As a passionate gamer who has sunk countless hours into Sons of the Forest, I can definitively say that the rebreather is one of the most game-changing items you can acquire. I cannot overstate how critical attaining this equipment is for exploring the oceans and unlocking their secrets.
Equipping it revolutionizes underwater navigation and survival, making you an apex explorer across 40% of the entire map! As such, all players should prioritize locating the rebreather as soon as possible when beginning a new save.
Why the Rebreather is So Vital
The default breath gauge in Sons of the Forest allows you a scant few seconds of underwater activity before forcing you to surface. This suffocating limitation places severe restrictions on accessing any aquatic areas or resources.
The oceans become effectively off-limits without specialized diving gear. This locks you out of potential game-changing loot, materials, combat opportunities, and more hidden beneath the waves.
The rebreather completely eliminates this barrier. Equipping it allows unlimited underwater access, constrained only by your oxygen tank capacity.
You can search vast seafloor regions for epic weapon blueprints, build sprawling seabases, access rare medicinal flora exclusive to ocean biomes, and fully explore submerged caves & ruins.
It even unlocks various shortcuts between islands, making travel safer by avoiding overland mutant packs. The possibilities exploding outward once you possess aquatic breathing apparatus cannot be overstated!
However, pinpointing the exact rebreather location can be tricky for new players. As a seasoned veteran who has recovered it across numerous playthroughs, I can guide you step-by-step to this incredible artifact. Just be ready to brave dark depths and overcome lethal adversaries along the way!
Key Rebreather Stats and Capabilities
Before embarking on this maritime quest, let’s breakdown some key specs and functionality granted by the rebreather itself:
- Unlimited Underwater Breathing – Recycles exhaled air so you need not surface for oxygen
- 120 second Oxygen Supply – Each tank found with the gear provides 120 seconds of respiration before depletion
- Reusable Apparatus – The rebreather gear itself has unlimited uses, only oxygen tanks get consumed
- Special Vision Mask – Grants enhanced visibility and HUD detailing while submerged
- Depth Rating – Allows diving up to 300 meters beneath the surface, well below crush depth
- Oxygen Conservation HUD – Displays remaining oxygen reserves and tank status
- Aids Aquatic Movement – Smoothes swimming and attack animations for more fluid subaqueous play
As these specs show, the rebreather is expert diving apparatus engineered for extreme conditions. Once acquired, the oceans and all their dangers or treasures will be laid bare before you!
Where to Obtain the Coveted Rebreather
Now let’s get to the heart of the matter: locating this critical apparatus so you too can rule the waves!
The rebreather is secreted away in a perilous aquatic cavern along the northern peninsula. locate the sea cave entrance between two streams pouring into the ocean, recognizable by nearby purple marker buoys.
You may need to swim along the coastline while watching cliffs to spot the cavemouth. Encircling ridges make overland travel difficult, so approach via the beach.
Once discovered, equip light sources, food reserves, climbing gear, and potent melee weapons before delving in. The limited visibility twisting corridors ahead crawl with threats that would make a Navy Seal think twice!
Descend gradually through tight tunnels and winding passages. Glow sticks help avoid disorientation in the alien darkness. Pause to map forks using charcoal marks to prevent looping endlessly.
After several claustrophobic minutes squeezed between slime-slicked crags, you will emerge in a vast flooded cavern with a lonely raft at its center. Quickly dart across the still black water—something massive glides in the deeps beneath that floating platform!
Reach the northern grotto wall then locate another wet crevice to crawl through Stalactites bristling from the ceiling make this especially treacherous, so mind your head!
Next climb a steep rock face and skirt around a subterranean cliffside, antes you emerge in the final chamber. Below lies your prize: the rebreather rests beside a mangled body impaled on stone spires. Recover it quickly before the poor soul’s fate becomes your own!
Having secured this artifact, you must safely exit without getting turned around in the midnight maze of tunnels. Studying your glow stick map carefully, retrace your steps exactly until a glow of sunlight appears.
Then just swim for the shimmering surface as you fasten the rebreather over your face, eager to sample its power in the adventures ahead! Just mind gaps behind containing ravenous leviathans…
Oxygen Tank Locations Across the Archipelago
While the rebreather itself has unlimited uses, the oxygen tanks that fuel it spawn separately across the islands. Each tank provides 2 minutes of underwater activity, but once depleted new ones must be scavenged from the depths.
Fortunately, dozens dot the sunken wasteland of debris and structures carpeting the seafloor. Here are some high yield spots worth investigating:
Sunken Cargo Hold
Location: Inside a container ship ruin on the west side of the southern isles
Yield: 4 oxygen tanks
Hazards: Mine traps, merfolk ambushes
Plane Wreckage Field
Location: Scattered across a crashed 747 segmenting near the northwest map corner
Yield: 6-10 oxygen tanks
Hazards: High shark population, extremely low visibility
Research Facility Moon Pool
Location: At the base of a derelict laboratory central column, east of the yacht
Yield: 3 oxygen tanks
Hazards: Defensive turrets, intricate tight spaces
Submarine Pen Grotto
Location: Inside coastal cave behind a damaged submarine pen along eastern cliffs
Yield: 2-3 oxygen tanks
Hazards: High mutant population, disorienting terrain
Be sure to stockpile extra oxygen reserves when possible for extended underwater excursions. However, each new tank slightly increases carried inventory weight, so factor encumbrance limits too before surfacing.
Oxygen tanks cannot be refilled, so efficient use is key until locating the next supply cache. Plan harvest & exploration routes carefully and time usage judiciously!
Surviving the Ocean Floor crucible
Ruling the waves also means contending with ruthless aquatic adversaries. Lurking beneath the placid surface lies a submerged world where only the strong survive.
Sharks
The apex ocean predators, Gray Sharks endlessly patrol hunting for prey. Some specimens may exceed 12 feet and one bite can inflict grievous wound trauma. Their shadowy forms appear suddenly within the gloomy water, attacking instantly in a violent fury before vanishing into the depths.
Sharks are extremely difficult to kill and will ravage the player extremely quickly. Repellent devices can scatter them temporarily, but avoidance and extreme caution in their territory is critical for survival.
Mutants
While most cannibal factions occupy surface encampments, underwater caves and structures have become refuge for outcast mutants unfit for land tribes.
However, submersion has morphed these wretches into deadlier amphibious adversaries. They boast improved mobility in water for stealthy flanks, alongside more resilient skin membranes granting damage resistance.
Keep ears open for their telltale gurgling battle cries echoing within flooded corridors! Maim them quickly before sudden packs converge to overwhelm any lone explorer.
Hostile Merfolk
Not all Sons of the Forest inhabitants dwell upon the islands. Intelligent merfolk tribes dominate reef fortresses and control vital oceanic trade channels. They aggressively defend territory, unleashing coordinated assaults on those invading their aquatic dominion without tribute.
These cunning warriors utilize hit-and-run tactics, surrounding prey while pelting them with toxic urchin sacs or impaling tridents before vanishing into kelp thickets. Even veteran players fear stirring these lurking guardians!
While your rebreather grants free movement through the water, you are far from the most dangerous creature beneath the waves. Be alert for sudden ambushes emerging from the gloomy depths during your adventures. Avoid unnecessary conflict underwater whenever possible by moving prudently.
The oceans allow rapid unseen movement, making escape from losing battles extremely difficult. Choose engagements carefully and always ensure an exit strategy before kicking up silt on the seafloor. Not all who tread these current survive the experience.
Conclusion
Obtaining the rebreather apparatus should be one of your top priorities when spawning on the islands. It utterly revolutionizes aquatic navigation, enabling huge swaths of new resources and environments to scavenge.
Take the steps outlined here to successfully recover it from the treacherous northern cave networks. Just be ready to face tight tunnels claustrophobic enough to drive even legendary Free Divers spare!
Once acquired though, the oceans and all their dangers or treasures will be laid bare before you. Now it merely remains to decide whether to build mighty seabased fortresses…or delve straight into the briny deeps seeking epic sunken loot! Just be wary what you rouse from the abyssal plains during such quests.
The rebreather is my absolute favorite item across countless Sons of the Forest playthroughs. I cannot recommend enough embarking on the dangerous journey to obtain this artifact. Soon you’ll rule the waves unchallenged, able to fully explore towering coral reefs or the most ruined derelict hulks once blocking your path.
Just be sure to watch oxygen gauges and steer clear of converging shark hordes! Even marine titans fear a player equipped with full scuba gear and nerves of steel. Heed my hard-won advice for dominating the oceans, and happy hunting beneath the tides!
