Strike

Strike, also known as Strike%, is a miscellaneous speedrun category for Horizon Forbidden West centered around the in-game “Machine Strike” board game. Strike is notorious for being perhaps the most RNG-dependent category in all of Horizon Speedrunning. Strike runs are significantly shorter than the main categories. Even the most inexperienced of Strike players can beat the run in 45-50 minutes on a PS5 (55-60 minutes on a PS4 with HDD) by following along with huntks’ Strike Guide. Experienced Strike speedrunners can complete a run in about 35 minutes on a PS5 (45 minutes on PS4 HDD), though who knows how far that time will fall in the future with the right luck and strategies. Maybe one day a sub-30 minute Strike speedrun will be possible, but only time will tell if that will ever happen.

Resources

Here is a list of helpful resources for Strike and Strike speedrunning:

• huntks’ Strike Guide
• Update History for huntks’ Strike Guide
• Tutorial Playlist for the Strike Guide
• huntks’ Piece Information Spreadsheet
• Speedrun.com Leaderboards

TODO: add links to all of these

Rules

To complete a Strike run, players must defeat all of the challenge boards from all 16 of the Strike players in any order, as long as you start in Chainscrape and finish with Strike Master Leikttah. The Chainscrape tutorials, Erend, and Leikttah’s Random Board are not included in the run. In addition, the preorder only Apex Clawstrider piece is banned. Runs are timed using Real Time Attack (RTA). The run begins when you enter into the Chainscrape: Easy board and ends when the brown “Victory” screen appears after defeating Leikttah. Because of the variation in loading times between platforms, the leaderboards have been split between PS5, PS4 HDD, and PS4 SDD.

Strike Players

The 16 Strike players are split into 6 difficulties: Beginner, Intermediate, Skilled, Experienced, Expert, and Master. They are as follows:

Beginner:

• Chainscrape (Salma)
• Barren Light
• Plainsong

Intermediate:

• Arrowhand
• Scalding Spear
• Salt Bite

Skilled:

• Hidden Ember
• Fall’s Edge
• Thornmarsh

Experienced:

• The Bulwark
• Stone Crest

Expert:

• Tide’s Reach
• Cliffwatch
• Legacy’s Landfall
• The Arena (Vikallo)

Master:

• Leikktah

The difficulty level of each player has little to no impact on the Strike speedrun. Because each Strike player always puts the same pieces on the same spaces, runners can put their pieces in locations that often lead to a one turn win.

Strike Pieces

While there are around 40 Strike pieces in Horizon Forbidden West, only 5 different pieces are used in the Strike speedrun. These 5 pieces are the Stormbird, the Glinthawk, the Longleg, the Leaplasher, and the Snapmaw. If you would like to compare all of the Strike pieces, consult the Piece Information Spreadsheet, complete with every stat, skill, and abbreviation for every piece except for the Apex Clawstrider.

Strike Mechanics

TODO: Describe stats, total attack power, skills, sprinting, overcharge, etc.

The Strike Board

Strike is played on an 8x8 tiled board, much like the one used in chess. The Strike board also features 6 different terrain types that modify a piece’s attack power, mobility, and/or terrain-based buffs.

TODO: Detail terrain effects

Strike Notation

Because Strike is a complex game that has many possible moves, a notation system is necessary in order to effectively and efficiently describe possible Strike moves. Chess notation is a good starting point for a notation system, though the greater number of pieces and the ability to rotate and overcharge requires a more sophisticated form of notation. Board tiles are labeled just like a chess board, with the letters A-H being used to represent the columns and the numbers 1-8 for the rows. Some possible squares are A1, D4, F7, and H2. Unlike in chess, the labeling centers on Aloy and not the player who starts to keep things more simple. An abbreviation for the piece to be moved is put in front of the word “to” followed by the tile that it is moved to, again similar to chess notation. A full list of piece abbreviations can be found on the Piece Information Spreadsheet. In the event that two or more of the same type of piece are present, the tile that the moved piece was on prior to its move is put before the piece abbreviation. The rotation of a piece is denoted by an “R”, “L”, “F”, or “B” (for Right, Left, Forward, and Backward) immediately following a tile name or before an “OC” (for “overcharge”). Unless otherwise stated, assume that the rotation of a piece remains the same as it was the turn prior. If a piece needs to be overcharged following a move, an “OC” is put at the end of the turn. Most of the time the overcharge is used to gain an extra attack, so an overcharge used to move will be noted with a “Move To” phrase or something similar. Overcharges are also separated from the main move with a comma. Attacks are notated with an “A” following the tile name and rotation if applicable. The notation can be somewhat clunky at times, but it gets easier to parse once you gain some familiarity with using it. Here are a couple of examples of this notation in action:

Example 1:

Text: Move the Stormbird to the space in the fourth row and the fourth column and attack and then overcharge.

Notation: SB to D4A, OC

Example 2:

Text: Move the Glinthawk on the tile on the second row and seventh column to the space on the fourth row and seventh column. Turn left and attack, and then turn so that you face forwards again and use your overcharge to attack again.

Notation: G2 GH to G4LA, ROC

As you can see, the notation can significantly compress the length of directions. Although it can be hard to grasp at first, it is well worth the effort to learn as it will dramatically improve the transmission of Strike-related information.

General Strike Strategies

TODO: fast travel locations

Speedrunning Strike

With 47 different Strike boards in the entire Strike run, it can be difficult for even top runners to remember where to put their pieces on each board. In order to help organize all of the most optimal Strike strategies, speedrunner huntks created his Strike Guide to create a coherent, organized guide detailing everything necessary to run Strike at any level. Most of the information on this page can be found in the Strike Guide, though some information is left out or added to keep it more focused on what is necessary for the Strike run itself. Because of the risk of losing a run to a misplaced piece and the difficulty of memorizing the setup for every board, even the most skilled of runners trying for a personal best or world record opt to follow along with the Strike Guide, so there is no shame in using it.

Advanced Strike Strategies

Movement Tech

Due to the limited amount of movement in a Strike speedrun, there are only a couple of movement skips in the entire run. There are three skips in total, though only two of them are used due to the difficulty of the third for minimal timesave. The first skip, Table Skip, is in Hidden Ember. The skip involves jumping onto the table, from the table onto the cloth awning, and finally up to the floor on the next level. This skip only saves 1-2 seconds, but it is fairly simple to pull off. The second skip, Campfire Skip, is far more difficult that the first, though it is manageable. To perform this skip, you must jump onto the campfire in Scalding Spear, position yourself fairly precisely on the campfire, and then jump up. If you did this correctly, Aloy should grab onto the ledge and pull herself up. Though this skip is much harder than Table Skip, the reward is far greater, saving up to 7-8 seconds if done optimally. The third and final movement skip is known as Sunwing Skip. This skip involves fast traveling to the Plainsong settlement rather than the campfire. You then must face down and summon your Sunwing as quickly as you can, and then proceed to fly above the area where the board is. You then have to dismount the Sunwing and activate your Shieldwing to glide into the area. This skip is difficult to pull off, with only about a 30% success rate. If the skip is done incorrectly, the run is practically dead. Even if you were to successfully perform the skip, the amount of time saved can vary widely. The most time that you can save is about 5 seconds if you are very luck, and it is actually possible to lose a couple of seconds depending on how well the mount behaves. For these reasons Sunwing Skip is not currently used in Strike speedruns.

Other Strategies

In Strike, you must fast travel 14 times in each completed run.

TODO: Link movement video, Quest Travel Checkpoints, etc