Horizon Forbidden West‘s difficulty varies from player to player depending on how many of the game’s systems they choose to engage with. If a player is setting plenty of traps, taking advantage of each machine’s elemental weaknesses, and targeting their weak spots, the player shouldn’t have any major issues getting through Forbidden West‘s story.
That said, there are always options to do even more damage, making some of the game’s toughest fights cakewalks without touching the difficulty. Difficulty in Horizon Forbidden West doesn’t modify the player’s damage output at all, instead, it alters the health and damage output of the machines. So, while changing the difficulty can allow the player to walk through fights easily, one player figured out a way to deal over 1,000 damage with a single shot.
More Horizon Forbidden West guides:
Explorer and Guided Mode Explained | Horizon Forbidden West Difficulty Trophies | ‘Reached the Daunt’ Trophy Guide | How to Get God of War Face Paint | Best Skills to Get First | Relic Ruins Locations and Puzzle Solutions | How to Upgrade the Resource Pouch | All Tallneck Locations | All Signal Lens Locations | How to Get the Flying Mount | All Machine Locations | Legendary Weapons Locations | How to See Items Without Scanning the Focus
How to Deal Over 1,000 Damage in Horizon Forbidden West
Posted to the sub-Reddit r/Horizon, Reddit user u/slasher_lash posted the video below of them using a Sharpshot Bow to completely eliminate a Burrower. This trick can be done by anyone and should be taken into consideration for anyone struggling with specific difficult boss encounters.
The bow that u/slasher_lash is using is the Warden Sharpshot Bow, a Very Rare item available to be purchased from Prize Master Dukkah at the Arena. Its precision arrows deal 139 impact damage and 114 tear damage, so the player doesn’t need this specific bow to completely destroy a machine, just a Sharpshot Bow with comparable stats.
The next few steps are all about capitalizing on damage multipliers. Make sure Aloy is hidden before firing off your shot to get the damage multiplier given to her when attacking from stealth. Then use the Brace Shot skill unlocked in Forbidden West‘s skill tree to pull the arrow back. Before letting it fly, use concentration to slow down time and target a machine’s weak spot.
Let the arrow go.
As seen in u/slasher_lash’s video, they do 1,438 damage with the shot, completely decimating the unaware machine. They then do the same trick again to a rebel dealing 1,037 immediately after the first shot. This type of high-damage attack can be replicated by anyone as long as they take advantage of the multipliers given to the player for being unseen, using concentration, and using the Brace Shot.