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Horizon Forbidden West is a massive, sprawling, open-world adventure that once again puts players in the shoes of the flame-haired heroine, Aloy. Now a seasoned warrior and famed hero, Aloy must continue her journey to save the planet by traveling to new lands in search of a cure for the blight that ails her home.
As with any sequel, Horizon Forbidden West offers a host of new weapons and mechanics for Aloy to equip, many of which serve as improvements over the previous game's systems. But there are a few things every player should do immediately to have the best possible time while traveling through the Forbidden West.
Updated March 1, 2023, by Sophie McEvoy: Aloy’s adventures are set to continue in Horizon Forbidden West, as Guerilla Games has announced the game’s first expansion – Burning Shores. Like Zero Dawn, the DLC introduces a brand new area to explore with new characters, enemies, and places to explore – this time in a volcanic Los Angeles featuring landmarks that players will be very familiar with. But if players aren’t entirely sure where to start with their playthrough of the original game, these are the most important things to do as soon as they start Horizon Forbidden West, including gameplay mechanics and new abilities that Aloy can use to her advantage.
13 Get Familiar With New Gameplay Mechanics
Aloy can traverse pretty much anywhere in the Forbidden West with little to no limitations. In Zero Dawn, the player could only climb specific paths marked by yellow ropes and posts. Now, any surface is climbable so long as it’s marked by glowing lines shown through Aloy’s Focus. The Nora Huntress can also wall jump and grapple to different points using the Pullcaster. These new gameplay mechanics can be a lot to take in, but there are story and plot points throughout the first hours of the game that introduce the new tools at Aloy’s disposal.
Aloy can now swim underwater, revealing an entirely new and detailed world. The player’s exploration is limited at the beginning due to how long Aloy can hold her breath, but this is rectified with a tool later on in the game. But it’s still a mechanic worth getting used to later on, particularly as the Focus now features a sonar pulse to help find things while swimming.
12 Loot All The Chests
Aside from scavenging resources from the wild and machines, looting chests, caches, and supply boxes around early on is a must. They are littered throughout The Daunt and offer a variety of essential items, including potions, shards, and ammo. If players are fortunate enough, they’ll find boxes containing valuable machine parts, weapons, and outfits.
It’s worth checking every loot box Aloy comes across, which can be seen through her Focus. However, some are hidden behind obstacles like Firegleam and Metal Flowers that players must return to later. There are also loot boxes hidden within certain quests, as well as the first Relic Ruin Aloy will find south of Chainscrape.
11 Participate In The Melee Pit Challenges
Another new gameplay mechanic in Forbidden West is melee combat. Melee pits can be found across the map, where Aloy can hone and test her skills with her spear. This includes combinations that increase her melee damage to fully take advantage of the new mechanic, like jumping off opponents, combining arrow and spear combat, and charging Aloy’s new Resonator Blast ability.
There are lots of melee combos to learn, which can only be taught in melee pits – the first being in Chainscrape. Players should do this as soon as they arrive in the settlement, so they can get the hang of the controls.
10 Look Through The Skill Trees
Horizon Forbidden West sports some noticeable upgrades from Horizon Zero Dawn, including a revamped skill system that provides more in-depth character customization. Each skill tree is named after a specific character class like Warrior or Hunter, and the skills within support this particular playstyle.
The trees feature different types of upgrades as well, from passive benefits to various systems to weapon abilities that offer enhanced ways of engaging with enemies. One of the best things players can do when first starting out is to take the time to look through each skill tree and figure out whether they want to spread Aloy’s skills out over a few or settle with one specific playstyle like the stealthy Infiltrator path or the melee-focused Warrior tree.
9 Play With Photo Mode
Horizon Forbidden West is one of the most visually stunning games to ever exist, and its photo mode allows players to take as many gorgeous (or ridiculous) pictures as they want. There are a lot of settings to dig into with the photo mode, so it's worthwhile to spend some time experimenting with the different editing features as you start the game.
There are some standard controls like adjusting the camera and altering the color, but there are also some more detailed-oriented systems that can help create the best possible photo. Players can adjust the time of day and the specific camera lens, and even reposition Aloy using a variety of poses and facial expressions.
8 Scan Machines
Aloy's Focus device allows her to layer a heads-up display over her surroundings, providing crucial information on everything from the people she meets to the machines she hunts. Scanning these machines is a pivotal part of Horizon Forbidden West's progression loop and is vital to earning the game's one missable trophy.
Once scanned, enemies can be tagged for easy tracking. Players can even highlight specific parts of the machines, which makes it easier to detach valuable resources or take out powerful weapons. All info on scanned machines gets stored in the Notebook section of the menu, allowing for easy access outside of battle.
7 Upgrade Gear
Horizon Forbidden West introduces a ton of new progression options for Aloy, including the ability to enhance her weapons and armor using machine parts. These pieces of gear now come with intrinsic buffs to Aloy's skills, and upgrading the gear increases the potency of these buffs.
While Aloy does get more health every time she levels up, her defensive and offensive capabilities don't automatically grow at each new level. The only way to increase her power and resistance is to find stronger gear or upgrade what's already available. The strongest pieces of equipment won't appear until much later in the game, so it's worthwhile to invest in upgrading Aloy's starting set. However, players don’t necessarily need to do this with every single weapon and outfit they come across – just the ones that fit their needs and overall playstyle as upgrading can waste valuable resources.
6 Scavenge Resources
Crafting is one of the most frequently used systems in Horizon Forbidden West, much like in the first game. Every weapon type uses a different form of ammo, and the ability to craft arrows, bolts, bombs, and spikes on the fly is crucial to taking down the game's toughest enemies.
Take the time to pick up the various resources needed to craft this ammunition, as there's really no limit on how much of any particular item Aloy can store thanks to the new Stash feature. There's no downside to having an abundance of something, and stocking up now can mean the difference between claiming victory and suffering a humiliating defeat.
5 Override A Mount
Horizon Forbidden West is massive, spanning countless miles of beautiful vistas and picturesque landscapes. While Aloy is definitely an incredible athlete, she moves a little too slow to get around the game's colossal world on foot. That's where overriding a machine to serve as a mount comes in.
Most of the machines in Horizon Forbidden West can be overridden to fight alongside Aloy, but a select few can also serve as a trusty steed to ferry her from place to place. The Charger is the first of these machines Aloy will be able to override, so it should be high on every player's list of priorities to go out and snag one.
4 Explore The Daunt
Many games set their tutorial area up as a simple location that players can quickly tear through once they've figured out how that game works. Horizon Forbidden West goes in the opposite direction, establishing the game's opening area as a full-fledged part of the larger map.
There are quite a few different side quests, merchants with new gear available, hidden locations with rare collectibles, and even a few walled-off passages that players can't unlock until later in the game. There's plenty to do in the Daunt, and every player should take the time to explore it thoroughly before heading out into the Forbidden West.
3 Buy New Weapons
While the starting Hunter Bow is a reliable and intuitive tool for any starting hunter, it won't do much good against the tougher machines Aloy will encounter on her journey. Once Aloy has resolved the work stoppage in the town of Chainscrape, the weapons merchant there will have a few different weapons to offer.
Each weapon has its own offensive capabilities, and having a variety on hand can make taking down larger machines significantly easier. Elemental bows can ignite canisters on machines to create large, high-damage explosions, while other weapons like slings and tripcasters can quickly trigger a machine's elemental limit.
2 Choose Resolution Or Performance Mode
When playing on the PlayStation 5, Horizon Forbidden West has two different modes that affect how the game is played. Performance mode runs the game at a dazzling 60 frames-per-second at a reduced resolution, while Resolution mode shines in stunning 4K at 30 frames-per-second.
Both modes have their advantages and disadvantages, so it comes down to the player's preference on how they want to play the game. The modes can be switched at any time without having to restart the game, but it's worthwhile to figure out early which one feels better.
1 Hunt Wildlife
Horizon Forbidden West is stuffed with a variety of traps, resources, potions, and types of ammo, but Aloy can only hold so many of each item before she runs out of space. There are inventory upgrades she can craft, but those recipes require animal parts to complete.
Hunting animals is fairly easy, but finding them can be a bit more challenging. It can get downright frustrating when that animal doesn't have the needed part. Taking the time to hunt a variety of different wildlife creatures to stock up on animal parts will make upgrading those inventory pouches much easier down the line.
Horizon Forbidden West is available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.