Horizon Forbidden West Machine Weakness List: How do I trigger elemental statuses and reactions?
Know your enemy
The dangerous and beautiful machines of Horizon Forbidden West are some of the real stars of the show.
To take them down, Aloy has to employ cunning and strategy. One of the main ways to do that is by exploiting each specific machine’s weaknesses and leveraging them to her advantage.
There are lots of different elemental types to consider, each inflicting their own kind of status condition.
These status conditions can also be used by machines to target Aloy, so it pays to know your types for defensive as well as offensive reasons.
- Fire inflicts Burning which deals damage over time
- Electricity inflicts a Shocked status which stuns a target
- Cold inflicts Brittle which increases the target’s susceptibility to impact damage
- Acid inflicts Corrosion which melts armor and deals damage over time
- Purgewater inflicts the Drenched status which makes enemies easier to shock, freeze, and stops them doing their own elemental damage
- Plasma builds up over time and creates an explosion - if you deal more impact damage as it builds, the explosion is stronger
- Adhesive makes enemies sticky and stuns them for a long time
- Explosive ammo destroys armor and deals heavy damage
How do you trigger elemental reactions in Horizon Forbidden West?
There are two main ways to trigger elemental damage in Horizon Forbidden West: weaknesses and chain-reactions.
Scan a machine with your Focus and you can see what elements it’s weak to and what it’s resistant against.
Elemental statuses a machine is weak to build up more quickly, while resistant ones will take longer.
Hitting unarmored parts and weak points on a machine will also cause elemental status to build more quickly.
Once the status indicator has been filled, the machine will be affected by that elemental status condition for a limited time.
You can also afflict machines with elemental statuses they are usually resistant to. However, this is done by causing a chain-reaction.
To start a chain-reaction, isolate the part of the machine that stores the elemental energy type it uses.
The example the game uses is the shock tank on the back of a Scrapper, but it also works with fire on Blaze tanks, acid on acid sacs, and so on.
Target this machine part with the same type of element as is stored there and it will create an explosive chain-reaction that inflicts that status on the targeted machine and anything unlucky enough to be caught in the blast.
Horizon Forbidden West Machine Weakness List
| Horizon Forbidden West Machine Weaknesses and Loot | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Machine Name: | Machine Weakness: | Machine Resistance: | Machine Chain-reaction: | Machine Loot: |
| Grazer | Shock | Acid | Fire on rear Blaze canister | Grazer Rotor Horn |
| Burrower | Fire, Shock (Elemental Variant), Acid (Tracker) | None (Regular), Fire (Elemental Variant), Shock (Tracker) | Canister on Elemental Variant | Soundshell |
| Scrounger | Frost, Acid | N/A | Shock on rear Power Cell | Scrounger Spark Coil |
| Leaplasher | Purgewater | Shock | Shock on Power Cell, Acid on Tank | Leaplasher Spark Coil |
| Scrapper | Shock | Plasma | Plasma Cell on rear | Scrapper Spark Coil |
| Spikesnout | Fire, Purgewater | Shock | Acid Canister | Spikesnout Sac Webbing |
| Skydrifter | Frost | Fire | Shock on Power Cell | Skydrifter Razor Tail |
| Plowhorn | Acid | Frost, Purgewater | N/A | Plowhorn Horn |
| Charger | Shock | N/A | Blaze Canister on rear | Charger Horn |
| Lancehorn | Fire | Frost | Frost on Chillwater Canister | Lancehorn Drill Horn |
| Longleg | Shock | Acid | Shock on rear Sparker | Longleg Wing Burner |
| Bristleback | Shock | Acid (Acid Variant), Fire (Fire Variant) | Acid or Fire on rear Canister based on Variant | Bristleback Tusk |
| Fanghorn | Frost | Fire | Fire or Purgewater on respective Canisters | Fanghorn Antler |
| Redeye Watcher | Shock | Fire, Plasma | N/A | N/A |
| Widemaw | Purgewater | Fire, Frost, Shock, Acid, Plasma | Shock on rear Sparker | Widemaw Tusk |
| Clawstrider | Shock, Purgewater (Fire Variant), Plasma (Acid Variant) | Acid, Fire (Fire Variant), Fire & Acid (Acid Variant) | Shock on Sparker | Clawstrider Razor Tail |
| Corruptor | Fire | Berserk | N/A | N/A |
| Bellowback | Frost (Fire Variant), Purgewater (Acid Variant), Fire (Frost Variant) | Fire (Fire Variant), Acid (Acid Variant), Frost (Frost Variant) | Element of Sac | Bellowback Sac Webbing |
| Glinthawk | Fire, Shock | Frost | N/A | Glinthawk Beak |
| Shell-Walker | Acid | Fire, Shock | N/A | Shell-Walker Lightning Gun |
| Stalker | Shock | Fire, Acid | N/A | Stalker Stealth Generator |
| Grimhorn | Purgewater, Acid | Fire, Shock | N/A | Plowhorn Horn |
| Ravager | Purgewater, Acid | Frost, Shock | Shock on rear Sparker, Plasma on purple canister | N/A |
| Snapmaw | Fire, Shock | Frost, Purgewater | Purgewater on front canister | Snapmaw Sac Webbing |
| Sunwing | Purgewater | Plasma | Shock on rear Sparker | Sunwing Shield Caster |
| Clamberjaw | Purgewater | Fire, Plasma | Shock on rear Sparker | Clamberjaw Tail Duster |
| Rollerback | Acid | Frost, Shock | Acid on tail canister | Rollerback Hammer Tail |
| Rockbreaker | Frost, Shock | Fire | N/A | Rockbreaker Mining Claw |
| Behemoth | Fire, Acid | Frost, Shock | Acid canister, Frost on rear Chillwater canister | Behemoth Force Loader |
| Dreadwing | Fire | Frost, Shock, Acid | Shock on wing Sparker, Purgewater on tail canister | Dreadwing Metal Fang |
| Tideripper | Frost, Shock | Fire, Purgewater | Frost on Chillwater tail canister, Shock on rear Sparker, Plasma on Glowblast canister | Tideripper Tail Fin |
| Shellsnapper | Fire, Acid | Frost, Plasma | Shock on Sparkers under shell | Shellsnapper Shell Bolt |
| Stormbird | Acid, Plasma | Fire, Shock | Frost on wing canisters, Purgewater on tail canisters | Stormbird Storm Cannon |
| Thunderjaw | Purgewater, Acid | Frost, Shock | Frost on underbelly canister, Plasma on Glowblast canister, Shock on Sparker underneath tail | Thunderjaw Tail |
| Frostclaw | Fire, Shock | Frost | Shock on back Sparker, | Frostclaw Sac Webbing |
| Scorcher | Frost, Shock | Fire | Purgewater canister on back | Scorcher Scanning Ear |
| Slitherfang | Fire, Frost, Plasma | Shock, Purgewater, Acid | Plasma on neck Glowblast canister, Shock on Sparker, Acid and Purgewater on tail canisters | Slitherfang Earthgrinder |
| Tremortusk | Frost | Fire | Shock on side Sparkers | Tremortusk Tusk |
| Fireclaw | Frost, Purgewater | Fire | Purgewater canister on back, Shock on rear Sparker | Fireclaw Sac Webbing |
| Slaughterspine | Frost, Purgewater | Fire, Shock, Acid, Plasma | Purgewater canister on tail, Frost on Chillwater tail canisters | N/A |
| Specter | Acid, Plasma | Fire, Shock, Purgewater | N/A | N/A |
For more on the dangers facing Aloy, check out our Horizon Forbidden West guide.