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How Does The Forest End? Both Endings Explained

The Forest ends with Eric choosing whether to use the artifact to revive Timmy at a terrible cost or shut it down and return to island survival.
Length3 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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Spoilers for The Forest. Assuming you mean Endnight Games’ survival-horror game, its ending turns on Eric’s choice at the artifact: use it to bring down a plane in an attempt to revive Timmy, or shut it down and leave Timmy dead. The first route revives Timmy but ends with signs that his ordeal is not over; the second lets the plane pass and returns Eric to survival on the island.

How does The Forest end?

After following the island’s caves and reaching the Sahara laboratory, Eric learns how the artifact and the facility’s experiments connect to the missing children. At the final choice, activating the artifact brings down a passing plane. Eric then uses a child from that plane as the live specimen needed to revive Timmy, and the story continues into a talk-show epilogue. This sequence is recounted on The Forest Wiki’s Story page.

The ending gives Eric what he set out to do, but it is not an uncomplicated happy resolution. Later footage shows Timmy alive as an adult, looking at a map marked “Site 2” and experiencing strange movement or lumps beneath his skin. The Timmy character reference describes him as struggling with this condition in the post-credits scene. The sequence suggests a continuing mutation problem; it does not establish a precise medical explanation or prove exactly what caused it.

What is the other ending?

Eric can shut down the artifact instead of activating it. The plane passes safely, Timmy is not revived, and Eric burns Timmy’s photograph. The game then returns to ordinary island survival rather than continuing into the plane-crash route’s epilogue. The Story page calls this the alternate, non-canon ending, but that label is the reference page’s characterization—not a confirmed statement of developer intent.

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#1 Best Overall
Werewolf The Apocalypse: Heart of the Forest - Nintendo Switch
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The choices resolve different parts of Eric’s dilemma: activating the artifact gives him a chance to bring Timmy back at the cost of another child’s life and the danger to the plane; shutting it down avoids that crash but means accepting Timmy’s death.

How the two endings compare

Choice What Eric does Plane and passengers Timmy What follows
Activate the artifact Uses the artifact to bring down a plane and obtain a live specimen. The plane is brought down; a child from it is used in the attempt. Revived, then shown later with signs of a continuing mutation problem. The story proceeds to the talk-show epilogue and later Timmy scenes.
Shut down the artifact Stops the artifact rather than using it. The plane passes safely. Not revived; Eric burns his photograph. Play returns to island survival instead of the main route’s epilogue.

Why does the Site 2 scene matter?

The “Site 2” map and Timmy’s symptoms connect the ending to Sons of the Forest. Its story summary says Eric and Timmy, survivors of the Site 1 incident, go to Site 2 seeking a cure for Timmy’s uncontrolled mutations. That supports reading the post-credits footage as a setup for the sequel, although it does not, by itself, settle the exact intended meaning of every detail in the first game’s ending. See the Sons of the Forest story summary.

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Is the alternate ending canon?

The Forest Wiki labels the shutdown route non-canon, while the plane-crash route leads into the epilogue and sequel-related story setup. Because the available source for that label is a community-maintained reference rather than a developer statement, it is more precise to say that the reference treats the shutdown route as non-canon—not that official authorial intent has been confirmed.

Quick Recap

Bestseller No. 1
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Visit real-world places of mystery and power.; Witness how nature clashes with technology and greed.
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Ori: The Collection - Nintendo Switch
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Play 2 beloved and critically acclaimed masterpieces; Experience the complete journey of Ori
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