Sons of the Forest’s wildest fan theories, explained

After playing Sons of the Forest to completion, the ending will leave you with more questions than answers. Most of the lore can be found in emails and papers scattered throughout the island’s caves and bunkers. However, the pages will only give you small pieces to the puzzle that you have to somehow put together to get the whole picture. Learning the whole story on your own is next to impossible, so let us help you with some informative fan theories. Read on to find out more about the Sons of the Forest story and what the ending truly means.

Sons of the Forest is currently in early access, so the overall story may change as there are more updates to the game.

[Ed. note: This post contains full spoilers for Sons of the Forest.]

How does Sons of the Forest end?

During the final moments of Sons of the Forest, you’ll make your way through a bunker to find a golden door with an arm imprinted on it. You open the door using the golden armor and battle your way through mutant cannibals to find another human, presumably Timmy LeBlanc from The Forest, beside a huge golden cube. As the two of you enter, your companions successfully run in with you while the person in the silver jacket fails to make it in.

Image: Endnight Games/Newnight via Polygon

This is where the story takes a big turn (if the huge golden cube buried deep underground wasn’t enough for you).

Timmy shows you a laptop with a 15-second countdown, and as the time is winding down, he splits into multiple copies of himself. One of the cube’s walls will then disappear, showing you a futuristic city on a different planet with flying cars and advanced architecture. Then, the wall behind you will open up, revealing a huge mutant in a cave.

You’ll turn to see Virginia, if you successfully befriended her, having a negative physical reaction to the events, and she’ll collapse into your arms. The screen will fade to you on the beach with Timmy and Eric, the main protagonist of The Forest, where you must make a choice: Join Timmy and Eric and leave the island, or grab the backpack and stay?

What does the ending of Sons of the Forest mean?

To be honest, we’re not 100% sure! In its final moments, Sons of the Forest floods your brain with a lot of information at once. As the game is currently in early access, the story might be updated with more information to help connect the dots, but here are a few theories to help you understand what the ending means.

Keep in mind that these are theories and they haven’t been verified by the developers of Sons of the Forest. Everything you see below is speculation, so choose what you want to believe or use the information below to form your own idea of how Sons of the Forest ends.

Timmy and Eric LeBlanc return in Sons of the Forest

Photo illustration: Johnny Yu/Polygon | Source images: Endnight Games/Newnight

As you explore the bunkers of Sons of the Forest, you’ll repeatedly run into two unnamed humans that seem to have an objective of their own. Fans generally believe these two are indeed Timmy and Eric LeBlanc, the son and father duo from The Forest.

One of the main reasons people believe this to be true is because the younger man’s scars in Sons of the Forest match Timmy’s scars from The Forest. Additionally, during a cutscene where you face off against a huge mutant, the older man yells, “Get down, son,” indicating a parental connection. The only other father we currently know about in Sons of the Forest is Edward Puffton, but he doesn’t have a son (Edward’s child is Virginia Puffton, the lady with three arms and legs who can become one of your companions), so all signs point to the duo being Timmy and Eric LeBlanc.

The cube travels between dimensions

Image: Endnight Games/Newnight via Polygon

In the ending cutscene, one of the walls of the cube opens up to show a futuristic city. Players believe that the cube itself travels between dimensions, which can be confirmed by a few documents found in the bunker with the golden armor. The email says, “Our records show that more research will be needed regarding — The artifact causes a Brief Dimensional Switch.” Pretty safe to assume that the city you’re seeing is from another dimension. You can also find a book titled Parallel Universes and Travel Between Them by Tim LeBlanc, as well as a few similar books, which might lead you to believe that interdimensional travel is possible in the Sons of the Forest universe.

The cube cures Timmy LeBlanc

Image: Endnight Games/Newnight via Polygon

The big question for Timmy and Eric is simple: Why are they here? Some believe that the duo is there in hopes of finding a way to cure Timmy of his inner demons, while others believe that they’ve discovered a way of curing Timmy: entering the cube. When Timmy splits into multiple copies of himself, you could interpret that as the cube exorcising his inner demons.

Fans also believe that the cube mainly affects mutants inside of it, like Timmy and Virginia. However, from what we can tell, Virginia is not cured: She still has three arms and legs.

Everyone outside of the cube turns into a mutant

Image: Endnight Games/Newnight via Polygon

As you explore deeper past the gold door, you’ll find an email that says “Cube activates every 8 cycles” along with an image of a moon calendar. Thanks to the math conducted by Reddit user Nabuee, it takes about 27.3 days for one moon cycle, with eight moon cycles equating to around 218 days.

Now, the whole reason you’re on the island is to find billionaire Edward Puffton, who has been missing for 31 weeks, or around 217 days. The idea here is that, 31 weeks ago, the cube activated and turned everyone into a mutant — hence why you received no signal or message from the Pufftons — and you make it just in time for the next cycle. Remember the person in the silver jacket chasing you to the cube? That’s right; they didn’t make it into the cube in time, so when the cube opens and shows the mutant monstrosity, that’s the person in the silver jacket.

Edward and Barbara Puffton have turned into mutants

Graphic: Johnny Yu/Polygon | Source images: Endnight Games/Newnight

The main reason why you, the protagonist of Sons of the Forest, have come to the island is to find Edward, Barbara, and Virginia Puffton. It’s easy to know what happened to Virginia — she turns into your companion as you play — but what happened to Edward and Barbara Puffton?

In the Food and Drink bunker, you’ll find a security room that has a wall of camera footage. In the recordings, you’ll see many humans mutating into the enemies that we face off against on the island. However, on camera 2, you’ll see an older woman who looks somewhat similar to Barbara Puffton; she also transforms into a mutant. In the next room that you unlock with the VIP keycard, you’ll find many dining tables that are seated with mutants. One of the tables has seating place cards that have the names of the missing billionaires. The seats labeled “Barbara Puffton” and “Virginia Puffton” are empty, but Edward’s seat is taken, which leads us to believe that he turned into a mutant.

This is all just the tip of the Sons of the Forest iceberg. For more theories on the overarching story, check out these theories on the game’s religious ties and this incredible YouTube video by Its Shatter that explains the whole plot.