So after my first playthrough of Horizen Zero Dawn I was struck with a desire to create simply builds on the game, and hopefully see if I can't bring forth a new idea for creating builds based off of these longer games.
The Nora Outcast is a character that fits in with the in-game lore behind what it means to be Outcast, think of it as being banished from the tribe because you broke a law (Actions like stealing, assaulting or killing another Nora are all crimes that can result in banishment) for any period of time from years to an entire life. While banished, you aren't supposed to talk to the other Nora (this includes other Outcasts), or from ever returning to Mother's Heart, one of the main settlements of the Nora. This sentence is one that is given out to anyone, and can even include children for a number of reasons. Aloy is originally an Outcast because she is motherless, and at the age of 18 she attempts to finish the Proving (a right of passge) in order to become a full Nora Tribeswoman and a Brave, a, warrior of the tribe. In the game of course she wins, but I wanted to play a version of Nora that never finished the Proving, or at least not in time to be brought back into the tribe, so she's still an Outcast for the rest of the game.
Aloy, the Outcast
Gameplay
Most of the opponents that you'll be fighting are going to be the weaker machines with the occasional human enemy (which can more or less be reduced by defeating a single Bandit Camp), but things like Striders, Watchers and Grazers are going to make up the majority of the enemies that Aloy will fight during this build. They aren't really difficult to defeat and wouldn't require much strategy but I wanted to figure out how to deal with them with each weapon that I'm going to be using (which is a lot, I wanted to play around with everything.
Tripcaster - The Tripcaster is both the hardest and easiest weapon to take down enemies with. I personally find it kind of difficult to deal with most of the enemies we'll be fighting because they're what I like to call Farmland Machines, or their docile, feeding ones that aren't suited for combat and don't tend to move around that much. It makes planning routes rather difficult, and thus setting effective tripwires rather difficult. Generally these are best to use against Sawtooths and Watchers, the former taking massive damage from the Blast Tripwire and both being temporarily struck down by the Shock Tripwire which also opens up the Watcher to Critical Strikes that one-shot it. I believe the Sawtooth also can be on-shotted with a Blast Tripwire assuming it can cause the Blaze Canister to light up and explode (which technically is two shots but they're related so...) but I haven't fully tested it yet.
Sling - The Sling is the only weapon that I don't really see the use of early on. To be fair at the moment I haven't really used it...at all, but it does seem that it won't be useful against the early level enemies. The biggest thing is that it's rather hard to aim compared to the other weapons and the Warbow has very similar damage types with it's arrows. However, the Frost Bombs work extremely well against Fire Bellowbacks which can be found in the northern parts of the map. They make it really easy to take them out, especially when combined with the Fire Arrows from the Hunter Bow.
Hunter Bow - The Hunter Bow is obviously going to be one of the main weapons that we're going to use. The main use of them is the fact that they can be used to fire arrows at a frankly ridiculous pace and with the main elemental source that it has being Fire Arrows, well it's just an excellent combination that allows you to defeat enemies at a sometimes insane pace. It's mostly going to be useful against Watchers and Sawtooths because, well anything can one-shot a Watcher and against Sawtooths you can simply pelt them with Fire Arrows that are going to deal increased damage, and if your lucky (in regards to the Sawtooth's movement) you can hit the Blaze Canister.
War Bow - TBC
Sharpshot Bow - TBC
Roleplay
From a gameplay perspective, this really limits the character. You can't trade with most merchants (I believe there is one or two that come from outside the Nora Tribe but I'm not certain and they'd be rather far away), you can't complete any quest that requires you to talk to other Nora which is essentially every quest that can be completed early on. This is not a full game playthrough, and instead is the sort where you have to roleplay a fair amount, hunting machines and finishing some of the 'encounter quests' (things like clearing Corrupted Zones, climbing Tallnecks, etc.) and basically playing the game within the first area
So after my first playthrough of Horizen Zero Dawn I was struck with a desire to create simply builds on the game, and hopefully see if I can't bring forth a new idea for creating builds based off of these longer games.
The Nora Outcast is a character that fits in with the in-game lore behind what it means to be Outcast, think of it as being banished from the tribe because you broke a law (Actions like stealing, assaulting or killing another Nora are all crimes that can result in banishment) for any period of time from years to an entire life. While banished, you aren't supposed to talk to the other Nora (this includes other Outcasts), or from ever returning to Mother's Heart, one of the main settlements of the Nora. This sentence is one that is given out to anyone, and can even include children for a number of reasons. Aloy is originally an Outcast because she is motherless, and at the age of 18 she attempts to finish the Proving (a right of passge) in order to become a full Nora Tribeswoman and a Brave, a, warrior of the tribe. In the game of course she wins, but I wanted to play a version of Nora that never finished the Proving, or at least not in time to be brought back into the tribe, so she's still an Outcast for the rest of the game.
Aloy, the Outcast
Gameplay
Most of the opponents that you'll be fighting are going to be the weaker machines with the occasional human enemy (which can more or less be reduced by defeating a single Bandit Camp), but things like Striders, Watchers and Grazers are going to make up the majority of the enemies that Aloy will fight during this build. They aren't really difficult to defeat and wouldn't require much strategy but I wanted to figure out how to deal with them with each weapon that I'm going to be using (which is a lot, I wanted to play around with everything.
Tripcaster - The Tripcaster is both the hardest and easiest weapon to take down enemies with. I personally find it kind of difficult to deal with most of the enemies we'll be fighting because they're what I like to call Farmland Machines, or their docile, feeding ones that aren't suited for combat and don't tend to move around that much. It makes planning routes rather difficult, and thus setting effective tripwires rather difficult. Generally these are best to use against Sawtooths and Watchers, the former taking massive damage from the Blast Tripwire and both being temporarily struck down by the Shock Tripwire which also opens up the Watcher to Critical Strikes that one-shot it. I believe the Sawtooth also can be on-shotted with a Blast Tripwire assuming it can cause the Blaze Canister to light up and explode (which technically is two shots but they're related so...) but I haven't fully tested it yet.
Sling - The Sling is the only weapon that I don't really see the use of early on. To be fair at the moment I haven't really used it...at all, but it does seem that it won't be useful against the early level enemies. The biggest thing is that it's rather hard to aim compared to the other weapons and the Warbow has very similar damage types with it's arrows. However, the Frost Bombs work extremely well against Fire Bellowbacks which can be found in the northern parts of the map. They make it really easy to take them out, especially when combined with the Fire Arrows from the Hunter Bow.
Hunter Bow - The Hunter Bow is obviously going to be one of the main weapons that we're going to use. The main use of them is the fact that they can be used to fire arrows at a frankly ridiculous pace and with the main elemental source that it has being Fire Arrows, well it's just an excellent combination that allows you to defeat enemies at a sometimes insane pace. It's mostly going to be useful against Watchers and Sawtooths because, well anything can one-shot a Watcher and against Sawtooths you can simply pelt them with Fire Arrows that are going to deal increased damage, and if your lucky (in regards to the Sawtooth's movement) you can hit the Blaze Canister.
War Bow - TBC
Sharpshot Bow - TBC
Roleplay
From a gameplay perspective, this really limits the character. You can't trade with most merchants (I believe there is one or two that come from outside the Nora Tribe but I'm not certain and they'd be rather far away), you can't complete any quest that requires you to talk to other Nora which is essentially every quest that can be completed early on. This is not a full game playthrough, and instead is the sort where you have to roleplay a fair amount, hunting machines and finishing some of the 'encounter quests' (things like clearing Corrupted Zones, climbing Tallnecks, etc.) and basically playing the game within the first area
