What difficulty should I play Horizon Forbidden West?

As a passionate gamer and content creator who has played over 50 hours of Horizon Forbidden West, difficulty choice plays a major role in getting the most enjoyment out of this vast open world title. I‘ve compiled my knowledge into this comprehensive guide on picking the right difficulty for your playstyle.

Overview of Difficulty Levels

Horizon Forbidden West offers 5 difficulty options:

As you move up difficulties, machines become more aggressive, use more advanced tactics, and Aloy‘s weapons do less damage. Health pools for larger enemies like Thunderjaws can nearly double.

Recommendations By Playstyle

Based on your goals with Forbidden West, here‘s what I recommend:

First Playthrough

For your first journey into the Forbidden West, Normal or Hard will give you the best balance of challenge and progression. With Normal you‘ll face tough fights while exploring the story. Hard ups the stakes more if you want tense battles.

Focusing on Story

If you‘re most interested in experiencing Aloy‘s journey rather than combat, Story or Easy difficulties reduce how often you‘ll get stuck on tough enemies. You‘ll blaze through fights faster to see more of the narrative.

Seeking a True Test of Skill

Veteran players yearning to fully test combat abilities should start on Very Hard. With machines presenting extreme danger, you‘ll need to master dodging, elemental attacks, and advanced tactics to come out on top. Each encounter will push your limits.

In It for Exploration

For those focused on exploring Forbidden West‘s expansive world over combat, Easy is ideal. Fighting dangerous machines hampers map discovery. On lower difficulties you can study lore and uncover secrets with less deadly confrontations slowing you down.

Key Differences Between Difficulties

Here are some of the major changes you‘ll notice when ramping up difficulties:

• Machine damage output significantly increased
• Machine health pools are much larger
• Weapons and attacks do less damage to enemies
• More aggressive machine behaviors and tactics
• Limited healing options as medicine is less effective

Essentially machines hit harder and can take more punishment before going down. You must carefully study their components and target weak spots to prevail. Rushing in blindly only works on lower settings.

When to Change Difficulties

One benefit of Horizon Forbidden West is you can freely change difficulties at any time from the settings menu without affecting trophies. As you play, consider shifting difficulties if:

• Fights are too easy even with low-tier gear
• You keep getting one-shot by powerful attacks
• Healing options are too limited to recover health
• You want to focus more on exploration over combat

There’s no shame in lowering down a notch if a certain encounter is halting your story progress. And if you desire more of a challenge you can always ratchet it up!

Preparing For Higher Difficulties

When making the jump to higher difficulties, make sure you:

• Fully upgrade your favorite armor sets
• Only use weapons with maximum damage mods attached
• Equip outfits and charms boosting defense and resistance
• Stock up on plenty of medicine, antidotes and ammo
• Study machine weak points and elemental vulnerabilities

Going in unprepared will make things extremely punishing. But planning ahead properly allows higher difficulties to become exciting challenges rather than roadblocks.

Final Recommendation

While Horizon Forbidden West poses a stiff challenge even on Normal for newcomers, it’s the best difficulty I‘d suggest for first playthroughs. You’ll face dangerous machines requiring strategy to beat, keeping fights intense without becoming punishing. It allows you to see much of what this incredible game has to offer.

Then on a second playthrough bump it up to Hard or Very Hard difficulty. With Aloy’s skills and gear expanded, it becomes a thrilling test of your abilities. And the freedom to change any time means you can always adjust based on what you feel makes Forbidden West most enjoyable.

Let me know if you have any other questions about perfecting your playthrough! I’m here to provide whatever gaming insights fellow players may need.