Horizon Forbidden West The Dying Lands Walkthrough

The Dying Lands is the 6th Main Story Quest in Horizon Forbidden West (HZFW). This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of The Dying Lands main mission.

Starting Location: Stone’s Echo
Quest Giver: Zo and Varl (automatically triggered upon completing Death’s Door)
Quest Level: Level 15
Requirement: having completed Death’s Door
Reward: +7500 XP, +2 Skill Points, +1 Utaru Whisperer
Mission Info: Aloy must join Varl and Zo in Plainsong, home of the Utaru tribe, to seek permission to enter a sacred cave. If she can locate and MINERVA inside, she may be able to reboot GAIA.

Objectives:

• Go to Plainsong
• Talk to Varl and Zo
• Meet Varl and Zo Outside the Chorus
• Follow Zo to the Cordon
• Kill the Machines
• Follow Zo to the Cordon
• Enter the Sacred Cave
• Explore the Sacred Cave
• Override the Door
• Go to the Repair Bay Core – Kill the Machines
• Go to the Repair Bay Core
• Go to the Repair Bay Core – Find a Way Up
• Go to the Repair Bay Core – Override the Network Uplink
• Go to the Repair Bay Core – Override the Network Uplink
• Go to the Repair Bay Core – Override the Network Uplink
• Go to the Repair Bay Core
• Override the Network Uplink
• Kill the Grimhorn – Kill the Machines
• Override the Repair Bay Core

Starting Location: Stone’s Echo

Go to Plainsong

Aloy is healed and ready to continue her search for MINERVA in Plainsong. Let’s make our way there, shall we? On your way there, you’ll most likely come across a Tallneck. Feel free to override it to unfog more of the surrounding land.

Talk to Varl and Zo

Once you arrive at the camp, greet Varl and Zo who are waiting for you at the entrance. The Chorus is assembled and it’s time to meet them together with Varl and Zo. However, feel free, as suggested by Zo, to roam around the area to stock up on parts and resources. When you’re ready, join Varl and Zo back.

Meet Varl and Zo Outside the Chorus

Talk to Varl and Zo and tell them you’re ready to talk to the Chorus. Aloy will plead the Chorus to enter their sacred cave to continue on her journey. However, the Chorus isn’t too happy about breaking their own tradition. Soon after, an alarm disrupts the situation. Time to investigate.

Follow Zo to the Cordon

We need to follow Zo to the mountainous area of Cordon. However, as we travel there, we’ll be crossing some enemies. As you follow Zo, you can take on any enemy you want or ignore them altogether and keep tagging along Zo. The machines surrounding your route are new Apex variants of machines you’ve encountered before, so make sure to scan them to enter them in your Machine Catalog.

Kill the Machines

Eventually you’ll come to a new open area with more Clawstriders and Scrappers. We need to get rid of them before continuing. Take them out any way you like. Remember that the Clawstrider’s weak point is its tail and back while the Scrapper’s is the back, so aim for those parts for maximum damage.

Follow Zo to the Cordon

Resume following Zo and Varl to the Cordon, removing any machine in your way.

Enter the Sacred Cave

Once you’ve reached the Cordon, enter the Sacred Cave.

Explore the Sacred Cave

Time to explore the Sacred Cave. The door is barred, so we need to find an alternative route. Luckily, there’s a ledge we can climb up on. Circle back around and jump over the gap to be able to continue downhill and go past the barred door. You’ll eventually come across a cauldron door with a red light that we need to override.

Override the Door

Approach the door to override it with .

Go to the Repair Bay Core – Kill the Machines

Enter the newly opened area and you’ll soon be facing some Leaplasher machines. You know what to do. With the Leaplashers, you can aim for the green canisters on their back. That’s one of their weak spot.

Go to the Repair Bay Core

Approach the second door with a red light to override it.

Go to the Repair Bay Core – Find a Way Up

Now we need to disinfect the area from the corrupted HEPHAESTUS cables. Start by standing on the floor panel shown in the screenshot below.

This will activate a rotating platform with some locks you can shoot into place. Shoot the lock into place whenever it glows gold. Repeat the same for the second and third rotating platforms.

Once they’re locked into place, you can climb them by using the small yellow plank to the side of the floor panel. As you climb up the pillars, don’t forget to move your camera around to look for hooks and climb points to proceed. Those indicate the way you’re supposed to climb.

Now we need to lock into place a second set of rotating platforms. However, we first need something to activate the floor panel. Standing on the floor panel ourselves doesn’t allow us to see the locks to shoot them. By the second floor panel there’s a small climb point that gives you access to a semi-shattered door.

Shatter it completely open with your spear to reveal a hexagonal purple crate. Push the crate through the shield to drop it below and then drag it around to the floor panel.

As before, shoot the locks when they glow gold and when the rotating platforms stop moving, use the small yellow plank to continue forward using the yellow climb points. Jumping here can be a bit finicky, so take your time aligning yourself with the climb points and planks.

Again, stand on a third floor panel and wait for the locks to turn gold to shoot them into place.

 

Once they’re all locked into place, climb them up to reach a new platform.

Go to the Repair Bay Core – Override the Network Uplink

Drop down below (left of the way you jumped in from) and override the network uplink by approaching the red light.

The cables will now lose the corruption and resume moving. Continue now to the next area where we need to override a second network uplink.

Go to the Repair Bay Core – Override the Network Uplink

From the entrance to this new area, go left and from the yellow plank, jump on the mechanical branch below.

Wait for the branch to momentarily lock in position and then aim for either of the two yellow climb points in front of you. Then, jump forward to the next plank.

From here, go to the opposite end of the platform where two more climb points await you. Shimmy along and then climb up the next set of points. Then, finally override the second network uplink.

Go to the Repair Bay Core – Override the Network Uplink

Time to override a third node. Near where Varl and Zo are standing is a panel. While you cannot interact with this particular panel, you can use it as a vantage point to glide off of. Aim for the other lit panel.

From here, you should see some steam coming out of some climbable splits. You have to be quick here because the splits will close after a while.

Then, go up the pillar and finally onto the plank.

Now you have to time your jump so you can grab onto one of the moving conveyors.

Keep hanging onto one of the machines and let go when you have a new platform beneath you. You’ll then have to glide off of a new plank to reach a new yellow panel and from here override the new node.

Go to the Repair Bay Core

Continue down the newly opened corridor to reach a new red-lit door to override.

Override the Network Uplink

HEPHAESTUS has corrupted a machine and so we need to override a new network uplink to shut it down. Rappel down and override the nearby network uplink.

Kill the Grimhorn – Kill the Machines

However, this will release the Grimhorn, a new machine type (don’t forget to scan it), resulting in a fight. The Grimhorn is weak to Purgewater and Acid Damage. So, fire those Acid Arrows away and don’t forget to aim for its weak points.

Immediately after the beginning of the fight, the Grimhorn will be joined by other machines, namely some Longlegs and Scrappers. We suggest you get rid of the smaller machines first and then focus on the Grimhorn. One of the Grimhorn’s weak points is a Cluster Launcher. If hit, the Grimhorn will drop it, allowing you to use against it for a sure-fire way to deal tons of damage. Lastly, finish any of the remaining machines off, if any.

Override the Repair Bay Core

Override the final Cauldron core which also gives you the ability to override some never-seen-before machines and the familiar Bristleback.

This finishes The Dying Lands Main Quest in Horizon Forbidden West.

For all other Side Quests and Main Quests, check out the complete Horizon Forbidden West Walkthrough.