Arena Basics Guide

Horizon Forbidden West is a stunning, massive, open-world game. Aside from the unforgiving dangers you’ll encounter in the wild, you can also test your mettle in the Arena. In this page, we will discuss the basics and challenges of the Arena..

Unlocking the Arena

The Arena is found behind the Memorial Grove,, southwest of the GEMINI cauldron. You have to complete The Broken Sky and The Kulrut main quests first to trigger the side quest “Opening the Arena” by speaking to Kalla. She’ll tell you that she needs some materials to rebuild the ballista that will be used to guard the Arena premises.

The two materials needed are:

* 2 Bristleback Tusks

* 1 Rollerback Sinew

The Bristleback Tusks are ordinary scraps/drops from Bristlebacks so you most likely have them in stock. Otherwise, head to any Bristleback sites and hunt them for this part. The Rollerback Sinew is a quest-only item so you’ll have to head to the marked Rollerback site and kill that machine to get this part. Bring the parts back to Kalla and the Arena will be finally open.

Arena Basics

There are two types of currencies that you can use to exchange for new weapons: Hunting Medals and Arena Medals. Hunting medals are obtained from Hunting Grounds while Arena Medals are earned from Arena challenges. Unfortunately, these medals are earned once per completed challenge only so it’s not possible to farm low-level or easier challenges to get the much-coveted legendary gear.

Arena Challenges are incredibly hard but you’ll get some of the best Legendary weapons and armors in the game there. Thankfully, you can use your Hunting Medals to get some purple weapons that can help you tackle harder arena challenges and earn arena medals. Just make sure not to go all-out and fully upgrade your purple weapons, especially if they’ll require incredibly rare materials. Save those for the legendary gear that you’re aiming for.

Each challenge attempt in the arena will cost some shards. The more difficult the challenge, the more expensive the “entry fee” will get. If you lost or abandoned the challenge, you’ll have to pay the entry fee again to get another attempt. It’s recommended to save before attempting the last challenge per difficulty since these are the most challenging ones.

Before starting the Arena challenge, make sure that you have your ideal set of weapons equipped. This is because once the challenge has started, you won’t be able to change your weapon loadout on the fly. Don’t worry about the ammo as well since any ammo or supply you’ve consumed during the challenge will be automatically refilled. Unlike in the Training Grounds, you can’t loot the drops of defeated machines in the Arena.

The last challenge per difficulty/category will force you to use the weapon, armor, Traps, Valor surge, Weapon Techniques, and other consumables that the Arena Master will provide or allow. This can be incredibly frustrating at first especially if you’re forced to use weapons you’re not familiar or comfortable with.

Arena Easy Mode

If things get tough, you can lower the difficulty! There’s no shame in doing so, especially if you just want to breeze through the arena content and get the medals. (The difficulty will not affect the amount of Medals you’ll earn.) The lowest difficulty setting is “Story” and you can even prolong the Concentration duration and even enable Auto Heal! (also available in Easy and Custom difficulties) You can always adjust the difficulty anytime by accessing the game’s Settings.

Additional Arena Tips

* The challenge will start as soon as you jump inside the arena. That said, it’s always a good idea to scan the enemies before jumping in. That way, you can review their weaknesses and prioritize which ones to target first . This will help immensely in your strategy.

* As mentioned above, once you start the arena challenge, the weapons in your loadout as well as the Traps and consumables in your hunter’s kit will be locked - meaning what you have equipped will be the ones you’ll use for the entire challenge. Thankfully, you can go all out with using them since they’ll be fully replenished once the challenge is over.

* If you think you’ll have problems clearing a challenge, I suggest saving first using the campfire outside the Arena. If you think you’ll fail before the timer runs out, you can quit the game and reload your latest game save. This can help save you some shards by avoiding paying the entry fee again when retrying a challenge.

* If you’re using provisional gear and items (during the last challenge per category), always review the weapon loadout, hunter’s kit items, and their available Weapon Techniques and Valor surge. That way, you’ll know which weapons to use against certain enemies.

* Don’t bother hiding or taking over against large machines. They can easily wreck any wooden obstacles placed inside the arena.

* Always bring elemental weapons, especially Acid. This is a universally great element to eat through machine armor and reveal their vulnerable parts.

* Always carry a spike thrower, especially explosive spikes. They can deal consistent damage with a reliable tear ratio. They’re even more powerful if you can use the Spike Trap Weapon Technique.

* Use your Weapon Techniques and Valor Surges. These two abilities will help you immensely in turning the tide of the battle to your favor, provided that you have equipped the best ones for the job.

* Abuse your Concentration ability. Fighting in the arena will be intense as there’s no reliable cover to hide and it’s easy to get cornered or ragdolled by consistent machine onslaught. Concentration will not only allow you to land your shots properly but also enable you to react defensively.

For a complete list of challenges, please check the next page.

That concludes our Arena Basics Guide for Horizon Forbidden West. We hope that this information helps you in your exploration and adventure. For more content regarding Horizon Forbidden West, please refer to our online guide here at Supercheats.