The Forest is an excellent survival-horror game that spans the length, breadth, and underside of an isolated island filled with cannibals. While players have been surviving and even thriving on the island for years since the release of The Forest, there are a number of terrifying enemies that will continually chase players down.
At any opportunity, groups of cannibals or their mutated overlords can chase players down almost anywhere on the island. Players can try to build bases in hidden locations and avoid enemies wherever possible, or they can choose to learn and find the various weapons and means of killing each type of enemy to further their attempts to survive.
The Cannibals
The various tribes and types of cannibals that can be found in The Forest vary in themselves somewhat, but the ways to fight them remain the same. Skinny cannibals, regular ones, painted ones, and even ones that throw firebombs and dynamite can be found on the island. Their health ranges in the extreme from as low as around 40 all the way up to a possible maximum of 165.
Fortunately, the best and quickest way to dispatch any of these remains the same: gaining the modern bow from the chasm cave (cave 7). A much-improved version of the crafted bow, the modern bow is easier to aim and does more damage. Any headshot from the modern bow does enough damage to kill any regular cannibal immediately, making this the best option as close combat with cannibals is incredibly dangerous.
Armsy
An Armsy is a mutant with flailing arms and a tendency for charging at players. It is a dangerous creature that will often roam in certain caves, but can also be found outside of them in groups of cannibals or alone. In the late game, it can even be found alongside other mutants on the outside of the island, in a most dangerous situation.
Armsy can also be taken out with arrows, but it will take several well-placed shots even with the modern bow to take one down. Armsy has 200-300 health and is perilous to approach, the safest way is either to use explosives or Molotov cocktails or to approach it but briefly to set it alight with the hairspray and lighter, doing a great deal of damage each time.
Virginia
Virginia is another mutant, which looks more like a spider with the torso and head of a human. They have slightly less health than an Armsy, ranging from around 175-260. However, they can leap like a spider to close distances extremely quickly, so the best policy is either to try and take them with arrows from the modern bow at a large distance (they have a head to aim for, unlike Armsy) or to use explosives and a Molotov if possible.
Approaching with the hairspray is less advisable, though they don’t have as powerful a swinging melee attack as Armsy, so it can be helpful to charge a Virginia with a chainsaw or other quick-damage melee weapons.
Cowman
This large mutant resembles nothing so much as a ball with legs, it appears mostly humanoid except for sheer size and has a flat health rate of around 200. The speed of their charge attacks and their stamping abilities whenever a player gets too close make them particularly annoying to try and handle. In caves, they are especially difficult to deal with.
The modern bow can work for the Cowman if they are outside and the player can maintain a huge distance, so their charge attacks are rendered ineffective. However, besides this, there are two good ways to deal with this enemy. Cowman is weak to fire, so Molotov or burning arrows will dispatch them quickly. The alternative is to use melee weapons with excellent speed stats, making it easy to dodge close-range Cowman attacks while getting quick-fire hits in as often as possible.
The Worm
One of the rarer creatures to see spawning in The Forest is the worm. This giant creature made up of many small worm-like beings can fly, gather its pieces together into a tower that can slam down on players, and can only be killed by slashing to death each individual piece of the main body when they are split into smaller pieces.
Fortunately, after the initial shock of seeing the worm wears off, there is not much difficulty in killing it. Each worm creature only has about 5hp and with a fast weapon, any player can kill many of them before the beast has a chance to reform for another attack. Players may take some damage but with decent armor, they are unlikely to be killed by the worm.
Megan
The final boss of the game and the most terrifying of all creatures the player can come up against, the mutated Megan, also known as the End Boss, is the most difficult creature to try and handle. With huge ranged spinning attacks as well as devastating charge and leap attacks, it is so difficult to predict the next move. Players have to be prepared with sticky bombs, Molotov cocktails, dynamite, and every other form of weapon they can.
A mixture of these, alongside many arrows from the modern bow as far from Megan as the player can get, is as strong a strategy as can be used. Without plenty of projectile weapons, a fast-paced and strong weapon such as the katana can work, but players should stock up heavily on pills and creepy armor wherever possible before entering the Megan boss fight if they wish to use melee.
The Forest is available on Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4.