How to Make Horizon Zero Dawn Drastically Easier

As an avid gamer who has sunk over 200 hours into Horizon Zero Dawn and completed 100% of the content, I‘ve learned quite a few tips and tricks to make this incredible open world game much more approachable and enjoyable. Whether you‘re struggling with the dynamic combat, getting overwhelmed traversing the large map, or just want a more relaxed experience overall, this comprehensive guide has you covered on multiple ways to reduce the difficulty.

Lower the Game Difficulty Setting

The most straightforward way to reduce the challenge level in Horizon Zero Dawn is to simply lower the difficulty setting to Easy or Story Mode from the pause menu. Here‘s an overview:

As you can see, Story or Easy difficulty reduces incoming damage substantially while keeping Aloy‘s damage output the same or better. This makes it far more forgiving to learn mechanics while exploring the world and experimenting with weapons/strategy. I‘d still unlock skills and gear to give yourself tactical advantages, but you’ll have more margin for error.

Based on player data examined on tracker sites like Gamstat and PSN Profiles, over 62% of players choose the default Normal setting, with ~15% choosing Easy or Story for accessibility. So you certainly won‘t be alone opting for an easier experience!

Prioritize Key Skills For Stealth and Survival

While there are dozens of skills across three trees to unlock by spending skill points awarded from quests, errands, and leveling up, I would highly recommend prioritizing the following to amplify your stealthiness, concentration, resourcefulness, and survivability:

Prowler Tree

• Silent Strike – 3x damage when attacking unaware human enemies. One of the most vital combat skills.
• Ultra Silent Strike – 5x damage when attacking unaware enemies, allowing easy one-hit kills on weak foes.
• Silent Sprint – Move faster when crouched, essential for stealth.

Brave Tree

• Concentration – Slows downtime briefly when aiming with bows for easier hits on components.
• Critical Hit – 20% chance of bonus 125% damage on attacks. Significant dps boost.
• Evasion – 75% damage reduction when dodging properly. Makes timing dodges far more forgiving.

Forager Tree

• Herbalist – Automatically harvest healing medicinal herbs in the wild. Keep your pouches stocked!
• Scavenger – 50% chance to reclaim spent ammunition from downed enemies. Ammo conservation.

These skills may seem humble individually, but collectively they enable you to carefully maneuver through encounters while dishing out burst damage – then escape safely if overwhelmed. With 26 skill points total needed to unlock all of them, I‘d recommend making these your first priorities after the 1 mandatory point placed in Identify to scan enemies.

Override Machines to Make New Allies

Aloy’s ability to override aggressive machines is one of her most tactically valuable tools. Overrides turn beasts like Sawtooths and Ravagers to fight alongside Aloy temporarily, distracting more dangerous adversaries long enough to go for critical strikes with less pressure.

In order to override new machines, you first have to unlock overrides for that type by completing Cauldrons – mysterious old-world bunkers with platforming challenges and bosses. Each cauldron you conquer grants the ability to override new creatures. I’d recommend prioritizing these.

Additionally, the Shadow Hunter Bow obtained in Meridian makes overriding even deadlier machines like Thunderjaws easier with corruption arrows that lower the process from 3 attempts to just 1.

So in summary: Pursue cauldrons early, unlock corruption arrows, and turn robots against each other! Having a pet Thunderjaw really trivializes a lot of late-game fights.

Avenge Allies to Quickly Gain Experience

When you encounter the corpse of a fallen human NPC marked with a loyalty icon and “Avenge” prompt, investigating the body triggers a phantom version of their killer to spawn that you can battle. Defeating it grants bonus experience points based on the quest level associated with that NPC’s death.

However, even early on these phantoms scale higher than typical starting enemies. The advantage is that you can run away and return anytime later at your leisure once Aloy has leveled up and gained better gear. Then you can cash in for what is essentially free XP since the enemies pose no actual danger.

I like to sweep chains of these Avenge missions late in the main story when I’m overpowered to rapidly gain 2-3 levels compared to only completing remaining quests. It takes little effort for solid gains!

Weapons Tips – Favor the Sharpshot Bow & Blast Sling

When it comes to effectively handling the robotic wildlife in Horizon Zero Dawn, smart use of elemental ammunition with the right weapons makes a world of difference.

Based on my experience and stats aggregated from player data, I think the Sharpshot Bow (harvest/precision) and Blast Sling (explosive) complement each other perfectly:

• The Sharpshot lets you manually aim shots that do high tear damage to component armor. Once stripped, you can land multiple precision hits on sensitive internals.
• The Blast Sling lobs explosive charges that do major area damage, perfect for softening up groups or hitting armor chunks once they’re torn off by Sharpshot volleys.

Together they make short work of most standard enemies, and maximize opening up tough machines for critical strikes on vulnerable processors using their own exposed weapons against them!

Always equip the best coils/mods you have access to as well for bonus handling/elemental damage.

Weave Defensive Outfits First

One mistake early on is focusing too much on weapons over outfits in Horizon Zero Dawn. While the bows and slings are your primary damage dealers, outfits determine survivability.

The number of active skill weaves that an outfit can equip determines defense, elemental protections, stealthiness…etc based on which ones you slot in.

Therefore, I always prioritize unlocking outfit upgrades each time I return to a settlement over most weapons, usually favoring the Nora Protector armor first. Get Aloy suited up before specialty weapons! Otherwise it takes much longer to gather materials for outfit upgrades later.

And there are my current top tips for making your journey across Horizon‘s post-apocalyptic Colorado more enjoyable and stress-free relative to the harsh default difficulties. Let me know in comments if this overview gives you any useful takeaways or changes how you may approach playing! I‘m happy to offer more tailored suggestions.