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InHorizon Zero Dawn Remastered, you playas Aloy. The interesting thing about the opening to this game is that you get to see Aloy’s early days growing up with her mentor and father-figure, Rost. Not only does this serve as a solid tutorial for the rest of the game, but also graduallyintroduces you to the worldand the core of Aloy’s motivation going forward.
The Tip of the Spear is the first main story quest that takes place years after Aloy found the Focus as a child, and it gives you your first taste of theopen-world gameplayofHorizon Zero Dawn Remastered.
This walkthrough contains spoilers, proceed with caution.
Find Rost
Before you get started, now would be a good time to apply skill points. There are four skill trees in total: Prowler, Brave, Forager, and Traveler. This early on in the game, it is not a bad idea to go with abilities like Gatherer in the Forager tree and Silent Drop from the Prowler tree. If you prefer stealth, Silent Strike and Lure Call are some good options to consider as well.
When you are ready, go down the path and turn left toward the smoldering campfire. Campfires allow you to manually save your game and also function as fast travel points, so make sure to use them often. There are also several herbs for the medicine pouch and Ridge-Wood for arrows.
Go through the open gate and across the bridge. Then climb up the ledgeand approach Rostto trigger a cutscene. At this point, you will gain two objectives that you must complete to advance the story:
It doesn’t matter which order you do these objectives, as you will need to complete both anyway. You also get your first errand, which is essentially a side quest that just grants XP. Errands are completely optional, but if you want to level up sooner, go speak with Odd Grata.
While exploring the area, you will come across your first side quest as well called “In Her Mother’s Footsteps”. Unlike errands, side quests typically reward more than just XP, and if you complete this side quest you will gain a permanent increase to your spear damage.
Gather Materials
In order to craft the Fire Arrows, you will need to gather three Blaze and five Metal Shards from machines in the area. There is a Strider site southeast of where you spoke with Rost. While on the way, stop by as many campfires as possible to open up more fast travel points for later.
There are lots of Striders to hunt in the area highlighted for this quest and plenty of patches of tall grass to hide in. Take your time and either lure them toward you, or hit their canisters from a distance. Once you’ve gathered all the Metal Shards and Blaze you need, the next step will be to open the weapon wheel and craft some Fire Arrows.
Trade with Karst
Karst can be found just outside of Mother’s Cradle on the southwest side. Talk to him and then select the “Trade” option. He will give you the Tripcaster in exchange for a Scrapper Lens. If you don’t have one, head to the Scrapper site that is northwest from where Karst is.
Once you have the Tripcaster, equip it. You will get a tutorial for how to use the Tripcaster and your objective for this quest will update.
Meet With Rost
Once you are ready to proceed, head to the North Gate. Talk to him to trigger a cutscene and then use the campfire to manually save. Doing so will advance the story. Once the cutscene is over, you will be on the other side of the gate. Proceed down the path that is littered with destroyed machines and buildings. Make sure to loot the destroyed Sawtooths while you go, as they contain a lot of valuable resources.
While you are following the path, you will come across a single Watcher patrolling. Either sneak past it, or destroy it. Go up the nearby ridge to trigger another cutscene, and then it will be time to killyour first Sawtooth.
How to Kill a Sawtooth
At this point, the training wheels are off. How you deal with the Sawtooth is up to you. Regardless of how you choose to proceed, make sure to use the Focus to highlight the path that the Sawtooth patrols along. This makes it easy to set up a trap with the Tripcaster, but alternatively, you can find a spot where you can lie in wait and shoot the canister on the Sawtooth’s belly.
When it is time to go on the offensive, make sure to equip the Fire Arrows that you made earlier. Sawtooths are weak to fire damage, which is why Rost had you make them in the first place. The best way to take out this Sawtooth is to set up a trap along the path, wait for it to walk through the trap, and then shoot the canister with a Fire Arrow while it is stunned. Approach the destroyed Sawtooth and loot it to trigger a cutscene to start the next main story quest, Mother’s Heart.
