Mech-Dinosaurs and Gliders: Horizon Forbidden West Trophy Guide

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Arron is a featured team writer and lifelong gamer. Ever since he started playing games on his old SNES, he's been hooked. Once the Xbox 360 was released he quickly found himself hunting down achievements and trophies as fast as he could. There are plenty of games that he has only played for the achievements or trophies, but he also plays a little bit of everything, with a particular love for deep RPGs and skillful shooters. Currently, he is working to 100% both Pillars of Eternity games while he waits for the biggest upcoming releases and some standout indies.

Key Info Up Front

Genre: Open-World Action

Difficulty: 3/10

Number of Playthroughs Required: 1

Estimated Time Required: Approximately 37 hours

Number of Trophies: 59

Horizon Forbidden West Walkthrough

Before breaking down each of the individual trophies you can expect during your playthrough, we have to look at the best way to approach your playthrough. This will ensure you get the platinum trophy in the least amount of time possible and make sure you don’t have to grind more than necessary.

Step One: Story Start and Melee Skills

Your playthrough begins by starting the story. When you begin the game, know that you can play on any difficulty and still get all the trophies. So, if you want to get through the game as quickly as possible, feel free to drop it on Story difficulty or go higher if you want a more challenging experience. You should also know that there are technically no missable trophies, although two dinosaurs used to be missable as scans. However, patches have fixed this issue, so they are automatically added to your log regardless of whether you scan them or not.

Also, note that you can approach the game’s content as freely as you want. I recommend mixing this step with step two to complete side quests that capture your attention and find any collectibles you come across along the way. You don’t technically have to do all of the side quests, but you will have to reach level 50 eventually and do a good portion of the side content to do so. Most side quests in Horizon also reveal a lot about the world and are worth doing just for that.

As you progress, invest your skill points into the Warrior tree. This will unlock more combos and allow you to complete the Pits without having to grind for skill points and return later on. You should also upgrade your gear as you go through the game to ensure you are consistently leveled and progress toward the upgrade trophies along the way.

Step Two: Side Quests and Collectibles

As you progress through the story, you can also complete the side quests you come across and grab any collectibles you come across. I recommend doing this before completing the story to get all the benefits of doing so as you play and to help you reach level 50 without having to grind for it after completing the story. Some side quests will unlock trophies, so you’ll want to do those at least, but as mentioned above, I recommend doing more than that to get as much out of the game’s world and story as possible.

Step Three: Story Completion

Once satisfied with the amount of side content you have completed, you can finish the game’s storyline. If you prefer, this section can be completed before the above one, but I found the game to be the most enjoyable saving the story for last as this made sure I was well upgraded and leveled up going into the final sections of the game. It is important to note that after story completion you can freely roam the map and finish up anything you haven’t gotten around.

Step Four: Clean Up

Depending on your playstyle you may get some or all of these trophies wrapped up earlier in your playthrough. However, many players will not naturally get all of these trophies, so they are best gotten at the end of your playthrough when you have the resources and skills to quickly clean them up. Once you have these done, you will have your platinum trophy and be ready to continue on to a new adventure.

Horizon Forbidden West Trophies

Reached the Daunt

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Reached the Daunt is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Secured Passage to the Embassy

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Secured Passage to the Embassy is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Attended the Embassy

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Attended the Embassy is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Established the Base

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Established the Base is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Recovered AETHER

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Recovered AETHER is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Recovered POSEIDON

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Recovered POSEIDON is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Recovered DEMETER

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Recovered DEMETER is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Recovered Beta

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Recovered Beta is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Discovered Faro’s Fate

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Discovered Faro’s Fate is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Flew on the Wings of the Ten

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Flew on the Wings of the Ten is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Discovered Nemesis

Rarity: Gold
Description: Discovered Nemesis is a story trophy you will get playing naturally.

Reached Level 20

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: You will get this trophy just by playing naturally. See Reached Level 50 below.

Reached Level 30

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: See Reached Level 50 below.

Reached Level 50

Rarity: Silver
Tips: You should reach level 50 by the end of the story questline as long as you complete roughly just more than half of the side quests in the game.

Chose a Desert Commander

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for completing Drakka’s side quest storyline.
Tips: This chain of side quests can be started by talking to Drakka in Arrowhand after completing the story quest, The Eye of the Earth. There are three quests total with the two following quests automatically being given to you after finishing the ones before them.

Saved the Daunt

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for completing the side quest storyline to ensure the Daunt’s safety.
Tips: You can start two of the required quests by talking to Conover in Barren Light. Then, another is started by talking to Petra in the Chainscrape tavern, while a final quest is given to you when you first arrive in Chainscrape but can’t be completed until after you finish the story quest, The Embassy.

Aided Kotallo

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is earned by playing What Was Lost’s side quest.
Tips: You can start this quest in different places depending on whether or not you’ve finished the main quest. If you haven’t, you can find it in the Base toward the end of the main story, while if you have completed it, you can find it at Memorial Grove.

Healed the Land-gods

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for finishing the side quest, The Second Verse.
Tips: This quest can only be completed after you finish the story quest Seeds from the Past. If you haven’t finished the story, it is started at The Base, while if you have finished it, you can start it at Plainsong.

Recovered Alva’s data

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for finishing the side quest Forbidden Legacy.
Tips: If you haven’t finished the story, you can start this quest at The Base, otherwise, you can find Alva in Legacy’s Landfall. You can only start this quest after finishing the story quest Faro’s Tomb and speaking to Beta afterward.

First Tallneck Overridden

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: Check the All Tallnecks Overridden trophy below.

All Tallnecks Overridden

Rarity: Silver
Description: This trophy is for overriding six Tallnecks.
Tips: Five of the six Tallnecks are labeled on the map and easily found. The sixth is hidden in IOTA Cauldron, which you will unlock naturally while completing the cauldron for the All Cores Overridden trophy below.

First Rebel Camp Completed

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: Check the Defeated Asera trophy below.

Defeated Asera

Rarity: Silver
Description: Defeated Asera is for clearing all six Rebel Camps.
Tips: The first five Rebel Camps must be found worldwide, but they will show on your map when you get close enough. There is one in the Eastern Lie, The Hive, Devil’s Grasp, Fenrise, and Breached Rock. Once you have those five done, you will unlock the First Forge quest while will clear the final Rebel Camp and get this trophy.

First Core Overridden

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: See the trophy All Cores Overridden below.

All Cores Overridden

Rarity: Silver
Tips: You will complete two of the Cores while playing through the story. The following four Cores in the order that you should complete them are below:

MU Cauldron: This Cauldron is the first you can do since it is only level 18. You can get to it by heading almost straight south of Plainsong. It is near the leftmost tip of water in the bottom right of the map.
IOTA Cauldron: The IOTA Cauldron also has a Tallneck hidden inside of it, so make sure to get that while you’re here. It is almost as far north as you can go above your base and is just to the right of the circular lake and you’ll only have to be level 22 to get through it.
CHI Cauldron: This Cauldron requires you to be level 30 and is to the far left of the map near the southern coast. The easiest way to get here is to head to Thornmarsh and then head directly south.
KAPPA Cauldron: Before even attempting this Cauldron you need the diving mask because its entrance is underwater. Since its recommended level is 40, however, you should already have it. To get to this one, head to the top-left area of the map and swim underwater in the narrow part of the ocean that cuts into the land there.

Obtained 3 Stripes at a Hunting Ground

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for completing one Hunting Ground.

Obtained 3 Stripes at All Hunting Grounds

Rarity: Silver
Description: You can unlock this trophy by finishing all four Hunting Grounds.
Tips: You have to get a Full Stripe in all three trials at each of the Hunting Grounds. This may take a few attempts, but the game does give you some information before you start the trial, so make sure to read that as they are very helpful in making a strategy.

All Acquisition Machines Killed

Rarity: Bronze
Description: You will get this trophy after successfully killing all 18 Acquisition Machine types.

All Recon Machines Killed

Rarity: Bronze
Description: You will get this trophy after killing all five Recon Machine types.

All Combat Machines Killed

Rarity: Bronze
Description: You will get this trophy after killing all 15 Combat Machine types.

All Transport Machines Killed

Rarity: Bronze
Description: You’ll unlock this one after killing all five Transport Machine types.

Rode All Regular Mounts

Rarity: Bronze
Description: For this trophy ride a Charger, Bristleback, and Clawstrider.

All Machine Types Scanned

Rarity: Silver
Tips: You should work on this trophy throughout your entire playthrough. To do this, just scan every new type of machine when you first encounter it. You should be doing this anyway to see their weak spots and other information, but make sure you’re doing it for this trophy as well.

Completed a Long Glide

Rarity: Bronze
Description: You have to glide for an entire minute to get this trophy.
Tips: There is a good chance you will unlock this trophy naturally, but if you don’t, fly up in the air using the Sunhawk and jump off to glide until the trophy pops.

Completed 2 Flying Mount Quests

Rarity: Bronze

Won 2 Gauntlet Runs

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for finishing two Gauntlet Runs in first place.
Tips: Gauntlet Runs are effectively races using Chargers as mounts. During the races, you’ll also be able to pick up power-ups that can disrupt your opponents. You should also be ready at all times to hit riders that get too close to you with a melee attack by pressing R1. However, be prepared to press R2 as you’ll have to push it to recover whenever an enemy hits you with an item.

Completed a Set of Salvage Contracts

Rarity: Bronze
Description: You unlock this trophy by completing all the side quests for a Salvage Contractor.
Tips: You can complete a few different Salvage Contractors for this trophy, but I recommend completing the quests for Larend. Larend is always in the salvage camp, where he has the quests Convoy Ambush, Scavengers, Alarm Antennas, and Elusive Fanghorn.

Completed 4 Rebel Outposts

Rarity: Bronze

Completed 3 Relic Ruins

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: These can be identified on your map by their blue symbol that looks like a building.

Completed Arena Challenge Set

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: The Arena can be unlocked after completing the quest, The Kulrut. This will unlock the short side quest. Opening the Arena. There are five difficulties of challenge sets, each holding four challenges, but you only have to do one set of four challenges. I recommend completing the Amateur difficulty challenges to make this trophy as easy as possible.

Defeated Machine Strike Challengers

Rarity: Bronze
Description: For this trophy, you have to win two matches of Machine Strike.
Tips: This is a game like Chess and can be played against NPCs found in the bigger cities in the game. They can easily be found as they are marked on your map with a blue cube. This game has a pretty harsh learning curve for a mini-game, but you should be able to generate your own strategy after no more than a couple of tries. I also recommend playing the first two challengers you come across, as they increase in difficulty the further you progress into the game.

Obtained All Weapon Classes

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: For this trophy, you need to collect one variant of each weapon class, so you can just buy cheap uncommon variants to get it out of the way and not worry about it. The nine classes that you need are:

Hunter Bow
Sharpshot Bow
Warrior Bow
Tripcaster
Blastsling
Ropecaster
Boltblaster
Shredder Gauntlet
Spike Thrower

Used all Elemental States

Rarity: Bronze
Description: To get this trophy you have to afflict enemies with each of the six Elemental States at least once each.
Tips: You will likely unlock this trophy naturally. If you don’t, you should have easy access to all six elemental damage types toward the end of the game, at which point you just have to make sure to use each option at least once.

Performed 3 Melee Combos

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for performing three different melee combo skills.

Stealth Killed 10 Machines

Rarity: Bronze

Tore off 100 Components

Rarity: Bronze

Picked up 5 Heavy Weapons

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for using five different heavy weapons.
Tips: Heavy weapons are found by detaching components from machines, so you should get this naturally while completing the above trophy.

10 Types of Machine Overridden

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: You will eventually be able to override 40 types of machines in the game by completing Cauldrons, but you only have to do ten of them to get the platinum trophy.

Defeated the Enduring

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Defeated the Enduring is for beating the champion of the Melee Pits.
Tips: After you complete finish all three Melee Pits, you will be given a quest called The Enduring. Completing that side quest will net you this trophy.

Fully Upgraded a Valor Surge

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: You can upgrade Valor Surges three times using skill points.

Upgraded 3 Weapons

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: To get this one easily, upgrade three weapons of a green rarity because they can only be upgraded to level three.

Upgraded 3 Outfits

Rarity: Bronze
Tips: To do this easily, upgrade three outfits of green rarity because they can only be upgraded to level three.

Upgraded Every Pouch Type

Rarity: Bronze
Description: For this trophy, you have to upgrade each unique pouch you have and one type of Ammo Pouch just once each.

Enhanced Weapon with Coils

Rarity: Bronze
Description: For this trophy, you need to put two coils on a weapon and equip it.

Unlocked 3 Weapon Techniques

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for unlocking three different weapon techniques in the skill tree.

Skill Tree Learned

Rarity: Silver
Description: You will get this trophy once you unlock every skill in the game’s skill tree.

Recovered 5 Different Collectables

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for finding one Survey Drone, Black Box, Relic Ruin, Vista Point, and Signal Tower.
Tips: You will likely find these on your own as you go.

Used Dye Flowers

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Used Dye Flowers is for harvesting flowers in the wild and then using them to dye your clothing.

Conclusion

Open world games can be massive time commitments for players that want to experience everything they have to offer. Thankfully, getting this platinum trophy does not require the player to complete everything in the game. However, doing so is more than worthwhile, as there is a lot of quality content in the game. So, you can invest as much time and effort as you want while pursuing the platinum trophy, and the game makes every hour invested worthwhile.

FAQs

Question: Does difficulty impact Horizon Forbidden West trophies?

Answer: No, you can get the platinum trophy regardless of what difficulty you prefer to play on.

Question: Are any Horizon Forbidden West trophies missable?

Answer: No, there are no missable trophies after the developers patched out the one missable trophy.

Question: Can you keep playing after finishing the story in Horizon Forbidden West?

Answer: Yes, after finishing the story you can free-roam across the game’s entire map.