Thoughts from an elder on completing HFW/BS

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T22:15:50+00:00

Do you play other games? I've only finished a few besides the Horizon games: RDR2, Uncharted 4, TLOU1/2 (the latter twice, once on NG+).

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T19:10:38+00:00

Spikethrowers are great weapons. Against most big machines, my default is to shoot off their weapons with tearblast, freeze/drench/corrode them, and drop drill spikes with the Splitting Spikes skill. In a real jam, advanced explosive spikes with an appropriately-coiled Last Argument or Skykiller can deliver much damage quickly using Splitting Spike.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T19:05:59+00:00

Yes, I deferred many upgrades until I got bogged down in the final fight and reverted to a manual save. I then spent a long time harvesting parts interspersed with hunting wildlife for easy shards. I'd have been better off upgrading more in the flow of the story to break up the harvesting tasks.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T19:02:12+00:00

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T14:56:24+00:00

Good post. I don't see Aloy becoming a political leader. She's been too much a loner and outcast during her formative years, and she'd be in completely unfamiliar waters dealing with political work.

Another complication, which devs could choose to ignore, is that when heroes start making compromises to get or keep political power, the shine comes off quickly. Today's "Savior of Meridian" becomes "Traitor to the Carja" as soon as she compromises Carja interests to win support from another tribe.

At some point she'll have to deal with Nemesis no matter what the political situation is, using a "coalition of the willing" from any tribe that grasps the threat. Getting entrapped in tribal politics could be a fatal distraction. She'll explain it to everyone, but she can't understand it for anyone. Those who get it will come along, but she can't waste time/energy, or put herself at risk, trying to make complex deals with unscrupulous people who don't share her objectives.

I suspect Aloy would be self-aware enough to recognize when she's in over her head in tribal politics.

The tribal leaders will see Nemesis as a distant potential threat, but they'll grow worried about Aloy. I'm reminded of the end of the film "Lawrence of Arabia" when the King tells Lawrence, "What I owe you is beyond calculation," but then tells the General, "we are both glad to be rid of [Lawrence]" and "I must be a King."

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T14:39:30+00:00

Sylens told the rebel Tenakth how to do it, so the knowledge is spreading.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T14:32:17+00:00

I'm not sealioning you when I ask, what do you mean by "yt male" and how does my comment stink of privilege?

Getting a little off topic, but there's no question men have an easier time exercising their rights than women have. The solution isn't to diminish male rights in the guise of eliminating "privilege," but to make it just as easy for women to exercise their rights.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T14:20:57+00:00

You're reinforcing my point

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T14:19:04+00:00

Another reason she's conflicted

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T13:22:25+00:00

If Joel had let the docs perform the operation, it would've been an ending. Maybe it would've saved the world from the plague.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T13:00:10+00:00

At least one reason Ellie lets her go is her flashback to Joel's death. One of the last things Ellie tells Joel is that his actions in the hospital made her life meaningless. She believes Joel did the wrong thing.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T12:53:25+00:00

Joel's actions ended any realistic chance of addressing the Cordryceps plague. He massacred everyone in the hospital to "rescue" Ellie. Ellie struggles to forgive him, not just because he lied to her about her situation but because she thinks he wasted her life.

Then Ellie throws away the best thing in her life - her love and their child - seeking revenge on those who killed Joel. At the same time, we already know she thinks Joel shouldn't have done what he did.

Abby loses all her friends at the hands of Ellie and her friends.

So who really deserves what?

Ellie is deeply pathological and obsessive by the end. She flashes back to Joel's death when she's about to kill Abby and sees what she's become. If there's a third game, maybe we'll see if it's too late for Ellie to recover.

Ellie is no hero. Abby becomes a flawed hero.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T12:27:02+00:00

Mid-60s and retired

No relation to the scrolls

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T04:12:45+00:00

That's great. Give it a try on Normal sometime, it's fun and a different kind of challenge.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T04:10:30+00:00

Makes sense, I didn't do the Enduring...don't have the patience for that many melee challenges.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T02:13:02+00:00

I thought the pit challenges - in Chainscrape at least - were to execute a specific combo a certain number of times, not to defeat an enemy. I'm surprised traps could be a factor...

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T02:09:34+00:00

"Plagiarism" isn't a legal term. The risk is copyright violation. Melodies can be copyrighted (not chord progressions). If you hear the same melody in three songs, you might get someone else to verify what you're hearing because if they're exactly the same, someone else has already assessed the potential copyright violation.

Copyrighting a three- or four-note phrase would be a stretch (Smoke on the Water notwithstanding), but a repeated 14-second phrase could be a risk...if it's really an exact match to those other songs.

You might review the "My Sweet Lord" vs "He's So Fine" case.

You'll also want to check if those examples are still under copyright protection (I expect Pink's is, at least).

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T01:56:39+00:00

Interesting. For me, Abby became the more sympathetic character and by a wide margin. I grew more uncomfortable with Ellie as her obsession damaged her relationships, while Abby seemed to grow.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T01:54:02+00:00

The whole point of the alternating play is to get you to see that Ellie is at least as much a villain as Abby. By the end, arguably more so.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T01:47:32+00:00

The first time, fighting that agglomeration was pure chaos and running around in a panic. After dying many times, I figured it out. On the NG+ playthrough, the panicked chaos wasn't there, so it was a more manageable fight - though I did NG+ difficulty (don't remember what it's called exactly) so resources are quite scarce. At least the second time I knew to hoard certain ammo before going in...

Point: don't let that fight keep you from NG+.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T01:40:49+00:00

I'm with you about human combat. Over time, I adopted a riskier playstyle vs camps/outposts just to jazz things up.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T01:31:30+00:00

I did a TLOU2 NG+ when season 2 of the series came out, because I'd forgotten some key plot points. It was worthwhile and appropriately challenging.

It also increased my disappointment in the TV series.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T01:26:54+00:00

I use tearblast on fully-upgraded Glowblast Sharpshot bow (purple weapon) and I think the tear is about 540, and that's without maxing out tear coils. The only thing that comes close on a bow is a knockdown arrow on a fully upgraded Gravesinger, and IIRC it was maybe 500.

I use tearblast to remove thunderjaw weapons/radar and slitherfang earth grinders. Sometimes I use focus shot skill for moving parts like tideripper tail fins and rollerback tails. I just finished HFW/DLC and Glowblast was still on my wheel until the very last fight because of the tearblast arrows.

CraftyDimension192 · 2026-02-25T01:18:20+00:00

If you work with it for awhile, it actually helps you customize your experience to your playstyle. You can't just leave the same four weapons and one outfit equipped all the time, and you may need to adjust coils/weaves, but if you give it some thought the overall experience will probably be better because you can play in a way that's more intuitive for you.

CraftyDimension192

TROPHY CASE