Best Skills in Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West brought more of everything. Bigger map? Check. Even more dangerous machine animals? Check. A bunch of new skills for Aloy? Double check. Instead of just three skill trees, we now have six! She can now spend her skill points in Warrior, Trapper, Hunter, Survivor, Infiltrator, and Machine Master trees. Here are the best skills in Horizon Forbidden West.

Best Skills to Unlock in Horizon Forbidden West

How you progress through skill trees will depend mostly on your playstyle, but once you decide what you want to prioritize, check out our list below for the best skills in Horizon Forbidden West:

Related: Activities You Can Look Forward to in Horizon Forbidden West

Best Warrior Skills

Warrior playstyle is based on inflicting as much damage as possible, most often in melee fights, but the skills in this tree can be very useful for other approaches too.

• Resonator Blast – The Spear is far more useful in Forbidden West than it was previously, and with this talent, it becomes extremely useful. As you hit your opponents, energy is collected that you can then pass on to them, transferring them to an energized state, after which the following hit or arrow that hits them deals considerably more damage.
• Spread Shot – Just as the name suggests, it spreads your shot. You can now shoot five arrows at the same time in a horizontal spread with the Warrior Bow you have equipped.
• Block Breaker Combo – Unlocks a new combo will which will be particularly valuable for breaking the guard state of more tenacious opponents.

Best Trapper Skills

For more patient players who like attack tactics and to set traps on the field before their opponents notice them, the Trapper tree contains a lot of useful skills, but also those that everyone should unlock as soon as possible.

• Nimble Crafter – Speeds up the crafting! A very useful skill to have because it speeds up the crafting of every item, not just traps, so you can craft potions and tools for less time.
• Trap Limit – If you use traps a lot, you can invest in this skill twice to increase the number of the traps you can carry.
• Quick Trapper – This talent is essential for all players who like to carefully set traps before a fight because it allows for setting traps quicker, and can also be upgraded twice.

Best Hunter Skills

The Hunter tree is focused entirely on fighting with a bow and arrow, but it also contains essential concentration-boost skills.

• Concentration+ – Essentially an extension of Horizon’s “bullet-time” – extremely useful in any fight for precise aiming.
• Deep Concentration – While the previous skill extends the concentration scale, this one makes it decrease slower. It can be upgraded twice.
• Concentration Regen – Increases the speed of concentration regeneration. It can be upgraded three times.

Best Survivor Skills

The Survivor skill tree brings very important upgrades that will help you last longer when things go wrong.

• Medicine Capacity – Increases the maximum number of Medicinal Berries you can carry in your pouch. a must-have skill no matter what playstyle you are going for.
• Potent Medicine – Makes the Medicinal Berries restore more HP.
• Low Health Defense – A real survivor skill. Increases the defense when your health is in red, giving you a chance to get out of tough situations.

Related: Horizon Forbidden West Map vs. Zero Dawn

Best Infiltrator Skills

Stealth gameplay has always been a big part of Horizon, although many players overlook it. With these skills, you will increase your chances of clearing the enemy camp without anyone noticing.

• Low Profile – The enemies in Forbidden West most often won’t notice you sneaking from behind, but when you invest in this skill, Aloy practically becomes a stealth ninja that will easily be able to sneak up to anyone.
• Silent Strike+ – With this skill, you can increase the damage dealt with the stealth attack “Silent Strike” to make sure that even tougher opponents are one-shotted, or at least seriously damaged from it.
• Stealth Tear+ – Skill for the biggest of ninjas who want to collect valuable materials by tearing them from the machines without being noticed. This useful skill that increases your tear damage can be upgraded twice.

Best Machine Master skills

Because you will spend most of your time traveling the world of Forbidden West mounted, abilities that allow you to better master the machines are incredibly useful, especially those related to combat from the back of the machine you are riding.

• Mounted Archer – Makes every shot you make while mounted do more damage.
• Mounted Defense – Increases the defense while mounted, ideal for a quick getaway.
• Heavy Lifter – And as a bonus, there is a skill that makes you move more easily with those heavy weapons you can sometimes pick up.

Now that you know the best skills in Horizon Forbidden West, you are ready to return to the wonderful wilderness and use your new knowledge to experiment and find your ideal playstyle.

For more Horizon Forbidden West, check out the difference between Explorer and Guided, learn how to breathe underwater, and see the difference in size between Horizon Forbidden West Map and Zero Dawn.