Knowing how to hotkey weapons in Sons of the Forest can make the whole horror experience much less of a struggle. Sometimes Sons of the Forest requires you to think and act quickly. If you're in the middle of a skirmish, you'll find myriad reasons to scroll through your available weapons at speed.
The feature was added in a quick post-launch update presumably because of the wide-ranging requests from the game's community. It was a simple feature from the first game that didn't carry over, and many felt strongly about its omission.
Looking for more information about this game? Check out our Sons of the Forest guides hub for a full list of how-tos and pointers. For specifics, make sure to check our guide on how to get the sword in Sons of the Forest. Also, we've got an article on how to get the shotgun rail in the game.
How to hotkey weapons in Sons of the Forest
- Open your inventory.
- Aim at an instrument or a weapon that you want to bind.
- Choose the button you want to bind this item to. It should be one of the number buttons from 0 to 9.
- Hit this button while aiming at a chosen instrument or weapon.
- Your item has its own hotkey now.
Hotkeys have just been added to the game and there are many questions on how to use them. Fortunately, it is quite easy and you just need to follow the steps above.
Why are hotkeys important in Sons of the Forest?
Basically, hotkeys are special buttons that you can use to instantly equip some weapon, tools, or other frequently-needed instruments.
Rather than fumble around with the inventory system to make a quick change, you can assign various single-tap hotkeys to speed up the process of pulling out things like your axe or bow.
What are the best items to hotkey in Sons of the Forest?
We highly recommend you use hotkeys for your axe, bow, and other weapons. Such a strategy will help you to swap between them in the middle of a battle and defeat your enemies effectively.
Stay sharp as this game will throw lots of dangerous enemies at you. If you want to read more guides, please check our articles on how to save and how to set hotkeys in Sons of the Forest. That last one should add some extra context to this.