Effigy

Effigies are bizarre constructions made of sticks, rocks and body parts. All effigies must be completed and set on fire to have an effect on cannibals, unlit effigies have no effect.

Gameplay
The player can start building them by selecting one of the four from the bloody effigies tab in the survival guide but only if the sanity level of the player drops below 90%. They consist of body parts from the cannibals (heads, torsos, arms, and legs) as well as some sticks and rocks.

No matter which cannibal is dismembered and used, the effigy will always sport tribal male cannibal body parts.

Effects
Their main purpose is to cause fear in cannibals and keep them away from the player, similar to how red paint works. How cannibals react to a player with red paint on is almost exactly the same as how they react with effigies. It will cause most cannibals to fear the player and avoid them, though there are a few that will still attack the player. The reason for this is actually done on purpose by the developers. The developers placed ‘fuzziness’ to the coding into the game, that causes some cannibals to ignore the standard AI rules. The reason for doing this is to prevent players learning and figuring out cannibal behavior. The developers want to keep their behavior a secret to add immersion to the game. Though this is up to the player if they find effigies worth it or not, most players find them too inconsistent.

Building an effigy won't stop the cannibals from attacking, they may approach a burning effigy with caution or run away from it or even ignore the effigy. If the player approaches the cannibals, they will often attack the player with complete disregard for the effigy as approaching cannibals is deemed as an act of aggression.

When the developers were asked about aggression of AI they stated: ''We don't want to spell out exactly how the ai works, but for aggression there are lots of different triggers that can affect how they behave. Getting too close, killing females in front of male members and being in certain parts of the map can all change how aggressive they are. And there is always some 'fuzziness' built into the AI, so they don't always do the same thing each time.'' As the developers have added fuzziness to the AI, this would explain why cannibals sometimes ignore effigies.

Here are the comments by the developers on the effects of effigies:

Effigy Types
There are four effigy types that the player can build.

Small Effigy
A Small Effigy is the lower costing re-ignitable effigy that was added in update v0.01 of The Forest. It is the cheaper effigy that the player can build, it only requires 3 dead cannibals.

It consists in a K-shaped structure of sticks with three heads impaled on one of the upper sticks, three arms in the other and two legs in the K center. The effigy is attached to the floor with three rocks. This K-shaped structure is also used in arm effigies.

Large Effigy
Large effigies, also known as Big Effigies, are higher costing re-ignitable effigies that were added in update v0.01 of The Forest. It can be used as a decoration. Large effigies are the most expensive effigies a player can build. It lasts for five times longer than any other effigy in the game, being both a great long lasting light source and CAN deter cannibals. It can be re-lit after it has expired. It burns for 10 minutes before collapsing into bones and skulls.

Arm Effigy
Arm effigies are effigies consisting mostly of arms, they were added in update v0.03 of The Forest. It consists of a K-shaped structure of sticks with seven arms impaled on the top. The effigy is attached to the floor with three rocks. This K-shaped structure is also used in small effigies. It lasts for two minutes, the same as small effigies. Once the effigy burns out, it will break, and drop a random amount of sticks, bones, and rocks. It resembles in some way octopus mutants. It takes one more kill to build this than a small effigy being small effigies re-ignitable.

Custom Effigy
The Custom Effigy is a custom variant of effigies that the player can customize, they were added in update v0.25 of The Forest.

A Custom Effigy can be the most simple or advanced Effigy in the game. Once crafted you can add to it, making it more effective. The more that is attached to the custom effigy, the more effective it CAN be. Custom effigies can be used as decorations as they can have a lot of customization features. Custom effigies replaced simple effigies in update v0.25. Simple effigies were essentially just a head on a stick. The following items can be be used in the custom effigy: Arm Bone Head Leg Rock Skull Stick Torso