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Deleted member 5727

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
826
Just finished the main quest for the DLC. Whew. Tough final fight. The story had some strained moments, where Aloy seemed too caring and empathetic if that makes sense -- but it also had plenty of good ones, and two memorable characters. I like how we got to know the Banuk and their spirituality, the DLC expanded the main story a bit.

I still have some content left to do -- the bandit camp, the hunting grounds, and the errand they give you at the end. I'm not sure how much of that I will do. I'm a bit pooped from that final run. I know I'll do the bandit camp, at least. I always enjoyed those.
 

cognizant

Member
Dec 19, 2017
13,756
I forgot how melancholy the collectables in this game are. All those moments lost in time, like tears in the snow... :(
 

Tetsujin

Unshakable Resolve
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,467
Germany
Did the Three Warriors sidequest yesterday and while fighting a bunch of machines, for the first time I witnessed the framerate buckling and it buckled HARD. For two or three seconds the game became an actual slideshow. Considering how much shit usually goes on and how insane everything looks, it's pretty impressive that this has never happened before. First noticeable framerate drop in like, 50 hours.
 

Mifune

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,044
Just started playing this and, holy crap, the first side quest (flooded lake) puts to shame just about every quest in the base game. Perfect mix of exploration, story, character, atmosphere, light puzzle solving, with a dash of combat. How good is H2 gonna be?
 

janusff

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,142
Austin, TX
Just started playing this and, holy crap, the first side quest (flooded lake) puts to shame just about every quest in the base game. Perfect mix of exploration, story, character, atmosphere, light puzzle solving, with a dash of combat. How good is H2 gonna be?
Yeah loved that quest. Loved the drummer lady. Hope she makes it in the sequel. :p
 

krae_man

Master of Balan Wonderworld
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,607
Finally got around to starting this.

Oh god, I completely forgot how to do everything.
 

Raven117

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,112
Such a great game. It got overshadowed a bit due to the strength of last year, but Horizon really is a great experience start to finish.
 

krae_man

Master of Balan Wonderworld
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,607
I do like some of these new QOL improvements like breaking down extra crap into shards.
 

krae_man

Master of Balan Wonderworld
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,607
I can't find the pigment by where everyone is ice fishing. Do I need to finish something story related to open it up?

Is there a bug?
 

Ruthless

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,856
Melbourne, Australia
One year

DXHxbn0UMAAhrTV.jpg:large


 

Venture

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,585
That's the one I had the most trouble with too. Felt like I'd looked everywhere and ended up looking at a walkthrough finally
 

Skux

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,942
You can use your focus to find collectibles, they'll appear in the distance as faint violet sparkles. Remember to check above and below.
 

DekuBleep

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,712
I am just starting Horizon. About to plow through the game and the DLC for the first time. Anything that I should know?
 
Oct 27, 2017
7,141
Somewhere South
I am just starting Horizon. About to plow through the game and the DLC for the first time. Anything that I should know?

If you're seasoned with action games, you'll enjoy it much better playing harder difficulties. Concentration, Double/Triple Shot and Tinker are the best skills to invest points on. Elemental effects only take effect once you fill the entire circle bar with them. Learn how to use and abuse weak spots and elemental vulnerabilities.
 

DekuBleep

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,712
If you're seasoned with action games, you'll enjoy it much better playing harder difficulties. Concentration, Double/Triple Shot and Tinker are the best skills to invest points on. Elemental effects only take effect once you fill the entire circle bar with them. Learn how to use and abuse weak spots and elemental vulnerabilities.

Thanks! Yeah I am good with action games. What is the best difficulty to start out with? I don't want insane mode, but I don't want cake walk mode either... Do I have to start over to get the credit for finishing the game on the higher difficulty? I am at the point where Aloy just grew up.
 

Venture

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,585
There aren't any trophies tied to difficulty (except for Ultra Hard but that only applies to New Game +) so don't worry about changing difficulty levels to find one that's comfortable. I played all the way through on Very Hard and don't consider myself particularly great with action games. On the other had, I absolutely love HZD and didn't mind taking my time and putting a ton of hours into it.

Something else to know that might save you a little frustration, if you've got a tutorial/side quest for something like "kill 5 Grazers" it only counts if that's the currently active quest.
 

NoWayOut

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,075
Finished the game this evening, including FW. What a ride that was. Loved it from the beginning to the end. Definitely one of my favorite of games ever. Really looking forward to a sequel at some point.
 

Landford

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,678
I started playing this this week, having one fucking hell of a time. Question, though, as I dont seen to find a definitive answer anywhere: Where is the best point plot wise to start the DLC? I heard there are some additional dialogue on the end quests if you finished the DLC first. Im at the "
Crash The Focus Network
Quest.
 

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,119
Downloading the anniversary theme reminded me how good the music is in this game. Such an underrated OST.
 

Deleted member 5727

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
826
Finished playing through the game and the expansion for the second time. Great experience. It renewed and reinforced my appreciation for the game and my admiration for the developers. My GOTG so far, and it's unlikely to be supplanted.

I'm a little confused about the ending, though, and I have a question which hopefully someone can help me with. I'll put it here, assuming most people reading this thread have finished the game.

Iirc, Sylens says that you have to purge Hades before re-booting Gaia. So you go and purge Hades. So what about the "rebooting (or reactivating) of Gaia?" Where does that come in? Did that happen in the brief cutscene when you are "inside" Hades, and you see Gaia, get access to her, and then she initiates the cancellation of Hades' activation signal? Is that all there is to "rebooting Gaia"? I figured it would be more dramatic and involved than that. After all, Gaia destroyed herself, right? To reboot or reactivate her would seem to be a pretty big undertaking. And yet it was only a brief moment in this cutscene, with no real follow up. Is this maybe something they're leaving for the sequel?

I feel like I'm not getting something.
 

Venture

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,585
Finished playing through the game and the expansion for the second time. Great experience. It renewed and reinforced my appreciation for the game and my admiration for the developers. My GOTG so far, and it's unlikely to be supplanted.

I'm a little confused about the ending, though, and I have a question which hopefully someone can help me with. I'll put it here, assuming most people reading this thread have finished the game.

Iirc, Sylens says that you have to purge Hades before re-booting Gaia. So you go and purge Hades. So what about the "rebooting (or reactivating) of Gaia?" Where does that come in? Did that happen in the brief cutscene when you are "inside" Hades, and you see Gaia, get access to her, and then she initiates the cancellation of Hades' activation signal? Is that all there is to "rebooting Gaia"? I figured it would be more dramatic and involved than that. After all, Gaia destroyed herself, right? To reboot or reactivate her would seem to be a pretty big undertaking. And yet it was only a brief moment in this cutscene, with no real follow up. Is this maybe something they're leaving for the sequel?

I feel like I'm not getting something.

Yeah, that's likely sequel material.

Gaia is still "dead" at the end of the game. It'll have to be rebuilt and reactivated to function again. Presumably that's what Aloy will be up to next, along with dealing with the other rogue subroutines.
 

Deleted member 5727

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
826
Yeah, that's likely sequel material.

Gaia is still "dead" at the end of the game. It'll have to be rebuilt and reactivated to function again. Presumably that's what Aloy will be up to next, along with dealing with the other rogue subroutines.

That makes more sense. Something for the sequel, then. Thanks.
 
Oct 27, 2017
7,141
Somewhere South
That makes more sense. Something for the sequel, then. Thanks.

There's a lot of material for the sequel, actually:

GAIA is still completely dead. Needs to be rebuilt and reactivated. That core we found found near the Banuk encampment - the one that calmed the machines - was most probably GAIA's core. The other AI subroutines went rogue and are deviating from their purpose, with HEPHAESTUS getting increasingly hostile towards humans, for instance - they need to be gathered and put under GAIA's control back again. We have no idea what the other subroutines might be doing - I mean, there's one of them that's supposed to keep the air clean, who knows what it might do if it changes its mind on what "clean" means?

We don't really know what was the source of the signal that made the subroutines go haywire. We need to find out what happened to Odyssey (for real), what's up with Faro's personal hideout, Thebes. We don't quite know whatever the fuck Far Zenith was, as well. We now know that, like CYAN, there were possibly several other AI around when the Plague cleaned the world. There's the Forbidden West.
 
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Common Knowledge

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,256
Been playing through this game this past week for the first time. It's a great game, no doubt. I'm pretty close to the end. But I was reading that it's a good idea to do FW before finishing the main game? Any reason why?


One of my relatively minor complaints is that....anyone else think there is a bit too much machines in this game? Lol. Like, it's hard to go exploring and traverse the map without getting enemy alerts from all sides. So many machine sites....
 

Venture

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,585
Been playing through this game this past week for the first time. It's a great game, no doubt. I'm pretty close to the end. But I was reading that it's a good idea to do FW before finishing the main game? Any reason why?
There's some really nice new weapons and armor you get in Frozen Wilds that'd be useful and fun to use in the main game, but other than that I don't think it makes much difference.

One of my relatively minor complaints is that....anyone else think there is a bit too much machines in this game? Lol. Like, it's hard to go exploring and traverse the map without getting enemy alerts from all sides. So many machine sites....
A stealth outfit loaded with purple stealth mods is great for exploring. There's a particularly good outfit like that you can get in FW. Probably my favorite in the game.
 

Deleted member 5727

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
826
There's a lot of material for the sequel, actually:

GAIA is still completely dead. Needs to be rebuilt and reactivated. That core we found found near the Banuk encampment - the one that calmed the machines - was most probably GAIA's core. The other AI subroutines went rogue and are deviating from their purpose, with HEPHAESTUS getting increasingly hostile towards humans, for instance - they need to be gathered and put under GAIA's control back again. We have no idea what the other subroutines might be doing - I mean, there's one of them that's supposed to keep the air clean, who knows what it might do if it changes its mind on what "clean" means?

We don't really know what was the source of the signal that made the subroutines go haywire. We need to find out what happened to Odyssey (for real), what's up with Faro's personal hideout, Thebes. We now know that, like CYAN, there were possibly several other AI around when the Plague cleaned the world. There's the Forbidden West.

Agree, lots of unanswered questions. I'm particularly interested in the ones I bolded within your spoiler. And especially interested in that second/middle one.

As I understand it, that signal got sent out 19 years ago. That's an odd thing. Why 19 years ago? And who would have been capable of sending a signal out to disrupt Gaia, 19 years ago, when the Earth was just in the early process of rebuilding? I'm guessing it was either the remnants of Faro's work, Sylens waking up Hades, or perhaps a combination of the two. But it's an interesting mystery.

Btw, here's a tip for future world-generating programmers: Don't create a subroutine called Hades; you're just asking for trouble.
 

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,398
Agree, lots of unanswered questions. I'm particularly interested in the ones I bolded within your spoiler. And especially interested in that second/middle one.

As I understand it, that signal got sent out 19 years ago. That's an odd thing. Why 19 years ago? And who would have been capable of sending a signal out to disrupt Gaia, 19 years ago, when the Earth was just in the early process of rebuilding? I'm guessing it was either the remnants of Faro's work, Sylens waking up Hades, or perhaps a combination of the two. But it's an interesting mystery.

Btw, here's a tip for future world-generating programmers: Don't create a subroutine called Hades; you're just asking for trouble.
"19 years ago" is just so it matches Aloy's age, I don't think there's another narrative reason for it. But I agree that we still don't know what caused the system derail to begin with. And weren't we also unclear on what caused the Corruption to happen (which is independent from the signal that disrupted Gaia, IIRC)?

Been a while since I played, so apologies if I forgot some details.
 
Oct 27, 2017
7,141
Somewhere South
Agree, lots of unanswered questions. I'm particularly interested in the ones I bolded within your spoiler. And especially interested in that second/middle one.

As I understand it, that signal got sent out 19 years ago. That's an odd thing. Why 19 years ago? And who would have been capable of sending a signal out to disrupt Gaia, 19 years ago, when the Earth was just in the early process of rebuilding? I'm guessing it was either the remnants of Faro's work, Sylens waking up Hades, or perhaps a combination of the two.

GAIA had been rebuilding the world for almost 900 years when the disruptive signal was sent, actually. It took about 60 years to decrypt the swarm deactivation codes and start building the Cauldrons to terraform planet. It released the humans from the cradle 200 years later and, by the time Aloy was born in 3021, humans had been walking around the planet for 695 years.

So, someone - or something - waited a really long time to send that signal. Why?

And weren't we also unclear on what caused the Corruption to happen (which is independent from the signal that disrupted Gaia, IIRC)?

Yup, we have no clear, definitive answer for what caused the Corruption. At first sight it seems that it might just have been just negligent mishandling of tech (AI safety is hard, specialists will tell you), but there's some stuff that might be read as Faro setting it up so he could profit from it (his mention of pivoting from robotics to anti-robot weaponry), but it got (very) out of hand.

There are some hints about the presence of (illegal) advanced AIs back then, and also the super mysterious Far Zenith, with their tech that seemed to be way ahead of its time. The whole thing is pretty nebulous and with a lot of potential for expansion.

And yes, the Corruption seems to be unrelated to the GAIA signal (as far as we know - maybe it's aliens, after all :D).
 

Venture

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,585
Wasn't the corruption just caused by
Hades and the Eclipse waking up all those old Faro Scarab machines that were designed to enslave other robots?
 

Deleted member 5727

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
826
You're actually right,
I was confusing Corruption for The Glitch, for some reason.

Not to further complicate things, but there was also the Derangement, which is different than Corruption. The Derangement, as I understand it, is what made the previously friendly/neutral machines turn into machines that would attack humans on sight. I am not clear on when the Derangement began, or what triggered it. My hunch is that it started 19 years ago, when the external impulse disrupted Gaia, but I could be wrong.

p.s. Thanks for the timeline you posted above.
 

avaya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,140
London
Not to further complicate things, but there was also the Derangement, which is different than Corruption. The Derangement, as I understand it, is what made the previously friendly/neutral machines turn into machines that would attack humans on sight. I am not clear on when the Derangement began, or what triggered it.

I thought it started because Haephaestus was no longer being regulated by GAIA. As humans started to hunt the machines it perceived them as a threat and started to create more aggressive machines to protect the other machines. The unknown signal started the derangement. The signal freed the 8 AIs and HADES set about ending it all to prevent this GAIA overloaded the reactor and blew up the mountain and ordered Aloy's creation.
 

Deleted member 5727

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
826
I thought it started because Haephaestus was no longer being regulated by GAIA. As humans started to hunt the machines it perceived them as a threat and started to create more aggressive machines to protect the other machines. The unknown signal started the derangement. The signal freed the 8 AIs and HADES set about ending it all to prevent this GAIA overloaded the reactor and blew up the mountain and ordered Aloy's creation.

Right, that's something Cyan mentions in the DLC. I believe Aloy asks where the other machines came from. Cyan says Haephaestus created them in the cauldrons, to help combat the human hunters. An understandable reaction, in a way.

The Derangement is a separate issue, though. That affects all machines, even the low-level ones. Your understanding of the timeline is the same as mine there -- that started as a result of the signal, 19 years ago.

Separate topic, I'm also curious about the Odyssey. I know Faro destroyed the ship, but I seem to remember hearing something in passing about a second copy of that same data, stored somewhere. I could be imagining that, though.

I'm going to have to review this page when the sequel comes out. This is getting complicated.
 

avaya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,140
London
Right, that's something Cyan mentions in the DLC. I believe Aloy asks where the other machines came from. Cyan says Haephaestus created them in the cauldrons, to help combat the human hunters. An understandable reaction, in a way.

The Derangement is a separate issue, though. That affects all machines, even the low-level ones. Your understanding of the timeline is the same as mine there -- that started as a result of the signal, 19 years ago.

Separate topic, I'm also curious about the Odyssey. I know Faro destroyed the ship, but I seem to remember something about a second copy of that same data, stored somewhere. I could be imagining that, though.

The derangement was a result of the signal though wasn't it? this is from wiki: Since the humans had taken to hunting machines for useful resources, HEPHAESTUS began altering the machines' default behavior to protect them, making them progressively more and more hostile to humans, culminating in them attacking humans on sight. To afford them even more protection, HEPHAESTUS began altering the design of some of these terraforming machines for combat against humans.
 

Deleted member 5727

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
826
The derangement was a result of the signal though wasn't it? this is from wiki: Since the humans had taken to hunting machines for useful resources, HEPHAESTUS began altering the machines' default behavior to protect them, making them progressively more and more hostile to humans, culminating in them attacking humans on sight. To afford them even more protection, HEPHAESTUS began altering the design of some of these terraforming machines for combat against humans.

Oh, okay. I understood Cyan to be talking about the creation of different sorts of machines, not to altering the behavior of ALL machines to become combative. If that latter account is correct, then the Derangement would indeed be the result of Hephestus' actions. Interesting.
 

SecondNature

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,163
Took a hiatus. Im back now but totally confused with the story. Can someone help?

I remember finding and dealing with the guy who was spying on me — the one who was forced to find aloy in the beginning of the game or whatever

Who is the drunk guy again? I know hes from meridian and I spoke to the sun king looking for his sister, but havent wrapped that story up yet

And what are the various tribes? I know the sun king was evil and overthrown by his son, and he's uniting the two tribes. Im so confused and theres no kind of glossary
 

Deleted member 5727

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
826
Took a hiatus. Im back now but totally confused with the story. Can someone help?

I remember finding and dealing with the guy who was spying on me — the one who was forced to find aloy in the beginning of the game or whatever

That's Olin.

Who is the drunk guy again? I know hes from meridian and I spoke to the sun king looking for his sister, but havent wrapped that story up yet.

That would be Erend, leader of the vanguard (military for the Carja). His sister was instrumental in getting the cooperation of the Oseram. You're tracking her down.

And what are the various tribes? I know the sun king was evil and overthrown by his son, and he's uniting the two tribes. Im so confused and theres no kind of glossary

Well, there's the Nora, of course. Then there's the Carja, headquartered in Meridian. The Carja have formed an alliance with the Oseram; they were formerly at war. There is the Banuk, up north. There is also the Shadow Carja, who are the remnants of the guard allied with the evil king (now dead).
 

Ruthless

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,856
Melbourne, Australia
Took a hiatus. Im back now but totally confused with the story. Can someone help?

I remember finding and dealing with the guy who was spying on me — the one who was forced to find aloy in the beginning of the game or whatever

Who is the drunk guy again? I know hes from meridian and I spoke to the sun king looking for his sister, but havent wrapped that story up yet

And what are the various tribes? I know the sun king was evil and overthrown by his son, and he's uniting the two tribes. Im so confused and theres no kind of glossary

If you have the time, I'll recommend just starting from scratch. Especially since you don't seem to recall much of the characters or timeline since you last played it.
 

SecondNature

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,163
That's Olin.



That would be Erend, leader of the vanguard (military for the Carja). His sister was instrumental in getting the cooperation of the Oseram. You're tracking her down.



Well, there's the Nora, of course. Then there's the Carja, headquartered in Meridian. The Carja have formed an alliance with the Oseram; they were formerly at war. There is the Banuk, up north. There is also the Shadow Carja, who are the remnants of the guard allied with the evil king (now dead).

Thanks a lot, am I missing anything else?

Can you remind me about the early story again... I went to the proving ground which is a training where if I win Im welcomed back to the Nora society.

Then all hell breaks lose because of the cultists, and I find a big machine that is implied to have given birth/delivered me from the other side. I also see a ghost/taping of a woman that looks like me, and this is why the cultists attacked me (according to Olin).

Why did the matriarchs set me on an adventure? Or did I choose to go to track down Olin?

The Eldren guy.. why did I bother finding him?

And ahh okay, Shadow Carja are loyal to the old king... But when I met up with Eldren, we followed his sister's murder site to a group...ELdren said it wasn't the shadow carja but his own group?


Oh man Im so lost
 

Deleted member 5727

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
826
Why did the matriarchs set me on an adventure? Or did I choose to go to track down Olin?

The matriarchs didn't set you on an adventure. You chose to go, to find out more about where you came from, as well as other things which I won't go into (don't want to spoil it for those who haven't played).

The Eldren guy.. why did I bother finding him?

Erend, not Eldren. You didn't find him. He introduced himself to you, and then later was instrumental in you getting admittance to Meridian. He asked for help in finding his sister.

And ahh okay, Shadow Carja are loyal to the old king... But when I met up with Eldren, we followed his sister's murder site to a group...ELdren said it wasn't the shadow carja but his own group?

I don't want to spoil that quest. Keep going, and things will become clearer.
 

Falchion

Member
Oct 25, 2017
40,993
Boise
I can't believe this game is over a year old now. I need to go back and replay the whole thing on ultra hard now that I've had some time and it'll be fresh again.
 

Common Knowledge

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,256
How heck do you get the full medal for the Chieftan Hunting Challenge in the Frozen Wilds?!

Been trying for over an hour. I can get past the two scorchers and two bellowbacks with relative ease with use of the logs scattered about, and I can manage to get to the frostclaws with about 2 minutes 30 seconds left on the clock, but that's where things go to hell. I just can't kill those two stupid things in enough time. Is there a killer weapon combo for those guys?
 

janusff

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,142
Austin, TX
The wife is playing through the game for her first time and I'm enjoying watching the story unfold again. GG really did make a good move hiring John Gonzalez to be head writer for the game. Such a good narrative.
 

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,398
How heck do you get the full medal for the Chieftan Hunting Challenge in the Frozen Wilds?!

Been trying for over an hour. I can get past the two scorchers and two bellowbacks with relative ease with use of the logs scattered about, and I can manage to get to the frostclaws with about 2 minutes 30 seconds left on the clock, but that's where things go to hell. I just can't kill those two stupid things in enough time. Is there a killer weapon combo for those guys?
I used the lightning weapon (forgot what it's called, the DLC one that increases damage the more you spam it but eventually electrocutes you) + a lightning resist potion (+ maybe a lightning resist armour or the shield armour, I don't recall -- probably the latter) to not die of my own electrocution, and went full Rambo on them. Playing on Hard. It melts them down fast enough and you can facetank them no problem, just use heal potions as needed.