Topic: Horizon: Zero: Dawn

@Ralizah I think I was level 12 when I arrived in Meridian lol. Going there felt like the first 10% of the game to me.

@Ralizah @Octane Yeah, here’s where it may be possible that you’ll see that level imbalance that I referred to earlier, because I did a similar thing where I hung out in the early map sections for a good while mopping up side quests and collectibles and then it seemed like when I got back on track with the storyline that the difficulty dropped back down a little bit. It’s a common issue with these open world games I guess, but it seemed almost like it was hard not to be over-leveled by the time you arrive in Meridian because it’s so far away on the map. I suppose some gamers can ignore all the spontaneous encounters on the way.

Fortunately even at level 29 I think you’ll still have a small amount of challenge on some of the story missions (if memory serves), but you’ll find the more legit challenges in the random encounters while being out and about and in the optional activities.

And yeah, the disc thrower weapon thing-a-ma-bob they you can dismantle is helpful to pick up and use against the beast as it’s quite powerful but only lasts a few shots. But it looks like you figured that out already 😄

I found the Tearblaster great for blasting off armour and stuff from machines. Very useful against the harder enemies. You don't unlock until a bit later in the game, another thing you wanna bear in mind if only doing side missions. But that could be a side mission that unlocks it, so I could be talking out of my rear end as usual!

@Ralizah You can use your sight to see the path a Thunderjaw is following and place a LOT of traps all in one place along that path so as the Thunderjaw triggers them, they all go off at once taking off a good amount of health in one hit - saves wasting a LOT of ammo. As you have discovered, you can tear off its weaponry too and use that to get a LOT of damage in as well.

To tackle the 'big' enemies, you really do need to scan them, find their 'weak' spots, what elemental damage (if any) they are weak too. Not every part of these is the same - for example a part of the beast is not 'weak' to anything but certain parts are weak to Fire. That will help you target certain areas with the right Arrow type for example and, if you do use traps, you could remove some armour plating to reveal weak spots. Once you know all of this (you can also check in the menu once you have scanned one), the next step is to make sure you have everything ready - the right weapons with the right damage types - and have crafted the maximum permitted. My first shot against the Thunderjaw was with a Tear blast arrow aimed at the weapon on its back - thus eliminating that as a 'choice' for the Thunderjaw to use against you - meaning you can also now pick it up and use it against the Thunderjaw. After that its either using the tear arrows to rip as much armour and cannons mounted on its head before switching weapons to kill it - including the slingshots too...

Level 32 now. Got blazing suns at four of the hunting grounds. Those stealth trials were ridiculous. Particularly the one where you're given two minutes to stealth kill four watchers in the middle of a jungle filled with stalkers and those crab robots. Ugh.

I've been completing side missions all day, but stuff keeps opening up. I somehow have more side quests to complete now than I did hours ago.

So, how did everyone play the Olin situation?
I spared him. His actions were monstrous, but it's difficult to judge someone who is acting to protect their family. Killing him wouldn't have accomplished anything good.

On the other hand, in the side quest for the lodge where the Snapmaw hunters were inadvertently causing the Glinthawks to terrorize a nearby village, I decided to just go ahead and kill them all. They had no sense of compassion or concern for the people who they were hurting whatsoever. People like that don't deserve to be compromised with.

Great game. I can just lose myself in it for hours.

I gotta say, the dissonance between Aloy's willingness to help people in main story quests and in side quests is pretty jarring, though.

Erend: guy I know; helped me get into the city; helped me to track someone down Someone killed my sister. Will you please spare five minutes and help me find who killed her?
Aloy: Not my problem.

relents only after he pleads with her

two minutes later

Random guy in the street: Someone broke into my house and stole a sword!
Aloy: Tell me everything you know. I'll get right on that!

@BAMozzy Those blast wires are brilliant. I pretty much only use those, spear attacks, and one hardpoint arrow (to knock off that gun component) to deal with the Sawtooths now. It's pretty fun watching the stupid things back off and glower because they're afraid of getting near the nest of blast wires I almost instantaneously string up around me.

I think the universe is telling me I need to get HZD. I hesitated during last week's Days of Play promotion. Then today it's announced that it'll be included in the new PlayStation Hits lineup out next week. I'm fresh out of excuses!

@klky It’s a great game. If you’re knee deep in Red Dead still then it may just be too much as both game have really large open world maps. Their similarities end there, but both can be time sinks. But yeah, with HZD now a “Greatest Hits” you’ll be guaranteed a decent price no matter when you want to buy it. Since you seem to like third person open world, you should give it a go.

@Th3solution Yes it certainly seems like a great game. Just wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger during DOP, especially as I’d already picked up a limited edition PS4 slim and 3 games. Now that HZD is part of “Hits”, I can get it when I’m ready. Cheers.

This thread makes me want to replay the game so much. I bought the DLC in a sale ages ago but struggled to get back into the combat after so long away, and especially as I was going back into it post-game so the enemies were at quite a high level.

So, I'm nearly level 38 now.

Just purchased the heavy winter gear (for when I get around to the DLC content, which, I am to understand, is quite wintery) and the heavy stealth gear (to replace the medium stealth gear I've been using until this point). I wanted to nab the heavy defensive gear, but it requires a Shell-Walker heart, and I avoid those machines whenever possible because they're a royal pain in the tush to fight. I guess I'll be grinding Shell-Walkers for hearts, then (they're random drops, right?). I'm tired of getting in massive brawls with Behemoths, Sawtooths, Snapmaws, and Thunderjaws, sometimes all at once, and basically having nothing to protect me aside from copious numbers of potions, which has ripped a gaping hole in my animal meat supply.

Oh, the Thunderjaws are easy to kill with their disc launchers. I've gotten killing them down to an art now. Another parallel to Monster Hunter: I go from struggling to survive against new enemies to systematically dismantling and killing them before they have much of a chance to do anything.

The behemoths are still hard, though. So far, my go-to strategy with them is spamming fire arrows (especially the corrupted ones) and tricking them into charging into my Home Alone-esque mess of blast wires and proximity mines.

I've gotten full suns at all of the hunting grounds, which netted me some neat new weapons.

I think I have one more Tallneck (not including the one that appears to be in the DLC area) to hack, and then I'll have the entire map revealed.

Still have only completed two of the dungeons. I think those might be next goal, interspersed with various errands and side quests.

Cleared four of the bandit camps now. I don't think there are too many more. I'll get to the rest of those soon as well. Combat with humans in this game is pretty mediocre, though, so I don't get a lot of joy out of clearing camps like I did in Far Cry 4 (and Skyrim, where, hilariously, I got to the point where I could clear out an entire room full of mooks from the doorway).

I've not been making as much progress on the collectibles, unfortunately. I think I have half of the metal flowers and most of the vantages, but I've only found two of those little deer statues so far.

I haven't really done anything re: the main story quests since helping out Olin's family. I think I'm supposed to be tracking down Aloy's mother... or something? I dunno. I'll get to it eventually. Maybe after the DLC expansion. Can I do the Frozen Wilds content at any point in the story?

@Ralizah I’m not sure about the DLC since I don’t play it, but I’m sure someone will chime in about the order in which to play it.

As far as the collectibles, just fair warning that they rewards for collecting them are pretty lame, as I recall. It’s more of a fun thing to do for the exploration and the affiliated trophies. But yeah, a couple of the Banuk dolls (is that what those little toy things are called?) are pretty hard to get to. But thankfully, there are fewer of those little things in total so if you focus on them then collecting them all is quicker than the other items like metal flowers.
As far as Shell-walker hearts, you might be able to buy them. I can’t remember for sure, but there is a vendor in Meridian I think that sells animal parts. Not sure which types he sells though because he doesn’t sell them all.

@Ralizah Seeing how you're kinda over-leveled anyway, it doesn't really matter when you do the DLC. I was level 45 or something when I beat the main game, then I played the DLC later that year.

@Ralizah You can start the dlc whenever really but I think the best time would be just after the quest, 'Deep Secrets Of The Earth'. Aloy makes a few remarks throughout The Frozen Wilds depending on what she's discovered about project Zero Dawn and also in the main game about what she learnt in The Frozen Wilds.
It's pretty clever how Guerilla have added dialogue to both depending on when you start the dlc.

So, I was clearing out corrupted zones, and I stumbled across one with two robots called Rock Breakers. And... they killed me. Fast. Multiple times now.

These guys are way harder than any other machine I've encountered in the game thus far.

@Octane @ApostateMage Good stuff, guys. I'll probably get to the DLC before the final set of story missions, but not anytime soon, considering it supposedly has a lot of vicious new machines and a high level of difficulty.

@Ralizah That area is perhaps the hardest area to deal with. I would recommend you scan them, find out what they are weak to, and only deal with them when you are fully upgraded - inc all the various pouches to hold the maximum quantity of ammo. There are a couple of big Rocks in the area and you can climb on these to whittle away health. Laying traps every where helps too but when you get the opportunity, take out a certain part that will help you to continuously attack them.

In all honesty, you should leave this corrupted area to one of, if not the last thing you do in the regular part of the game. By which time, you will have gained experience to deal with these. I don't want to say more right now but make sure you are ready for this fight as it can be a struggle...

@RogerRoger @BAMozzy Scans indicated that their claws are weak to tear damage, so I imagine all I have to do to make them manageable is rip those off. Seems like a good opportunity to try out that Tearblaster gun I have. I also upgraded to the heavy protector armor, which should help.

I didn't think about standing on the rocks, though. Can they sense you from underground if you're not moving?

This is all very reminiscent of Tremors. Very cool enemy, even if it is a bit annoying.

@Ralizah The Claws stop them from burrowing underground and leaves them vulnerable to attack. They do seem to hear you on the rock - especially the big long one and will 'shoot' up to you as well but to make the fight quicker, stop them from burrowing and hit them with bombs (catapult) and the right arrows....

They were the one 'big' surprise that GG didn't reveal at any point in the preceding marketing and trailers. They are annoying but once you have the experience, they aren't that tough - I also know what's coming up too in the Frozen Wilds but for the base game, these are tough...

@Ralizah I seem to remember them being weak to frost damage, but still quite tricky to get substantial damege to em.

I've been taking a break from this game for a while, but I thought I'd start uploading some of my screenshots of this (absolutely gorgeous) game.

First: I like to call this one "Huntress above the Sea of Fog."

Second: this encounter with a glinthawk, which looks like a bullshot but just happened to line up beautifully.

@Ralizah Man, some stunning shots!
I rarely mess with photo modes, but I did snap some screenshots when I was playing HZD. The settings are beautiful and there are so many options of how to pose Aloy.