Horizon Zero Dawn is an action-adventure role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game is part of the Horizon franchise and was released in 2017. The series is known for its post-apocalyptic setting with roaming robotic creatures. It was initially released for PlayStation 4 and a few years later for PC. The game blends a gripping narrative with role-playing elements and action-packed fight scenes. Here’s a closer look at Horizon Zero Dawn and what it offers in terms of cheats.
Horizon Zero Dawn Premise
Horizon Zero Dawn is set in a future where machines dominate the Earth. Players embark on an epic journey that involves discovering artifacts of the old world and surviving beastly metal creatures that have come to life. Dark witchcraft of mysterious origin has breathed life into these machines. The game introduces players to a richly detailed world where nature and technology collide. The game’s protagonist, Aloy, is a skilled hunter seeking knowledge of her past and the world as it used to be. While seeking wisdom, she needs to navigate a landscape overrun by powerful mechanical creatures.
The gameplay focuses on combat using ranged weapons, a spear, and stealth tactics. Players can enhance Aloy’s abilities through a skill tree. By unlocking new skills and bonuses, Aloy can down ever larger and more dangerous creatures. The game has an open world that takes Aloy through different terrains and environments with side quests awaiting at each turn.
Horizon Zero Dawn Characters
The game features a set of characters representing various tribes in the post-apocalyptic world. The cast is led by the brave protagonist, Aloy, and expands to a range of allies, adversaries, and tribal members. Many of the game’s characters are designed with deep backstories and personalities that reflect their motivations. Many of these characters expand Aloy’s knowledge about the world and give new quests that take the protagonists to new adventures. Here are some of the key characters in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Key Characters
- Aloy: The protagonist, a young female hunter on a quest to uncover her past and the mysteries of the world she finds herself in. As the player character, Aloy becomes more powerful with new skills and weaponry she gains during her journey. Aloy is the protagonist in Horizon Forbidden West and its DLCs.
- Rost: Aloy’s guardian and mentor, a member of the Nora tribe who raises and trains her in the ways of a hunter. As an outcast, he takes care of Aloy in her childhood, as she has no one else to turn to being an outcast herself.
- Sylens: Sylens is an important figure in the game. He is a wanderer and archaeologist who brings in knowledge of the long-lost old world and the Old Ones. Sylens is the founder of the Eclipse and the Sons of Prometheus.
- Helis: Helis is one of the main antagonists in the game. He is the current leader of the Eclipse cult. This violent cult leader has a tie with the violent dictator Sun-King Jiran.
- Avad: The new Sun-King of the Carja tribe. Unlike his father, Sun-King Jiran, he is known to be a much gentler and fairer leader. After overthrowing his father and taking the throne, he endorsed friendly relations with other tribes.
- Erend: Erend is a Vanguard captain of the Oseram tribe, he becomes an ally and friend to Aloy. He is one of the core members of the Sun-King Avad’s troops. Erend plays a significant role in helping Aloy find out the truth about her family’s past.
- Teb: A member of the Nora tribe who has a childhood connection with Aloy and assists her in her journey.
Games in the Series
The Horizon series is known for its unique world that fuses a post-apocalyptic world with primitive tribes and animal-like machines. This action role-playing series is the work of Guerilla Games, who were before this franchise responsible for the highly-regarded Killzone games. The series started in 2017 with the release of Horizon Zero Dawn and has since expanded its narrative and gameplay with subsequent releases. At this point, the series features three mainline titles as well as a couple of expansions, one for both the first and the second game in the series.
- Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)
- Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds DLC (2017)
- Horizon: Forbidden West (2022)
- Horizon: Call of the Mountain (2023)
- Horizon: Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC (2023)
Horizon Zero Dawn Cheats
Horizon Zero Dawn doesn’t include traditional cheat codes. Instead, players can unlock various in-game items and bonuses through gameplay. This includes special outfits, weapons, and resources that enhance the gaming experience. However, some tips can help with replenishing ammo and recognizing dangerous enemies, which we cover below. Also, for those who want to collect trophies, we’ve included an exhaustive list below.
Health and Heavy Ammo Exploit
Reloading from a saved game state will replenish your health and any heavy weapon ammunition. This is great when using heavy weaponry, like the Stormslinger, the Forgefire, or the Icerail. To use this exploit, follow these simple steps. First, save your game at a campfire while you still have remaining ammo for the heavy weapon. Then, reload the save, and you should find the ammo restored to full capacity.
Purple Tentacles
Take note of the robots that have been corrupted by the invading artificial intelligence the tribe calls the Daemon. You can spot such machines from the purple tentacles spawning out of them, which also happens to mean that they are not reprogrammable, like the corrupted machines in the base game. However, complete the main quest line, and you’ll see some of these robots infested by HEPHAESTUS turning into regular machines.
PlayStation Trophies
| Trophy | Description | Trophy Type |
| Stealth killed 10 machines | Performed a stealth kill on 10 machines. | Bronze |
| 3 Strikes From Above | Killed 3 enemies using the Strike from Above skill. | Bronze |
| Tore off 10 components | Detached 10 components from machines during combat. | Bronze |
| 10 Vulnerable machine kills | Killed 10 machines weak to Fire while burning, or weak to Freeze while frozen. | Bronze |
| Tore off 5 heavy weapons | Detached 5 heavy weapons from machines during combat. | Bronze |
| 7 types of machine overridden | Unlocked and used the overrides for 7 different types of machine. | Bronze |
| Headshot 30 human enemies | Killed 30 human enemies by landing headshots on them. | Bronze |
| Downed 23 Grazer dummies | Found and knocked over all of the Grazer training dummies in the Nora region. | Bronze |
| First Modification | Used a Weapon Coil or Outfit Weave on a modifiable weapon or outfit. | Bronze |
| All Acquisition machines killed | Killed at least one of every type of Acquisition machine. | Bronze |
| All Recon machines killed | Killed at least one of every type of Reconnaissance machine. | Bronze |
| All Combat machines killed | Killed at least one of every type of Combat machine. | Bronze |
| All Transport machines killed | Killed at least one of every type of Transport machine. | Bronze |
| Reached level 10 | Reached player level 10. | Bronze |
| Reached level 25 | Reached player level 25. | Bronze |
| Reached level 40 | Reached player level 40. | Bronze |
| Reached level 50 | Reached player level 50. | Bronze |
| All Skills learned | Learned all available skills. | Bronze |
| First Tallneck Overridden | Scaled a Tallneck and accessed its information. | Bronze |
| First Bandit Camp cleared | Took back a settlement from a bandit clan. | Bronze |
| First Core Overridden | Reached the Core of a Cauldron and accessed its information. | Bronze |
| All Suns at one Ground | Earned at least a Half Sun mark in all three trials at one Hunting Ground. | Bronze |
| Blazing Suns at one Ground | Earned a Blazing Sun mark in all three trials at one Hunting Ground. | Bronze |
| First Corrupted Zone cleared | Killed all the corrupted machines in a Corrupted Zone. | Bronze |
| All machines catalogued | Encountered and Focus scanned every type of machine. | Bronze |
| First Vantage found | Found and accessed a Vantage datapoint. | Bronze |
| First Metal Flower found | Discovered a strange metal flower. | Bronze |
| First Banuk Figure found | Found a wooden effigy left by a Banuk traveler. | Bronze |
| First Ancient Vessel found | Found an ancient vessel once used by the Old Ones. | Bronze |
| All Vantages found | Found and accessed all of the Vantage datapoints. | Bronze |
| All Metal Flowers found | Found all of the Metal Flowers. | Bronze |
| All Banuk Figures found | Found all of Arnak’s figures. | Bronze |
| All Ancient Vessels found | Found all the Ancient Vessels. | Bronze |
| Got the Shield-Weaver outfit | Recovered an ancient technology and put it to use. | Bronze |
| Followed Rost’s teachings | Learned to hunt and fight alongside Rost. | Bronze |
| Defeated the Sawtooth | Defeated the Sawtooth that threatened the Nora. | Bronze |
| Triumphed in the Proving | Overcame adversity and placed first in the Proving. | Bronze |
| Fought back the corruption | Destroyed the corruption inside the Nora valley. | Bronze |
| Learned of the ancient past | Learned of the ancient past at Maker’s End. | Bronze |
| Crashed the Eclipse network | Infiltrated the Eclipse battle camp and crashed their network. | Bronze |
| Discovered the truth | Discovered the truth of Zero Dawn. | Bronze |
| Broke the siege of All-Mother | Defeated the invaders and went inside the sacred mountain. | Bronze |
| Recovered a powerful weapon | Explored the Mountain That Fell and recovered a powerful weapon. | Bronze |
| All allies joined | Given Aloy’s actions, all possible optional allies joined the defense. | Bronze |
| Victorious with the War-Chief | Found the Nora War-Chief and defeated the killers in the Ring of Metal. | Bronze |
| Saved Meridian from its foe | Helped Erend investigate Ersa’s fate, and foiled a plot against Meridian. | Bronze |
| Aided the defectors | Aided the escapes of Uthid and the child king Itamen from the Shadow Carja. | Bronze |
| Hunted Redmaw with Talanah | Rose through the ranks of the Hunters Lodge and helped Talanah defeat Redmaw. | Bronze |
| All Tallnecks Overridden | Scaled all of the Tallnecks and accessed their information. | Silver |
| Cleared all the Bandit Camps | Took back all settlements from the bandit clans. | Silver |
| All Cores Overridden | Reached the Core of every Cauldron and accessed the information within. | Silver |
| All Suns at all Grounds | Earned at least a Half Sun mark in all trials at all of the Hunting Grounds. | Silver |
| All Corrupted Zones cleared | Killed all the corrupted machines in every Corrupted Zone. | Silver |
| Blazing Suns at all Grounds | Earned a Blazing Sun mark in all trials at all of the Hunting Grounds. | Gold |
| Ended the war machine threat | Ended the threat of the ancient war machines. | Gold |
| All trophies obtained | Obtained all Horizon Zero Dawn trophies. | Platinum |
Horizon Zero Dawn Cheat Codes FAQ
Can Horizon Zero Dawn be played on Xbox?
No, unfortunately not. The game was released for the PlayStation 4 and later for PC, but there is no Xbox version available.
Is there multiplayer in Horizon Zero Dawn?
No, Horizon Zero Dawn does not feature a multiplayer mode. It is a story-driven single-player game.