How to Resurrect Kelvin in Sons of the Forest

Kelvin, Sons of the Forest’s super helpful NPC, is a real blessing, but he’s not immortal. So, if you’re wondering how to resurrect Kelvin if he dies in Sons of the Forest, here’s what you need to know.

Can Kelvin Die in Sons of the Forest?

Kelvin can die in Sons of the Forest and, while there’s no official in-universe way to resurrect him, you can do so by editing the game’s save files.

Your handy companion, Kelvin, is with you from the beginning Sons of the Forest, and he’s invaluable for taking the load of busywork. But he can get hurt, whether that’s from enemy attacks, things falling on him, and so on.

If Kelvin takes enough damage, he’ll drop to the ground, indicating he’s in severe need of help. If you reach him when he’s downed and interact with him, you can help him back to his feet. If he’s downed again, you can help him up again.

However, if he takes damage while downed, he will die, and that’s that. No amount of poking his corpse with a stick or piling health packs on top of him will restore him to life. Dead is dead. And unless you cheat, or have an earlier save file, he stays that way. RIP Sons of the Forest’s best boy.

How to Resurrect Kelvin if He Dies in Sons of the Forest

You can edit Sons of the Forest’s save files to resurrect Kelvin, but the game’s final release has made this process much fiddlier than it was during Early Access. So, you do this entirely at your own risk. You’ll also need to know how to cut and paste things in Windows.

How to resurrect Kelvin using save file editing.

1. Be warned, this is a little risky. First, load up your save where Kelvin is dead.
2. Alt-Tab out of the game.
3. Open Windows Explorer and in the top bar type: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Endnight\SonsOfTheForest\Saves
4. Click on the directory with the long number, then click on Single Player. You’ll see some more directories with long numbers.
5. Copy all these directories and put them in a temporary folder somewhere. Why? Because it seems like Sons of the Forest isn’t necessarily ordering the folders by date as it used to.
6. Once you’ve copied all those folders somewhere safe, and ensuring you still have Sons of the Forest open, delete all the original folders.
7. Alt-Tab back to Sons of the Forest and save your game.
8. Alt-Tab back to Windows and go into what should be the only directory in your save folder.
9. Double click on the file SaveData.zip. If you get a warning about it being unsafe, go ahead.
10. Copy GameStateSaveData.json and SaveData.json into the main directory of your save. You need to do this to edit them outside the zip.
11. Double click on GameStateSaveData.json. When you’re asked to choose a program to open it with, choose WordPad.
12. In Wordpad, use CTRL-F to bring up the find box. Search for this string: “IsRobbyDead\”:true (You may have to type it manually rather than copy/paste from here, owing to automatic formatting applied to quotation marks on this website.)
13. Now, change the :true to :false and exit WordPad, saving when prompted.
14. Next, double click on the file SaveData.json. Again, open it in Wordpad and use CTRL-F to open the find box. Search for “TypeId\”:9 When you find it, don’t change that string but look a bit further down for \“State\”:6, and change it to \“State\”:2.
15. Now, look a little further along for Stats, and between Anger and Fear add, \“Health\”:100.0, Thanks to this Redditor for pointing out that last step.
16. Then exit WordPad and save when prompted.
17. Now, in the save folder, copy both those files, go back into SaveData.zip and paste them inside it. Choose Copy and Replace when prompted.

Now, go back to Sons of the Forest and, from the main menu, load that save file. Kelvin should be alive again. Your days will be merrier knowing that you can revive this lovable companion.

If your .json files aren’t zipped, just edit them where they are. You can also use console commands to spawn a new Kelvin with the addcharacter robby 1 command, but we’ve heard adding an additional Kelvin can cause problems.

And that’s how to resurrect Kelvin if he dies in Sons of the Forest

Related: How to Survive The Winter in Sons of the Forest on Pro Game Guides