Horizon Zero Dawn – How to Take Down a Bellowback

The world of Horizon Zero Dawn is full of various machines and creatures for players to hunt and take down. One of the largest creatures, and perhaps one of the most dangerous, is the Bellowback. This massive creature can easily take down Aloy without much trouble, and many players have already found themselves struggling to take this enemy down. In this article we’ll show you how to defeat the Bellowback, including everything you need to know about its weaknesses.

How to Defeat the Bellowback

Like every other machine in Horizon Zero Dawn, the Bellowback has a weakness that players should and absolutely must exploit if they wish to take this creature down. The biggest weakness that you’ll want to take advantage of is the large canister along the Bellowback’s underbelly. These are the machine’s most important weak spots.

While weaknesses are important, once you have the Shield-Weaver armor, they won’t play such a vital role in your combat scenarios, as Aloy will be able to sustain far more damage before needing to take cover.

The easiest way to access the Bellowback’s weak spot is to either stun it, or bring it down on its back in some way. Since the beast is weak to Freeze damage, things like Freeze Arrows or Freeze Bombs will work good to slow the animal down. This will stun the animal, and allow you to get a clear shot of the canister from the side.

You can also use the Tripcaster to put down some of the various traps that you have available, which will allow you to stun the enemy without having to aim for it while it’s moving. You still have the issue of convincing it to run through your trap, which can be a bit tedious at times. We found it best to use our War Bow or Sling to toss Freeze Arrows and Bombs at it, which slowed it down enough that we could hit it reasonably well.

If you choose to use Freeze damage to slow the beast down, it will merely stop in place, and you’ll have to hit it from the side. If you want to be make the target a bit bigger, you can always use the shock traps or arrows to stun it and cause it to fall over. This will stun it just as well as Aloy’s Freeze weapons, but it will be laying on the ground, giving you a much larger area to focus on.

If you choose to stun the Bellowback using shock traps, be sure to run behind it and then aim at the canister on its back using either your Hunter Arrows or your Hardpoint Arrows. You’ll need the Shadowshot Bow for the Hardpoint Arrows, but you can find out more about that in our best weapons guide.

Now that you know how to take down Bellowbacks, be sure to return to our Horizon Zero Dawn guide for even more articles and guides to help you traverse Aloy’s dangerous world.