Find some great Horizon Zero Dawn tips and tricks to help you on your journey as you embark on an epic adventure. Read the Horizon Zero Dawn review to discover why Guerrilla Games new IP breathes new life into the RPG genre, prepare to step into the boots of Aloy and take on the bandits and mechanical beasts across the post-apocalyptic lands.
Learn how to level up and gain XP faster, get ahead with effective combat strategies and find out more about strengths and weaknesses of Horizon Until Dawn weapons.
Foraging and resource gathering
Foraging and gathering resources is a crucial part of survival. As well as topping up your medicine pouch, collect plants and all types of material in order to craft items that will help you on your journey. Here’s some tips:
1. Pick up everything that you see. All resources are useful, allowing you to craft potions, ammo and trade in for better weapons, outfits and other useful.
2. Ridge-Wood is a vital resource. The best spots for farming Ridge Wood can be found alongside river beds on either side of the water.
3. Your medicine pouch is a lifeline during battle, especially if you run out of health potions. Keep it topped up by collecting medicinal salvebrush which can be found almost everywhere. There’s also a useful skill you can unlock with skill points which allows you to take medicine more quickly with a tap of up on the directional button.
4. At settlements and after clearing out bandit camps, use this safe opportunity to search the area thoroughly to find packs full of items and resources.
5. Your inventory will soon get full. Focus on increasing the size of your bags early on by collecting those resources which allow you to upgrade. Shoot down wildlife to get essential resources for crafting.
6. Off-load your unwanted resources and old world artefacts at traders to earn metal shards and free up space in your inventory.
7. You’ll be given, and find, plenty of treasure boxes containing multiple items on your journey. Don’t forget to open them, by going to the Inventory tab in the menu.
Combat and Stealth
Learning how to creep around without getting detected is just as vital as learning how to take down enemies in combat. Here’s some tips:
1. Use long grass (red-color) to stay undetected. If you remain totally still in long grass you cannot be seen. This allows you to scope out the area and plan your attack.
2. Use focus frequently. Press R3 and you can tag mechanical creatures or enemies from a long distance by pressing R2. This way you’ll know where all your enemies are and won’t get snuck up on. Tag everything!
3. Use focus to inspect machines to find out their names, their level and their strengths and weaknesses. If you’re level 5 and taking on a level 18 creature, for example, it may be best to avoid confrontation at this point. By inspecting some machines you’ll learn vital information, such as their weakness to fire or other elemental damage. You can then prepare your weapon and ammo accordingly.
4. Use focus and press R1 to tag the path of a roaming enemy. This allows you to see the route they’ll be taking, which means you can then plan to sneak past, attack at the appropriate moment, get into a better position for attack, or set up traps.
5. Use focus to highlight body armor and canisters. These will be the weak spots of creatures. Target these first and you’ll be able to deliver more damage once they’re destroyed.
6. Strip off armour and components quickly by using Tear arrows.
7. Sneak up on smaller predators and execute them with your spear with a stealth attack. Use the long grass to your advantage, and work on unlocking the Silent Strike (Prowler) skill to give you an advantage.
8. When a creature is downed, you’ll have a short amount of time before it gets back to its feet to get up close and ram it with your spear. Keep an eye on its health gauge which regenerates, and make a judgement whether you can make it in time before it gets to its feet. Getting a critical hit on a downed enemy can kill it immediately.
9. Some creatures are susceptible to elemental attacks from fire, ice and shock damage. Shoot them with the relevant weapon repeatedly to fill up the meter above their head for the attack to have maximum effect.
10. Look out for color-coded hints. Canisters on the back of enemies often signal which type of ammo you should use. Use freeze arrows against blue canisters and fire arrows to blast orange canisters.
11. Corruption arrows are very useful! Equip and fire them at creatures when they’re in a group. The infected enemy will then attack the others!
Horizon Zero Dawn update on PS4 Pro
12. You’ll have the opportunity to test out new gadgets you purchase with a tutorial mission. Not only will you earn XP, but it will give you a real insight into how to use bombs, tripwires and other gadgets effectively. Don’t skip the tutorials!
13. Sometimes running away will be the best course of action. If you’re getting overrun, Aloy can easily outrun enemies. Just break the line of sight and head off into the distance. If you’ve overridden a Strider, you’ll easily be able to gallop away!
14. Don’t forget to equip your weapon and outfit modifications. When you find or purchase a coil, check its strengths and don’t forget to slot it in if it’s better than what’s currently equipped.
15. If you wish to focus heavily on combat and stealth, then spend your skill points on the relevant areas of the skill tree. The Prowler and the Brave skillsets will be the way to go!
16. Aloy’s outfits are vitally important. Each outfit has a different strength, and switching outfits depending on the situation can help you overcome a tricky battle. You can buy outfits from traders. They can also be equipped with modifications. Buy one outfit for each major element (Fire, Freeze, Shock), and then slot the proper modifications into each – you can really bolster your defense at times when the game feels too hard.
Travelling tips
1. Light every camp fire you come across. Not only will this save your progress, but if you have any fast travel packs you’ll be able to return to any lit campfire from the map. This will save you valuable time!
2. Override a Strider. The first creature that you’ll be able to override (take control of) is a Strider. Sneak up to them while they’re grazing and you’ll be able to take command and ride them like a horse.
3. Seek out Tallnecks, climb on their backs and reach the top to override them in order to see all vital points in that area clearly marked out on the map.
4. Clear bandit camps to unlock new fast travel locations.
5. Buy the Golden Fast Travel pack from a trader and you’ll have unlimited fast travel for the duration of the game!
6. Buy map packs from traders to unlock collectible locations for items such as Metal Flowers, Vantages and Banuk Figures.
7. Engage in side quests. You’ll learn important parts of the back story, meet great new characters, and have fun. The Hunting Quests are a great way to earn a decent chunk of XP too!
6. Seek out Cauldrons, which you’ll find near mountain regions (marked on world map with a purple mountain). This is how you earn the right to override creatures, though you’ll first have to take on a big boss battle!
Crafting
Crafting is essential in Horizon Zero Dawn. You’ll unlock better weapons and ammo, be able to make potions, craft gadgets and a whole lot more.
1. Craft ammo quickly from your weapon wheel rather than using the main sub-menu. Simply highlight the weapon and hold down X to craft, proving you’ve gathered enough resources.
2. If there’s a particular item you wish to craft, you can set ‘a job’ for the task which will help you track the collection of the resources you need. Press the Square button to track the collection of the resources.
3. Though you’ll be distracted by the mechanized enemies of Horizon Zero Dawn, don’t forget to kill wildlife, like boars, fish and foxes. They’ll give you vital resources for pouch upgrades and crafting health potions.
4. Upgrade pouches as soon as possible, especially the Resources and Ammo pouches, so you can collect more and you’re not caught short during battles.
5. Remember to craft poitions that will offer you some resistance against fire, shock and freeze attacks. You’ll need to gather roots such as Shock Wax root and Fire Kiln root. These potions can make the difference between life and death. could remind folks to craft resistance potions for fire, shock, freeze
Stay tuned for more Horizon Zero Dawn tips and guide videos.