia?
Only if you use aidisable on. That command turns off all AI in the game, and because Kelvin and Virginia are AI-driven companions, they get disabled along with the enemies. Run aidisable off to bring everything back. Other cheats like godmode or additem don’t affect them.
Can I use the console on a dedicated multiplayer server?
The developer console is a client-side feature you trigger in your own game session, not a server admin tool. Dedicated servers are configured separately through the dedicatedserver.cfg JSON file, where you control settings like the game mode, password, and the 8-player cap. Server difficulty (Normal, Hard, HardSurvival, Peaceful, Creative, or Custom) is set there, not via console.
Will the console give a “godmode” advantage in co-op?
Cheats affect the session you trigger them in, so use them thoughtfully in shared games — enabling godmode or buildhack changes the experience for everyone playing alongside you. Many players reserve the console for solo testing worlds and keep their main co-op save clean.
That’s the complete, verified picture: type cheatstick, press F1, and you have full access to godmode, item spawning, infinite resources, season control, and the rest. Keep your commands lowercase, mind your keyboard layout, and save before you experiment — and you’ll never lose a world to a bad spawn again.
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