Horizon Forbidden West beginner’s guide, tips, and tricks

polygon.com:

There is no shortage of things to do in Horizon Forbidden West — to the point where it can feel overwhelming. There’s a vast open world, weapons and outfits to find, and a couple dozen types of machines to hunt. There are resources to collect, side quests to complete, cauldrons to override, gladiatorial Melee Pits to compete in, and, oh yeah, a world to save.

In this Horizon Forbidden West beginner’s guide, we’ll give you the tips, tricks, and advice from more than 100 combined hours with the game — the things that we wish we knew back when we were starting starting out. We’ve got tips on climbing and navigation, resource management, machine combat, weaponry, and more.

Climbing in Horizon Forbidden West is, frankly, a little awkward. It only works in certain locations and on certain rocks. Thankfully, you can ping your Focus to temporarily highlight climbable rocks with yellow markers. Even better, you can (and should) turn on the Climbing Annotations Always On setting in the Settings > Visual menu. It just makes the game easier. And it looks cool, like it’s Aloy’s bluetooth Focus overlaying something on the world.

(While you’re at it, turn on the subtitles in Settings > Audio menu because there’s a lot going on, and half the characters sound like they deliver their lines through gritted teeth.)

In Horizon Forbidden West’s first mission, you’ll craft a new tool called the Pullcaster. It’s a grappling hook that you’ll in specific situations like pulling covers off of vents or moving crates.

The problem is, there’s no clear on-screen reminder about how to equip it and, since you use it pretty rarely, it’s easy to forget how to use it (or that it exists). While aiming by holding down L2, hit Triangle. This switches over