When players think of combat in Horizon Zero Dawn, most immediately gravitate towards sneaking around in high grass, bow at the ready with Focus activated. Although this is one of the more pronounced and effective means of combat in the game, there are other options available to Aloy, including her trusty spear.
The spear isn’t particularly strong by itself, but with the right abilities, the right situation, and the right know-how, players can safely and effectively use this weapon to their advantage. This underutilized weapon isn’t the only thing players can miss out on in Horizon, as there are many aspects to weapons and battle that can be overlooked.
10 How To Upgrade Your Spear
When Aloy begins her journey as an adult, her first missions are to gather Blaze to make Fire Arrows and buy a Trip Caster from a local vendor. In this opening area, there are also a few side quests players can undertake, with one of those being “In Her Mother’s Footsteps.” This side mission, obtained from an injured man off of the main road, will result in Aloy’s spear being permanently upgraded to do more damage, at least until she obtains Sylens’ Spear. With The Frozen Wilds DLC, Aloy can also add mods to her spear to increase the damage further, which becomes available after the mission “A Secret Shared.”
9 Choose A Variety Of Weapons
As most of the damage-dealing weapons in Horizon are bows, it’s easy to fall into a habit of only using the three different bows in battle. Although this is a legitimate way of playing the game, players will be missing out on many incredibly handy ways of taking down machines and human enemies alike. The Rope Caster is incredibly useful not only for subduing a machine while Aloy takes care of another one, but it also allows her to deal massive damage with her spear while they are tied down. If players get the timing right, they can get multiple critical hits before they break free of the ties.
8 Get Lure Call Early
One of the first skills players can get is Lure Call, which makes Aloy whistle to get the attention of nearby enemies. While this is generally handy for separating groups of machines, it also has the secondary effect of making the machines look in the direction Aloy is positioned.
If Aloy is hidden in high grass, she can Lure Call without being immediately spotted and the machines will be looking in her direction. This is most useful in helping to hit a Watcher’s weak point, as it is usually hidden and made harder to hit by the metal around their eyes.
7 Don’t Ignore Traps And Potions
Two often overlooked aspects of Aloy’s combat abilities are the traps and potions that she can craft. These traps can inflict blast or shock damage, with the blast trap dealing a significant amount of damage and outright destroying weaker enemies. The shock trap, in particular, is useful in allowing Aloy to get close to a machine to override it if there is no way to approach it stealthily. The potions are also very useful, particularly against the enemies that deal Frost damage, which slows Aloy’s movement speed considerably. Players also have access to health potions which heal Aloy’s HP instantly, rather than over a period of time like her main source of healing.
6 Handling
In a nutshell, the handling effect on weapon mods will make weapons fire faster. This might seem like the best mod to put on a damage-dealing weapon, as firing more often will mean dealing more damage, but for the most part, it isn’t as useful as using effect or damage mods. On weapons that don’t deal direct damage, like Trip and Rope Casters, the handling mod really shines through, as it allows Aloy to drop traps around her faster and, more importantly, tie-down machines much faster.
5 Herd Blazing
Many of the early game machines will tend to have a Blaze Canister somewhere on their body while being weak to the fire status effect. When it comes to harvesting Blaze to make Fire Arrows, hitting the Blaze Canister can seem counterproductive. But against herds of Grazers, it can mean very easily farming for the material. Hitting one Blaze Canister will create an explosion big enough to take down most of the herd with one well-placed arrow while leaving the rest of the canisters intact to harvest.
4 Mounted Battle
Although it can feel a little awkward at first, mounts shouldn’t just be relegated to getting Aloy from point A to point B. All of Aloy’s weapons can be used while mounting a machine, including the Trip and Rope Casters.
Using a mount while tying a machine down gives Aloy the increase in speed that she sometimes needs to get around machines who will try to charge her, and will also allow her to perform a jumping critical attack with her spear if she needs to quickly dismount.
3 Heavy Spear Attack
The heavy spear attack can feel a little clunky and slow, but if players can learn the distance and timing for its execution, it will become one of the more useful tools for taking down smaller machines and human enemies. There is a brief window of time when Aloy winds up the attack that will also move her towards the enemy she is pointing at. With this in mind, it is better to be slightly further away from whatever players want to hit with the spear, as Aloy will automatically fling herself forward on execution anyway. This will allow the attack to land without the added risk of Aloy being hit herself during the wind-up.
2 The Tearblaster
One of the weirder weapons Aloy can obtain through the Hunter’s Lodge is the Tearblaster, a shotgun-like weapon that only inflicts tear damage, similar to Tearblast Arrows but with a much shorter range. This lack of range can be seen as a significant weakness, but it has immense strength in that it can tear most parts from machines with only one shot. Not only that, but it has a decent knockback effect on charging enemies that works similarly to the heavy spear attacks, and can allow Aloy to get the upper hand against more annoying chargers.
1 Adept Weapons
If players begin a New Game+ mode, they will unlock the ability to earn or purchase Adept level weapons. These versions of Very Rare weapons will be identical in design and stats but will have four mod slots instead of the usual three. This is particularly useful if attempting New Game+ on a higher difficulty, as weapons will do inherently less damage than at lower difficulties. The only weapons that don’t have an Adept counterpart are the Tearblaster and Sylens’ Spear.
