Horizon Zero Dawn How to Beat Shell-Walker & Get Crate

Shell-Walkers are one of the many robotic animals that you’ll get to see (and fight) in Horizon Zero Dawn. They have both good defense and offense, but they’re relatively slow. Another interesting thing about them is that they have a huge crate on their back, which you can detach and later loot. In this guide, we’ll tell you how to kill Shell-Walker in Horizon Zero Dawn, how to detach the crate, etc.

How to Get Shell-Walker Crates

Shell-Walkers are basically crab-like haulers. Their main weapon is the Lightning Gun, and they also have a charge attack when their Shield is on. They’re pretty slow, though, so that’s your advantage. They also have a huge crate of goodies on their backs. However, you have to detach it by shooting the Crate Holders in the back in order to loot it. That wouldn’t be so hard, except they’ll try to put it back, which you have to prevent.

The simplest (but not necessarily easiest) solution is to sneak up behind them, stay there and keep hitting them. They’ll of course try to turn around and face you, but if you move quickly enough, you should be able to stay in position and keep dealing damage. One bonus to this method is that you’ll pretty much be hitting the Cargo Holders the entire time.

The second method is more head-on. Shoot them from behind with a Teardown arrow into the Cargo Holder to detach the crate. Then, set a trap or Trip Wire and lure the Shell-Walker in. With a little luck, this will destroy the Power Generator (located on its “stomach”, for lack of a better term), which will disable the Shield, Lightning Gun and deal additional Shock damage. The Shell-Walker is pretty much at your mercy then. Alternatively, you can dodge around to get around the shield, then use Concentration to disable component by component with teardown arrows.

If the machine attempts to get the crate back at any point, you should quickly hit it again to divert attention back to yourself. And keep in mind, you can accidentally destroy the cargo, making it useless for you. After you’ve dispatched the Walker, you can loot the crate at your leisure. If you have the Scavenger skill, you’ll get even more stuff. For more info about skills, check out our Horizon Zero Dawn Skills guide.