How to play Escape the Deep Forest
You have crash-landed in the middle of a forest six kilometres across. There is no map and no one is coming. This page explains the controls, what the numbers on the screen mean, and what to do in your first ten minutes.
What the game is
Escape the Deep Forest is a single-player, first-person survival game that runs in your web browser. There is nothing to install and it works on a computer, a phone or a tablet. Every run uses a world built from a seed, so the forest is different each time you start a new game, but the same seed always gives the same forest. The goal is to leave the forest alive by one of three routes, which are explained in the escape routes guide.
Controls on a computer
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mouse | Look around. Left-click uses the weapon or tool in your hand; right-click aims a gun or guards with a melee weapon. |
| W A S D | Walk. |
| Shift | Sprint. It uses stamina, makes noise and makes you hungry and thirsty faster. |
| C | Crouch. You move slower but make less noise and are harder to see. |
| Space | Jump. |
| E | Use or pick up what you are looking at. Hold E facing the river to drink. E also opens chests, sleeps in a bed and boards a raft. |
| I | Open your pack: items, weight and crafting. |
| J | Open your journal: every note you find and a hint for the next step of each way out. |
| Tab | Open the map (once you have a map, it shows the places you have explored). |
| L | Light a torch or a flashlight. |
| Q | Switch weapon. |
| R | Reload. |
| X | Switch ammunition type. |
| B | Look through binoculars. |
| F | Cast a fishing rod when you face the river. |
| M | Mute. |
| Esc | Pause and open the menu. |
On a phone or tablet the game shows touch controls: a stick on the left to move, a pad on the right to look, and buttons for the same actions. A game controller also works.
What is on the screen
- Health, Food, Water, Rest and Temperature in the corner. When Food, Water or Temperature run out, your health starts to fall.
- Noise, Scent and Wind at the bottom. Animals hear and smell you. Sprinting is loud, and the wind carries your scent to whatever is downwind of you. See the survival guide for how to use this.
- The compass at the top, once you find one, and the goal line that tells you what to do next.
- Status effects such as Bleeding, Broken leg or Poisoned, at the bottom right.
Your first ten minutes
- Look around and pick things up. Sticks, stones, cloth, herbs and berries lie on the ground. Walk up to them and press E.
- Find the supply crate near where you landed. The goal line at the bottom of the screen points to it.
- Find water. Rivers are clean enough to drink if you hold E, but unboiled river water can make you sick. See food and medicine.
- Eat. Berries and brown mushrooms are safe. Red and pale mushrooms are poison.
- Make a knife, rope and an axe (see the crafting guide), and keep a lighter if you find one.
- Before dark, build a campfire. Wolves hunt at night, and fire keeps most animals away.
- Read the notes you find and open the journal now and then: it tells you what to look for to get out.
Saving, difficulty and challenges
The game saves automatically in your browser. You can play as a guest, with no account at all, or sign in with Google to keep your progress and appear on the leaderboards. A daily challenge and a weekly challenge give everyone the same forest and the same twist, so you can compare your time with other players. Achievements, a field guide that fills in as you see animals, and a perk system give you reasons to start another run after the first one.
You can play without ever watching an ad. If you choose to, a reward ad can give a small head start, such as a supply crate or a revive. Nothing in the game needs an ad.
If the game runs slowly
Open the settings and turn on low graphics. The game also lowers its own resolution if it notices the frame rate dropping. Closing other tabs helps on a phone. If the game does not load at all, tell us which device and browser you use.