bro - your video helped me get this after literally HOURS of trying maybe like 30+ attempts before. I got it in my second attempt after trying your strats. Seriously - thank you or sharing! The purge water traps helped me save enough resources in the scorcher section to use on the apex. Then the elite acid traps and continuously remembering the use the braced shot really helped. I haven’t even finished the game yet so now I feel like the rest of the game will be boring given the amount of pain I went through on this challenge hahaha
Hey man that’s great to hear! Yeah the Arena is like a different game! On Ultra Hard it’s like they put Dark Souls in then middle of Breath of the Wild! 😅. Huge congrats. It’s a very hard challenge even with hints. You still had to execute!
Boy this fight was such a bitch!! It must have took me well over 1200 tries I have so many hours of footage from me dying within 2 seconds of hitting the ground, this fight is so unbalanced and there's really just no way to practice how to beat it you just have to keep going and going and going until it happens and I didn't think it would ever happen but I finally did it again last night and put that on my CZcams channel! Great fight brother!! Anything and everything is possible!🎸🎸🎸👍👍👍👍
Just finished this challenge again yesterday but without any traps. Lord was I reminded why I hate this stage and really wonder if Guerilla tested this crap. Anyway, nevertheless, great job! 👍🏼
Thanks! Yeah it’s frustrating but if you look around there are a lot more hacks for it. Fancypants is awesome at it. But there is RNG and if you screw up it’s a drag having to do it all over again.
Lol I bet yer heart was POUNDING at the end here! Lol you had some SUPER close calls there towards the end. Like the trap that got you, lucky you didn't die there. & that freaking split second roll after that last Braced Shot. That was CLOSE! Lol.
Yep. I should have died plenty of times during that run. But remember I had died for 3 hrs straight and some of those were straight up bullshit trolling by game. 😅
@@dfchang813 Is there a Discord where you guys discuss this stuff by the way? I find this stuff pretty interesting. Honestly my goal isn't even necessarily to get a great time, my goal is to simply beat all the Arena challenges so I can truly 100% the game. This is the very last one I have to do and it's proven to be by far the hardest. The others I didn't have anywhere near this much trouble. I basically got thru the entirety of the Arena within a single afternoon, aside for this last one. But this last one is just straight up kicking my ass sideways. Then again it sounds like I don't have much room to complain til I put a whole lot more hours in lol. My suffering has been miniscule so far compared to yalls.
@@skins4thewin my reddit post in thread with over 100 replies about the Arena being impossible. Hope it inspires you bro. There is a lot to say on this subject but I’m one of the people who went from hating it to kinda enjoying it … up to a point. Lol. Background: So I was just thoroughly enjoying HFW really taking my time grinding and playing stealth. I think I was level 50 and over 120 hours in game before finally doing Kulrut and then I hit the Arena. Since I was so overpowered I didn’t have too much trouble with the fights where you can take your own gear in. But time limit was annoying and of course you needed to fight with no stealth took some getting used to. But the first loadout locked challenge against the Slitherfang. Rematch. It was like a slap in the face on NORMAL. Literally insane. I wasn’t even close to beating the time limit. I couldn’t even fucking SURVIVE. Did I mention this was on NORMAL??? So I practice and grind and start learning the weapons they force on me and finally after many deaths I punch my ticket and get to the next tier. And worked my way to From the Deep. Yeah. That one. The Tideripper and 2 Snapmaws. After hours of dying I was literally red in the face and feverish. Turned the game off, had a coming to Jesus moment … and turned the difficulty to Story, collected the loot, and dialed it back up to Normal. Wasn’t a proud moment for me but I recognized that this Arena was basically not even same game. It was like Dark Souls showed up in the middle of Breath of Wild and I wanted to finish and enjoy HFW. And I did. But after I had 100%’ed the game and there was nothing left to do in the game my mind turned back to the Arena. You know they keep track of the difficulty on the Leaderboards right? My name was only on Rematch on Normal but every other fight it was Story. So 200 hours in, I ground myself 250,000 shards, rolled up my sleeves, and went back to Arena for a “Rematch.” Watched all YT videos. And watched them again. Then again. Read all the info on gamefaqs and Reddit. And then started practicing. And I beat From the Deep on Normal. And then I did Tremortusk Tussle on Normal. And Dreaded Encounter. And finally Apex Predators on Normal. Then I did it all over again on Hard. And finally little by little on Very Hard. Until I got to Apex Predators on Very Hard. Where I thought finally this would be the wall where I couldn’t do it. Seemed beyond my skill no matter how I tried. So I set myself a schedule. No tilt. No anger. Just practice. 90 minutes a session. Rest between sessions. 1-3 sessions a night. Recorded fights where I went deeper than usual and analyzed my mistakes. Until finally after over 2 weeks of this I finally beat Apex Predators on Very Hard in 7:28. Two seconds to spare. It’s still on my YT channel for posterity. You can hear my breathing, my button presses, and the 30 seconds I had to pause the game because my heart rate was through the roof and my hands were shaking. I spent more time at the Arena than some people spent finishing the Main Quest. And after I beat Apex Predators I knew I could do better. Better RNG. Better technique and execution. Better precision. Take more chances. And before they nerfed Brace Shot so you can’t really compare times on Very Hard anymore I lowered my personal best 5 times in less than a week and topped it off at 5:17. At the time number 36 in the world. I also beat it on Very Hard post patch 1.15 where they decreased Brace Shot damage and made the challenge significantly more difficulty. And finally beat all of Arena on Ultra Hard ending with my Apex Predators Ultra Hard in 3:36 seconds at the time #9 in the world. So why am I sharing my Arena journey with you? I’m a 47 year old man. With no particular exceptional video game skills or ability. An old man really … by video game player standards. But through determination and patience and practice and research I went from almost having a fever stroke trying to beat From the Deep on Normal to a top 10 time on Apex Predators on Ultra Hard. Most of you won’t want to do what I did and that’s perfectly understandable. Remember I was one of likely millions who also dialed difficulty down to Story my first time. But for those of you who are willing to brave the Arena on the hardest difficulties with all its flaws and discover the hidden joys within … know that you can do it. You WILL do it. And in doing it you will become a far far far better Horizon Forbidden West player because after Apex Predators on THAT loadout … what really can’t you overcome on the rest of the game with your Legendaries. Thanks for reading and Good luck!!
@@dfchang813 Nice story! Lol I have a similar one in that I also played very stealthily & also on Normal for my 1st playthru, and I also got to Level 50 in what seemed like no time at all, well before the main story bits too. Pretty sure I also had Level 50 before the Kulrut. I explored every inch of the map that I could before even tackling the story stuff. I had a similar experience when first doing the Arena, it was FAR tougher than anything else. However I actually never once lowered the difficulty when playing in my 1st playthru. I was able to beat all of the Arena on Normal without too much trouble. The fights where u use ur own weapons I found to be quite easy, even on Ultra Hard. The 1st Slitherfang fight in the Arena was by far the toughest tho, took me maybe 10 tries. The other 4 on Normal weren't too bad & was able to beat them within just a few tries. Being before the Braced Shot nerf made it a lot easier for those later matches that had a Sharpshot Bow & Braced Shot. Ultra Hard tho is another story, this is far harder! I was able to beat all of them aside for Apex Predators so far but it took several hours. Watching yours and other vids on CZcams helped a lot. My times on the Leaderboard were all in the 30's to 60's range. I appreciate your honesty about how tough it was & how much work it took to get to where you are. Personally I dont plan to put in that much work, I just want to get to where I can beat Apex Predators within the time limit. I'm 39 aka also an "older gamer" I guess lol, not that it really matters.
And see, for me, when I had set those Purgewater traps, it would have literally ran backwards or something, and then launched an immediate fire blast to detonate all the traps not harming it. Or it would have ran to the side. It does crap like that almost every single time. One time I surrounded it with 4 traps one on each side of it, and it somehow walked right in between them & didn't set a single one off lol, and I couldn't lure it near them again.
How were the blaze canisters exposed on the TJ? Does the explosive traps open them up or something? If I try to target them - I have to use an arrow to open them up first? Also idk why i cant select elite acid traps in my game. Do I need to unlock them in the main story first?
You have to destroy armor plating protecting the blaze cannisters first. This is best done by inducing acid state with elite acid traps and then using advanced bomb traps as well as your advanced bombs from Wings of Ten. You have to unlock them or craft them to have it in the Arena yes.
This is one of the worst challenges in the game, I never use the rope canister and kept wasting time trying to tie down the thunderjaw with regular shots. I went from barely completing this challenge 7:53 seconds, or constantly dying within the first 5 seconds. It feels like RNG, I abuse the elite purgewate traps to kill the scorcher and damage the thunderjaw at the same time about 4 traps usually almost kills the scorcher. Once that's done tie down tie down the thunderjaw with the rope canister using the advance technique and drink a stamina potion it took like 4 shots to immobilize the thunderjaw. Lay down acid traps, and use double notch with tear arrows to take down the disc launchers. I lure him to the acid trap and then spam advanced bombs until it triggers a knockdown and trigger those blaze canisters at the bottom with warrior bow and go back to using explosive bombs. My total time was 3:37 in hard mode, and I lost track how many times I die. I hope Guerrilla for the third game moves away from fixed loadout, it made this challenge really annoying. I spent half the game farming resources upgrading legendary armor, just so I can't use it in the final challenge of the arena. Also, buff the rope canister I never use it in regular gameplay because is not a reliable way to tie down machines, the elite ropecaster is much better.
Haha. Thanks but that was so sloppy and with some poor RNG as well. Tons of better runs on the Leaderboard now not at the time it was top 10. 😅. Sub 3 minute for sure easily possible with better play and a little luck but I’m retired from the Arena until DLC hits.
@@dfchang813 I was struggling just on normal 😂 but the fire to the canisters was smart. Haven't seen people do that. It's so hard when you're used to playing a certain way then it's a preset load out I'm not used to haha. I just love using my boltcaster for raw damage
Ok so I FINALLY got the thing roped down after about 20 attempts & dying each time. Knocked down the Scorcher did the 4 advanced purgewater traps, but they simply didn't do enough damage. It took WAY longer to kill it than it did here, literally killed it just as the Thunderjaw's tiedown time ran out. The hell?
Very few people are playing this on Ultra Hard so it’s hard to confirm but latest patch Guerilla may have corrected damage settings. Earlier Aloy did a lot of damage in the Arena so that’s why times were so much faster on Ultra Hard. If they corrected this then the Arena just got a whole lot harder. This wasn’t mentioned on their 1.17 patch notes though. But they corrected little things that wasn’t mentioned. For instance audio jankiness much improved. When auto running she no longer stutter steps. They apparently fixed bug where you could set trap in melee pits to cheese challenges. So it’s possible they corrected damage Aloy deals out in Arena. That would be unfortunate since you take so much more damage on Ultra Hard and the machines have so much more hit points. You can test by using Brace Shot on Thunderjaw. On Ultra Hard it should do over 800 damage. If it does significantly less than that they’ve nerfed your damage output and we’re in trouble.
@@skins4thewin okay bro. Something is not right. I went on Arena to test personally after reading your comments on Brace Shot on Ultra Hard on Arena still doing 805 damage. So damage buff is still active. Normally outside Arena and in Arena on Very Hard Brace Shot only doing 500 or so damage. Test it out yourself in your game. If it matches up with me then you are doing enough damage you just have to use traps and practice man. Good luck!
@@dfchang813 Lol I hear ya man, I wasn't arguing with ya. Was just saying I didn't notice a damage boost. I think it must be for certain things cus other things the damage is perfectly normal. The guy who has the #1 time was speculating that it seemed the damage boost was only happening to traps but yeah, I dunno its still insanely hard for me. I am still struggling to beat it. Guess I do need more practice.
@@skins4thewin hello!!! Just to correct a few things about this haha, I said that aloy does more damage in UH mode yes, but not only in traps, but actually ALL hostile actions from Aloy do more damage, whether with bows, gauntlets, melee combos and etc. So yes, the brace shot is also affected by this. Before 1.15, the brace shot did more damage, but was nerfed. So the nerf went from the veryhard down, the ultrahard increased all over again. Other thing, its is for out of arena too. So the "problem" its not the arena. See ya!!
So I've been trying your strategy.... Why won't the ropes stick if you don't use Penetrating Rope? Even with a full Overdraw they bounce off every single time. That makes zero sense, It's supposed to penetrate armor at full draw but it simply doesn't.
It’s because your weapon is not the Elite Ropecaster but actually the Cannister Ropecaster. So normal shots even overdrawn doesn’t actually tie down. Only Penetrating Shot Weapon Technique will tie it down for this reason.
@@dfchang813 Oh wow ok yeah that makes sense. I have actually never bothered using the Canister Ropecasters so I wasn't sure how they work exactly. That makes sense though. Thanks for letting me know!
Lol like see here's an example. At the beginning of this video when you start roping the Thunderjaw, aka just before you use your 2nd Smokebomb, that right there is the most chill ass Thunderjaw I've ever seen! LOL and the Scorcher, he's not even doing anything! For reasons I can't fathom. If this was me, in that timeframe when the Thunderjaw was just standing there for you, it would have attacked me 3 times already, and the Scorcher would have attacked me 5 times and at the exact same time. If I was in that corner like you were I'd be deader than fried chicken. Yet like magic, they both r just sitting there doing nothing for a full 2 or 3 seconds. That's some miracle shit right there. I can't go a literal quarter of a second without being absolutely swarmed with attacks from both of them. I don't even have time to pull my damn weapon back let alone get a shot off. So how are these enemies so incredibly tame for you? They are infinitely less aggressive for you than they are for me.
@@chrismurcray3914 During the moments I was referring to, the smoke bomb wasn't in effect. Yeah I most definitely use them & they definitely help. I just need some more practice is all, I will get it eventually.
9 times out of 10 the fucking scorcher runs through me while I'm trying to get that last ropecaster off, goes through the thunderjaw and kills me, and half the time aloy does the smoke bomb animation and nothing happens, like wtf, twice I've had the thunderjaw very low and then I get stun locked and die, this shit is impossible Update: I just finally beat it and I can't believe it that was so hard 😂😂😂
Lol & then there @ 1:26, that is some pure ass luck dragon shit that the Scorcher missed you there. Seems to me these videos on here are probably one take out of a thousand where the A.I. just happened to do everything exactly in your favor or something. That or I am the most unlucky person in the world & my PS4 hates me lol. And then between 1:27 and 1:33, the Scorcher does almost nothing. It would have literally attacked me 5 times at absolute minimum within that timeframe. I don't get it.... In my runs not a single second goes by when it's not attacking. It is seriously pure unbridled luck that it let you rope that Thunderjaw down. Either the PS4 version is far more aggressive or you're somehow insanely lucky. And then at 3:37, where tf is the Thunderjaw running to? Lol I have never seen a Thunderjaw charge way off to the side like that. That is unicorn horn up your ass lucky. The enemies NEVER do dumb shit like that. Oh and it just sat there most of the time doing nothing letting you attack it. My Thunderjaws don't let me attack it like that.
Lol. Okay bro. So yes you have to get lucky. The most frustrating part is that you are killed trying to rope down the TJ very often. You need good RNG so that there is some natural separation between the two when you drop down. The minute you do, roll so you aren’t stun locked by the fall. Then throw a smoke bomb. It will disorient briefly. Run to the TJ and get two Penetrating Ropes into him, then Smoke Bomb again. With any luck because of the smoke bombs and the good RNG that will place the Scorcher far away, it won’t even know you are there and will be on other side walking the perimeter of the Arena. Drink your Stamina Potion and Penetrating Rope two more times to get the TJ down. BRO I died like 8 out of 10 toes trying to do this. Most of the time your ass is raped by one or both. And yeah man Scorcher is one shot kill from across the Arena cause your shit outfit is super weak to Fire! And when you die you have make all the stupid ass traps over and over again! What you are seeing is the one good run out of like 2-3 hours of bad runs. That’s like 200 deaths before one success. It’s Ultra Hard man. If that TJ farts on you it’s a one shot kill. You need to know exactly where every item in your Hunter pouch is and every sequence needs to be scripted and memorized. So after knocking down Scorcher place 4 advanced Purgewater traps in a line close but not too close to Scorcher. Then move away from him so line of traps is between him and you. If Scorcher is destroying them then you aren’t placing them close enough to Scorcher. You need to tear off ONE of disc launchers from TJ while it is roped. Two overdrawn tear precision arrows will do it. LEAVE one on TJ. He will then occasionally use the remaining one to launch a circular of discs around himself. That is a gift to you. You don’t have to dodge it so use that time to drink Stamina potion. Don’t even use health lotions. Medicinal berries ONLY to heal. Heal after getting hit even once. Or next one will one shot you. He chains attacks so understand if you fuck up a dodge you are done. Don’t forget to use Valar Surge to stay alive when you run out of berries. Brace Shot the minute you can. If you get hit it will destroy your stamina bar so you don’t want to get hit if possible. When you knock him over shoot the blaze cannisters under the belly 3-4 times to set off explosion. Then use leftover time to set more traps. Watch all my other Alex Predator videos including a video walkthrough voice over to get more hints. Use that disc launcher you knocked off if you have a chance. Put him in Acid State so your shit does more damage. How? Those elite acid traps. And finally this is on Ultra Hard brutha. Even on Very Hard you are dying 80 percent told time just trying to rope that mofo down and after bad RNG can kill you at any time. That’s if you play WELL Chief. You fuck up a dodge, get greedy and try to shoot off one bomb too many, you mistime a trap and he rushes while you are placing it, drink a potion wrong time … on Ultra Hard you’re dead!! Also both Scorcher and TJ on UH aggression is through roof. So those are some of hints I can come up with off top of my head but yeah man. This is the hardest part of the game by far. Why you think only 100 people have even done it on Ultra Hard out of like 20 million plus copies sold?? Grind on brutha and good luck!
@@dfchang813 Damn, well now I guess I don't feel as bad lol. Sounds like you had just as hard a time as I did. Thanks a ton for all the info, those are some great tips! I will be sure to reference this again once I give this another shot. Part of my problem is I've been playing w a broken controller. 80% of the time when I hit Right on the DPAD it registers as a down press too. Waiting on a new controller to come in, probably won't try again til it gets here. But yeah man I can't thank ya enough for your help. I will probably get this eventually. My time probably won't be as good but I WILL beat this eventually. From the sound of it I've barely even started trying lol.
@@dfchang813 And yeah everything you said is completely true lol. It's a freaking nightmare. I assume you've seen the #1 guy's vid right? That dude is an freaking MADMAN! That vid is absolutely insane. As close to perfection as I think I've ever seen. That being said, your method actually seems doable. His, I can say with confidence that I'll never be able to do that lol.
@@skins4thewin there is a small brotherhood of people who even give a shit about this crazy Arena challenge so of course I know him. He is amazing. Remember that you have a few frames of invincibility when you dodge and he has memorized and times perfectly when to roll to just avoid the damage from detonation of those Elite Acid traps. But he has put in well over 100 hours on Arena alone. He is number 1 on all Very Hard and all Ultra Hard challenges.
@@dfchang813 Yeah his skill is pretty dang stellar. I mean the traps themselves isn't actually TOO bad for me to be perfectly honest, and I can see how one could really get the timing perfect with that much practice. It's the random attacks that you either don't see coming, or were too distracted trying to focus on something else to see coming. And there's just so many of them bombarding you that just getting thru the first minute of the fight is the hard part. After that it gets a lot easier.
Sure! But Guerilla made it much much harder. On Very Hard before they nerfed Brace Shot you could take it down without traps. Many CZcams videos show this. But once they nerf damage output of Brace Shot by 33% and also increase the hit points on Ultra Hard to insane high (apex Thunderjaw on Ultra Hard has 24,375 hit points!!!) I have a hard time believing you can do this without traps on Ultra Hard without increased damage output they give you in Arena on UH.
@@skins4thewin use Brace Shot in Arena on Very Hard and Ultra Hard on Thunderjaw. You did very fast on Ultra Hard because machines deal more damage to you but in Arena you also do more damage to them. That’s why times are way faster in Arena on Ultra Hard. My best time pre nerf of Brace Shot was 5:19 or something but even playing kind of sloppy my time was 3:30 or something on Ultra Hard … over 2 minutes faster. So something is off with your game or something if damage is not up there. With Elite Acid Trap you should be rocking honestly 750 plus damage per Elite Acid trap minimum in Arena on Ultra Hard. This doesn’t happen outside Arena, only in Arena challenges on Ultra Hard.
@@dfchang813 Lol jesus... and to think it should be even harder! Guess I'm just not up to snuff then cus just beating this final challenge is proving impossible for me. Granted I don't have a ton of practice but it is harder than anything else I've experienced in the game by far. I just can't stay alive, and the weapons suck. The damage output is just too slow, and I just can't get to using traps as I've never used them before now cus I always found them to be a waste and way too expensive.
@@dfchang813 Either way tho Guerilla has made a total mess of this game. It's rife with problems still. The damn jittery camera problem is still there too, aka on PS4 whenever you move the camera around, or jump or duck or anything that makes the camera pan or zoom it jitters all over. It is SUPER annoying.
bro - your video helped me get this after literally HOURS of trying maybe like 30+ attempts before. I got it in my second attempt after trying your strats. Seriously - thank you or sharing! The purge water traps helped me save enough resources in the scorcher section to use on the apex. Then the elite acid traps and continuously remembering the use the braced shot really helped. I haven’t even finished the game yet so now I feel like the rest of the game will be boring given the amount of pain I went through on this challenge hahaha
Hey man that’s great to hear! Yeah the Arena is like a different game! On Ultra Hard it’s like they put Dark Souls in then middle of Breath of the Wild! 😅. Huge congrats. It’s a very hard challenge even with hints. You still had to execute!
Boy this fight was such a bitch!! It must have took me well over 1200 tries I have so many hours of footage from me dying within 2 seconds of hitting the ground, this fight is so unbalanced and there's really just no way to practice how to beat it you just have to keep going and going and going until it happens and I didn't think it would ever happen but I finally did it again last night and put that on my CZcams channel! Great fight brother!! Anything and everything is possible!🎸🎸🎸👍👍👍👍
Did not know you could tinker your traps before jumping in. You have helped me immensely.
Very impressive!
Thanks for the strategy
Just finished this challenge again yesterday but without any traps. Lord was I reminded why I hate this stage and really wonder if Guerilla tested this crap.
Anyway, nevertheless, great job! 👍🏼
Thanks! Yeah it’s frustrating but if you look around there are a lot more hacks for it. Fancypants is awesome at it. But there is RNG and if you screw up it’s a drag having to do it all over again.
Lol I bet yer heart was POUNDING at the end here! Lol you had some SUPER close calls there towards the end. Like the trap that got you, lucky you didn't die there. & that freaking split second roll after that last Braced Shot. That was CLOSE! Lol.
Yep. I should have died plenty of times during that run. But remember I had died for 3 hrs straight and some of those were straight up bullshit trolling by game. 😅
@@dfchang813 Lol I know the feeling. Welcome to the club :P
@@dfchang813 Is there a Discord where you guys discuss this stuff by the way? I find this stuff pretty interesting. Honestly my goal isn't even necessarily to get a great time, my goal is to simply beat all the Arena challenges so I can truly 100% the game. This is the very last one I have to do and it's proven to be by far the hardest.
The others I didn't have anywhere near this much trouble. I basically got thru the entirety of the Arena within a single afternoon, aside for this last one. But this last one is just straight up kicking my ass sideways. Then again it sounds like I don't have much room to complain til I put a whole lot more hours in lol. My suffering has been miniscule so far compared to yalls.
@@skins4thewin my reddit post in thread with over 100 replies about the Arena being impossible. Hope it inspires you bro.
There is a lot to say on this subject but I’m one of the people who went from hating it to kinda enjoying it … up to a point. Lol.
Background:
So I was just thoroughly enjoying HFW really taking my time grinding and playing stealth. I think I was level 50 and over 120 hours in game before finally doing Kulrut and then I hit the Arena.
Since I was so overpowered I didn’t have too much trouble with the fights where you can take your own gear in. But time limit was annoying and of course you needed to fight with no stealth took some getting used to.
But the first loadout locked challenge against the Slitherfang. Rematch. It was like a slap in the face on NORMAL. Literally insane. I wasn’t even close to beating the time limit. I couldn’t even fucking SURVIVE.
Did I mention this was on NORMAL???
So I practice and grind and start learning the weapons they force on me and finally after many deaths I punch my ticket and get to the next tier.
And worked my way to From the Deep. Yeah. That one. The Tideripper and 2 Snapmaws. After hours of dying I was literally red in the face and feverish.
Turned the game off, had a coming to Jesus moment … and turned the difficulty to Story, collected the loot, and dialed it back up to Normal.
Wasn’t a proud moment for me but I recognized that this Arena was basically not even same game. It was like Dark Souls showed up in the middle of Breath of Wild and I wanted to finish and enjoy HFW. And I did.
But after I had 100%’ed the game and there was nothing left to do in the game my mind turned back to the Arena. You know they keep track of the difficulty on the Leaderboards right? My name was only on Rematch on Normal but every other fight it was Story.
So 200 hours in, I ground myself 250,000 shards, rolled up my sleeves, and went back to Arena for a “Rematch.” Watched all YT videos. And watched them again. Then again. Read all the info on gamefaqs and Reddit. And then started practicing. And I beat From the Deep on Normal. And then I did Tremortusk Tussle on Normal. And Dreaded Encounter. And finally Apex Predators on Normal.
Then I did it all over again on Hard.
And finally little by little on Very Hard.
Until I got to Apex Predators on Very Hard. Where I thought finally this would be the wall where I couldn’t do it. Seemed beyond my skill no matter how I tried.
So I set myself a schedule. No tilt. No anger. Just practice. 90 minutes a session. Rest between sessions. 1-3 sessions a night. Recorded fights where I went deeper than usual and analyzed my mistakes.
Until finally after over 2 weeks of this I finally beat Apex Predators on Very Hard in 7:28. Two seconds to spare. It’s still on my YT channel for posterity. You can hear my breathing, my button presses, and the 30 seconds I had to pause the game because my heart rate was through the roof and my hands were shaking.
I spent more time at the Arena than some people spent finishing the Main Quest.
And after I beat Apex Predators I knew I could do better. Better RNG. Better technique and execution. Better precision. Take more chances.
And before they nerfed Brace Shot so you can’t really compare times on Very Hard anymore I lowered my personal best 5 times in less than a week and topped it off at 5:17. At the time number 36 in the world.
I also beat it on Very Hard post patch 1.15 where they decreased Brace Shot damage and made the challenge significantly more difficulty.
And finally beat all of Arena on Ultra Hard ending with my Apex Predators Ultra Hard in 3:36 seconds at the time #9 in the world.
So why am I sharing my Arena journey with you? I’m a 47 year old man. With no particular exceptional video game skills or ability. An old man really … by video game player standards.
But through determination and patience and practice and research I went from almost having a fever stroke trying to beat From the Deep on Normal to a top 10 time on Apex Predators on Ultra Hard.
Most of you won’t want to do what I did and that’s perfectly understandable. Remember I was one of likely millions who also dialed difficulty down to Story my first time.
But for those of you who are willing to brave the Arena on the hardest difficulties with all its flaws and discover the hidden joys within … know that you can do it. You WILL do it. And in doing it you will become a far far far better Horizon Forbidden West player because after Apex Predators on THAT loadout … what really can’t you overcome on the rest of the game with your Legendaries.
Thanks for reading and Good luck!!
@@dfchang813 Nice story! Lol I have a similar one in that I also played very stealthily & also on Normal for my 1st playthru, and I also got to Level 50 in what seemed like no time at all, well before the main story bits too. Pretty sure I also had Level 50 before the Kulrut. I explored every inch of the map that I could before even tackling the story stuff.
I had a similar experience when first doing the Arena, it was FAR tougher than anything else. However I actually never once lowered the difficulty when playing in my 1st playthru. I was able to beat all of the Arena on Normal without too much trouble. The fights where u use ur own weapons I found to be quite easy, even on Ultra Hard.
The 1st Slitherfang fight in the Arena was by far the toughest tho, took me maybe 10 tries. The other 4 on Normal weren't too bad & was able to beat them within just a few tries. Being before the Braced Shot nerf made it a lot easier for those later matches that had a Sharpshot Bow & Braced Shot.
Ultra Hard tho is another story, this is far harder! I was able to beat all of them aside for Apex Predators so far but it took several hours. Watching yours and other vids on CZcams helped a lot. My times on the Leaderboard were all in the 30's to 60's range.
I appreciate your honesty about how tough it was & how much work it took to get to where you are. Personally I dont plan to put in that much work, I just want to get to where I can beat Apex Predators within the time limit. I'm 39 aka also an "older gamer" I guess lol, not that it really matters.
And see, for me, when I had set those Purgewater traps, it would have literally ran backwards or something, and then launched an immediate fire blast to detonate all the traps not harming it. Or it would have ran to the side. It does crap like that almost every single time. One time I surrounded it with 4 traps one on each side of it, and it somehow walked right in between them & didn't set a single one off lol, and I couldn't lure it near them again.
How were the blaze canisters exposed on the TJ? Does the explosive traps open them up or something? If I try to target them - I have to use an arrow to open them up first?
Also idk why i cant select elite acid traps in my game. Do I need to unlock them in the main story first?
You have to destroy armor plating protecting the blaze cannisters first. This is best done by inducing acid state with elite acid traps and then using advanced bomb traps as well as your advanced bombs from Wings of Ten. You have to unlock them or craft them to have it in the Arena yes.
This is one of the worst challenges in the game, I never use the rope canister and kept wasting time trying to tie down the thunderjaw with regular shots. I went from barely completing this challenge 7:53 seconds, or constantly dying within the first 5 seconds. It feels like RNG, I abuse the elite purgewate traps to kill the scorcher and damage the thunderjaw at the same time about 4 traps usually almost kills the scorcher. Once that's done tie down tie down the thunderjaw with the rope canister using the advance technique and drink a stamina potion it took like 4 shots to immobilize the thunderjaw. Lay down acid traps, and use double notch with tear arrows to take down the disc launchers. I lure him to the acid trap and then spam advanced bombs until it triggers a knockdown and trigger those blaze canisters at the bottom with warrior bow and go back to using explosive bombs. My total time was 3:37 in hard mode, and I lost track how many times I die. I hope Guerrilla for the third game moves away from fixed loadout, it made this challenge really annoying. I spent half the game farming resources upgrading legendary armor, just so I can't use it in the final challenge of the arena. Also, buff the rope canister I never use it in regular gameplay because is not a reliable way to tie down machines, the elite ropecaster is much better.
Agree. Just fyi it’s harder on Very Hard than Ultra Hard because you do less damage on VH.
Wow now that's impressive.
Haha. Thanks but that was so sloppy and with some poor RNG as well. Tons of better runs on the Leaderboard now not at the time it was top 10. 😅. Sub 3 minute for sure easily possible with better play and a little luck but I’m retired from the Arena until DLC hits.
@@dfchang813 I was struggling just on normal 😂 but the fire to the canisters was smart. Haven't seen people do that. It's so hard when you're used to playing a certain way then it's a preset load out I'm not used to haha. I just love using my boltcaster for raw damage
What outfit are you wearing boss? It looks amazing! I need to buy that one expedtiously!
Carja Stalker Elite. You get it at the Arena.
Ok so I FINALLY got the thing roped down after about 20 attempts & dying each time. Knocked down the Scorcher did the 4 advanced purgewater traps, but they simply didn't do enough damage. It took WAY longer to kill it than it did here, literally killed it just as the Thunderjaw's tiedown time ran out. The hell?
Very few people are playing this on Ultra Hard so it’s hard to confirm but latest patch Guerilla may have corrected damage settings. Earlier Aloy did a lot of damage in the Arena so that’s why times were so much faster on Ultra Hard. If they corrected this then the Arena just got a whole lot harder. This wasn’t mentioned on their 1.17 patch notes though. But they corrected little things that wasn’t mentioned. For instance audio jankiness much improved. When auto running she no longer stutter steps. They apparently fixed bug where you could set trap in melee pits to cheese challenges. So it’s possible they corrected damage Aloy deals out in Arena. That would be unfortunate since you take so much more damage on Ultra Hard and the machines have so much more hit points. You can test by using Brace Shot on Thunderjaw. On Ultra Hard it should do over 800 damage. If it does significantly less than that they’ve nerfed your damage output and we’re in trouble.
@@dfchang813 Interesting... Not sure. I wasn't aware that she was doing more damage. The damage output seems perfectly normal to me.
@@skins4thewin okay bro. Something is not right. I went on Arena to test personally after reading your comments on Brace Shot on Ultra Hard on Arena still doing 805 damage. So damage buff is still active. Normally outside Arena and in Arena on Very Hard Brace Shot only doing 500 or so damage. Test it out yourself in your game. If it matches up with me then you are doing enough damage you just have to use traps and practice man. Good luck!
@@dfchang813 Lol I hear ya man, I wasn't arguing with ya. Was just saying I didn't notice a damage boost. I think it must be for certain things cus other things the damage is perfectly normal. The guy who has the #1 time was speculating that it seemed the damage boost was only happening to traps but yeah, I dunno its still insanely hard for me. I am still struggling to beat it. Guess I do need more practice.
@@skins4thewin hello!!! Just to correct a few things about this haha, I said that aloy does more damage in UH mode yes, but not only in traps, but actually ALL hostile actions from Aloy do more damage, whether with bows, gauntlets, melee combos and etc. So yes, the brace shot is also affected by this. Before 1.15, the brace shot did more damage, but was nerfed. So the nerf went from the veryhard down, the ultrahard increased all over again. Other thing, its is for out of arena too. So the "problem" its not the arena. See ya!!
So I've been trying your strategy.... Why won't the ropes stick if you don't use Penetrating Rope? Even with a full Overdraw they bounce off every single time. That makes zero sense, It's supposed to penetrate armor at full draw but it simply doesn't.
It’s because your weapon is not the Elite Ropecaster but actually the Cannister Ropecaster. So normal shots even overdrawn doesn’t actually tie down. Only Penetrating Shot Weapon Technique will tie it down for this reason.
@@dfchang813 Oh wow ok yeah that makes sense. I have actually never bothered using the Canister Ropecasters so I wasn't sure how they work exactly. That makes sense though. Thanks for letting me know!
Lol like see here's an example. At the beginning of this video when you start roping the Thunderjaw, aka just before you use your 2nd Smokebomb, that right there is the most chill ass Thunderjaw I've ever seen! LOL and the Scorcher, he's not even doing anything! For reasons I can't fathom. If this was me, in that timeframe when the Thunderjaw was just standing there for you, it would have attacked me 3 times already, and the Scorcher would have attacked me 5 times and at the exact same time.
If I was in that corner like you were I'd be deader than fried chicken. Yet like magic, they both r just sitting there doing nothing for a full 2 or 3 seconds. That's some miracle shit right there. I can't go a literal quarter of a second without being absolutely swarmed with attacks from both of them. I don't even have time to pull my damn weapon back let alone get a shot off. So how are these enemies so incredibly tame for you? They are infinitely less aggressive for you than they are for me.
He used a smoke bomb. They couldn’t see him. Have you tried doing that to bide some time with them not being able to see you?
@@chrismurcray3914 During the moments I was referring to, the smoke bomb wasn't in effect. Yeah I most definitely use them & they definitely help. I just need some more practice is all, I will get it eventually.
9 times out of 10 the fucking scorcher runs through me while I'm trying to get that last ropecaster off, goes through the thunderjaw and kills me, and half the time aloy does the smoke bomb animation and nothing happens, like wtf, twice I've had the thunderjaw very low and then I get stun locked and die, this shit is impossible
Update: I just finally beat it and I can't believe it that was so hard 😂😂😂
Huge congrats bro! You didn’t give up and you did it!!
@dfchang813 hell yeah thanks bro, I was using pretty much the same strat as you but implementing the disc launcher is what saved me
By the way this is on ultra hard 😅😂😂
Lol & then there @ 1:26, that is some pure ass luck dragon shit that the Scorcher missed you there. Seems to me these videos on here are probably one take out of a thousand where the A.I. just happened to do everything exactly in your favor or something. That or I am the most unlucky person in the world & my PS4 hates me lol. And then between 1:27 and 1:33, the Scorcher does almost nothing. It would have literally attacked me 5 times at absolute minimum within that timeframe.
I don't get it.... In my runs not a single second goes by when it's not attacking. It is seriously pure unbridled luck that it let you rope that Thunderjaw down. Either the PS4 version is far more aggressive or you're somehow insanely lucky.
And then at 3:37, where tf is the Thunderjaw running to? Lol I have never seen a Thunderjaw charge way off to the side like that. That is unicorn horn up your ass lucky. The enemies NEVER do dumb shit like that. Oh and it just sat there most of the time doing nothing letting you attack it. My Thunderjaws don't let me attack it like that.
Lol. Okay bro. So yes you have to get lucky. The most frustrating part is that you are killed trying to rope down the TJ very often. You need good RNG so that there is some natural separation between the two when you drop down. The minute you do, roll so you aren’t stun locked by the fall. Then throw a smoke bomb. It will disorient briefly. Run to the TJ and get two Penetrating Ropes into him, then Smoke Bomb again. With any luck because of the smoke bombs and the good RNG that will place the Scorcher far away, it won’t even know you are there and will be on other side walking the perimeter of the Arena. Drink your Stamina Potion and Penetrating Rope two more times to get the TJ down. BRO I died like 8 out of 10 toes trying to do this. Most of the time your ass is raped by one or both. And yeah man Scorcher is one shot kill from across the Arena cause your shit outfit is super weak to Fire! And when you die you have make all the stupid ass traps over and over again! What you are seeing is the one good run out of like 2-3 hours of bad runs. That’s like 200 deaths before one success. It’s Ultra Hard man. If that TJ farts on you it’s a one shot kill. You need to know exactly where every item in your Hunter pouch is and every sequence needs to be scripted and memorized. So after knocking down Scorcher place 4 advanced Purgewater traps in a line close but not too close to Scorcher. Then move away from him so line of traps is between him and you. If Scorcher is destroying them then you aren’t placing them close enough to Scorcher.
You need to tear off ONE of disc launchers from TJ while it is roped. Two overdrawn tear precision arrows will do it. LEAVE one on TJ. He will then occasionally use the remaining one to launch a circular of discs around himself. That is a gift to you. You don’t have to dodge it so use that time to drink Stamina potion. Don’t even use health lotions. Medicinal berries ONLY to heal. Heal after getting hit even once. Or next one will one shot you. He chains attacks so understand if you fuck up a dodge you are done. Don’t forget to use Valar Surge to stay alive when you run out of berries. Brace Shot the minute you can. If you get hit it will destroy your stamina bar so you don’t want to get hit if possible. When you knock him over shoot the blaze cannisters under the belly 3-4 times to set off explosion. Then use leftover time to set more traps.
Watch all my other Alex Predator videos including a video walkthrough voice over to get more hints.
Use that disc launcher you knocked off if you have a chance. Put him in Acid State so your shit does more damage. How? Those elite acid traps.
And finally this is on Ultra Hard brutha. Even on Very Hard you are dying 80 percent told time just trying to rope that mofo down and after bad RNG can kill you at any time. That’s if you play WELL Chief. You fuck up a dodge, get greedy and try to shoot off one bomb too many, you mistime a trap and he rushes while you are placing it, drink a potion wrong time … on Ultra Hard you’re dead!! Also both Scorcher and TJ on UH aggression is through roof.
So those are some of hints I can come up with off top of my head but yeah man. This is the hardest part of the game by far. Why you think only 100 people have even done it on Ultra Hard out of like 20 million plus copies sold??
Grind on brutha and good luck!
@@dfchang813 Damn, well now I guess I don't feel as bad lol. Sounds like you had just as hard a time as I did. Thanks a ton for all the info, those are some great tips! I will be sure to reference this again once I give this another shot.
Part of my problem is I've been playing w a broken controller. 80% of the time when I hit Right on the DPAD it registers as a down press too. Waiting on a new controller to come in, probably won't try again til it gets here.
But yeah man I can't thank ya enough for your help. I will probably get this eventually. My time probably won't be as good but I WILL beat this eventually. From the sound of it I've barely even started trying lol.
@@dfchang813 And yeah everything you said is completely true lol. It's a freaking nightmare.
I assume you've seen the #1 guy's vid right? That dude is an freaking MADMAN! That vid is absolutely insane. As close to perfection as I think I've ever seen.
That being said, your method actually seems doable. His, I can say with confidence that I'll never be able to do that lol.
@@skins4thewin there is a small brotherhood of people who even give a shit about this crazy Arena challenge so of course I know him. He is amazing. Remember that you have a few frames of invincibility when you dodge and he has memorized and times perfectly when to roll to just avoid the damage from detonation of those Elite Acid traps. But he has put in well over 100 hours on Arena alone. He is number 1 on all Very Hard and all Ultra Hard challenges.
@@dfchang813 Yeah his skill is pretty dang stellar. I mean the traps themselves isn't actually TOO bad for me to be perfectly honest, and I can see how one could really get the timing perfect with that much practice. It's the random attacks that you either don't see coming, or were too distracted trying to focus on something else to see coming. And there's just so many of them bombarding you that just getting thru the first minute of the fight is the hard part. After that it gets a lot easier.
And is there actually anyone that can beat this without cheezing the traps?
Sure! But Guerilla made it much much harder. On Very Hard before they nerfed Brace Shot you could take it down without traps. Many CZcams videos show this. But once they nerf damage output of Brace Shot by 33% and also increase the hit points on Ultra Hard to insane high (apex Thunderjaw on Ultra Hard has 24,375 hit points!!!) I have a hard time believing you can do this without traps on Ultra Hard without increased damage output they give you in Arena on UH.
@@dfchang813 What is this about increased damage in the arena? This is the 2nd time I've heard someone mention that. What's the story behind that?
@@skins4thewin use Brace Shot in Arena on Very Hard and Ultra Hard on Thunderjaw. You did very fast on Ultra Hard because machines deal more damage to you but in Arena you also do more damage to them. That’s why times are way faster in Arena on Ultra Hard. My best time pre nerf of Brace Shot was 5:19 or something but even playing kind of sloppy my time was 3:30 or something on Ultra Hard … over 2 minutes faster. So something is off with your game or something if damage is not up there. With Elite Acid Trap you should be rocking honestly 750 plus damage per Elite Acid trap minimum in Arena on Ultra Hard. This doesn’t happen outside Arena, only in Arena challenges on Ultra Hard.
@@dfchang813 Lol jesus... and to think it should be even harder! Guess I'm just not up to snuff then cus just beating this final challenge is proving impossible for me. Granted I don't have a ton of practice but it is harder than anything else I've experienced in the game by far. I just can't stay alive, and the weapons suck. The damage output is just too slow, and I just can't get to using traps as I've never used them before now cus I always found them to be a waste and way too expensive.
@@dfchang813 Either way tho Guerilla has made a total mess of this game. It's rife with problems still. The damn jittery camera problem is still there too, aka on PS4 whenever you move the camera around, or jump or duck or anything that makes the camera pan or zoom it jitters all over. It is SUPER annoying.