Horizon Zero Dawn Area Levels

Horizon Cipher Dawn is total of things to exercise. Certain, there's the principal story and its associated quests, just the globe offers hours and hours of boosted, optional distractions. And some of them are just that, distractions (in the all-time possible sense). Others are there to earn yous XP, fill in your map or increase your fighting abilities.

We're going to draw the types of quests yous'll encounter as you lot play, the rewards you'll go for completing them, and which ones yous should focus on.

Main quests
Side quests
Errands
Bandit camps
Tallnecks
Hunting grounds
Cauldrons
Corrupted zones
Tutorials

At that place are some pocket-size spoilers below. A few of the quest sub-menus are non bachelor at the start of the game and will be revealed equally y'all complete main storyline quests. Y'all'll unlock them all within your commencement few hours playing, merely nosotros're going to talk over them all hither.

What quests should I practise?

Let's talk about the advice we're about to requite. There'due south a lot in this game to dearest and, bold yous love it as much equally nosotros did (and as much equally Phil did), yous're going to want to practice every single thing. And you totally tin and should if you desire to — we're going to go dorsum and practise every errand we can detect just to have more than fourth dimension in the world. This means the "should I practise them?" advice in every department isn't for you. Your answer is always yeah and we totally back up that.

In that location'southward a lot going on in the earth of *Horizon Goose egg Dawn.*

If you're not interested in obsessively collecting every affair or seeing every corner of the map (like we were), yous're the person our communication is for. Horizon Nix Dawn follows the rules of open-earth games: You're non going to hit the level requirements for the main storyline by just playing the main quests, then you'll supplement them with side quests and errands to boost your graphic symbol level. Just you likewise don't have to worry most every single thing that comes up. Nosotros'll talk you through where to spend your fourth dimension.

Trying to find a balance between these ii styles might make our advice sound a little dismissive of the non-primary-storyline activities the game offers, simply that'due south not our intent. We're only tempering our "OMG Do EVERYTHING AND WALK EVERYWHERE And so YOU DON'T MISS Anything AND NEVER Finish PLAYING THIS GAME" fanboying against reality. Our advice is going to be geared toward the best returns (XP) on your investment (fourth dimension), so you can level up and get to the end of the game. (But there also wasn't anything that was a complete waste of our time.)

With all of that out of the fashion, let'south suspension downwardly each type of quest and talk about what's worthwhile.

The quests carte — you can run into all of your unlocked quests and completed quests here.

Main quests

Master quests advance the overarching story of Horizon Zero Dawn. They're big chunks of the game that aggrandize the areas you lot visit (and, later on, transport you ranging dorsum and forth all the way across the map). There are 22 main quests ranging in level from zero (yous starting time the game already in your first mission) to 34.

Getting to Meridian as part of a master quest.

The free-roam portion of the game ends after the 21st main story mission, "The Looming Shadow." During the 22nd mission, yous'll be prompted with a very clear option to either play through the game's catastrophe or wander off to rescue more kittens from copse.

If yous cull to continue along the main story path and complete the game, you'll still exist able to go dorsum to the side quests, errands and diverse other tasks you didn't become around to completing. After the closing credits (and post-credit stinger), the game world volition exist restored to correct before the ending — which is necessary because [SPOILERS]. With the world restored, you tin wander effectually picking up every collectible and rescuing every whiny soldier in distress.

Should I do them?

Well, yes. Of class you should. Plain. You kind of accept to.

Just continue in listen that, it's actually, really like shooting fish in a barrel to get distracted by all the stuff to do in Horizon Zero Dawn. Like we said in our beginner's guide, if you lot find yourself fashion ahead of the level of the principal quests (like we did), it's probably time to stop focusing on side quests and errands and motility the story along.

Side quests

Side quests are constantly springing up in response to the people you meet and the places you visit. A lot of them are favors for people in power.

Side quest fill out the story of *Horizon Zero Dawn*.

All side quests give you lot a decent XP reward and most requite yous a resource box of some kind. Some side quests give you a skill betoken when completed. Four of them give you more tactical benefits:

In Her Mother's Footsteps increases your spear's impairment
Weapons of the Lodge gives you the hunting club version of three weapons (meet the hunting grounds section beneath)
Hunter'south Blind is the just way to get the tearblast weapon (a high-tear, low-damage, shotgun-like weapon)
Ancient Arsenal gets you the shield-weaver outfit (which offers i nc r edible damage protection)

Should I do them?

Yes, merely don't feel like y'all have to practice every one.

Check the rewards before you decide which side quests to practice and prioritize the ones with skill points or high XP rewards. Side quests tend to be more exciting than errands, with more fighting (both humans and machines) and political intrigue. This means they're a little longer. You lot're going to put some fourth dimension (a half 60 minutes, give or take) into each one, so make sure the reward is worth your time.

Errands

Errands are the "kittens in trees" quests (well, "quests") nosotros continue joking nigh. They're not there to move the story along similar main quests or even fill out the story like side quests. They're there to fill out the globe.

The vast majority of Horizon Zero Dawn's errands follow a formula: Go here, examine this, follow a trail, motorcar ambush!, follow a trail, talk to someone, then become back and talk to the person that gave yous the errand. That'southward not a complaint — nosotros did a dozen or more of these — it's more than of a alarm. Errands are time-consuming, and the XP rewards are generally simply worth the time early on in your playthrough.

Should I exercise them?

Sure, if y'all want to, maybe.

Do some — particularly early. They're a great way to explore areas you wouldn't otherwise see, and you'll get some experience fighting machines which volition help you in the long run. Errands also requite you some XP and the occasional reward box (with resources inside).

Simply know what you're getting into. Every bit y'all become a nigh-unstoppable, auto-terrorizing warrior and can knock down snapmaws with 1 swing of your spear, following a pig through a forest is going to seem trivial and boring.

Bandit camps

Dotted throughout the globe of Horizon Nada Dawn are 6 forts full of bandits. When y'all find them, they are marked with a helpful level (difficulty) marker on your map and your quest bill of fare, so yous can make sure you're not getting in over your caput.

Bandit camps are a great place to practice stealth and planning — you can work your mode around the outside of the military camp, silently assassinating bad guys until there's no i left standing. Alternately, bandit camps are good stress relief if you want to but Rambo your way through a bunch of redshirts.

Should I do them?

Aye.

After y'all clear a campsite, non-bandit settlers volition movement in, giving you a bonfire, fast travel location and merchant. Those last two things make clearing brigand camps worth your fourth dimension.

They're not the only bonfires or merchants you'll detect, though, so don't experience like you accept to accept on a super tough bandit fort just to reap the benefits. Wait until you lot get a few more levels, so go back to clear them out.

Tallnecks

We suspect that the pitch for this game was just "robot brachiosaurs wearing UFO hats" and then information technology got greenlit.

Tallnecks are mobile ascertainment platforms that look like brachiosaurs wearing UFO hats. The bespeak of the five tallneck quests is to find a tallneck, notice a way to climb up to its head and and then override information technology. This volition fill in a agglomeration of information on your map.

Should I do them?

Yes (probably).

Overriding a tallneck fills in a lot of data on your map — things like new settlements, bonfires and car sites. Sometimes, you'll utilize this information to find new places to explore and bonfires to visit (and those open up up fast travel options afterward). Other times, you'll utilize it to avoid places (like glinthawk sites — we detest glinthawks).

That said, if you're hellbent on just following the path on the map while running from main quest to main quest, perhaps these aren't for you. They usually take a minute to figure out — where you need to stand to climb up the tallneck's neck — and some of them are well-guarded by homo or automobile sentries. If you're not interested, they are optional, so y'all don't have to become.

Hunting grounds

There are 5 hunting grounds around the earth of Horizon Zip Dawn. Each 1 features a theme and presents you with a variety of timed trials that are variations on that theme (this judgement was brought to you past Ira Glass).

In that location's a trick to each trial that will ensure your success. Usually, the trick is doing exactly what the task is and nothing else. This sounds lightheaded, but information technology'south actually harder than it sounds. Nosotros tried to outsmart trials with all of our hard-earned, existent world experience, only this will simply work some of the time. It's improve to stick the the letter of the law.

Every bit an example, one of the get-go trials you'll undertake is shooting blaze canisters off of grazers. We spent a ton of time carefully laying out elaborate traps to endeavour to funnel the machines into some hypothetical perfect location for an ambush. And it never worked. Then, out of frustration, we had a "FINE! How about I only walk up and shoot the canisters off!" moment. We equipped our hardpoint arrows and but unloaded every bit we marched up to them out in the open. And we got a perfect score.

Should I exercise them?

Maybe.

Hunting grounds are hard and expensive. Getting the very best time usually requires a lot of practice and the use of your more resource-intensive weapons.

And what's the payoff for all the work y'all put in? If you become good enough scores in all 15 hunting trials, you lot can unlock boosted weapons. These weapons are only marginally ameliorate than the shadow weapons you can purchase from merchants, though, so don't expect a BFG 9000 for your problem.

Where hunting grounds are useful is in cementing tactics in your Horizon Aught Dawn vocabulary. To do well, y'all'll have to master 15 different things that you lot tin can use in any fight — from stealth to shooting off parts to your various weapons. Hunting grounds reinforce adept habits.

Cauldrons

Cauldrons are machine manufacturing sites. At the heart of each of the four cauldrons, y'all'll observe a computer cadre with information that allows you to override a new choice of machines.

Generally, the path to the core is a scrap of a maze, but they aren't overly hard. They merely take a lilliputian time to go through and a few seconds to figure out where to go — similar finding the correct path to climb or the right conveyor belt to leap onto.

Aloy recreates the doors scene from *Monsters, Inc*.

The entrance is usually guarded, only y'all're not going to be fighting your way through a swarm of machines. You'll merely encounter a few machines along the way to the cadre. In that location is, however, a tough fight against a new(-ish) or uncommon enemy at the terminate.

Should I do them?

That depends.

Practice you similar overriding machines? Then aye, aye you should. Do you never override machines? Then no, don't carp.

Because that's the point of cauldrons — to acquire to override new machines. In that location are some material rewards — resources and the like — and XP for every one yous consummate, but at that place are so many side missions and errands that yous're not going to be difficult-pressed to level up.

Corrupted zones

Over the course of the main Horizon Zero Dawn story quests, you'll learn near the corruption that's been actualization in Aloy'due south earth. You'll articulate ii corrupted zones equally part of the main story, only in that location are nine more scattered around the map.

Corrupted machines take been driven mad and their corruption tin damage you lot as well.

The corrupted machines that patrol these zones are tougher and meaner than their relatively more docile cousins, and then these aren't fifty-fifty an easy fight. Immigration a corrupted zone will earn you a substantial XP reward, and corrupted machines tend to have better loot.

Should I practice them?

When yous have to, but maybe don't seek them out.

Beyond the required two, if you stumble beyond a corrupted zone, the advantage makes the endeavour worth it. Just know that the fight is hard (and therefore expensive) so don't go looking for trouble unless you're prepared.

Tutorials

Each weapon you lot arrive Horizon Zippo Dawn comes with a related tutorial quest. These are usually things like "tie downwardly X machines with your new ropecaster" or "shoot X machines with your new bow." And when y'all practice those things, y'all get an XP reward.

Should I practice them?

Meh.

Yous'll get an XP advantage if yous do what the tutorial asks, but it's usually relatively small, and completing the job will take a piffling bit of work. You're going to be pretty well-versed in your arsenal by the time y'all pick upwards near of these quests, so it'south difficult for u.s.a. to recommend doing them.

That said, if yous're looking for a challenge or want to get better with a specific weapon, these are a great mode to practice.