10 Horizon Forbidden West tips for hunting, exploring, and crafting

Having some Horizon Forbidden West tips to hand will give you a head start when you start exploring the world, as you'll know what to look for from the beginning and be at least somewhat prepared when you start encountering the roaming hostile machines. There are plenty of different systems to understand in Horizon Forbidden West, whether they're for hunting, crafting, or reaching new areas, so the faster you can learn them the better time you're going to have. There's a lot that the game doesn't explain in detail, leaving you to work things out for yourself, from discovering puzzle solutions to finding specific robot weaknesses to exploit. We're here to help speed that process up, so follow these Horizon Forbidden West tips to gain some instant knowledge. 

1. Scan enemies and plan attacks before starting a fight

Aloy needs to understand what she's fighting before going in for the kill. The best thing you can do before a fight is hide in some grass and use your Focus to scan enemies, tag them, and flick through components and weaknesses. Maybe they have a dangerous turret you want to destroy as soon as possible, a battery that'll explode when hit by the right kind of arrow, or a valuable crafting component that needs to be broken off before you kill it. 

Once you know what you're dealing with, you can fight more effectively, choosing the right elemental attacks and tagging weak spots in an opponent's armor. Make sure you have a complete understanding of the enemy before you confront them, or things could be a lot more tricky.

2. Play stealthily and ranged for as long as possible

Aloy's spear isn't a great weapon, and even a lot of upgrades, skills, and spec choices towards melee combat aren't ever going to make it more than a back-up. But that's not a problem with all the traps, ranged gear, special abilities, and sneaking skills you're packing. 

Once you pick a target, your aim should be to do as much damage as possible before being found - lay traps, go for sneak attacks and do everything you can to keep the enemy at range for as long as possible. Even when they find you, keep a healthy distance and use your bows, shredders and blastslings. Enemies will usually try to close the gap, and you want to do everything possible to prevent that - pin them in place with ropes, knock them down with heavy attacks, or just use your grapple hook to get out of there fast. 

3. Keep a range of elemental options on you to deal extra damage

You always want a wide selection of elemental resources, not just for building new weapons but for crafting ammo on the fly. Exploiting the elemental weaknesses of the various enemies you encounter is important, so having what you need to make Acid or Plasma projectiles could save your life - enemies that take one kind of damage without flinching, might only take a couple of shots from the right effect to kill. You can easily swap out your loadout at anytime so don't sell weapons too fast, in case you accidentally end up without something you need. 

4. Grab all the loot you can, all the time, even if your pack is full

Gathering is important so make sure you grab every available resource for crafting components, as you will need them eventually. The most obvious of these is medicinal plants, which are scattered all over the game world but nonetheless are always vital - making a habit of scooping these up along the way will give you a large buffer to work with in the next boss fight, bandit camp, or big encounter. Anything you can't carry automatically goes to a magical stash that keeps everything, and can be used up at bases to restock later.

5. Headshots aren't a guaranteed kill, even on basic enemies

Damage done to a human head or robot eyepiece is definitely a lot higher than normal, but you'll need a powerful bow to make the most out of the shot and it's rarely an instant kill. There's also the issue of armor - if a human enemy is wearing a helmet or mask and you go for a headshot, hitting the helmet will do very little damage. It will probably just break the helmet off, if your weapon has a good tear effect, leaving them vulnerable for a follow-up. Still, some helmets only cover the front of the head, so you can always try and line up a shot to the back of the skull for that quick, silent kill.

6. You won't be able to reach everywhere without certain gear or items

The whole map is available to Aloy early on but that doesn't mean you can explore anywhere straight away. There are a number of things like the Horizon Forbidden West red crystal growths or Horizon Forbidden West Metal Flowers blocking your way, or just points of interest too far beneath the water or high up to safely reach. All of these will need something special you'll have to unlock first. 

You're not failing some puzzle to crack these things - all these and more are specifically gated off until certain points in the story, where Aloy will get special, unique items that allow her to handle these issues. Exploring is always good to do at any point, but if you're starting to get annoyed by barriers in your way, try following the main quest for a while to see if more options open up for you.

7. Use Tallnecks and exploration to find opportunities for upgrades

When you're entering an area for the first time, finding and accessing Horizon Forbidden West Tallnecks should be your first priority - if you can reach the top of its head, you can override it and gain information on that area of the map. 

Otherwise, make sure to explore and study new things as you travel. There's a lot to find in Horizon Forbidden West and a lot of it is very helpful, unlocking optional new abilities. For example, the Horizon Forbidden West Cauldrons spread across the map will each allow you to control new machines, as well as offering a healthy dose of experience for completing them. Or just knowing where to find certain enemies can be very helpful if you're looking for specific pieces to buy better weapons.

8. Try to always have a hunter bow with standard arrows

A mistake many players make once they have some shards to spend, is to buy some complicated weapon with five flavours of elemental damage to switch between, pawning or storing your starting bow to make room.

However, standard arrows do plenty of damage and are incredibly easy and cheap to craft. While elemental arrows have clear advantages in specific situations, use nothing but them and it won't be long before you run out of resources. Regular arrows might not be sexy, but they are very dependable and accessible. You absolutely should replace your hunter bow for better versions, but look for ones that also have a standard arrow option alongside all the other cool features.

9. Turrets are lethal game-changers in any fight

Every now and then you'll come across turrets and they're always worth getting because they are ridiculously powerful. You'll sacrifice speed and mobility but in return be able to mow down hordes of enemies or do big damage to bosses - punching holes in armor and shredding health bars. 

And, obviously, this works both ways - an enemy with a turret is a real threat capable of killing Aloy incredibly quickly. Try to either shoot whatever human's operating the mounted turret or break them off the machine that's wearing them as soon as possible. That way not only can they not shoot you with it, but it's yours to grab and use on whoever's left. Win-win! Except for those who get shot with a turret.

10. Always grab Greenshine when you see it 

Horizon Forbidden West Greenshine is a crystal you'll find all throughout the game. A fair amount can be found out in the open but a lot is also behind rocks you can pry open, or behind Metal Flowers and Firegleam to be accessed when you have the right tools, when you have the right upgrade, and in deep Sunkern Caverns you'll need the Horizon Forbidden West Diving Mask for. It's always worth getting for two reasons. Firstly it's an important upgrade resource, usually gatekeeping the high end levels of you weapons and gear. It can also be used to buy rare machine parts from merchants that are also needed for upgrades, saying you the trouble of hunting down dangerous machines yourself.