Horizon Forbidden West Guide#

Whether you are a first-time hunter or a veteran chasing 100% completion, this hub gathers the information you need.

About This Guide#

This guide is based on Horizon Forbidden West’s PS5 version (released February 18, 2022) and PC version (released March 21, 2024), and includes all of the Burning Shores DLC content (released April 19, 2023). All data reflects the game’s latest version (1.26+).

Guide Features#

• Bilingual: all content is presented in both Chinese and English
• Table navigation: tables throughout make data quick to look up
• Practical recommendations: advice based on real play experience
• Full coverage: everything from a newcomer’s first steps to 100% completion

New-Player Quick Links#

• Beginner basics and controls — fundamentals, difficulty choice, and first advice for new players
• Best skill-point order — the recommended order for spending your early skill points
• Early weapon recommendations — which weapons to pick up first
• Complete machine weaknesses — the full weakness reference for every machine
• Resource gathering — how to farm and manage crafting resources

Game Features#

System Requirements#

FAQ#

Core Gameplay#

Horizon Forbidden West is an open-world action RPG built around hunting machine beasts. You play the heroine Aloy, searching a continent reborn in the thirty years since Project Zero Dawn failed for the secret core that can restore Earth’s biosphere systems — while holding back the terrifying machine tide surging in from the west.

The Play Loop#

The core loop has four parts — scouting, hunting, crafting, and growing:

The pacing breathes: main quests push the story forward, side quests and collectible exploration fill out the world, and Hunting Grounds trials plus the Arena provide high-intensity combat. Whichever direction you choose, combat rewards keep strengthening Aloy’s abilities in a positive growth loop.

What Changed from Zero Dawn#

Forbidden West builds heavily on Zero Dawn: free climbing and Shieldwing gliding extend exploration from the ground into the air and underwater; the Valor Surges system gives combat ultimate-style burst options; the skill trees expand to six branches with far more loadout freedom; and weapons stretch from a bow-centric set into blast, tear, plasma, and other multi-element systems.

Main Story at a Glance#

The story follows Aloy’s search for GAIA’s missing sub-functions. The core questline spans sixteen chapters, falling roughly into four stages:

While pushing the story, keep your level in step with the main quest — the late game chains several high-difficulty fights. Clearing rebel camps and Cauldrons along the way grants large amounts of XP and quality weapon schematics, so your gear never falls behind.

Open-World Exploration#

The Forbidden West’s world is more three-dimensional than the last game’s; exploration rests on four pillars: campfires, climbing, gliding, and diving.

Campfires and Fast Travel#

Campfires are the open world’s anchor system. Lighting one unlocks fast travel and doubles as a save point and a spot to rest and recover. The map is dotted with small campfires that must be discovered; light the ones covering sparse regions first, so late-game collection runs can move back and forth quickly.

Free Climbing and the Shieldwing#

Climbing is overhauled: Aloy can scale most rock faces and building surfaces, and highlighting climbable routes with the Focus makes movement far more efficient. Hold the button mid-air to deploy the Shieldwing — gliding carries you across wide canyons, lets you adjust your landing point in flight, and catches updrafts to keep climbing. Climbing and gliding combined can reach nearly every high point on the map.

Underwater Exploration#

Underwater areas are this game’s brand-new exploration dimension. With her breathing gear, Aloy moves freely underwater, using underwater sprints and concealment weeds to slip past machine patrols. Sunken resources and ruins are scattered below, and some Cauldron entrances sit underwater — dive in to scout the way through.

Machine Types and Counter Strategies#

More than sixty machines appear in this game, falling roughly into these groups:

Core Counter Principles#

Before a fight, scan the machine with your Focus to see its weak element and detachable parts. Counter logic varies sharply from machine to machine: ice machines fear fire, fire machines fear freeze, and shock machines fear acid. Once you know the counters, pairing them with tear weapons to strip weapon parts and armor slashes the difficulty dramatically. Against large machines, never over-commit — roll and glide to reposition, hold a safe distance, and wait for your damage window.

Combat Systems in Depth#

The Focus#

The Focus is Aloy’s core combat ability. Spending the Focus meter slows the flow of time, letting you line up weak-point shots at ease. The meter refills on machine kills, weak-point hits, and certain skills. On higher difficulty it is the core tool for hitting key components and managing meter consumption — prioritize Focus skills that extend duration and add damage reduction.

Valor Surges#

Valor Surges are burst abilities in combat. Dealing damage builds the valor meter; once it is full, you can unleash a powerful effect inside a short window — unlimited ammo, high-multiplier buffs, or large-scale elemental bursts. Each surge fits a different tactical scenario:

Weak Points and Component Destruction#

Every machine carries multiple parts you can destroy independently — weapons, armor, fuel tanks, and weak-point cores. Destroying a weapon part removes the matching attack; destroying armor lowers its defense. Targeted component removal with tear damage is far more efficient than simply stacking raw damage. Some machines enter an exposed-weakness state once all their armor is stripped — the moment to burst them down for massive damage.

Skill Trees and Gear Upgrades#

The Six Skill Trees#

The trees split into six branches — Hunter, Warrior, Trapper, Infiltrator, Survivor, and Machine Master — each tied to a combat style:

Spend points along one main branch with two or three supporting branches; spreading points across everything leaves them diluted. Early on, max the Hunter branch’s core damage skills and Focus efficiency, then round out the other branches to match your combat habits in the mid and late game.

Gear Upgrade Path#

Upgrades run along two tracks: weapons and outfits. Weapons upgrade with hunt materials and machine parts, unlocking more ammo types and higher stats; outfits strengthen with weaving materials and unlock more mod slots. Legendary gear needs special crafting materials, usually tied to Hunting Grounds trials, Arena challenges, and Cauldron override tasks. Upgrade priority: your main weapon’s damage level above all else, then outfits that boost your skills, and only then secondary weapons and support items.

Post-Game Content#

Finishing the main story is not the end — these are worth your time:

After the credits, the core goal is assembling the ideal loadout: build around legendary weapons and coils so the skill tree forms a stable, high-damage output loop. For perfectionists, full collection and the platinum trophy take roughly eighty to one hundred hours. Try New Game+ on the highest difficulty only after clearing the story — a complete gear and skill set makes those high-difficulty fights genuinely fun.

Last updated: August 4, 2026

Related Games#

• Starfield — a spacefaring sci-fi open-world RPG in the same exploration-first mold
• Cyberpunk 2077 — a dense open-world action RPG with rich side content
• Monster Hunter Wilds — the closest cousin to machine hunting: learn the target, break the parts, take the spoils
• The Witcher 3 — an open-world RPG packed with monster contracts and side quests
• Elden Ring — an open world where studying each enemy’s weaknesses decides the fight

Related Rankings#

Best Open World Games · Best RPGs · Best Shooters

Full Guides#

In-depth sub-guides — beginner basics, story analysis, a character compendium of Aloy and key NPCs, combat and Valor Surges, weapons, the machine bestiary with weaknesses and drops, the six skill trees, outfits and coils, boss strategies, area exploration, quest walkthroughs, collectibles, crafting and resources, settlements, merchants, and hunting grounds, the achievement and platinum route, secrets, the Burning Shores DLC, PC features, endgame content (New Game+, the Arena, and endgame gear), and the game gallery — are available in Chinese on NTGame’s Horizon Forbidden West section.

If you read Chinese, the DLC sub-guide there carries the full Burning Shores walkthrough behind the summary above.