Horizon Zero Dawn: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Use Your Focus

Horizon Zero Dawn Tips and Tricks

Aloy’s Focus is the most important tool at her disposal in Horizon Zero Dawn. Not only does it allow her to see and interact with things from the past, but it provides you with a ton of information about your surroundings and the hostile machines.

Before jumping into a tough combat situation, take a moment to find a quiet spot and see what you’re up against. Scanning a machine will also highlight its weak points for you, and these will stay highlighted for quite a bit after exiting your Focus vision. This allows you to pinpoint the best areas to hit the machines, dealing maximum damage with the ammo you use. You can also highlight a machine’s patrol route (if it has one), by pressing R1 when the prompt appears on-screen. This is perfect for anyone wanting to adopt a more stealthy approach to combat.

Not only this, but it’ll also tell you the strengths and weaknesses of the machine and each of its respective components. By using this information, you can cripple a machine and take it down far more efficiently than you would normally. Use your Focus, it’ll never let you down.

Hunt and Loot Everything

Horizon Zero Dawn Tips and Tricks

While knowing your enemy is important for overcoming anything that Horizon Zero Dawn throws at you, you’ll also want to ensure that Aloy never runs short on any crafting item or resource that she needs.

This may be a simple trick, but it’s one we can’t suggest enough. Every time you take something down, see a plant, or find a supply cache, loot it of all items. Even if it’s something you don’t think you’ll use, you never know when it’ll come up in a crafting recipe.

If something never shows up in a crafting recipe, you can sell anything and everything you pick up to a Merchant for Metal Shards. Considering these are key for purchasing better weapons and outfits, and crafting all kinds of arrows, you can never have enough of these, right?

Max Out the Medicine Pouch

Horizon Zero Dawn Tips and Tricks

Horizon Zero Dawn’s treacherous and you never know when a hostile machine will pop up out of nowhere and strike. Therefore, it’s worth making sure that you’re always keeping your medicine pouch topped up. You can do this by picking the medicinal herbs dotted around the world.

We also strongly recommend maxing out your medicine pouch as soon as you can. The more health you can carry around with you in your medicine pouch, the easier Horizon Zero Dawn’s toughest battles will be.

Plan Your Skill Upgrades

Horizon Zero Dawn Tips and Tricks

Before you start spending those skill points on any random upgrade in Horizon Zero Dawn, take a moment to think about what your play style is going to be, and what you want to maximize Aloy’s proficiency in. Do you often find you run low on resources and crafting materials in games? Then you’ll want to focus on getting the Scavenger and Scavenger + perks as fast as possible.

Knowing what skills you want to get first can help you massively early on in the game. Spend points on what you’ll actually use, and don’t be afraid to save when you don’t have enough.

Make Use of Modifications

Horizon Zero Dawn Tips and Tricks

Modifications are a part of Horizon Zero Dawn that you could easily play through the game and never use, but you really should. Because modifications are removed from your inventory when replaced with another on a weapon at the start of the game, you’ll likely be reluctant to assign your best modifications to early weapons in case you lose them forever.

Don’t worry about this and get into the habit of checking and changing which modifications will benefit you the most from the very start. You can unlock a skill called Tinkerer later on in the game which will allow you to replace modifications without losing them entirely.

Most importantly, however, if you’re really struggling in combat, look at your available modifications and which ones may give you a buff for this specific battle. For example, a weapon coil that packs additional fire damage is going to be ideal against the highly flammable Fire Bellowbacks. Modifications can give you the edge in battle you’re in desperate need of.

Experiment in Battle

Horizon Zero Dawn Tips and Tricks

Horizon Zero Dawn can be beaten by simply bombarding the machines with your standard arrows. It’d take a whole lot longer, and it’d be pretty boring, but it’s possible. However, Horizon Zero Dawn really shines and becomes a whole lot more satisfying when you see each encounter as a kind of puzzle.

What weapons do you have to exploit this machine’s weaknesses? What tools and weapons can I combine to stun my enemy and then deal huge damage? Picking off a machine’s ranged weapons can mean you’ve got more time to place traps around the environment. Always think about the bigger picture and don’t be afraid of failure. You’ll get a lot more enjoyment out of the game if you do.

Fight Every Machine

Horizon Zero Dawn Tips and Tricks

Horizon Zero Dawn’s machines are incredibly entertaining to fight. Each one has its elemental weaknesses and unique weak points that will make use of the weapons at your disposal. However, we’re not telling you to fight every machine just because it’s fun, there’s a ton of handy stuff you’ll get for becoming a master hunter.

Every time you beat a machine, you’ll earn EXP, and a good chunk, too. The more elaborate you get with your kills, or the more badass they are, the more points you’ll earn. Likewise, you’ll earn more EXP for taking down bigger and badder machines, so don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Of course, each machine also has a ton of parts that you can loot and use to craft, sell, or to trade with merchants for other items.

Most importantly, though, it’s a way for you to refine your combat skills in Horizon Zero Dawn. Battling multiple machines at a time can be tricky and successfully dealing with a crowd of them will test your skills, but the more you use Aloy’s arsenal of weapons, fight with different machines, and use the environment to your advantage, the easier Horizon Zero Dawn’s toughest moments will be.

For more tips, tricks, and information on Horizon Zero Dawn, be sure to check out our ever-expanding wiki guide.