Topic: Horizon: Zero: Dawn

Yeah, 54 is pretty short. Around 90 hours for me, 110-120 if you include the DLC.

Id visited everywhere and watched all the cut scenes. Tbf I binned off trials and concentrated on collectibles initially until I was more powered up. Once I realised bonfires are fast travel points I rallied around the map to find locations on a charger. The last 10 or so hours all the missions or sub games were easy to get to as they were all opened up and I was more powerful.

@themcnoisy Hot damn! Congrats. Yeah, I used the tearblast arrows and just beat them into submission to get what Aloy needed haha. I also found I was pretty powerful on the levels when I started to push through the main campaign. The bandit camps were a walk in the park.

Since this is your second GOTY, what's your first?

I'm on a little break from the DLC and NG+ UH. I've been caught up playing SWBF II with some friends. It's limited, but having fun with friends it what it's all about for me. I'm sure I'll get back to H:ZD and TFW in a couple weeks.

@starhops Yakuza zero. Theres nothing like it. But be warned its very Japanese.

Just picked this game up on the Black Friday sale. Looking forward to starting it soon. Any tips for a new player?

@Tasuki Everything @KratosMD said. This game has loot boxes- the kind you don't actually pay for . Every new merchant will offer you a free sample box, so make sure to pick those up.
Resource management is vital. Buying materials is very expensive so try and scavenge as much as possible. Also kill the wildlife, whenever convenient (the fish in the river are easy to miss and offer vital resources). Their skin/bones can be used to craft satchel/pouch upgrades.
Hope you enjoy it!

@Tasuki I second what @Fight_Teza_Fight said, kill any wildlife you see and hoard their bones and skins, you need those for the pouch upgrades. You don't need a lot of them, but it's a bit annoying if you have to hunt down a specific animal for an upgrade. And as always, if you're looking for that turkey, you can't find it, and when you, they only give you meat and no bones or skin. Just make sure you have a handful of each just in case you want to upgrade something.

Other than that, git gud.

@Tasuki In the skills, I'd go for Silent Strike, Silent Drop, Hunter Reflexes, and Lure Call. Very useful in helping clear out the "adds" before you take on the tougher machines. Plus the Ammo Crafter comes in handy to save resources later on. One of my favorites later on is the Quiet Sprint and Knock Down.

Enjoy! Keep us posted. A nice group here to ask for assistance or share experiences.

Digital Foundry's tech analysis of the Frozen Wilds and the Decima engine

@Tasuki fights can either be trivial or hard depending on prep. Even a Thunderjaw fight can be really easy if you go in with a good plan and prep. If you just charge in and treat it like a souls boss it’ll be hard... but you can do some impressive combos and overkill .... like dropping 12 tripwires on top of each other then pulling with cold arrows/sling...

If you get to the point of having to dodge/run/etc then you’ve already messed up (which will happen).

The rope caster is also really good to reset a fight by pulling the enemy down and effectively stunning it, letting you quickly get back in control.

Because I’m patient enough to prep for every fight and be strategic, I found that all the fights in the game were fairly trivial, and would recommend higher difficulty to start... but other people found it harder so it depends on your style I guess.

Right O - finally nearly at the end of getting 100% on The Frozen bits DLC. Just got, I think, 2 more scorchers to kill and 3 more fireclaws - unless I am missing anything. Managed to do all the hunting ones and get the sun or whatever. That last one ate up a lot of my resources.

Hoping tonight with a fair wind I might finish it all off tonight.

@Rudy_Manchego There's a bug that prevents you from getting all the special coils. The eleventh coil is missing, but I believe they're working on a fix.

@Octane What coils? Dammit - what have I missed? Was just looking at the trophy list!

@Rudy_Manchego I you do to your menu, there's a progression screen, and it gives you a percentage. Mine's at 98.something% because I'm missing the last coil. I got the plat for the main game, and my in-game progression was somewhere in the 80s. Getting all the Shadow Carja gear is part of you completion I believe, but you don't get a trophy for that.

@Octane Ah right - understood. I'll probably juts go for the trophy total then if the rest is glitched. Too many other games shouting for my attention.

Did a patch just come out this week? Maybe they addressed the coils (though I'm not sure what coils you're referring too LOL). Congrats @Rudy_Manchego at the Hunting Lodge Suns!

@starhops I'm still confused about coils on HZD! Thanks, I found the first two OK but getting the two scorchers quickly took me a bit of swearing (And using the logs in the end!).

@Rudy_Manchego haha yes! Logs are key (oh the things we say because we're gamers ) I still need to finish the DLC. I've been playing on NG+ UH, so it's been a challenge, to say the least--but a lot of fun! It just takes more resource grinding and I want to grind out the newer weapons before pushing on.

Did you all see Aloy is against Sub-Zero in the Ultimate Playstation Character Challenge Tourney? Oh my.

@starhops Admittedly, they are quite big logs. As a massive nerd AND gamer, that totally reminded me of the Ework Battle in Return of the Jedi with the AT-ST's.

Aloy FTW. My favourite gaming character for some time.

@Rudy_Manchego Indeed! I'm a total geek on this stuff too. I've been playing too much SWBF 2 with my friends; despite the game's misgivings and poor handling by EA and some gameplay mechanic adjustments, I've been enjoying it. I just love Star Wars haha.

Yes, Aloy is a great game character. One of my favorites since Geralt.