Sons of the Forest: How to Build and Use a Drying Rack

Learn how to make squirrel jerky.

Drying Racks in Sons of the Forest will prevent Raw Meat and Fish from going bad and spoiling. Here’s how to build and use one. 

As in most survival scenarios, having a steady food supply is paramount. This fact also applies to the new survival FPS created by Endnight Games called Sons of the Forest. In the game, players have access to a wide plethora of different foods, from cereal to canned goods, but preserving food you can harvest from live animals will make surviving and sustaining a whole lot easier. 

How to Build a Drying Rack in The Forest

Drying Racks preserve Raw Meat and Fish so that you can store them in your inventory without them spoiling. To construct one, hit the B key, then hit X to Switch Mode. Click the brown, or Storage Tab, then click Storage at the bottom of the build guide twice to show the Drying Rack. Click the Drying Rack, then find a flat area to place it. The red guidelines will turn white when you’ve found an appropriate area. 

How to Use the Drying Rack in Sons of the Forest

Using the rack is pretty easy. First, you’ll need to skin and harvest Raw Meat from an animal like a bird, squirrel, or deer. Alternatively, you can catch live fish and place them on the rack as well for dried seafood. Simply walk up to the Drying Rack and hit E to start drying the food. The food will turn a different color and change status when it is fully dried — which usually takes an in-game day or two.

Drying Rack Sons of the Forest

The Drying Rack has a total of 6 slots that can be filled up at a time, so you’ll be able to create a pretty steady supply of food with it if you are killing animals in the game world. 

To extract meat from an animal, Kill the animal with a weapon, then interact with its corpse to extract the meat. Fish can be caught with a Fish Trap or can be speared and extracted. 

See our Sons of the Forest Section for more guides like this one.