Sorry for the delay with the guides, I had to do a bit of moving and am currently replaying Zero Dawn so that I may give the most accurate guide I can. Edit: I have finally finished the guides.
There's really so much to learn about this game that it really never teaches you. Watching Arktix's channel will definitely help the experience be more smooth, rewarding, and less frustrating.
I downloaded Forbidden West with my PS Plus sub, first play around on Ultra Hard and while it was intense at first, it has been incredibly fun and every piece of resource counts.
Psst, if you’re looking to save on resources, investing in your spear for fighting against medium to small enemies is a great way to make things less taxing.
I was recruited into ultra hard by the games mechanic. I didn't choose it but it happened after I got the DLC. Don't regret it because it provides quite a challenge as you alluded to.
bro funnily enough the specter prime in ultra hard was easy as hell the hardest challenge i faced was apex slaughter spines and bileguts of apex and normal. good video. I Didn't start my play through of hfw as ultrahard I started with normal then new game+ hard then new game++ ultra hard.
That's super interesting actually. I've never played zero dawn, but when I started forbidden west I started on ultra hard (big mistake). Specter prime took me 3 days to beat and was the hardest. Second hardest was the tideripper cauldron boss. And the apex slaughterspine? First try. I have absolutely no clue why, I just kept circling and throwing spikes and he died lol Edit: I haven't played burning shores yet so we'll see about that stuff lol
For HFW: You mentioned for HZD the increased Awareness range and attack frequency of enemies and that Elemental Debuff take more effort, but did not mention those for HFW. Enemies see twice as far. Also attacking an unaware enemy makes it directly alert and aggro. They attack faster and more machines with less seperation. Health Limits are set to 294% ( that´s+194% over Normal. not 4 times). Tear and Elementa Limits are set to 250% (again 100% is normal). Aloy TAKES double damage. Slight diference then machine deal more damage, because you can hit youself. AIm Assist is mostly off (does not matter that much). Did not get, why the upgrade system is a chore on UH...it´s exactly the same, nad HFW is generous with drops, only shards can be to much if you upgrade everything at once.
Thank you for the additional info, also I said the upgrade system is more of a chore on ultra hard because you cannot turn on auto loot (you also can’t hot swap your difficulty for auto loot) and since fighting is much more dangerous, farming is more tedious.
Holy moly it's taken me 9 months to realize what I did wrong in this video. Other than the fact I generalized the crap out of the alert mechanics in Forbidden West, I calculated the health increase for ultra hard in Forbidden West using the story mode health values XDDDDDDDDDDDD
@@EpicGamerNico Well recent finding in memory editing, point to that we see unchanged damage numbers, but internally, it´s just a modifer like in HZD. It seems for Damage on UH we do x0,34 and Tear/Build Up x0,4.
i just finished my NG+ UH story line yesterday. my biggest mistake and regret was that i didnt upgrade all my gear before starting UH. i mostly played the story and then went right in. farming those harder machines on UH is a chore.
i completed HZD on hard settings and im currently playing HFW on hard settings as well and the game is challenging enough already and im completely fine with it
Basically on ultra hard, every enemy encounter is a bosses fight. Stealth is super required because enemy see you from miles away. For me this is the real experience for this game, you a human facing a high tech robot dinosaur.
Kind of? I wouldn’t necessarily state that stealth is required, but it definitely makes the game noticeably easier. But yes, every fight with a large machine in the Horizon games does feel like a boss fight, but even ultra hard is made easy if you’re willing to do some cheesing 🧀
I completed Ultra hard on forbidden west and it wasn’t as hard as I thought but still hard. Worst part was going back to normal and it feeling like story mode because of the comparison to the nightmares I had endured before.
Just started switching from Normal to Hard during half the story completed more or less. In the beginning Normal was a challenge, because I lacked the mechanics. Once getting comfortable with those, the switch to hard was pretty easy. I just wasn't challenged anymore during Normal. I'll leave the Ultra-Hard for my next playthrough though. :)
To be honest , while i enjoy ultra hard on HZD. I don't really enjoy Ultra hard on HFW that much ( I wish i do ) , Enemies are Arrows sponges (What did i expected ? haha) So very hard is ok for me. Challenge is there but still give me nice feeling.
Understandable, I definitely feel your pain with the spongy enemies on FW as they take a little too much damage. Things do get better during the late game as those super dangerous machines will go down in about 15 seconds with the proper set up but that’s a lot of effort. One little tip for you though, if you acid a human enemy and then use tear on their helmet (no matter the helmet’s durability) it’ll pop right off. Makes the Erik and Regalla fights an absolute breeze.
Of course I can't remember exactly where, but there's at least one merchant that sells machine parts for some of the tougher machines. I think I found him in the San Francisco area (where you first land after crossing in the boat).
@@EpicGamerNico Yeah, sorry I don't have more info. I just noticed in passing after I already spent hours grinding for upgrade gear lol. I'm not near my PS, either. This was in New Game +, btw, in case that makes a difference.
The main problem I have is 'avoidance'. The original HZD you could roll / slide out of the way of most attacks, whereas in HFW it feels like very few attacks can be dodged. Machines will jump from half a mile away to on top of your head in a millisecond. Many machines also seem to have large AoE attacks. And if you have multiple machines after you, taking any hit means death, since in the time Alloy takes to stand up, you get hit by a 2nd and then a 3rd machine etc. It feels like you just have to heal through most fights and avoidance is now redundant. For me that spoils HFW relative to HZD. Or maybe I'm just playing it all wrong!
You can in fact dodge every attack in both games. As you probably know, your slide and dodge give you I-frames. However, for Forbidden West it may feel harder or different to dodge attacks because of the frame rate (which makes timings more precise). Plus, the attacks machines have in Forbidden West are more complex and require more thought put into how (the direction) you dodge. Two things that you can do to make dodging better: 1. You can chain the slide and roll for a pretty long dodge (it’s only the very beginning of the slide that has I-frames) 2. You can dodge out of the last few frames of her getting up animation to skip it (kinda like in Fromsoft games). I don’t know if you’ve finished FW, but if you have, I’d recommend watching the slaughterspine fight in the “FW as basekit Aloy” video at 5:24 as an example. Ps. Sometimes you can just out space (get out of the hurt box) an attack by running in a direction.
in HZD at least, ultra hard was meant to be played in new game+ where you already had most weapons, but now the final versions are rly expensive. if you would start a complete new game on ultra hard, even your first basic bows and tripcasters would be crazy expensive and gatekeep you from using basic tools. dont do that.
This isn’t necessarily true. It’s actually quite simple to keep up with the prices in HZD ultra hard. The prices are quite a bit higher but much more balanced. With normal prices, obtaining the best possible purchasable weapons is a joke. In ultra hard, you do need to save up or at least farm blaze canisters in the hunting grounds of the Nora land to get the more expensive gear. Nothing is necessarily crazy expensive, but it does feel more like FW where you need to ration a bit.
I’m playing on normal and if it wasn’t for the glow blast spear I probably wouldn’t be able to beat the larger enemies, can’t Imagine playing on ultra hard lol 😅
Ultra Hard HFW! First play through. : Your Basic Eclipse soldier takes minium 10-15 Headshots/ Full Face hits with arrows! I'm just at the first Tall neck, but wondered past to the eclipse camp. ( I Need a lot more twigs for ammo here ) You really have to fight hard, and use everything you know. Stealth, divide them up n separate tactics, traps, decoys, dodging and retreats. Every machine is a Boss fight. I am determined, but a restart has crossed my mind. I do want the experience to last. HZD was easy on Ultra Hard after a Play through on very hard. Just going to have to GIT ULTRA GOOD!
I restarted after the Eclipse base. Very Hard now seems easy. Just Murdered my way through it now. It seems when you aim on UH, they move n jiggle about so you miss alot. VH, shots hit perfectly as how you aim. "BLAM!" Headshot!!! Dead! What took me 4-5 days to do on UH, was 1.5 hours play on VH. It is Unplayable in Ultra hard from the start. I know I'm a good player. But it is just too much. The basic machines are solid to kill. Shots miss all the time, doing 10hp at most when you do hit. Humans need 6-8 headshots to kill in UH. Just far to ridiculous. I'm now really enjoying Very Hard. I should've listened.
@@EpicGamerNico It is such a difference. UH is way OP. 6 arrows stuck in the Eclipse guy's face. Not even fazed him. Even when you target a weak spot, they just move as you fire so you miss. And even a hit, takes "10hps" off. Unplayble. Now when I restarted, I flew through it. Running a Burrowers head on.. "Crunch!- - - Bang!" DEAD!!!! A knock down with Heavy blow from Spear, then critical strike! Job Done! It feels so easy now, I'm buzzing!!! I feel "Lethal and Deadly !!!"
@carljhirst Umm… if it’s doing 10 hp you’re probably hitting the armor. In Forbidden West enemy’s actually have proper helmets and armor. In Zero Dawn they were just cosmetic.
Quick tip before you do begin your large collection of goods, it turns out that collecting fish skins is 3x faster than hunting animal skins for shards. I’ve had the most success with this tactic in the ocean by the first campfire Aloy arrives at in San Fransisco. I made about 8K shards in ~30 mins.
The only thing i dont like about the combat is that i feel that it revolves more aroumd abusing invincibility frames more than getting out of the way of attacks
I mean… Forbidden West could be considered a soulslike and that’s kinda what that genre does. Either way the game would feel much more clunky and frustrating if invincibility frames weren’t a thing.
@@EpicGamerNico i guess you're right, but i guess i would've preferred god of war's approach to i-frames. When you dodge with s Kratos has an anímation where he dodges the attack in a believable and obvious way that makes it clear you're going through the attack.
Unpopolar opinion: SUPER hard is the real deal. Forces you to explore different strategies and combat styles, without turning horizon into a souls like 😂❤
Yeah man, Very Hard is already intense enough for me, the leap to Ultra Hard is a step too far and I would never do it in a casual run where I'm just trying to enjoy the story and the lore without sacrificing mechanical interestingness and challenge.
I actually really like the bullet sponginess of enemies. It makes every large machine feel like a boss fight until the late game and really forces you to hit those 3x damage critical points if you want it over quickly.
the fact that a glitch is referenced as default way to obtain ressources shows to me how badly the crafting is designed. Way too ressource intensive. The issue here is that you do not need one weapon at max lvl to take down enemies but several and all only compensate ressources used at max upgrade lvl to some ectend so you finally mke a plus instead of minus. This game is not as amazing as ppl want it to be.
I disagree. You do not need more than one weapon at max or at base level to compete against your enemies, additionally, farming animal skins which are literally everywhere is an amazing way to earn tons of shards in case you need to purchase some ammo materials. I do agree that ultra hard in particular is resource intensive but that’s kinda to be expected since it’s meant to be the hardest difficulty. Likewise, the crafting is clearly designed very well, as none of the resources are a pain to obtain. And I only referenced the glitch because of people not being too interesting in the post ending grind. I personally don’t mind since I like overextending my stay in single player games, but for people with little time who want to play ultra hard, that glitch is an amazing way to create unique builds and waste less time.
![Twenty One Pilots - “The Line” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E2Rj2gQAyPA/mqdefault.jpg)
![Behind the Scenes - Horizon Forbidden West [Making of]](/img/1.gif)
Sorry for the delay with the guides, I had to do a bit of moving and am currently replaying Zero Dawn so that I may give the most accurate guide I can.
Edit: I have finally finished the guides.
There's really so much to learn about this game that it really never teaches you. Watching Arktix's channel will definitely help the experience be more smooth, rewarding, and less frustrating.
Yeah, Arktix has some awesome guides, I myself used some for learning the original duplication glitch and some cool tricks with the shredder gauntlet.
I downloaded Forbidden West with my PS Plus sub, first play around on Ultra Hard and while it was intense at first, it has been incredibly fun and every piece of resource counts.
Psst, if you’re looking to save on resources, investing in your spear for fighting against medium to small enemies is a great way to make things less taxing.
I was recruited into ultra hard by the games mechanic. I didn't choose it but it happened after I got the DLC. Don't regret it because it provides quite a challenge as you alluded to.
I can’t get enough of ultra hard, it makes every fight feel so much more significant and just feels right.
bro funnily enough the specter prime in ultra hard was easy as hell the hardest challenge i faced was apex slaughter spines and bileguts of apex and normal. good video. I Didn't start my play through of hfw as ultrahard I started with normal then new game+ hard then new game++ ultra hard.
That's super interesting actually. I've never played zero dawn, but when I started forbidden west I started on ultra hard (big mistake). Specter prime took me 3 days to beat and was the hardest. Second hardest was the tideripper cauldron boss. And the apex slaughterspine? First try. I have absolutely no clue why, I just kept circling and throwing spikes and he died lol
Edit: I haven't played burning shores yet so we'll see about that stuff lol
I love throwing spikes.
Boom = Happiness
For HFW:
You mentioned for HZD the increased Awareness range and attack frequency of enemies and that Elemental Debuff take more effort, but did not mention those for HFW.
Enemies see twice as far. Also attacking an unaware enemy makes it directly alert and aggro.
They attack faster and more machines with less seperation.
Health Limits are set to 294% ( that´s+194% over Normal. not 4 times).
Tear and Elementa Limits are set to 250% (again 100% is normal).
Aloy TAKES double damage. Slight diference then machine deal more damage, because you can hit youself.
AIm Assist is mostly off (does not matter that much).
Did not get, why the upgrade system is a chore on UH...it´s exactly the same, nad HFW is generous with drops, only shards can be to much if you upgrade everything at once.
Thank you for the additional info, also I said the upgrade system is more of a chore on ultra hard because you cannot turn on auto loot (you also can’t hot swap your difficulty for auto loot) and since fighting is much more dangerous, farming is more tedious.
Holy moly it's taken me 9 months to realize what I did wrong in this video. Other than the fact I generalized the crap out of the alert mechanics in Forbidden West, I calculated the health increase for ultra hard in Forbidden West using the story mode health values XDDDDDDDDDDDD
@@EpicGamerNico Well recent finding in memory editing, point to that we see unchanged damage numbers, but internally, it´s just a modifer like in HZD. It seems for Damage on UH we do x0,34 and Tear/Build Up x0,4.
@paristeta5483 Whoa, I’ve gotta learn more about this.
i just finished my NG+ UH story line yesterday. my biggest mistake and regret was that i didnt upgrade all my gear before starting UH. i mostly played the story and then went right in. farming those harder machines on UH is a chore.
i completed HZD on hard settings and im currently playing HFW on hard settings as well and the game is challenging enough already and im completely fine with it
Basically on ultra hard, every enemy encounter is a bosses fight. Stealth is super required because enemy see you from miles away. For me this is the real experience for this game, you a human facing a high tech robot dinosaur.
Kind of? I wouldn’t necessarily state that stealth is required, but it definitely makes the game noticeably easier. But yes, every fight with a large machine in the Horizon games does feel like a boss fight, but even ultra hard is made easy if you’re willing to do some cheesing 🧀
I completed Ultra hard on forbidden west and it wasn’t as hard as I thought but still hard. Worst part was going back to normal and it feeling like story mode because of the comparison to the nightmares I had endured before.
I lowkey regret not playing HFW on UH but seeing spreadsheet makes a huge difference even though I’m playing on Very Hard
Spreadsheets are bestsheets
That made absolutely no sense.
And I forgot an S in the joke
Just started switching from Normal to Hard during half the story completed more or less. In the beginning Normal was a challenge, because I lacked the mechanics. Once getting comfortable with those, the switch to hard was pretty easy. I just wasn't challenged anymore during Normal. I'll leave the Ultra-Hard for my next playthrough though. :)
To be honest , while i enjoy ultra hard on HZD. I don't really enjoy Ultra hard on HFW that much ( I wish i do ) , Enemies are Arrows sponges (What did i expected ? haha)
So very hard is ok for me. Challenge is there but still give me nice feeling.
Understandable, I definitely feel your pain with the spongy enemies on FW as they take a little too much damage. Things do get better during the late game as those super dangerous machines will go down in about 15 seconds with the proper set up but that’s a lot of effort. One little tip for you though, if you acid a human enemy and then use tear on their helmet (no matter the helmet’s durability) it’ll pop right off. Makes the Erik and Regalla fights an absolute breeze.
I love using gravesingers lament with 5 elite crit coils. Hitting the right spot when brittle can consistently deal up to 7500 damage on its own.
@royalheadquarters8449 More if you’re using focused shot and the hunter surge
Of course I can't remember exactly where, but there's at least one merchant that sells machine parts for some of the tougher machines. I think I found him in the San Francisco area (where you first land after crossing in the boat).
I’m not sure either, I’ll look into this mysterious merchant and possibly mention them in my guide if they’re as promising as they sound.
@@EpicGamerNico Yeah, sorry I don't have more info. I just noticed in passing after I already spent hours grinding for upgrade gear lol. I'm not near my PS, either. This was in New Game +, btw, in case that makes a difference.
@@EpicGamerNico almost forgot: great video!
It shouldn’t but I’ll check on both just in case.
Thank you for your kind words, I’ll make an even better video next time
Fellow @arktix enjoyer 👊🏾
Lol
thanks bro for this great informational vid js starting this game ☝️💪
No problem 👋
The main problem I have is 'avoidance'. The original HZD you could roll / slide out of the way of most attacks, whereas in HFW it feels like very few attacks can be dodged. Machines will jump from half a mile away to on top of your head in a millisecond. Many machines also seem to have large AoE attacks. And if you have multiple machines after you, taking any hit means death, since in the time Alloy takes to stand up, you get hit by a 2nd and then a 3rd machine etc. It feels like you just have to heal through most fights and avoidance is now redundant. For me that spoils HFW relative to HZD. Or maybe I'm just playing it all wrong!
You can in fact dodge every attack in both games. As you probably know, your slide and dodge give you I-frames. However, for Forbidden West it may feel harder or different to dodge attacks because of the frame rate (which makes timings more precise).
Plus, the attacks machines have in Forbidden West are more complex and require more thought put into how (the direction) you dodge. Two things that you can do to make dodging better:
1. You can chain the slide and roll for a pretty long dodge (it’s only the very beginning of the slide that has I-frames)
2. You can dodge out of the last few frames of her getting up animation to skip it (kinda like in Fromsoft games).
I don’t know if you’ve finished FW, but if you have, I’d recommend watching the slaughterspine fight in the “FW as basekit Aloy” video at 5:24 as an example.
Ps. Sometimes you can just out space (get out of the hurt box) an attack by running in a direction.
Also remember, if group fights feel tough, you can use ropecasters, smoke bombs, and aoe valor surges to get a tactical advantage.
in HZD at least, ultra hard was meant to be played in new game+ where you already had most weapons, but now the final versions are rly expensive.
if you would start a complete new game on ultra hard, even your first basic bows and tripcasters would be crazy expensive and gatekeep you from using basic tools. dont do that.
This isn’t necessarily true. It’s actually quite simple to keep up with the prices in HZD ultra hard. The prices are quite a bit higher but much more balanced. With normal prices, obtaining the best possible purchasable weapons is a joke. In ultra hard, you do need to save up or at least farm blaze canisters in the hunting grounds of the Nora land to get the more expensive gear. Nothing is necessarily crazy expensive, but it does feel more like FW where you need to ration a bit.
I preferably do normal but for HZD you have to beat the game in hard and ultra hard to unlock face paints
I’m playing on normal and if it wasn’t for the glow blast spear I probably wouldn’t be able to beat the larger enemies, can’t Imagine playing on ultra hard lol 😅
Ultra Hard HFW! First play through. : Your Basic Eclipse soldier takes minium 10-15 Headshots/ Full Face hits with arrows!
I'm just at the first Tall neck, but wondered past to the eclipse camp. ( I Need a lot more twigs for ammo here )
You really have to fight hard, and use everything you know. Stealth, divide them up n separate tactics, traps, decoys, dodging and retreats.
Every machine is a Boss fight.
I am determined, but a restart has crossed my mind. I do want the experience to last. HZD was easy on Ultra Hard after a Play through on very hard.
Just going to have to GIT ULTRA GOOD!
Pssst, acid makes it easier to pop of helmets! Try combining this with other powerful component tearing tools for great results 👀
I restarted after the Eclipse base.
Very Hard now seems easy. Just Murdered my way through it now.
It seems when you aim on UH, they move n jiggle about so you miss alot.
VH, shots hit perfectly as how you aim. "BLAM!" Headshot!!! Dead!
What took me 4-5 days to do on UH, was 1.5 hours play on VH.
It is Unplayable in Ultra hard from the start. I know I'm a good player. But it is just too much.
The basic machines are solid to kill. Shots miss all the time, doing 10hp at most when you do hit.
Humans need 6-8 headshots to kill in UH.
Just far to ridiculous.
I'm now really enjoying Very Hard.
I should've listened.
Lol I’m sorry to hear you had to restart your playthrough. Glad to hear you’re having fun with the game though 👍
@@EpicGamerNico It is such a difference.
UH is way OP.
6 arrows stuck in the Eclipse guy's face.
Not even fazed him.
Even when you target a weak spot, they just move as you fire so you miss. And even a hit, takes "10hps" off. Unplayble.
Now when I restarted, I flew through it.
Running a Burrowers head on..
"Crunch!- - - Bang!" DEAD!!!!
A knock down with Heavy blow from Spear, then critical strike! Job Done!
It feels so easy now, I'm buzzing!!!
I feel "Lethal and Deadly !!!"
@carljhirst Umm… if it’s doing 10 hp you’re probably hitting the armor. In Forbidden West enemy’s actually have proper helmets and armor. In Zero Dawn they were just cosmetic.
Im thinking of starting on normal diff, collect everything in the game and fully upgrade, then start a new game + on ultra hard
Quick tip before you do begin your large collection of goods, it turns out that collecting fish skins is 3x faster than hunting animal skins for shards. I’ve had the most success with this tactic in the ocean by the first campfire Aloy arrives at in San Fransisco. I made about 8K shards in ~30 mins.
The machine HP list is not complete, what about those apex machines? And the list is it for HZD or HFW? FW is my first.
It’s for FW, but wdym it’s not complete? The apex machines are in a separate tab than the normal ones.
HZD UH is like really easy, as long as you have banuk bows then your chillin, HFW UH is definitely ultra hard.
I dunno-fire arrows kinda do it all in Zero Dawn.
@@EpicGamerNico yeah idk all I know is that shit was hella easy in ZD 😂 FW is actually pretty tough if your not built right.
@ExinGG Fair enough 🤪
The only thing i dont like about the combat is that i feel that it revolves more aroumd abusing invincibility frames more than getting out of the way of attacks
I mean… Forbidden West could be considered a soulslike and that’s kinda what that genre does. Either way the game would feel much more clunky and frustrating if invincibility frames weren’t a thing.
@@EpicGamerNico i guess you're right, but i guess i would've preferred god of war's approach to i-frames. When you dodge with s Kratos has an anímation where he dodges the attack in a believable and obvious way that makes it clear you're going through the attack.
Unpopolar opinion: SUPER hard is the real deal. Forces you to explore different strategies and combat styles, without turning horizon into a souls like 😂❤
Yeah man, Very Hard is already intense enough for me, the leap to Ultra Hard is a step too far and I would never do it in a casual run where I'm just trying to enjoy the story and the lore without sacrificing mechanical interestingness and challenge.
Personally think it's terrible and super unfun on HFW when enemies are just insane bullet sponges, but kind of awesome in HZD
I actually really like the bullet sponginess of enemies. It makes every large machine feel like a boss fight until the late game and really forces you to hit those 3x damage critical points if you want it over quickly.
I only counted 14 times
Holy moly after half a year somebody counted
Lol, yes sir
o7
I... am a easy mode player lol. I'm bad at games so that enough for me
If you ever do feel brave enough to trek through higher difficulties, there is no shame in a little cheese to get you through the tough times 🧀
the fact that a glitch is referenced as default way to obtain ressources shows to me how badly the crafting is designed.
Way too ressource intensive. The issue here is that you do not need one weapon at max lvl to take down enemies but several and all only compensate ressources used at max upgrade lvl to some ectend so you finally mke a plus instead of minus.
This game is not as amazing as ppl want it to be.
I disagree. You do not need more than one weapon at max or at base level to compete against your enemies, additionally, farming animal skins which are literally everywhere is an amazing way to earn tons of shards in case you need to purchase some ammo materials. I do agree that ultra hard in particular is resource intensive but that’s kinda to be expected since it’s meant to be the hardest difficulty. Likewise, the crafting is clearly designed very well, as none of the resources are a pain to obtain. And I only referenced the glitch because of people not being too interesting in the post ending grind. I personally don’t mind since I like overextending my stay in single player games, but for people with little time who want to play ultra hard, that glitch is an amazing way to create unique builds and waste less time.
😍 Promo sm
I have no idea what your comment means…