Horizon Zero Dawn hard or Very Hard

Q: What difficulty is best for Horizon Zero Dawn?

If youve played Horizon Zero Dawn and are familiar with action games, we would suggest playing on Normal. Normal difficulty provides a fairly challenging experience for the average player. While youll be mostly fine getting through the game on Normal, you may still die a few times if youre not careful.

Q: Is Horizon Zero Dawn a hard game?

Its difficult but as you level up and equip better weapons you wont find things to hard unless maybe you play on the hardest level. I played on hard and in the final level I wasnt killed.

There are two big changes in Very Hard difficulty that make combat a challenge. First, enemies hit harder. Second, herbs fill your medicine pouch at a reduced rate, meaning you’ll need to gather more herbs. So it’s in your best interest to not get hit. At all.

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Horizon Forbidden West: What Difficulty Should You Select?
What difficulty is best for Horizon Zero Dawn?
Is Horizon Zero Dawn a hard game?
Does difficulty matter in Horizon Zero Dawn?
Is there an achievement for beating Horizon Forbidden West on very hard?

Like in similar games, the crucial thing to do is to survive the early levels until you get some skills in and build up your character.

Let’s get the first skills to get sorted out first.

Get Silent Strike, Concentration and Lure Call.

Hide in tall grass, use Lure Call to get your enemies to approach you, then hit them with Silent Strike to kill them. The damage from Silent Strike is enough to one-shot Watchers, Scrappers and other small-bodied targets. Use this to gather resources and gain XP.

Get Gatherer.
Get Concentration+, Double Shot then Knockdown.
Add fire mods to your Hunter’s Bow.

Double Shot and fire mods will allow you to deal with Sawtooths, which are among the toughest threats you’ll face during the early game. Use hit-and-run tactics by setting them on fire then hiding. And speaking of hiding, remember that breaking line of sight is better than running. Some enemies can leap and hit you from behind so find a boulder, hill or wall to hide in before you attack.

Knockdown makes your R2 attack more reliable when it comes to knocking your targets down. When targets are set on fire, they go through a burning animation during the initial stages of the debuff. You can use this time to do a quick knockdown if you’re close enough.

If you need to get close to a target, remember that rolling is silent. Rolling while crouched allows you to cover a lot of ground while remaining stealthy.

Hit the blaze canisters on Grazers to detonate them. It’s best when you can hit the canisters on 2-3 different Grazers. You can get a big explosion that will take out multiple targets, earning you XP and loot.

With that in mind, you can use the first hunting ground as an early farming spot. Start a trial, kills the Grazers, then reset the trial. The reset will respawn the Grazers. Note that resetting hunting ground trials will always respawn their respective targets.

In terms of skills, take skills that power up your ranged attacks first, then your collecting/foraging. Aside from Knockdown, leave the melee skills for last. The idea is to stay out of harm’s way.

When you’re about a third of the way into the game you’ll gain access to weapons that can apply Corruption. Corruption is a godsend on Very Hard. Corrupted targets will attack nearby machines, leveling out the playing field. The status also works on human targets.

What difficulty level should you choose in Horizon Forbidden West? What difficulty options are there, and which should you pick? In Horizon Forbidden West, you'll be going up against some seriously dangerous foes, and it can all get a bit intense. Fortunately, there are multiple difficulty levels to choose from so you can find the right amount of challenge for you. As part of our Horizon Forbidden West guide, we're going to outline all the game's difficulty settings so you know which one to pick.

Horizon Forbidden West: What Difficulty Should You Select?

Horizon Forbidden West has 5 difficulty settings for you to choose from. Here they all are:

Story: Story difficulty eases the combat experience, allowing you to focus on exploration and narrative.
Easy: Easy difficulty offers a light combat experience while exploring the world and story.
Normal: Normal difficulty provides a balanced experience of exploration, story, and combat.
Hard: Hard difficulty allows for a challenging combat experience throughout the journey.
Very Hard: Very Hard difficulty offers a tough and demanding combat experience for those looking to test their skills.
Ultra Hard: Ultra Hard difficulty offers the toughest combat experience for those seeking the ultimate challenge.

If you've played Horizon Zero Dawn and are familiar with action games, we would suggest playing on Normal. Normal difficulty provides a fairly challenging experience for the average player. While you'll be mostly fine getting through the game on Normal, you may still die a few times if you're not careful.

More experienced players, or those that want to up the ante, can select Hard or Very Hard — but we would only recommend doing so if you're looking for a stern challenge. Horizon Forbidden West's battles, particularly against machines, can be tough even on Normal unless you really know what you're doing, so if you decide to go harder, prepare for a proper fight.

On the flip side of the coin, those who are less interested in the challenge and simply want to enjoy the adventure should look to Easy or Story. Story in particular strips away a fair amount of difficulty from enemy encounters, meaning you can spend more time focusing on the storyline rather than battling machines.

Ultra Hard, meanwhile, can only be accessed through New Game + mode. After beating Horizon Forbidden West at least once, you will unlock New Game + and can choose Ultra Hard difficulty, if you're really looking to push yourself to the limit. For more about New Game +, see our guide: Horizon Forbidden West: Does It Have New Game +?

However you decide to play, remember that you can always change your mind at any time. From the Settings menu, you can swap the difficulty level whenever you like, so don't feel like you're tied to a particular setting.

We should also mention there are many accessibility settings you can tweak, which may enhance your experience or make certain actions easier to perform. We would recommend browsing the Accessibility menu from the game's start screen and see what it has to offer.

Finally, there are no difficulty-related Trophies, meaning you can get every Trophy, including the Platinum, no matter what setting you select. For more information about Trophies, see our guide: Horizon Forbidden West Trophy Guide: All PS5, PS4 Trophies and How to Get the Platinum.

What difficulty level will you play Horizon Forbidden West on? Let us know in the comments section below, and check out our Horizon Forbidden West guide for loads more info.

What difficulty is best for Horizon Zero Dawn?

Is Horizon Zero Dawn a hard game?

It's difficult but as you level up and equip better weapons you won't find things to hard unless maybe you play on the hardest level. I played on hard and in the final level I wasn't killed.

Does difficulty matter in Horizon Zero Dawn?

Based on some time testing out a few of the different options, difficulty in Horizon Zero Dawn really only seems to affect the amount of items found (finding higher quality items is much harder on higher difficulty), and the amount of damage that both Aloy and enemies dish out.

Is there an achievement for beating Horizon Forbidden West on very hard?

We are pleased to say that no, there is no trophy or achievement related to the difficulty level in Horizon Forbidden West. Therefore, you can change it at any time and even play in Story mode (the easiest) if you wish, as it will not affect the achievement of Platinum.