Beginner's Guide - Basics and Features - Horizon Forbidden West Guide - IGN (2024)

Horizon Forbidden West is an action RPG for the PS4 and PS5 and is a sequel to 2017 PS4 game Horizon Zero Dawn. This Horizon Forbidden West beginner's guide answers common questions about the story, basic mechanics like combat, damage types, quest types, how to save, how to use your stash, and more.

Horizon Forbidden West Story

The story of Horizon Forbidden West picks up immediately after the events of Horizon Zero Dawn and The Frozen Wilds DLC, and so contains spoilers for the first game. In a post-post apocalyptic world in which the biosphere is finally healing from a biomatter-consuming warmachine plague, the once-outcast turned hero Aloy must once again investigate and solve a looming disaster. She searches for a backup of the terraforming system GAIA to heal the world of a mysterious blight. Her dangerous journey takes her far into the Forbidden West, populated by rogue machines and hostile tribes.

If you need a refresher, we recommend watching the Story So Far video above. Horizon Forbidden West provides a quick recap when you first start the game, but we didn’t find this sufficient. You can also read the bios of each character encountered in Forbidden West for more details about their past, or check out our Characters hub.

Difficulty Settings Explained

Horizon Forbidden West has 5 standard difficulties and one custom difficulty that allows several unique options to be selected. Basically, the higher the difficulty, the more damage Aloy takes and the less damage enemies takes. Story, Easy, and Custom modes allow for additional options, like "Easy Loot" which makes getting components from machines easier.

For more on Difficulty Settings, be sure to check our entire Difficulty Settings - Explorer or Guided breakdown. There's a lot more to it!

Which Should You Select: Guided vs Explorer

When first starting Horizon Forbidden West, you'll be prompted on which exploration mode you would like to enable, Explorer or Guided. You can see the differences below - basically, the waypoints will be on the screen with Guided, and only on the compass at the top with Explorer.

Still undecided on which setting to choose? Check out our complete Difficulty Settings - Explorer or Guided page for more details.

Machines

Machines make up your main opponents in Horizon Forbidden West, and each machine has different attacks, behavior, weaknesses, and components to deal with. Whenever you encounter a new machine, make sure to hold down on R3 and hover your reticle over them to add it to your notebook. Then, you can check its important information, like how to get certain materials from it, whenever you want.

You’ll need specific machine resources to upgrade weapons and outfits, so check each component's Attributes to see if it says “Key Upgrade Resource” - then you’ll know to prioritize tearing that piece off.

You can also “Override” a machine and make it into an ally or mount. See How to Override and Mount Machines.

Understanding Combat and Damage Types

Looking at the Skills you can unlock may give you a better idea of the different combat styles available in Horizon Forbidden West. There are many different ways you can go about tackling combat, but to start, you should know about the differences between damage types and how they affect opponents.

Aloy attacks within melee range with a spear and deploys ranged attacks with bows and a variety of other weapons. There are three main types of damage, plus elemental damage:

Melee attacks don’t have a huge chance of removing machine components, so if you want to loot a specific machine part, focus on hitting that component with ammo that has more tear damage than impact until it’s detached before killing the machine.

Generally, you’ll want to enter an encounter in stealth, then scan the machines by holding R3 and hovering the cursor over them. This will allow you to look at the machine’s weaknesses, removable components, attributes and more in the notebook (press the touchpad!).

If you want to exploit an enemy’s weakness, or inflict an elemental status, deal the elemental damage until it’s affected by it, noted by an element icon above it. Then, switch to attacking with your melee weapon or normal ammo. Keep in mind, elemental ammo will ‘’not’’ detach components because they don’t deal Tear Damage, so only use it to inflict an effect or to cause a chain reaction with certain susceptible components, like Acid ammo on a Bristleback’s acid canisters. Causing a chain reaction with a component will cause it to be destroyed.

Focusing on Silent Strikes from stealth, inflicting elemental damage the machine is weak to, triggering chain reactions, and dealing melee critical strikes once an enemy is knocked down will take out enemies fast without regard to collecting components from them. Don’t forget about unlocking Warrior abilities for your spear, as this will make fighting human opponents much easier, as demonstrated at the first Melee Pit in Chainscrape.

Weapons, Outfits, Coils, and Weaves

Different weapons and outfits serve different playstyles, as is evident by how the Skill trees are arranged. An Outfit that works particularly well with a certain skill tree is marked as such, so pay attention to the labels.

Your melee option is restricted to a spear, but there are dozens of ranged and trap options from different types of Bows, Bastslingers, Spike Throwers, and more. Take a look at our list of all weapons in Forbidden west for the details.

Unlock more Weapons and Armor in Forbidden West by purchasing them from Hunters and Stitchers, completing particular Side Quests and Main Missions, opening hidden chests in the world, or doing other activities - some as simple as talking to the right NPC. See our Things to Do First page to see what free weapons and outfits you can get early on.

Once you have a weapon or outfit in your possession, you can upgrade them with machine parts at any workbench.You can even make a job which adds a marker to your map to help you find the part you need! Upgrading gear unlocks slots you can equip Coils (for weapons) and Weaves (for outfits), enhancing their effects or adding new ones! These coils and weaves are unlocked and can be freely moved to another piece of equipment once it’s unlocked on another, but you’ll find more in supply caches, by defeating machines, and as rewards.

Leveling Up and Spending Skill Points

Earn XP by completing all variations of Side Quests, Main Quests, and other activities, or just by defeating machines. Once you have enough XP, you’ll level up, increasing Aloy’s health and granting skill points. Completing some of the activities listed below also grant Skill Points, so you can farm them at will by straying from the main path.

Spend Skill Points by opening the main menu with the touch pad, then tabbing to the Skills page. Check out the Best Skills page to learn more about each skill tree and which skills to unlock first.

Max Level

Just how much can you level up Aloy's skills though? Well, while adventuring through the Forbidden West, you can reach up to level 50 by taking down machines, completing missions, ticking off side activities and generally amassing XP. That being said, you'll still be able to pour skill points into Aloy's other abilities once the game prevents you from levelling up further.

Most activities and side missions will offer you additional skill points for completion, meaning you can continue to unlock notches on the skill tree past the max level cap. In other words, don't worry too much about focusing exclusively on crucial skills on your quest to level 50, because you'll still have plenty of points to play with in Horizon Forbidden West's endgame.

Understanding Your Unlimited Capacity Stash

In such a vast and open world, you’re bound to fill your inventory quickly with essential resources, valuable items, and key machine parts. Thankfully, Horizon Forbidden West forgoes any inventory management needs and has straight-up solved any issues you may have regarding inventory capacity with the all-new feature, the Stash.

So you’re probably wondering, how does the Stash work? Well, simply put, the Stash acts as infinite storage for any gathered resources and equipment that may exceed the capacity of your pouches and standard inventory space. The only catch is you’ll need to physically visit your Stash each time you wish to restock your supplies – which can be done by holding Square when opening the Stash.

How to Find Your Stash

To find your Stash, make your way to any major settlement, shelter, or other specified areas on the map. In most cases, your Stash can be found not too far from a Hunter merchant, or Workbench, so keep your eyes peeled.

Activities and Quest Types

Besides the main quests, there are a huge number of things to do in Horizon: Forbidden West. These are listed in the order you’ll encounter them for the first time, and explain why you might want to do them. See Things to Do First in Horizon Forbidden West for specific suggestions!

• Side Quests - These are optional side-stories with varying rewards. Completing some of these may add dialogue and context to the main story. Not every reward is revealed in the menu, so make sure to check out our Side Quests page to see if there are extra rewards gone unmentioned.
• Errands - A sort of Side Quest, errands generally do not involve a narrative, but require you to collect items or do a specific task for NPCs. Like Side Quests, Errands don’t always list all of the rewards, so check our Errands page for more information.

There are even more activities and markers, but this list will get you started! Keep an eye open for happenings around you that may be unmarked entirely, too - you can earn some rewards and friends along the way. You can be sure you won’t run out of things to do in Horizon Forbidden West.

Machine Strike

Inside the main building of Chainscrape is a benevolent Machine Strike player (marked on your map). Machine Strike is a strategy board game with unique pieces that resemble different machines, and in order to play with others later in Forbidden West, you’ll have to do the tutorial here. She’ll give you a set of pieces and teach you valuable lessons, but check out our Machine Strike Guide and How to Get More Machine Strike Pieces for even more tips and info.

Collectibles

There are a vast number of collectibles to uncover in Horizon Forbidden West, each with different purposes and levels of importance. Check out our Collectibles hub to learn more about Vista Points, Ornaments, Datapoints, and more.

Other Frequently Asked Question

How to Heal

Your primary source of healing in Horizon Forbidden West will be Medicinal Berries, which are mostly found amongst long grass, but they are also very commonly found throughout the world.

Healing for a total of 84 Health over time, Medicinal Berries will be automatically stored in your Medicine Pouch, followed by your inventory, should you have enough space; otherwise, they’ll be stored in your Stash. It's a good idea to get the first skill in the Survivor Skill Tree to make these work better.

When it comes time to heal, tap Up on the D-Pad, and you’ll consume a berry from your pouch. As you start to get low on berries, hold Up on the D-Pad, which will see your pouch refilled. This action does take quite some time, so keep that in mind if you’re in the middle of combat.

Alternatively, as you progress through the game, you’ll begin to unlock crafting recipes, especially for the likes of Health Potions. Once you have acquired a Health Potion, it can be selected via navigating left or right through Aloy’s Hunter Kit.

Upon locating the potion, press Down on the D-Pad to consume it. Just be warned, much like the Medicinal Berries, Health Potions have a delayed animation, so be cautious when using it in battle.

How to Save

Although Horizon Forbidden West may have an autosave function, it isn’t always reliable, as autosaves will eventually be overwritten. So if you’ve been exploring the Forbidden West for quite some time and an autosave hasn’t kicked in, you can stop by any Campfire to save your progress.

If you’re looking for something a little more permanent, manual saves can also be made at Campfires and will remain permanent until you overwrite them. Just be warned, manual saves are limited to just five.

You’ll also find autosaves are created for both Boss Battles and Quest Starts. So if you are struggling with a particular quest or boss, load up one of these saves, and you’ll have time to readjust your loadouts or make any essential upgrades to your arsenal.

How to Breathe Longer Underwater, Destroy Red Anomalous Crystal Growths, and Clear Metal Flowers

Sometimes you’ll encounter a spot on the map that reads “Blocked Path (Missing Tool Needed)”, or a risky underwater path.

How To Fight Enemies Underwater

Unfortunately, you cannot fight machines or human enemies underwater. But, with that, Aloy can still toss Smoke Bombs when swimming, so while they won’t necessarily deal damage, they will make for an easy escape from Widemaws, Snapmaws, and even Tiderippers.

How To Lure Machines Out of the Water

There’s no right or wrong way to lure enemies from the water, so here are a few tips that might come in handy. If you hit a piece of a machine’s armor off, they’ll go into the Yellow state and start searching for you! While they may not necessarily exit the water completely, they will happen to move closer to you. Furthermore, throwing rocks can draw their attention and move them closer to your location. Be warned that trying to fight a machine from land isn’t ideal as the water and any incoming waves can sometimes act as cover and prevent your shots from landing.