So you’ve beaten Horizon Forbidden West and are looking for things to do to keep you exploring the world after the credits have rolled. Fortunately, there’s a ton of side activities, collectibles, combat challenges and more just begging for your attention. If you’re looking to add the Platinum trophy to your collection, too, then you’ll need to do a lot of these things anyway, so you might as well get started on it as soon as you can. Here are 7 things to do after beating Horizon Forbidden West.
Find the Last ‘Hidden’ Tallneck
While there are five Tallnecks wandering the Forbidden West which are marked on your map, there’s also one that’s secretly tucked away that you’ll need to seek out yourself.
It can be found in the IOTA Cauldron in the very north of the map. Heading into the Cauldron, you’ll need to take on some tough machines and unjam the Tallneck that’s stuck on the production line.
It’s a fun little side activity, and one you’d miss entirely if you weren’t going for a completionist run or just didn’t venture up to these far stretches of the map.
Reach the Max Level Cap
Unless you did a majority of the side content before playing through Horizon Forbidden West’s final mission, chances are you’ve still got some leveling to do before you reach Aloy’s max level cap.
The most enjoyable way of doing this is to simply play through all of the side quests still in your Journal. If you’ve cleared all of these, return to the various settlements across the Forbidden West. You’ll find NPCs keep coming at you with more little odd jobs and errands for Aloy to complete that weren’t available when you first visited them.
You’ll also get a ton of additional skill points for completing side quests and leveling up, allowing you to unlock some of the best weapon techniques, Valor Surges and other passive abilities in the game.
Complete All Arena & Hunting Ground Challenges
Things to Do After Beating Horizon Forbidden West
While taking on the various types of machines found roaming the wilderness in the Forbidden West can be fun, if you’re looking for a tougher challenge, you’ll definitely want to visit the Arena at Memorial Grove, and the four Hunting Grounds scattered across the map.
Hunting Grounds offer you combat scenarios with time limits and specific requirements that score your performance and award you with Arena Medals and ‘stripes’ respectively. Not only are these required in order to unlock two trophies, but Arena Medals can also be used to purchase some of the best gear in the game.
Complete all of the Arena challenges and you’ll unlock the ‘Death-Seeker’s Shadow’ Legendary Hunter Bow, which is easily one of the best weapons Aloy can get her hands on.
They’re also just fun and can put all of those machine-slaying skills you’ve refined over the course of the main story to the test.
Finish All of the Machine Strike Boards
Machine Strike is Horizon Forbidden West’s completely optional board game side activity. A chess-inspired board game, the aim of the game is to wipe out your opponent’s Victory Points by destroying their Machines on the board.
Complete boards and you’ll get more machine pieces to use in the tougher boards that can be found in settlements you visited later on in your adventure across the Tenakth’s territory.
It’s a compelling little distraction, and one that gets slightly more complex with different board types and tougher opponent machine pieces as you progress, but it shouldn’t be slept on. Much like The Witcher 3’s Gwent became an easy way to sink countless hours into the game without as much as touching the hilts of Geralt’s swords, Machine Strike gives you reason enough to visit the various settlements across the Forbidden West.
There’s no trophy tied to it, but if you’re looking for something to keep you in the Forbidden West’s world, this is absolutely worth checking out.
Clear Out All Rebel Bases & Outposts
Things to Do After Beating Horizon Forbidden West
Those pesky Tenakth rebels have a bunch of outposts and bases littered across the Forbidden West. Outposts are less imposing in their defenses and can often be cleared out relatively quickly, with only a few rebels and, sometimes, their machines keeping watch, while the bases are larger, far more heavily guarded and task you with completing an objective other than just killing the enemies you find there.
If you’re a fan of the Far Cry series’ outposts, then you’re going to have a lot of fun using Aloy’s veritable selection of weapons to pick off enemies one by one. Will you opt for a stealthy approach, or go in all bows blazing? The choice is entirely up to you.
Complete the Side Quests for Kotallo, Alva & Zo
There are a ton of different side quests in Horizon Forbidden West that beg for your attention and seek to drag you off the beaten main story quest path. However, there are three we had a ton of fun completing and as such we highly recommend you take on.
For Kotallo, you’ll need to help him seek out the components for, and subsequently build a prosthetic arm before putting it to the test. It offers a real feel-good ending, and Kotallo’s great, so you shouldn’t need much convincing to spend more time with the fierce warrior.
Alva’s sees you visiting and clambering up the ruins of a massive headquarters from the ancient — our — civilization, in search of data, and has some of the most grandiose traversal puzzling the game has to offer, and some nice back-and-forth between Aloy and the Quen Diviner.
Finally, Zo will ask Aloy for help healing the Utaru’s ailing land gods and bring life back to Plainsong’s field. It’s a fun and fairly lengthy side quest that’ll reward you with a trophy for completing.
In fact, all three of these side quests will net you trophies for completing, so they’re well worth playing through if you’re trying to get the Platinum trophy.
Mop Up Remaining Trophies for the Platinum
Things to Do After Beating Horizon Forbidden West
Speaking of Horizon Forbidden West’s platinum trophy, chances are at this point you’re fairly close to having obtained all of the other trophies in the game.
Make sure that you’ve completed the side quests to choose a Desert Commander and those for saving the Daunt. You’ll also need to hover with your glider for 60 seconds, scan every Machine, take part in two Gauntlet Runs and explore three Relic Ruins, among other things.
Still, for the super fan looking to see everything the game has to offer, then trying to add the Platinum trophy to your collection of shiny baubles is a solid way of doing so.
There you have a bunch of things to do after beating Horizon Forbidden West. For more tips, tricks and guides, head over to our wiki or see more of our coverage on the game below.
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