Horizon Zero Dawn Best Starting Skills - Which Abilities to Upgrade

There are a lot of skills in Horizon Zero Dawn. They define what advantages you character has, how good she is at doing different things. By the end of the game, you’ll get to unlock all the skills you want, but the beginning can be tricky. There are only so many skill points early on, and if you spend them unwisely, you might regret it. In this guide, we’re going to show you the best starting skills in Horizon Zero Dawn.

Which skills to upgrade first in Horizon Zero Dawn

If you want a full breakdown of all the skills in the game, check out our skill tree guide. The most important ones are:

• Silent strike – This one allows you to attack enemies from hiding. It does a lot of damage if you manage to approach them without being noticed. Since enemies aren’t instantly alerted when one of their comrades dies, you can use it to take out whole camps without ever going into combat.
• Concentration – This skill lets you slow down time while you aim. Since over 90% of the weapons in the game are ranged, this can be an amazing addition.
• Critical hit – This one lets you do massive damage to downed enemies. Use heavy attack to topple enemies, then perform critical hits to quickly deal with them.

Everyone should pick these three, no matter their preference. After that, you can branch out depending on your approach. You can increase concentration duration, the damage done with silent strikes or critical hits, and more.

Horizon Zero Dawn early builds

After you’ve invested into the three above, we recommend taking one of these two paths:

• Stealth – If you’re into sneaking, you should go for the third column in the Prowler tree. It will greatly increase your ability to pass by enemies undetected, and it will cost you 9 skill points. It includes:
  1. Silent Drop – No sound when falling to the ground.
  2. Low Profile – Less visibility when crouching.
  3. Dodge Prowess – Better dodging.
  4. Quiet Sprint – No sound when running.
• Mount-companion – If you’re going to do a lot of combat, you should upgrade the first column in the Forager tree. It will give you the ability to call a mount even if you don’t have one. This is great because mounts can help you in battles by doing damage and drawing attention away from you. It also removes the need to override a mount in order to get it – just whistle, and it will appear, even if you didn’t have it until then. The whole tree costs 9 skill points and includes:
  1. Lure Call – Draw enemies to a desired location.
  2. Combat Override – Gives +50% override duration.
  3. Combat Override + – Gives infinite override duration.
  4. Call Mount + – Calls a new overriden mount when you don’t have one.