Survive Deep in the Woods Beast Guide

As the Beast — the round's hunter — you start caged and are released after a short countdown, about 10–20 seconds in recorded rounds. From release to sunrise you have one job, straight from the official description: "Hunt down every Farmer before sunrise. Don't let anyone escape." In practice that means reading Farmer footprints through the forest, tapping the seek button for a direction and distance, running Farmers down with repeated hits, and tearing apart the base of anyone who walls themselves in. This guide covers the Beast's full kit, a round plan that respects the sunrise clock, and the Farmer counterplay you have to beat.

Win condition and the sunrise deadline

Farmers win two ways: "The first way is the demon dies. The second way is to survive for 15 minutes." Your deadline is therefore the end of the night. Rounds run on an in-game countdown to morning — one round showed 13 minutes left immediately after spawn, and recorded clocks have been checked at 8, 4, 1.5 and 1 minutes, with rounds decided in the final 20 seconds as Farmers hold out for sunrise. Players describe the night as roughly 15 minutes, so treat the on-screen countdown as the real deadline rather than a fixed number.

Two things make the hunt longer than it looks:

• Each Farmer has two lives. After one Beast's first sweep, all four targets were still standing "because each player gets two lives," and another Beast defeated roughly four Farmers while the counter still read eight. A caught Farmer collapses, the body vanishes into the ground — and that player is back, so you must find and catch them again. An earlier store description said "Get caught twice, and you're gone."; that line was dropped from the description in the 2026-09-04 update, but recorded matches still show the two-catch behavior, so expect two catches per Farmer and recheck after patches.
• Escapes count against you. Farmers build hidden escape-route buildings and leave through them, and the objective explicitly says don't let anyone escape. A target that slips out is a Farmer you can no longer catch before sunrise.

You win by taking every Farmer's second life before the clock hits zero. If you die first — Farmer turrets and ballistas are fully capable of killing you — the round ends with the Farmers winning. Depending on the lobby, the round runs with one Beast or two, which can split the kills you have access to.

The Beast's kit

Hard limits shape every chase: you cannot break trees or leave the winding paths, you cannot jump (Farmers escape by climbing out of reach), and your approach is audible — Farmers report hearing ragged breathing when the Beast is close, so don't count on surprising an alert target.

A round plan that respects the clock

1. Push the closest zone the moment you're released. The forest map has four zones — two green, red and yellow. Farmers found late have "already develop[ed] strongly" with turrets and fences that "cannot be beaten," so the opening minutes are your best window. Your base speed is low, so start with the nearest zone rather than crossing the map.
2. Sweep corners and deep tree cover. Farmers hide deep between the trees or in map corners. Chase runners into dead ends — a cornered Farmer has nowhere to spend their escape sprint.
3. Alternate footprints and seek. Follow steps and the paths between forest blocks; when a trail fades, press seek, run toward the readout, and press it again after each miss. It works at long range (one readout showed the nearest player 500 m away), so use it to decide whether a target is worth the walk. One Beast expected to unlock a faster "spy on players" tool later in the round, but treat that as his expectation, not a confirmed upgrade.
4. Finish the chase properly. Wait for stamina to restore, spend super speed to close the gap, land repeated hits, and use Q to secure the takedown. Remember the catch doesn't stick — the Farmer is still alive on their second life, so re-track them immediately.
5. Crack fortified bases in order. Break ballistas first so they stop shooting — one Beast tore down three before touching anything else — then wreck the farms to cut their income, since losing the gold engine is what Farmers fear most. Golden fences and gates are the toughest layers you'll meet; spend super speed on surviving the ballista push, not on chewing fences.
6. Disengage to heal, then switch targets. If a base melts your health, run into the forest and wait — "We will not fight these ballistas. We will really look for him in some other place." Come back healed, or hunt a softer target while the clock still allows it.
7. Guard the clock and the escapes. Don't open a new siege in the last minute or two. Destroy escape-route buildings when you find them, and drop chases you can't finish — time wasted late in the round on a Farmer who has already left is how the sunrise beats you.

The Farmer counterplay to expect

• A second life on every catch — plan your route back to the same target instead of assuming the kill registered.
• Panic sprint — when you damage a Farmer, they automatically sprint without using stamina, so a wounded target can outlast your stamina bar. Corner them or use super speed rather than just tagging and trailing.
• Decoys — Farmers place a fake chicken coop "so that the beast sees it and leaves" and hide the real base behind it. A lone, undefended coop can be bait; check the surroundings before committing.
• Silence — hiding Farmers deliberately make no sound, so you cannot rely on hearing a still target. That's exactly what footprints and seek are for.
• Climbing — they will climb where you can't follow, because the Beast can't jump. Catch runners in the open before they reach high ground.
• Turret stacks — grouped Farmers pool guns and win whole rounds behind them. Either crack a stack early with the ballista-first method, or accept that this Farmer is a race against the clock.
• Escape buildings — hidden routes let a Farmer leave the hunt entirely. Every escape is a win condition you've handed back, not just a missed kill.

Frequent Beast mistakes

• Roaming the forest blind instead of following footprints and pressing seek — the clock punishes wasted minutes harder than any turret.
• Dueling ballistas at half health instead of disengaging to heal first.
• Burning super speed early in a chase and arriving at the kill with an empty stamina bar.
• Treating one catch as an elimination — until the counter drops a second time, that Farmer is still in the round.
• Chasing a target that has already slipped through an escape route.
• Ignoring the sunrise timer while picking off easy targets, then losing to a defended holdout at dawn.

Take one change into your next round as the Beast — the ballista-first base crack or the press-seek-after-every-miss habit are the easiest to adopt. To see the same fight from the other side, the Farmer strategies for defeating the Beast show the defenses you'll be breaking, and the Farmer guide covers the defensive role in full. If you're new to the game's round structure entirely, start with the beginner guide.