Horizon Zero Dawn: Main Quest Guide | Full Story Walkthrough

Table of Contents

• Main Quest 1: A Gift From the Past
• Main Quest 2: Lessons of the Wild
• Main Quest 3: The Point of the Spear
• Main Quest 4: Mother’s Heart
• Main Quest 5: The Proving
• Main Quest 6: The Womb of the Mountain
• Main Quest 8: The War Chief’s Trail
• Main Quest 9: Revenge of the Nora
• Main Quest 10: The City of the Sun
• Main Quest 11: Field of the Fallen
• Main Quest 12: Into the Borderlands
• Main Quest 13: The Sun Shall Fall
• Main Quest 14: Maker’s End
• Main Quest 15: The Grave-Hoard
• Main Quest 16: To Curse the Darkness
• Main Quest 17: Deep Secrets of the Earth
• Main Quest 18: The Terror of the Sun
• Main Quest 19: The Heart of the Nora
• Main Quest 20: The Mountain that Fell
• Main Quest 21: The Looming Shadow
• Main Quest 22: The Face of Extinction

Main Quest 7: A Seeker at the Gates

To begin this mission, head to the strider grounds, it’s time we finally learn to control these beasts. When you get there, find a strider and sneak up next to it like you would if you were getting in a sneak attack. Once you are close enough, you’ll get a prompt to press and hold triangle. Make sure you hold the button or it will cancel your attempt and leave you vulnerable to detection.

After taming the beast, you can mount it, simply press triangle again to get on the strider. Now you’re riding a strider! Take a minute to get used to it. You can press X to speed up, circle to slow down (holding circle will cause a full stop), R1 and R2 to attack, and triangle to dismount. You can also craft and shoot your bow from horseback using the L buttons. After you get used to this, head east to the main embrace gate to talk to Varl.

Once you get to the gate, ride through and a cutscene will play. After the cutscene, continue heading north to Mother’s Crown. Once you get there, seek out Marea, she is in the main area to the right. After the cutscene, you’ll need to head west to destroy two zones of corrupted machines. Make sure to stock up before leaving.

Once you come across a corrupted zone, it’s just like any confrontation, take the machines down one by one and avoid alerting them. After you’ve finished with the first area, keep going west.

Once you have cleared two corrupted zones, continue your journey west to the Carja Border Fort. When you arrive at the fort, it will be under attack by a Corrupter and a few other machines. Take these out as quickly as possible. After defeating the enemies, approach the gate to prompt a cutscene and finish the quest. The next quest is The City of the Sun, missions 8 and 9 are main quests but are optional.