Need help with what I now need to do. Kinda stuck

[ozbossman17]

I am (or was) going along quite well, but now seem to be stuck.

Things done:
I've been in the big underground place and found "where the machine are made", got the girl's bow back, cleaned one (maybe two) corrupted zones and some other things.
I've freed the village of prisoners and given it back tot them, been to the west place/village on top of the big hill and spoken to the "captain" guy and been sent on a quest to find someone who has not checked back in.
Yes, I know it may be of importance but I am not in the game now and can't remember.
This is just putting out feelers for help on what to do.

I am at the point where I am looking for him and I am following his tracks to a lake and there is an island.
He is on the island up a rock lying there singing a song.
I am not to find his bow. (Seems people lose their bows a lot in this world)
There are 4 of robots on the island. 3 are allergic to heat and one shatter - I think.
I kill ONE of them, go back to the basecamp and "quick save" then go back and try to kill the rest.
I load up with fire arrows and bombs. I also realise I need to concentrate on killing only one at a time, not all three at once.
That doesn't seem to be working, as if I quit and then go/come back, the previously killed robots are back. :(
And/or I could go just a bit north of the basecamp and try to cleanse the last "corrupt zome".
It has 3 corrupted LONG HORNS and I can't seem to work out what I am doing wrong.
I isolate one, zap it, and then "go in for the kill" and I think it is dead.
Then! Suddenly! It is alive again.
What is the strategy I am missing here?
Thanks.

[Copperfoxx]

You may just need to rely on stealth to slowly whittle their health down until you can kill them. It's kind of annoying, but in some areas I literally had to hide, shoot an arrow (which makes them suspicious), wait for their yellow indicator to go away and then rinse and repeat. That way they never figure out where you are and their health will not go back up unless you leave the direct area.

[Basan™]

Without exact quest's names, I'm sorry to break it to you but my mind reading and assorted divinity guessing were always close to zilch and most likely will remain that way for the remainder of my life, so... it's my best advice for you to find out exactly what you're trying to convey and properly name it because HZD isn't the single game that I'm currently playing (or replaying to be more exact). And thus having exact, more pin pointed oriented guided directions would be work out for the best. Either for you, whom's trying to get help, and also us that are trying to provide said help.

Edit add note: If you're already upon the Frozen Wilds DLC area there are some Control Towers that nearly instantly replenish the machines HP's if they're not instantly killed nor those said towers are dealt with 1st.

[TheSmilingDoom]

Regarding the drunken soldier who has lost his bow:
One of the Snapmaws (the crocodile robots) has it. The best way to fight them is to set them on fire and keep your distance (the fire icon must be full, so that a white ring appears around it for the enemy to start burning). You'll find the bow on one when you loot them. Note that you can loot while swimming if one happens to be destroyed in deep waters.

Regarding the Lancehorns: it is possible that an enemy gets knocked down and lies stunned for a while. You might have mistaken that for dead.
Corrupted enemies are vulnerable to fire, so lighting them up is always an option. Should you already have frost arrows (blue/purple warbow), you can also aim for a canister explosion on their backs, which after a short while produces a big frost blast that slows them and makes them very susceptible (x3) to any kind of impact damage.
Note that canister explosions are specific to creature types. Longlegs have shock and Grazers have fire canisters, for example. Always use your focus, it will tell you the vulnerabilities of different bodyparts.

[Mihle]

If the island quest is the one I am thinking of, those robots are the crocodile robots (Snapmaw), you only need to kill one spesific of them, that has the bow, not all of them.

Best tactic against the crocodile robots for me was to wear freeze armour/freeze mods/potion, and then without disabling it's freeze attack, explode the canisters at the top, right behind the head with fire arrows, tearblast first if they are protected. Then keep shooting at it and keep your distance.

It's freeze attack is weaker against freeze protection, than it's mele is against mele protection.

[TheSmilingDoom]

Going melee against Snapmaws is a very bad idea anyway, their lunge is fast and deadly af.

[Mihle]

Originally posted by TheSmilingDoom:

Going melee against Snapmaws is a very bad idea anyway, their lunge is fast and deadly af.

It is indeed, therefore shooting to disable their freeze attack is an bad idea, because then it's more likely to want to charge at you :P

[Basan™]

If that's the quest I've properly prepared a traps field ("Blast" or "Fire" are the best to deal with those) before engaging the SnapMaws with my TripCaster and then started the engagement. I don't recall if luring those with a Rock or if I've engaged them from a afar and waited for them to start tripping on the Tripwire traps (while shooting at their weak spots in the mid time), though.

[ozbossman17]

Thanks for those recent replies.

Ok, I'll have to do a bit more "looking" to see which one it is that has the bow.

I was of the idea to kill one, go to the "camp fire" and save then go back to kill the next.
Repeat until all dead.

But if it is only ONE that needs to be killed: All the better.

WRT the longhorns:
I attack one of them and am 99% sure I see the LOOT icon over it, so I'm guessing it is dead.
I leave it alone though to deal with the others and suddenly it (the one which I thought was dead) is alive again.

Again: More research needed this end.

THANKS for the helpful replies.

(EDIT)
Ok, quickie:
Loaded and went to the island.
Using the FOCUS:
Looking at all 3 of them.
2 are heat weak and 1 shatter weak.
I am not seeing any indication to which one has the bow.

Is there something else/more/special I need to do to get/see that information?

[Basan™]

I simply killed the 3 by preapring the engagement field before engaing and mostly by laying "Blast" or "Fire" Tripwires with my purple TripCaster (that almost assuredly got when reached that 1st Carja outpost after defeting the Corruptors and assorted horde that was storming the place). Since you can start errands to get specific items that's what I oftenly did when noticed that some weapons are heallaciously efficient and it was worth creating that Errand task.

Please learn to Focus scan the foes before engament to see which are their strengths, weakenesses and avoid going for their strength spots. And SnapMaws have 2 Blaze Canisters above and can be frozen if aiming their spitting sac with an Echo Arrow (i.e., the purple ones from Sharpshot Bows or their Banuuk counterpart).

Another useful tool is that Sling that can throw and lay proximity Lobs to also assist you upon completing that death field before engaging those 3 SnapMaws. I had previous experience when dealing with those 3 because my curiosity led me to explore that island for Ancient Debris when circling around it and found that the best way to get in there in from the behind of the SnapMaws and probably a little too close to another Watcher 'officially' marked on the map camp.

Edit note: In HZD many things can be solved (or at least more slightly easily killed) by being creative, inquisitive and exploring your surroundings well before engaging.

[TheSmilingDoom]

There are no differences regarding strengths and weaknesses within one type of creature (except if they are corrupted or daemonic). You have scanned different parts of their bodies, that's why you saw different damage type indicators. Their bodies are weak to fire, canisters are weak to tearing.
You can't tell which one has the bow, it'll just appear in the list once you can loot it.
As I said, set them on fire from afar, then keep your distance, let the flames do their work.

The "Loot icon" you saw over the Lancehorn that you presumed dead was the stun indicator. Like all status effects it is surrounded by a white circle that slowly disappears while the effect wears off. I suppose you were a bit further away and couldn't pay attention to detail at that moment, because it looks really different from the loot icon.

Edit: As Basan said, Tripcaster is also a good idea to create a death field that prevents them from reaching you easily.

[Basan™]

Originally posted by TheSmilingDoom:

There are no differences regarding strengths and weaknesses within one type of creature (except if they are corrupted or daemonic). You have scanned different parts of their bodies, that's why you saw different damage type indicators. Their bodies are weak to fire, canisters are weak to tearing.
You can't tell which one has the bow, it'll just appear in the list once you can loot it.
As I said, set them on fire from afar, then keep your distance, let the flames do their work.

The "Loot icon" you saw over the Lancehorn that you presumed dead was the stun indicator. Like all status effects it is surrounded by a white circle that slowly disappears while the effect wears off. I suppose you were a bit further away and couldn't pay attention to detail at that moment, because it looks really different from the loot icon.

Edit: As Basan said, Tripcaster is also a good idea to create a death field that prevents them from reaching you easily.

The only difference is that when you start defeating each sort of machines they tend to develop armour plating upon the spots you've previously used to defeat those. A somewhat predicatable answer from an AI that keeps pumping out machines to keep Humanity under its controlling heel. And that wsa why I suggested the OP to always check with the Focus because those armour pieces also do tend to appear and aren't listed upon that HZD's Notebook specific tab.

As 'SmillingDoom stated the 3 stars icon with a timer simply means that that machine is stunned and thus prone for you to deliver a Critical Hit if nearing it (and, if not mistaken, also having that skill unlocked).

The TripCaster is always equipped under my Weapons Wheel because many harder machines require you to use it from afar and then luring their attention into the death traps field you've created with a Rock. And that was particularly effective for me when started dealing with RockBreakers, (even if they were Corrupted ones and thus more prone to get the fire hazzard to deal them more damage than with the regular ones).

[TheSmilingDoom]

AFAIK they only armor up once after a certain number of kills (depends on creature type), but not specific to the locations you hit. It is just that vulnerable parts (like Lancehorns' canisters or the Thunderjaws "heart") are the obvious choice to be more protected in version two.

They also learn what a Tripcaster wire trap is, btw., and tend to go around them if they can. However, that is not necessarily to their advantage, since, if done properly, they just don't get through to you and you can continue peppering them with your bow while they look for an alternative way to approach you.

[Bird_Dog]

Originally posted by Mihle:

It is indeed, therefore shooting to disable their freeze attack is an bad idea, because then it's more likely to want to charge at you :P

I would disagree.
Popping the freeze sack under their chin not only stops that annyoing freeze attack, it also put them in the "frozen" elemental state. In that state they take a lot more damage.
Freeze them, then finish them off with hard point arrows or bombs from a blast sling.
Off course, if you miss your window for the kill, they will charge into mele. So don't miss your window...

[ozbossman17]

Ok, thanks.

Yes, I use the focus a lot.
It is kind of ironic I use it, scan, and look then turn it off.
Then Aloy tells me to use it to check if I've missed anything.

That's interesting reading. Things take in/on.

Back to "the island" and the bow.
STUPID ME!

Seems I had got it and didn't know. So I wasted a lot of time trying to kill the robots for no reason. Oooops!

Probably got when I killed one of the early one.

So that was done.

Started my quest to go to....... That town WAY west.

On the way:
I then went up the big hill just to the north of where that happened to be bandit camp.
Cleaned them up.

Then I went north from there and a few more attacks.

Now I'm stuck at the area where the flying robots are.
Oh, no. I think they were earlier. My mistake.
I couldn't work out their weakness - other than what I was told.

Now I'm stuck:
I went through a big "gate" and (I think his name is) NIL (?) was waiting for me.
We started talking and I accidentally exited the conversation too soon.
Now I can't talk to him again.
(Thought it was like the challenge guys who you could say goodbye to then come back to and resume where you left off)

So I guess I've goofed in that part.
I then went north and there is that big robot I have to kill.

Sorry, I'm now probably ranting.
Thanks for the help.
Any more hints would be appreciated.
Not that you have to spell it out exactly how to do it, but give me a nudge.

BTW:
Modifications.
I am still stuck with how to do them.
Some weapons are easy. Others just won't be modified.
They have the circles saying they allow it, but HOW to do it seems to elude me.
Part of the problem is how do I see the weapon without having to "EQUIP" it to a position for use.
So I put it in one of the 4 slots.
Then I click on it. I see the MODIFY circles.
Click on them... Nothing happens.
Yes, as said: with other weapons, they just seem to accept the upgrade/modification.
Though - side note here too - How do I choose which one is applied?

[Basan™]

Originally posted by ozbossman17:

Ok, thanks.

Yes, I use the focus a lot.
It is kind of ironic I use it, scan, and look then turn it off.
Then Aloy tells me to use it to check if I've missed anything.

That's interesting reading. Things take in/on.

Back to "the island" and the bow.
STUPID ME!

Seems I had got it and didn't know. So I wasted a lot of time trying to kill the robots for no reason. Oooops!

Probably got when I killed one of the early one.

So that was done.

Started my quest to go to....... That town WAY west.

On the way:
I then went up the big hill just to the north of where that happened to be bandit camp.
Cleaned them up.

Then I went north from there and a few more attacks.

Now I'm stuck at the area where the flying robots are.
Oh, no. I think they were earlier. My mistake.
I couldn't work out their weakness - other than what I was told.

Now I'm stuck:
I went through a big "gate" and (I think his name is) NIL (?) was waiting for me.
We started talking and I accidentally exited the conversation too soon.
Now I can't talk to him again.
(Thought it was like the challenge guys who you could say goodbye to then come back to and resume where you left off)

So I guess I've goofed in that part.
I then went north and there is that big robot I have to kill.

Sorry, I'm now probably ranting.
Thanks for the help.
Any more hints would be appreciated.
Not that you have to spell it out exactly how to do it, but give me a nudge.

BTW:
Modifications.
I am still stuck with how to do them.
Some weapons are easy. Others just won't be modified.
They have the circles saying they allow it, but HOW to do it seems to elude me.
Part of the problem is how do I see the weapon without having to "EQUIP" it to a position for use.
So I put it in one of the 4 slots.
Then I click on it. I see the MODIFY circles.
Click on them... Nothing happens.
Yes, as said: with other weapons, they just seem to accept the upgrade/modification.
Though - side note here too - How do I choose which one is applied?

From what I'm reading over here, you're still trying to make us guess what you've done without presenting the exact name of the said quest or point of the map. And I'm starting to get fed up with that lack of commitment. If you can't provide us more detailed info' then I'm also not wasting my spare time trying to make heads and tails of what you post and had achieved or got stuck upon. I beg your pardon, but if you can't even manage to be slightly organized and use the same HZD lingo/dictionary that we also use then why should we bother too?

And those "flying robots" (i.e, I really apprectiate it for not describing them better [/sarcasm]) can be scanned even if when dead just before you loot their bodies. And that's if you can't get a stealth, aka inside bushes, position to scan them safely and I've always managed to pull it off (even when it was my 1st StormBird).
Again, you're expecting others to fill you in (or spoon feed you) without going the extra effort, so here's the Horizon's Wiki' for the Machines page[horizon.fandom.com] and it'll be up for you to see which is which (from both HZD and Horizon Forbidden West).

And Nil appears in several parts of the game, pretty much always when nearing Bandit Camps with one last exception (spoiler ahead)... when in his last quest he challenges you for a death match between the two of you.

The weapon mod slots can't be filled with every sort of mods that you might get your hands into but they're rather selective upon which sort can be used in which. For example: Damage, Tear, Fire and Handling mods are the only ones that can be fitted upon for your Hunter Bow or Banuuk counterpart[horizon.fandom.com] and for example HZD self-limits you by not allowing you to place a pointless Fire or Tear Mods inside a War Bow or their Banuuk counterpart (because that type of bow only shoots elemental arrows apart Fire and even those also rely upon dealing Damage and not any Tearing effect(s).

HZD hand helds the players a lot and provides plenty of information from it's Notebook, Quests and Map tabs, so I also strongly advise you to spend more time reading those because I've got most of my doubts answered from there when looking.