They contain the means to override (tame) the larger beasts in the game. Explore Cauldrons One for a little later in the game, but Cauldrons are your typical RPG dungeon.
Don't let these opportunities pass you by as animal meat and pelt are essential crafting ingredients later in the game - particularly if you want to upgrade your carry pouches to carry more resources, ammo, potions etc. Kill animals on sight You may have seen animals (rabbits, birds etc.) crossing your path as you explore the open world or make your way to the next waypoint. Flick this on and you can activate sprint by pressing 元 and then just steering in the direction you want to run.
Permanent sprint Horizon Zero Dawn's settings menu contains an option for permanent sprint rather than having to hold down 元. Tag machines using Focus Aloys Focus tool is great for scanning machine routes and their weaknesses but did you know that you can permanently tag them to show their weakness at all times? Using the R1 and R2 bumpers you should tag machines so that when in their vicinity you can see their weaknesses permanently rather than having to continually scan to remember which elements are most effective against them. Time the craft carefully and wait for a nearly depleted ammo count first. For example if your have 48/50 arrows then crafting another 10 will only gain you two, meaning that you just wasted 8 arrows and lost resources.
The game will still deduct the same number of resources but you will lose out on the full complement of crafted items. Avoid full stack crafting When crafting additional ammo, avoiding crafting near to your stack limit. This is useful against the fire wielding machines later in the game. When Aloy is burning on fire, simply roll several times to put out the fire and stop the burning effects. Stop burning effects The roll ability is great for dodging incoming attacks but it also has a secondary use. Usually it contains items such as Travel Packs, Shards and random crafting materials. This is completely free, you just have to hold X to buy (which actually costs nothing) and the loot crate is yours to open and claim the resources inside. It's not obvious at first but if you scroll through the BUY menu and check the treasure/box section you will see a 1 x sample box.
Sample Treasure Boxes Every merchant in the game has a FREE loot box for you to collect. Considering the importance of mounts for traversing the world this little one should speed things up for you. Instead, simply use the X button to jump onto the animal's back and you're immediately riding. Jump on mounts Once you unlock a mount (rideable animal) you do NOT have to hold down triangle every time you want to hop on its back. So long as the item isn't part of any crafting recipe then you can safely trade them with the merchant in return for Metal Shards. To know which items you can safely sell, simply hover over them and check the short descriptions underneath. Sell what you don't need Many of the items in your inventory are nothing but Metal Shard's in the waiting. Without targeting the weak spots before a fight it'll take a lot longer to take down a machine. Remember to always scan a machine to understand it's weak spots - these are highlighted in yellow after a successful scan. Always scan The Focus tool is given to Aloy very early in the game but sadly the ability to scan machines for weaknesses is sometimes forgotten by newer players. So in this guide I'll share some of my best tips which I'm sure will come in handy. Upon starting Horizon Zero Dawn there are a number of essential tips that everyone should know about - they'll make a huge difference to your progress and can easily be missed if no-one tells you about them.