Crafting is a core feature in Horizon Zero Dawn and is something that every player should at least learn about to make their hunts much easier.
Guerilla Games' highly popular action-adventure title lets you craft a variety of items. These include ammo, equipment, traps, potions, and more. With how much stuff you can make, it can be overwhelming trying to learn about the system as a new player.
This guide helps you get the basics of crafting down in Horizon Zero Dawn, including what resources you need and how you can make the most of the items you acquire.
Getting Crafting Materials
There are two main ways of getting the materials that you need for crafting. First is getting them from the overworld either by gathering them or slaying enemies and reaping their parts. The second way, which is easier, is buying them from vendors.
In Horizon Zero Dawn, the currency that is used is Metal Shards, and can be acquired by defeating enemies, completing quests, and other methods.
Another important use of Metal Shards is through crafting as recipes will need a certain amount of it everytime, according to Polygon.
Crafting Ammo
The material that you will be crafting the most is probably going to be ammo for your bows as they are the ones that are used the most frequently. The most basic ones you can craft are hunting bow arrows.
Progressing through the game will unlock a variety of types that will require a lot more materials. You should take note of what arrows your bows can use and craft the ones that you prefer to use against your enemies.
It is recommended that you always pick up sticks until your inventory is full because you will always be in need of them. You should also try to save a certain amount of Metal Shards so you can always craft materials when you need to.
You should also avoid selling basic resources to vendors as you may sometimes need them to craft basic recipes later on in the game. If you really need to, you can also buy crafting resources from vendors to save time trying to gather them yourself.
Crafting Equipment
Other than ammo, you can also craft a variety of equipment in Horizon Zero Dawn. The most noteworthy of these is bigger bags to increase your carrying capacity for various items. You can upgrade each bag a maximum of four times, Fandom said.
The main difference in crafting these is that they usually require a variety of animal-based drops that can sometimes be difficult to get.
These creatures include boars and rabbits. It is recommended to always kill these animals when you see them for a chance to get rare drops.
Other Tips
Another way of making the process of crafting easier is by learning the Tinker skill from the Forager tree. This lets Aloy recoup the modifications that she uses on her equipment which can then be placed on a different item.
This saves a lot of time and resources as some of the higher-level modifications are very hard to find. The main issue with this skill is that it is relatively high level and you won't be able to access it in the early game, according to Digital Trends.
