If you want to make travel easy, then you’re going to need to learn how to fill out, uncover and unlock the map in Horizon Zero Dawn. Like many open world games, the map is hidden by the fog of war, which keeps you from seeing places you haven’t explored. While you do slowly unlock the different areas of the map through travel, if you want to unlock all of the surrounding landscape, you’ll need to learn how to climb and override Tallnecks.
How to Find Tallnecks
There are a total of five Tallnecks hidden around the game world. Thankfully, these massive creatures are shown on the map, even if you haven’t uncovered the fog of war surrounding them. Tallnecks work similarly to towers in Ubisoft’s Far Cry series, and players will need to find a way to climb to the top of them and override them to unlock the area surrounding each Tallneck. Overriding a Tallneck will reveal a certain amount of the area on the map, making it easier to locate machine gathering locations.
How to Climb Tallnecks
Once you have found a Tallneck, it is time to climb up it. Like the towers in Far Cry, each Tallneck has a different configuration of climbable pieces sticking out of its body. The first Tallneck you encounter, which is located near a place called Devil’s Thirst, is fairly easy to climb, as its climbable sections are all close together. Others will require more attention to detail to find the way up.
When you have located a Tallneck, you must then find a way to jump onto the beast’s back. You won’t be able to climb up from the ground, so you’ll need to find a location that allows you to get level with where the Tallneck’s back meets it’s massively long neck. Once you’ve found this spot, make your way towards it.
If you’re having trouble finding a place, look around for Watchers, as they usually can be found guarding the correct way up. Make sure to take any of them out before you try to jump on the Tallneck, as Redeye Watchers can knock you off and down to the ground, which will cost you a significant amount of health, and possibly your life.
When you’ve found a way onto the Tallneck, jump onto its back and begin your climb. Once you reach the top, hold the Triangle button on your PlayStation 4 controller to override the creature’s system and take control of it. This will also reward you with map data of the surrounding area, which will reveal machine gathering locations for easy hunting and farming
Once you’ve finished with a Tallneck, the quickest way down is to rappel off its head, which can be done by locating the rappel area and holding Triangle until Aloy begins the rappelling process.
Now that you know how to reveal the map and climb Tallnecks, it’s time to head back to our Horizon Zero Dawn guide for more information on the game, like how to get mounts, how to fast travel, and how to level up quickly.
