Things Horizon Forbidden West Doesn't Tell You - Horizon Forbidden West Guide - IGN (2024)

In a world with so much to do and explore, it’s easy for helpful features in Horizon Forbidden West to slip through the cracks and go unexplained. Whether it’s small updates that expand on the first game – like fast travel at campfires or uncovering additional dialogue with NPCs after completing quests – to more useful tips and tricks – such as not topping off your ammunition or adjusting the time of day – this guide breaks down over 40 of the most noteworthy features that aren’t explained well and that you may not have realized were possible in Horizon Forbidden West.

Check the Settings

Be sure to check the Settings menu, as you’ll find plenty of unique features and accessibility options that can affect the way you approach the game, especially during combat and exploration situations. These features range from Climbing Annotations always being on, increasing the Weapon Wheel Slowdown and Concentration Duration, automatically sprinting, healing or using the Shieldwing, or even Co-Pilot, which enables the use of a second controller with mirrored controls. See our full Difficulty and Accessibility Settings guide.

Superior Chest Colors

Don’t be deceived by the color of markers on golden Superior Chests! Any chest that you have to pry open will always contain some armor or a weapon, so it’s always worth opening regardless of its rarity color.

How Fast Travel Works

The Fast Travel mechanics have changed since Zero Dawn. There’s no Golden Fast Travel Pack anymore, but to make up for it you can now use Campfires and Shelters to Fast Travel for free. See How to Fast Travel and Change the Time of Day for more details, but for a summary:

• You can Fast Travel to more than just Campfires! Hunting Grounds, Tallnecks, Relic Ruins, Salvage Contractors, Gauntlet Runs, Sunken Caverns, and more can be Fast Traveled to directly by selecting their icon on the map. Rebel Outposts and Camps can also be Fast Traveled to after you capture them.
• You can also Fast Travel to a Settlement by selecting its zoomed out icon; there’s no need to zoom in and then pick its Campfire.
• Early into the story you’ll unlock a location known as Tap to Reveal, a location you can Fast Travel to from anywhere without needing a Fast Travel Pack Since it drops you off near a Campfire, you can use this as a “nexus point” to bypass Fast Travel Packs altogether. Simply Fast Travel to The Base for free, then Fast Travel via the Campfire!

Easily Collect Datapoints

Scrounging for Datapoints? Use your Focus! Not only will they be highlighted with a large pink glow, but you can also scan them for their data from a distance, and even through walls!

• When you highlight an Audio Datapoint with your Focus, you can press Triangle to listen to it while in gameplay, rather than in a menu. In some cases, this will allow Aloy to comment on them once they’ve finished playing!

Explore Underwater

Pools of water can lead to many hidden secrets to uncover. Beneath the surface of these pools, you may just discover valuable loot caches, as well as hidden cavern entrances that are marked by glowing blue mushrooms – this glow is hard to miss and can be spotted from above the surface. When exploring these Sunken Caverns and more, you’ll find rare and valuable resources such as Greenshine Sliver and more.

• Eventually, you’ll be able to stay underwater for longer with a tool unlocked by progressing through the Main Story Missions, so don’t sweat about not being able to fully explore everything. See Blocked Paths - How to Unlock All Tools for more info.

How to Call a Mount

Once you’ve Overridden a Mount, you don’t have to unlock the ability to call it at any time like in Zero Dawn. Instead, select the Mount Whistle in your Hunter’s Tools and call for it by pressing Down on the D-Pad. If you can’t find the Mount Whistle, then you currently don’t have a Mount (because it got destroyed, not because you got too far from it).

• Never look at where your Mount is before summoning it. If your Mount is off-screen, then it’ll teleport to about 20 meters away before galloping towards you. However, if your Mount is on-screen, it will manually get over to you and will be at the mercy of its pathfinding AI, which can take a lot longer!

All About Mounts

Be careful when fighting near your Mount! While Aloy’s melee range is already pretty wide, the button for Light Attack is also the button for Critical Strike. If your Mount is downed and needs to be revived, this can cause a Light Attack to instead Critical Strike the Mount, instantly killing it!

• Overridden Machines won’t move when you shoot components off them. This is really handy for harvesting resources - especially once you unlock new override codes for bigger machines at cauldrons! Be careful, however, as every time you attack a friendly machine, it will decrease the override timer, meaning you’ll have to defend yourself from it eventually!
• Mount faster, it will try to catch up to you so you can hop on mid-run. While this is very handy for quick getaways, it’s also faster than calling for it while standing still, where it will take a moment or two to reach you. Doing so while running also guarantees you’ll start traveling in your intended direction!
• The blue-and-white icon above your Mount indicates its loyalty. Every time it takes damage, the meter will decrease. When it runs out, your Mount will now be hostile towards you. If it hasn’t turned on you, a Mount’s loyalty can be restored by repairing it.
• Need to stop your Mount quickly? Hold down the slow button and can go from a full sprint to a dead stop. Conversely, you can hold down the accelerate button to go faster and faster, rather than pressing it four times.
• Mounts have Auto-Pilot, just like in Zero Dawn. While riding a Mount, if you let go of the Left Analog Stick while moving, they’ll automatically follow the path, and even try to take the route to an activated Quest if you have one. Just be careful of corners at high speeds, as mounts are rather terrible at that. To make adjustments or take full control again, simply use the Left Stick again.

Enhance Valor Surges

Once you’ve purchased a Valor Surge, you can upgrade it with Skill Points so that it becomes more useful. For example, with the Level 3 Stealth Stalker, stealth kills restore Valor so that you can remain invisible for longer, letting you chain stealth kills together far more easily. See How to Unlock and Use Valor Surges for even more detailed info about Valor Surges.

Don’t Top Off Ammunition!

Don’t “Top off” your ammunition. Crafting a new batch of ammo will cost the same regardless of your ammo cap. For example, crafting a pack of Shock Light Arrows will cost (among other things) 3 Shock Canisters to make 7 arrows. If you have 12 / 14 shots and then craft a pack of arrows, it will still cost 3 Shock Canisters despite only making 2 arrows!

Unlock More Dialogue and Datapoints

Check up on people after finishing Quests; they often have new things to say after you’ve finished. For example, after completing “The Twilight Path”, you can talk to Petra again (who gave you that quest in the first place) to hear her reactions to your success. You can even find new Datapoints this way!

• Skipping certain Side Quests could have you miss out on dialogue options and cutscene beats later on in the main quest. For a non-spoilery early example, the finale of the Chainscrape storyline will directly mention any of the Side Quests you completed in that area as part of the scene!

What Are? Icons

If you’re looking for Old World activities (that aren’t Relic Ruins), keep an eye out for “?” icons with a flat top. These indicate old-world sites while “?” with a rounded top indicates “modern” points of interest.

How to Learn New Crafting Recipes

Despite having the resources available, you’ll first need to learn the crafting recipes for Potions before you’re able to craft them in your Hunter’s Kit. To learn a Potion crafting recipe, you’ll need to either purchase a Potion from a merchant or find one in the world. So, if you happen to come by any Potions that you don’t have unlocked, we highly recommend you pick it up, even if it’s purely for the purpose of learning the recipe. This is the same for other tools, like Smoke Bombs.

How to Sneak Faster

Aloy will slide down slopes a long way (to Slide, hit the Crouch button while Sprinting). You can use this to quickly slip by machines, since Aloy is low to the ground and is technically crouching. To cancel the Slide early, press the Crouch button again and Aloy will return to crouching low to the ground, handy for stopping right inside tall grass.

Get Through Dialogue Faster

Press X to skip through a few seconds during dialogue scenes. Just be careful though as X is also the button to choose a dialogue option, so avoid moving the left stick as you go!

Get a Closer Look with the Bow

If you need to zoom in to get a better view of something, pull out your Bow with L2, then use R3 (click down on the Right Analog Stick); this will enter Concentration, which zooms the view in enough for you to get a better view, without nocking an arrow!

Save Ammo By Canceling a Shot

If you’ve drawn your bow and notched an arrow ready to fire, but change your mind, simply let go of L2: Aloy will lower her bow without firing the arrow. This is the same for other types of ranged weapons, too.

Try Outpacing NPCs

NPCs still keep up with your movement speed! One of the hallmark details from Zero Dawn is still in Forbidden West, where NPCs match your speed (usually): they’ll walk, jog or sprint along with you so that you don’t have to worry about leaving them behind or them escaping into the distance.

Swimming and the Oxygen Meter

When swimming, using L3 to “sprint” uses more oxygen, as well as using Circle to lunge. Conversely, it will barely deplete at all if you’re still, giving you time to examine your surroundings.

• The breath meter is actually quite forgiving when you’re trying to surface for air: it lasts about 10 seconds longer than the meter indicates, giving you some extra time to surface.

See How to Breathe Unlimitedly Underwater to learn more.

Change the Time of Day at Will

Unlike in Zero Dawn, you can actually change the time of day in Forbidden West. Find a Shelter (marked with a fire icon with two lines above it on the map) and sit on a stump to choose to make it Morning, Afternoon, Evening or Night. This is very useful if you have trouble seeing the gameplay at nighttime. See How to Fast Travel and Change the Time of Day.

Restock Your Pouch, Instantly

You can summon Medicinal Berries from your inventory to your Medicine Pouch! When you don’t have a full medicine pouch, hold Up on the D-Pad and it’ll be topped up using your inventories stash of 30 Medicinal Berries.

How Healing Medicine Works

When you use healing medicine, it will keep adding health until you’re full, or you run out of medicine. This process can use up more than one medicine: each “tab” of the health bar equals one medicine.

Pause in Cutscenes With Photo Mode

You can use Photo Mode in cutscenes! While you are much more limited in what you can do (no pose or face options, for example), it is very helpful in getting just the right shot during the scene rather than hoping you timed your capture press right.

How to Choose Dialogue Options

When a dialogue option is white, that means there’s new information to hear, and will turn gray when you’ve heard everything there is to learn. But this applies to options that you’ve already chosen too: if an option turns from gray back to white, that means choosing it will have the same scene play out, but revised to reflect new events and information. In rare cases, this can happen mid-conversation!

Check The Base Often for Free Rare Stuff

As you progress through the main story and reach The Base, you’ll unlock a high-value supply cache that is continually filled with rare resources after you complete new quests. Given the ease of travel in Forbidden West, we highly recommend checking in on the supply cache regularly and removing any free resources it may have to provide. From our experience, our superior supply caches have been filled with rare Coils, Weaves, Advanced Traps, and other helpful resources.

Reading the? Suspicious Icons

If a machine or human is suspicious of you (or in the “yellow state”), a yellow icon with a? appears at the top of the screen. If you lose sight of the machine, the icon will gain a white ring: when this ring depletes the enemy will give up searching for you and return to normal.

How to Time Melee Combos

If you’re performing a melee combo that requires a pause in the middle, look for the glint that appears on the spear (you’ll also hear a sheen sound from your TV and controller). Hit the next button input right on this glint to successfully continue the combo. You'll have to unlock melee combos first in the Skills menu!

Throwing a Rock Isn’t Always the Answer

If you throw a rock to distract it, the machine will keep looking in your direction until it reaches the rock’s location. If the machine is too close, throwing the rock will instead give you away!

Tag Multiple Components at Once

When scanning a machine with the Focus, you can Tag multiple Components on the same machine!

Reviving Allies Is Time Sensitive

When reviving someone like a party member or Mount, the timer for when they die does NOT pause if you start Reviving them! If there’s not enough time, you’ll have to face facts and abandon them.

Shieldwing Top Tip

Because the Shieldwing has a delay before activating, press the Square button as early in the jump as you can: Aloy will deploy it at the top of her jump, ensuring you get the maximum glide distance.

Activate Hidden Side Quests

In larger settlements, like those with a Stitcher and Herbalist, Side Quests markers may not show up on the map until you’re actually in or near the settlement itself.

Sell Valuables Confidently

While certain weapon upgrades need machine Hearts, only those needed to craft something (like Behemoth or Thunderjaw Hearts) are kept out of the “Valuables to Sell” section of your Inventory. Thus you can sell any Hearts that do appear there without worry.

Catch Fish Without Killing Them

You don’t have to kill fish to catch them! If you’re fast, you can Boost with the Square button to catch up with them: when you’re close, press Triangle to catch them for their resources!

Consider Changing Valor Surges Carefully

Be careful when changing your Valor Surges. If you have a Level 3 Valor Surge but then switch to a Level 1 Valor Surge, your Valor will be reduced to fill only a Level 1 bar. That’s bad for when you change your mind and switch to a Level 2 or 3 Valor Surge, since you just deleted a lot of hard-earned Valor!

Encounter Apex Machines More (or less)

Apex machines are extra-difficult forms of machines that drop the most valuable and rare loot and resources in the game. How often they appear is determined by your difficulty setting and Aloy’s level, so the best way to encounter Apex enemies more often is to level Aloy up and bump up the difficulty a notch or two.

Free Rare Machine Parts

Throughout the Forbidden West, you’ll discover fallen machines that are surrounded by Rebels scrounging for machine parts. Should you kill these Rebels, they'll drop the parts they have managed to scavenge from the machine, such as the Legendary parts. This is an easy way to obtain rare parts without actually killing the machine in question.

Cars Are Basically Loot Boxes

Certain Old One’s vehicles such as cars and buses have panels that you can either hit or Pry Open, revealing boxes of loot. Use your Focus to highlight these panels in yellow.

Assist in Unmarked Events for Rewards

Look out for unmarked events that occur throughout the world. These events could involve helping NPCs defeat a machine or even clearing Rebels from Campfires. Remember to stick around and talk to the NPC leading these events, as your rewards can range from free traps, resources, and even dyes!

Check Back in With Cleared Rebel Camps

When clearing certain Rebel Camps, such as Fenrise, be sure to check back in with them once you have traveled a far enough distance away. While you won’t need to physically return to the settlement – checking the map will suffice – you’ll notice that they’ll turn into a settlement that’s complete with merchants!

For even more on Horizon Forbidden West, don’t forget to check out our Essential Tips and Tricks Guide, as well as our Beginner’s Guide that covers all the basics you need to know about Forbidden West.