Sons of the Forest (Steam) is a merciless survival game where you never have to be alone. Even in solo mode, you are accompanied by Kelvin, a friendly NPC. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus was supposed to take out the nice guy – for a guide. But it’s not worth the clicks for him.
Who is Kelvin? In Sons of the Forest you play as a kind of elite soldier or mercenary searching for a missing billionaire. Your team consists of several people, including your comrade Kelvin.
The game starts with you crashing over a strange island. Apparently, no one survives the helicopter except you and Kelvin. However, Kelvin suffers a head injury and incurs severe brain damage. As a result, he can hardly communicate.
This is special about Kelvin: The ex-soldier acts as a companion in Sons of the Forest, one of the new features in the survival game. If you write down tasks for him on a piece of paper, he will carry them out without complaining.
Already, Kelvin is the absolute star in Sons of the Forest. Fans post memes about the companion on Reddit and Twitter or laugh at mishaps that can happen with him:
However, there is something else about Kelvin: he can die. More precisely, you can kill him.
The question: “What happens if I kill Kelvin?” is hotly debated in the community, and my editor-in-chief Leya Jankwoski just tasked me in a brief call: Start a new game and take him out so you can report on it.
She even had ideas: record a short video, laugh maliciously and put on a nasty grimace. But I won’t do that, even though I usually enjoy playing evil characters myself.
Note from the editor-in-chief: If Benedict gets lost in the depths of our content mines and doesn’t find his way out, it’s not related to this report.
Continuing with the article:
Kelvin is far too nice for that. He proudly nods every time he receives a task, seems happy when he can help, and generally appears satisfied that he is still alive and not completely useless. I like having Kelvin with me. Just because playing Sons of the Forest solo can be really scary…
What Kelvin can do and what you need to know about Sons of the Forest, we explain in the video:
What happens if I kill Kelvin?
Fortunately, I can answer the question without having to take out Kelvin myself. He dies, plain and simple. And Kelvin stays dead when you kill him – for the entire playthrough of the round.
This applies, by the way, to every friendly NPC. Also Virginia, whom you must first befriend. You don’t even have to accidentally kill your friends. Sons of the Forest has Friendly Fire, which means you can even accidentally shoot your allies.
This applies both ways, by the way. Kelvin has already thrown logs at my head, which hurts quite a bit… But I can forgive him. If you really want to know what happens: other people have a less soft heart than I do:
For my part, I refuse to kill Kelvin – even if it’s just for a video and I can reload the save afterward. Especially in such a cold-hearted way as in the YouTube video, I would just feel shabby.
So far, we have only played for about 3 hours, but in that time, Kelvin has been an immeasurable help. We quickly gathered the materials for a hut, which Kelvin then tore down again. But well… it happens.
If you do decide to get rid of Kelvin, here is a suitable weapon. But you didn’t get the instructions from me:
