Key Highlights:
- The Rebreather is found inside Rebreather Cave on the northern coastline and requires no progression item to collect.
- Each Air Tank provides about 400 seconds of underwater breathing, with up to four additional tanks carried as spares.
- The Rebreather is required for flooded progression routes including Shovel Cave and the Artifact Piece C branch inside Rope Gun Cave.
Quick Links:
The Rebreather in Sons of the Forest supplies air during underwater exploration and allows you to cross flooded cave passages that are too long to survive on normal breath alone.
It becomes increasingly important as the island’s progression routes move through submerged sections of caves.
Where Is the Rebreather?
The Rebreather is inside Rebreather Cave on the northern coast of the island.
The entrance is built into the coastal rock face and covered by wooden boards. Break the boards with an axe to enter.
The cave contains mutants and very little natural light, so bring a reliable light source and basic healing supplies.
How to Get the Rebreather
The Rebreather is reached by taking the left-hand route at the main cave branch and following it to the large flooded chamber near the end.
The right-hand branch leads towards the Stun Gun and additional cave content, so you do not need to explore it to collect the Rebreather.
Continue along the left route until you reach the flooded chamber.
A Shark patrols the water, but the Rebreather itself is on the rocks beside the pool rather than underwater.
Interact with the Rebreather to add it permanently to your inventory.
You can then use the submerged passage in the same chamber as an exit route. Once underwater, the Rebreather automatically begins supplying air.
Important: Use your light source to lean near the edge of the water and scout the shark’s location. Once it’s out of reach, you can then safely enter the water.
How Does the Rebreather Work?
The Rebreather consumes Air Tanks while you remain underwater.
One Air Tank provides approximately 400 seconds, or 6 minutes 40 seconds, of breathing time.
The Rebreather can hold one active tank, while up to four additional Air Tanks can be carried in your inventory. A full supply therefore provides roughly 2,000 seconds, or 33 minutes 20 seconds, of underwater breathing before every tank is exhausted.
The full release increased Air Tank consumption by 25% compared with the earlier Early Access behaviour, so older guides may describe longer underwater durations.
I still carry at least one spare Air Tank when entering a cave with long flooded sections. Having plenty of total air is less useful if the active tank runs dry halfway through a tunnel and you have no replacement.
The Rebreather can also be assigned to a hotkey, making it easier to equip when moving repeatedly between dry and submerged sections.
Its function is limited to breathing. The Rebreather does not increase swimming speed or improve underwater visibility.
What Does the Rebreather Unlock?
The Rebreather is one of the two traversal tools required to get the Shovel.
The Rope Gun handles the opening zipline inside Shovel Cave, while the Rebreather is required for the flooded passages deeper underground.
The Rebreather also lets you fully explore Rope Gun Cave. You do not need it to obtain the Rope Gun itself, but a deeper underwater branch leads to Artifact Piece C and cannot be completed without extended underwater breathing.
Later progression also takes the Rebreather into:
- Pickaxe Cave
- Ancient Armour Cave
- additional Artifact Piece routes
- other submerged cave passages across the island
That makes the Rebreather useful well beyond its original cave. It remains part of the normal progression route through several later underground areas.
For more cave routes, equipment locations and progression help, continue through the Definitive Sons of the Forest Walkthrough.
