Horizon Forbidden West: 10 Tips And Tricks To Help You Get Started

The Horizon games are story-heavy, and while we recommend experiencing the first game to get the full impact of the narrative, you won’t need to play Zero Dawn to understand Forbidden West. Guerrilla offers a summary of key information from the original game to help you get started on your adventures. It absolutely contains spoilers for Aloy’s first journey, though, so if you want to enjoy game one without spoilers, don’t start with the sequel. Forbidden West uses dialogue very well to update players about returning characters, and their relationships with Aloy.

Guerrilla has improved the sound quality of the Focus device, which allows you to see the world around, and there’s even more reason to use it when you play Forbidden West. While you can use a pulse to quickly scan the surrounding environment, your futuristic second vision will be invaluable for helping to highlight areas that are connected to new features. You might find it difficult at first to identify when and where new tools can be used. Your Focus will help you if you need assistance. A scanner may also highlight some rocky surfaces yellow. This indicates that they are safe to climb upon, thanks to new free climbing mechanics. When fighting machines, the Focus is also very useful. While looking for high-tech details on your mechanized foes isn’t exclusive to Forbidden West, the system has been reworked for this game, making it easier to find machine weaknesses in a fight.

Since Forbidden West tries to catch you up on the backstory while getting you up to date with the game’s mechanics, there is a lot of information to take in during the opening hours. Though the helpful hints can sometimes disappear quickly, or new data can push out recently learned information, don’t worry about trying to keep everything in your brain just from memory. You can store everything in the tutorial from basic moves to how to upgrade your armor, in your notebook menu tab. You might want to glance at it from time to time, in order for you to recall an important detail.

The environment’s resources are vital. Now, with auto-stash, it is possible to get more supplies than what you currently have. Additional resources can be sent to storage boxes that you will find at major settlements and shelters. Grab everything that you can. The first game was a great example of how almost everything depends on the ability to find certain machine parts or ingredients. It’s really tough to get through a fight if you’re caught in the middle of a battle without weapon-crafting materials. Forbidden West brings more resources and new methods to make them available. Gathering top-quality ingredients and bringing them to the world’s best chefs will net you a hearty meal and valuable stat boosts. You can customize your look by delivering dye components to merchants.

Guerrilla is working to improve the quality and quantity of the side content. Please take a look at the NPC that hails you from the market before passing it by. It is not always easy to see the important details, but it can be found in unexpected characters. There is a powerful new weapon, for example, that you can pick up fairly early in the game if you stop to chat with the right tinkerers, but the game won’t call this out directly. You’ll also find people dotted throughout the world who will give you information on locations to explore, fresh activities, and narrative-focused side quests. Don’t miss out on Forbidden West’s new in-universe strategy game, Machine Strike, or the challenge of the fight pits just because you failed to chat with the game’s denizens.

This skill tree, which is divided into six categories, is designed to adapt to different play styles. You might prefer to stealthily move into cover and then kill, so the Infiltrator category is best. However, melee-focused players need to put points in their Warrior skills. However, with the introduction of Valor Surges, there’s a little more strategy to spending your hard-earned experience than just leveling up what skills you like. You’ll get access to these powerful moves automatically, but only after unlocking three abilities that touch it. So, you’ll want to look carefully through the six categories, noting what the Valor Surges in each section do, before charting your path forward. Some skills can also be used to perform other activities around the globe. For example, you’ll need to unlock the first two combos in the Warrior skill tree to advance through the ranks of the fighting pits.

So, you’ve finally got time to haggle with the merchants, and those metal shards are burning a hole in your pocket. But don’t snap all those tempting wares up at once! You can use metal shards as both currency to purchase items or to upgrade your resource-upgrading gear. Early in the game, it’s tough to gather enough shards and other necessary machine parts to buy and level up everything, so be selective. That shiny new bow that has similar properties to your starting weapon might not seem like such a good deal when you can’t afford more diverse weapons or traps later on. Remember that merchants will often have different items from the one you came across. You should always inspect your inventory to ensure you have the most diverse weapon options and damage options possible.

Forbidden West allows you to fast travel from any campfire, once you have a world open up. All you need to do is visit a location or campfire, and you’ll be able to travel there in the future. So, if you see a campfire on your journey, it’s worthwhile to head in that direction. You don’t need to light it for the fire to become part of your traversal network; just get close enough to it to prompt the message that you’ve discovered it. These are useful for quick trips. You can use these consumable items no matter where you are to travel to a fire or settlement, which comes in handy if you haven’t seen a fire for a while. Keep a few of these packs on hand; you won’t regret it. However, if you just want to take your time wandering the beautiful landscape, we can’t blame you.

Although the sequel makes it easy to travel fast, there are still places you need to look before you can teleport. Jumping on a mounted as quickly as possible will speed up the process. You can access your robotic horse by the game steering you beyond machines you know how to overcome early in the game. You also get the ability to summon your mount once you tame one, so it’s safe to wander off and call the mechanized creature back when you need it. But you probably won’t be sticking with the same steed for long, as the game has more mount options than ever before. Head to the machine catalog in your menu, and you’ll find each ridable machine has a hoofprint mark next to it, making it easy to know which robots to look for in the future.

Although the original game revolved around the gold path, the sequel urges you to often take the yellow brick road. Many activities offer perks or ways to diversify the gameplay. There are side activities, which allow Aloy to overlay an ancient image onto the current site. It’s not essential to the narrative, but viewing the destruction highlights the stakes of Aloy’s adventure. If you’re looking for puzzles to solve, delving after relics in old ruins will scratch that itch, and picking up a machine-hunting contract will point you towards useful parts. Forbidden West uses the connections established in Zero Dawn to create narratively rich side quests that are based on old friends.