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In the Runner’s Wild Relic Ruin, the main mechanic used to solve puzzles is utilizing this minecart in order to gain access to the higher levels of the building. It works as a ladder, specifically because of the yellow handholds along the side on top of it.

One of the other reasons it works so well is the contents. It has plenty of rubble and debris, likely from the remains of the Relic Ruin it can be found in.

In order to actually be used though, it has to be pulled. That’s there that blue section comes in- unsurprisingly, it’s what the player has to hook onto with the grappling hook. Doing this allows the player to move the cart where they want, within reason. there’s a lever to change the direction)

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As a huge fan of the game it makes me so happy to have something new revealed every day, and see someone else appreciating it with such care and detail. Thank you for taking the time to write out your thoughts - they are very appreciated and enjoyed!

Of course, I’m glad you look forward to my content so much! It always makes my day to get asks like these :)

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“Spark and Flame” is a surprisingly soft track, given the name and the ties to the Oseram. While this is due to the fact that we hear this track when Aloy first meets with Petra in Chainscrape, it is still interesting hearing an Oseram centered song that doesn’t have percussion front and center (a good example of one that does is “A Wager Over Barrels”, which is next on the list!)

It actually starts off soft, and stays that way for most of the track. Right at (0:05) we have some strings playing the main melody, and for a second it sounds like they’re playing the leitmotif heard in Meridian, though it quickly becomes its own melody instead. It’s also worth mentioning that just because percussion isn’t the main instrument doesn’t mean it isn’t here- it can actually be heard in the background. (0:16) adds some woodwinds into the piece, and they do take over for a brief moment. Of course, at (0:28), we hear both woodwinds and strings begin to share the melody. While the woodwinds do tend to draw more attention, they’re played in tandem with the strings.

(1:10) is a fairly interesting point of the track. It starts fading, almost like it would at the end. However, at (1:13), the piece starts up ahain, and it seems to be dominated by strings specifically here. It takes until (1:23) for the woodwinds to get a place in the spotlight since the fade earlier. They’re quickly overshadowed again, as there are noticeably more string instruments by (1:38). And while we didn’t get the Meridian leitmotif in all of its glory at the start, at (1:58) we get a brief leitmotif from “In the Flood”.

The track seems to end at (2:06), as it starts fading rather quickly. This works out though, as it ends at (2:13).

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The Hive is the rebel camp located in the Shining Wastes. It’s a rather appropriately named camp, as these honeycomb-shaped structures are the most recognizable thing about it.

These structures, upon closer examination, appear to mostly have been used for storage by the Old Ones- specifically storing aircraft engines.

This decision to use these panels for storage isn’t lost on the rebels though! As we can see here, these panels actually seem to be getting more use by them, not only as protection for their camp (as seen above) but also as shelving.

And of course, while you can get on top of them by using a flying mount, I didn’t find anything of value up there

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Decided I would look at the differences between four types of arrows tonight. In order, we have (1)- the standard Hunter Arrow, (2)- the Advanced Hunter Arrow, (3)- the Tracking Hunter Arrow, and (4)- the Precision Arrow. The first three are all on the Sunshot Hunter Bow, while the fourth is on the Cleaving Sharpshot bow

So first we have the Hunter Arrow. It has a nice, minimalistic appearance, with very little distinguishing features. It looks very similar to the Advanced Hunter Arrow, as not only does it share the same color scheme, but it also has what looks similar to a Towton arrowhead.

This is the Advanced Hunter Arrow. It looks quite similar to the standard variant, with the bigger detail being more stripes on the shaft. On top of having more stripes, this arrow deals more damage than the standard Hunter Arrow.

Next we have the Targeting Hunter Arrow. I went ahead and photographed it in the dark as well so that I could show off the glowing part. The name seems to throw a lot of players for a loop though due to how broad it is, as the main purpose of these arrows is just to make an overridden machine go after Nate we the arrow hits.

And finally we have the Precision Arrows. These ones are virtually identical to the standard Hunting Arrow in terms of appearance, with the biggest change being that the arrowhead appears to be closer to an Agincourt head instead

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Decided to take a look at the difference between two Spike Throwers today, I believe I went with the Impact Spike Thrower (left) and The Vindicator(right)

The Spike Thrower is a medium range weapon that serves as a projectile. At first, it seems rather long. This is due to the fact that when equipped, it’s already loaded.

Of course, as we can see here, it’s much shorter. Interestingly enough, only about a third of the original length is what makes up the actual Spike Thrower. This design is small, and likely allows for a quick release, plus the smaller size likely makes reloading pretty easy as well. It also seems like a fairly easy piece of gear to carry around.

When in use, as the name implies, Aloy throws it. Interestingly enough, while her posture while lining up the shot (first two photos) seems more like spear fishing or maybe even pole vaulting, her posture upon releasing it seems more like a discus throw

And of course, we have the ammo. I made a different post detailing that specifically, but I still wanted to point it out

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“Clear the Way” is one of the longer tracks in the Forbidden West OST, as it sits at exactly 3 minutes. We hear it during the cutscene where Aloy first meets Studious Vuadis. It’s generally speaking, one of the softer tracks. It’s slower, and doesn’t make use of heavy synth or percussion, which makes sense as it is heard in a cutscene with quite a bit of talking.

We do start off with light percussion though, which comes in at (0:06). It’s light, and helps set the pace fairly well, as the tone is bright yet still fairly mysterious. At (0:32) we hear a bit of woodwind, which is a nice touch, though the percussion is still the main focus of this track. (0:43) brings some strings in a lower octave, which actually lead to the main melody of this track.

We hear a bit more percussion right at the (1:00) mark, and it still remains light despite the slightly somber tone the rest of the track has taken. We hear more of the strings with a crescendo at (1:09), and after they fade in and out a couple times, we hear another melody with more woodwinds, this time in a lower octave, at (1:47)

That melody is actually one of the longer ones in this piece, as it actually lasts until (2:13). Things actually speed up somewhat at (2:20), though that is brief as it slows down again at (2:30). Finally, we hear a repeat of the melody that ended at 2:13 as it comes in again at (2:38). This part is also what allows for the track to begin to fade out at (2:51), letting it end right at (3:00)

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Dawn’s Sentinel is a location that while it briefly shows up in Forbidden West, is way more prominent in Zero Dawn. It’s a Carja fort, which is actually small enough to not be considered a settlement, so players don’t have much of a reason to visit it outside of plot. (I added the map location at end of the post) However I’m not talking about the fort itself, I’m talking about what I noticed- the cup, plate, and bottle sitting on the table here. So of course, instead of going into lore about the location itself, I wanted to discuss what I found there.

The table is fairly well set, all things considered. As Dawn Sentinel is fairly unguarded, with very few guards present at any given time, a table setting like the one we see above makes sense- it has the bare essentials, and nothing else. The bottle, presumably of an alcohol of some kind, is the flashiest thing on the table, making it a nice centerpiece too. Before I noticed the cups, I honestly thought it was a vase or something similar.

What tipped me off about that is the fact that while not completely full, interestingly enough, the cups do have some kind of liquid inside. The cups also seem rather well made. The general vibe gives off closer to Oseram than Carja due to the materials, but that’s not as important due to the craftsmanship used. These are somewhat refined, even for a guard station.

And finally the plates and cutlery. There isn’t much today about the plates. They’re terracotta or clay, and the sides have noticeable wear and tear. What caught my interest was actually the fork. The fork is smaller than the knife, and has three tines, not four, meaning it’s likely closer to an oyster fork. This is one of my favorite details about the location, in part due to the fact that there’s a river nearby, so things like fish and oysters may be a common meal

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“Valley’s Descent” is what the player hears while Aloy is going into the Daunt for the first time. It also technically marks the end of the tutorial, as entering the Daunt is the first major point of no return- the Player isn’t able to return to Meridian after that point, and I feel this track captures that pretty well.

Right off the bat, we’re met with a slow start to the track with some light scraping, akin to what can be heard in combat tracks, while a light rhythmic bit of percussion works as support. We have a gentle melody played in a lower octave at (0:09) seconds in, which while soft, quickly becomes the main focus of the piece. At (0:22) we hear more of the scraping again, the foreboding nature of it only adding to the mildly unsettling feel to this track. This makes sense, in my eyes, this track is meant to feel daunting, for lack of a better term. As mentioned, I feel it marks the end of the tutorial, which by default means it marks the end of any familiarity that the player may have had. Around (0:50) the percussion, which seems like a cowbell or something similar, becomes more prominent. The steady tone speeds up slightly, as well as increases in volume.

At (1:05) we’re hit with a tone shift. While the track was mildly unsettling at best before, there’s suddenly a blunt stop for a moment, before a decrescendo starts. The winds also come back at (1:10). We hear a bit more of the melody at (1:18), which also brings another tone shift, funnily enough. This is where it begins to feel more open, more bright, even if for a second. We have a crescendo at (1:25), which leads into a stronger melody than what we had heard earlier. While it’s still in a lower octave, it feels more hopeful, in a sense.

While faint, the percussion in the back speeds up slightly at (2:00). It’s actually more noticeable at (2:20), before the piece begins to slow down. This makes sense, as we hear the last major shift in the melody at (2:40) before the track begins to fade, ending at (2:58).

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The Focus is a vital part of both the lore and gameplay in both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. It’s introduced in the tutorial for Zero Dawn, and it serves as a catalyst of sorts for some of the biggest parts of the plot. It’s a unique device left behind by the Old Ones, with different views depending on the tribe talking about it. For example, the Nora show significant distrust towards it due to it being technology from the Old Ones, whereas tribes like the Quen are far more accepting of it, to the point where with what they’ve encountered, a Focus is primitive.

It’s a fairly simple device- it serves as an AR projector of sorts, and it allows Aloy, and by extension, the player, to track machines, animals, or human enemies. It also provides info from data points, collectible locations such as Vista Points, and even allows for scanning specific parts of machines. What’s interesting is we don’t actually have much info on how one works. It attaches to the side of the head, despite no visible means of doing so. My running theory is that humans likely had a means of clipping one in place, likely with a neural port of some kind, and the port in question probably became a part of their body after humanity was brought back after the derangement.

While exploring, the Focus can have a few different appearances. The first photo I showed is the default, where it glows faintly, but the one above this paragraph is another frequent sight. It looks like this when it’s just been used, so it isn’t completely off. It looks more like a light sleep mode if anything. On the bottom though, we have the Focus as it’s actively being used. The circle from the second image has since expanded, which also produces more light. This likely does store some kind of info as well, though it’s hard to tell

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So this is a Broadhead. It’s a small sized acquisition class machine, and it’s one of the first machines that the player is able to override. It’s also not present in Horizon Forbidden West, as it was removed due to redundancy. This is because not only is it one of the many machines that functions as a mount, but also because of the functions it serves lore-wise.

See, I chose to focus on the head because that’s the biggest difference between Broadheads and Striders or Chargers. The only other notable difference is the amount of Blaze Canisters. While the photos I took do not show this, it actually has two canisters on the lower back instead of one.

One of the most noticeable things about the head though, aside from the horns, is the way it is able to consume grass, which it then converts into Blaze. While some parts of this is speculation, it has been confirmed that this machine uses these rotary tools on the sides of its head to tear up biomass such as plants, which is then converted into energy, as well as Blaze.

As for where the speculation comes in, I believe that this part in the center here is actually where it’s able to take in whatever it shreds. It seems to be a filter, right where the mouth would be if it had one. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is in fact a filter somewhere in there, which allows it to only consume what it needs to.

(Started some new meds recently, just bear with me please! I’m still working hard to keep posts frequent though!)

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“A Signal in the West” plays during the conversation Aloy has with Sylens at The Spire. It’s a fairly quiet track, but it still has a slight edge to it.

It starts out with some strings in a higher octave, but those quickly taper out by (0:15) in favor of a lower pitched sound from something I can’t quite place, which is followed by a higher pitched noice reminiscent of metal scraping against metal at (0:19). The strings are back again, this time with a lower, more menacing tone to them at (0:24). The wavelike pattern they follow here is slow, and while at some points like (0:31) percussion can be faintly heard, generally speaking, they’re the main focus of this piece. It actually ends up repeating, just louder, at (0:35). Honestly, this track gives off the same vibes as a track that you would hear in a cave found in something like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but that isn’t a bad thing in the slightest, at least in my opinion. (Skyrim does have some amazing music).

Honestly, from here, it’s a lot of the same, as it’s background music for a plot important cutscene, there isn’t much going on. It has two jobs- set the mood and don’t distract the player. I’d say it does this fairly well. While there are some mild changes here and there, such as (1:21) having it crescendo slightly for a few seconds, only for there to be a far more noticeable decrescendo at (1:30) the changes are infrequent. Though, it is worth mentioning the largest crescendo at (1:40), as everything does slowly fade out soon after, ending the track at (2:07).

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Went ahead and looked at the Blaze barrels in the Zero Dawn remaster tonight. These canisters are one of the things that while present in both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, has a different appearance between the two titles. In Forbidden West, Blaze takes on a color closer to a shade of orange, and the barrels are more discreet, while still fitting with the region’s architecture. While it fits much better appearance wise, it makes it much harder to spot. However, in Zero Dawn, Blaze is a bright neon green, as seen below. It sticks out like a sore thumb, but that does mean it’s easier for the player to see in combat.

As we can see here, it takes on a different appearance when worn by human enemies as well. It’s two large canisters, likely taken directly from a machine, and they’re just strapped to the enemy’s back. It lacks the vibrant green glow, which makes it clear that it’s safely sealed inside, as the glow on the barrels is from the Blaze coating the barrel.

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I’ve talked about the horns used by the Lancehorn, though I don’t think I’ve discussed the horns that Grazers have. Grazers are a common, somewhat skittish machine that can be seen in both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. They can often be seen cutting grass with their horns, which is converted into Blaze for them to use in combat.

The biggest difference between them and Lancehorns that can be seen is the fact that their horns are wider, and are in more of an antler-like shape as opposed to the drill that Lancehorns have. They still are able to rotate fully, and they even are used in combat, though they can still be removed.

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We hear the track “Vigilance” during the starting part of Forbidden West, specifically in The Spire, when Aloy pulls Sylens’s old spear from the processing orb that HADES was trapped in. It’s a gritty, mildly unsettling track that fits the cutscene perfectly.

Right off the bat, we have a sharp tone, almost a troll of sorts. It honestly reminds me of something you would hear in Last of Us. While it gets a little louder at (0:12), this rough synth is the only instrument so far. Around (0:18) and (0:23) we have some more additions to this, albeit brief ones. From (0:35) to (0:44), we have what seems like an ascending scale of sorts, which leads to the percussion at (0:45).

The percussion speeds up slightly, but it isn’t really noticeable until (1:00) or so. Despite feeling rushed and frantic, it really is the easiest part of the track to follow at this point. There’s multiple kinds of synth that can be heard, what sounds like bells, and on top of all of that, the percussion. It’s a rather cluttered, yet still incredibly cohesive piece. At (1:06) more percussion comes in, adding what can almost be described as a pulse to this section for a couple seconds. A majority of the percussion also temporarily fades out around (1:37) in order to showcase the synth again. Around (1:46), we hear more percussion, this time in a higher octave as it continues in the background. It’s rhythmic, and stays quietly in the back for the remainder of the track.

At (2:09) we hear a few notes of a melody playing over the synth. While it doesn’t last long, it does repeat at (2:16) as well as (2:22). However, this is the last major thing to point out here, as almost everything slows down by (2:32), and the last thing we hear in this track is the higher pitch synth slowly fading out by (2:41)

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The Watcher is a small, Recon class machine that is present in Horizon Zero Dawn, and while there are some that live in individual packs, they primarily show up in groups of 2-3 in other machine sites. (I got these shots in a Watcher specific site)

I wanted to specifically talk about their lenses here. Their lenses make up their entire “face”, and are what allow them to scan for potential threats. Like with any other machine, the light behind it indicates how much of a threat they are to the player at any given moment. As better demonstrated in the second photo, with the yellow light, while their heads can turn, the lenses themselves can also move within the socket. This allows the machine to have a wider range of visibility when looking for threats.

Of course, the biggest downside to having a large, brightly colored light for a face is that it serves as a clear weak spot. What’s interesting about that though, is that the model for the Watcher does actually change depending on where it was struck. In this first photo here, I have a Watcher that I had shot in the lens with a Precision arrow. I got this shot immediately after the red light faded, allowing for a clear shot of the lens, or the lack thereof. As we can see, it’s completely gone, likely shattered, allowing for a perfect view of the inside of the Watcher’s head.

And in this second one, I have the lens of a Watcher I hit from behind with the spear. As the lens itself is still intact, this is a rare instance where we actually get to see a machine lens without the light. This one here is domed, though what threw me off was the fact that not only can we actually see the reflection of the world around it, but it also seems to have a grid of some kind.

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The Prairie Dog is a small, docile animal that serves as wildlife in Horizon Forbidden West. It has a skittish nature, and will flee from the player upon being approached. The closest real world equivalent I could find is the Gunnison’s Prairie Dog (Cynomys gunnisoni). While not pictured here, it can sometimes be found standing on its hind legs, looking around the nearby surroundings.

It can be hunted down easily, and it has a surprisingly low variety of drops. It has five drops: The prairie dog bone, prairie dog hide, rich meat, wild meat, and southern beast haunch. Despite the lower variety, one item in particular actually stands out in my opinion; the southern beast haunch. This item is also able to be dropped by peccaries and rabbits. While this isn’t the first time specific loot was shared among wildlife (the rich/wild meat is a good example of this), it does bring up something quite interesting that I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet- Forbidden West actually added region specific cuts of meat to the loot tables for some wildlife.