Building

Building is a gameplay mechanic allowing the player to construct objects such as fires and shelters using accessible materials.

To build structures, open the Survival Guide by pressing. After selecting a structure, the player can designate where to place the blueprint. While designating the position of the blueprint, use  to rotate and the use button (  by default) to place it. When building a custom structure, place the first point by pressing  and remove the last point by pressing. After the blueprint is placed, materials must be assigned to construct the object.

Some structures require the blueprint to be placed and then modified prior to having materials assigned, such as creating a gate on a Defensive Wall.

A blueprint may be deconstructed at any point prior to having all materials assigned to it. Although pressing and holding  will erase the blueprint and recover approximately half of the assigned materials, some are non-recoverable, such as turtle shells, leaves, and pots.

Most damaged structures may be repaired using a crafted Repair Tool or Sap. Some custom structures may require additional materials to repair, such as the Custom Foundation.

Fires
Fires may be used to cook meat, stews, boil polluted water with a pot, provide warmth, provide a light source, and/or to protect against or attract cannibals and mutants. They can be fueled with leaves and cash which extends their burn length. They can be difficult to maintain when it is raining. Fires will also damage players if they walk into them with the exception of the standing fire. Fires can be used to burn dead cannibals for bones & skulls. If heads are cooked, they’ll turn into skulls. If arms or legs are cooked for too long, they’ll turn into a bone. There are some fires located in caves that the player can utilize. Fires can be lit with the lighter, molotovs, lit tennis balls and fire arrows. They can also be lit by a leaf pile trap if it is placed on or in a fire. When lit, the leaf pile trap will cause a chain reaction and light the fires at the same time. Fire Thrower Cannibals fire attack can also light fires.

There are four different types of fires currently exist within the game:

Shelters
Shelters are one of the most important buildings in all of The Forest game. They are used for sleep which restores energy, and also for saving your progress. All shelters come with a house overlay icon which marks its location, it can be seen anywhere in the game world. This is advantageous to the player when adventuring, so they can always find their way home. The player can press  on this icon to change its color, or change it to a white color to switch the icon off. Most of the shelters protect against rain and keep players warm during the night. Like most of other buildings, shelters can be destroyed by cannibals and mutants. Currently there are six kinds of shelters. Two are listed under elevated structures, being the Tree House and Alpine Tree House, which both require a tree to attach to.

Here are the four standard shelters that can be built:

Food and Water
These buildings will provide ways to collect and store food and water, though mostly food. Very useful and cheap to build resource-wise. Their pages contain more information:

Storage Structures
Storage structures are great way how to keep your backpack free of resources, or important items like food, weapons, medicine, etc. Currently there are eight kinds of these structures: (In newer updates of The Forest the Snack Bar and the Medicine Cabinet can hold the same items in 1. E.g. Snacks can go into medicine cabinet and Meds can go into snack bar. They just become Small Cabinet (medicine cabinet) and Large Cabinet (snack bar) in your handbook.

Custom Buildings
Custom buildings give the player the creative freedom to build almost everything, from tiny wooden houses to gigantic fortresses. To improve your own creative shelters. Most of these buildings that can be stretched diagonally, when you do so, it often leaves an invisible portion of the structure stretched out further than you can't see, blocking movement. These buildings allow the most creative freedom of all the buildings in the game:

Elevated Structures
Elevated Structures are buildable structures that mostly can be built and attached to certain trees. Some structures like the Tree Bridge can be attached to platforms though. The Tree House and Alpine Tree House can be used as shelters to save and sleep. Keep in mind that an Armsy can knock down trees, they spawn after day 7. Even with building destruction mode switched off, they can still knock trees down. These are very safe from cannibals and other mutants.

Basic Structures
If the shelters above don't suit you, a custom one can be created using the following components in a way that does:

Utility Structures
Utility Structures are structures that serve and be used to benefit the player:

Furniture
Furniture is used for decoration of your base/shelter/house, though some furniture buildings have practical uses aside from decorating. There are many pieces of furniture that you can build:

Decorations
As the title implies, most of these constructions are for decorative purposes only, although some of them may provides benefits like lamps, weapon racks or planters. There are many types of decorations that you can build:

Small Traps
Small Traps are used to catch wild animals and get food easier, or to fight off mutants and cannibals.

Advanced Traps
Advanced Traps are used to kill mutants and cannibals. They are more difficult to use and all have their strengths and weaknesses depending on the given situation.

Defensive Structures
Defensive Structures are built by players to assist in preventing cannibals and mutants from entering their bases and causing them harm, however these buildings can be destroyed. Defensive Structures are found in the Survival Guide and can consist of, the Defensive Spikes, Defensive Wall, Defensive Wall Reinforcement and the Catapult. The Catapult is especially different because it is more of an offensive building and can even be used as storage. Defensive structures can also include rock walls, stick fences, and bone fences. Though here is a list of specific defensive structures:

Boats
Boats can be used to travel the waters quickly, to move materials, to be a mobile base, to avoid cannibals, mutants, crocodiles, sharks, and to aid the player in fishing more easily. They can be used when building a base on an island, since most storage buildings can be placed on them allowing for greater movement of needed materials. There are currently three different kinds of boats that the player is able to build: the Small Raft, the Large Raft (Requires two players to operate properly) and the House Boat. The three are similar, but still have their own pros and cons. Many useful structures can be built on boats, including storage containers, campfires, and skull lamps. The dock also comes under boats, though it is stationary and not actually a boat. Here is the list on boat type buildings:

Effigies
These constructions are only available once a players sanity has dropped to 90% or below. They are intended to scare cannibals, causing them to hang back or flee. To build them, you will need body parts from dead enemies or enemy effigies. These are extremely unpredictable as to how they work. It is believed that cannibals will be scared of them providing you haven't created too much hostilities with them. Does not work on mutants. So far there are 4 types:

Schematic Buildings
These buildings require the schematics to be found first to be able to build them. Once the schematic is found, they can be built from the survival guide in the story item section, this is where the schematics are placed.

Special
There is only one special building in the game currently, and that is the SOS signal. The SOS signal is found on its own page.

End Game Buildings
End game buildings are buildings that are unlocked at the ending, if you pick the ending that allows you to continue playing. The SOS signal is found on its own page. Family buildings are unique buildings that only appear after a certain choice is made at the end of the game.

Unobtainable
These structures are unimplemented, removed or merged with other buildings in the game.