NG+ (Horizon Zero Dawn)
Article Notice: This article is incomplete, if you can, please do add to it.
Notice: This article is about the NG+ category within Horizon Zero Dawn, for the mode, see New Game+. For the Horizon Forbidden West category, see NG+ (Horizon Forbidden West)
General
NG+ is a main leaderboard category within Horizon Zero Dawn where one completes the game in the New Game+ mode. Using this mode, the player retains all skills, resources, weapons, outfits and other items. The only exception to this is items in the "special items" category. By playing in NG+, players skip the childhood section of the game. The following guide will be for both Story and Ultra Hard difficulty, and will also specify for differences between PS4, PC and PS5.
Rules and Timing
General Rules
- Runs must be submitted with an accurate “Time With Loads” (RTA). This can not be calculated from a VOD as it's not accurate.
- Playing on Emulator is not allowed.
- Using the Pre-order or Special Edition Items is not allowed.
- Manipulating a save file or the game prior to the start of the run is not allowed.
- Loading a save file that was not created during the run is not allowed.
Video Rules
- Video proof is required for all submissions. The video needs to be hosted on a dedicated video/streaming website (Twitch, Youtube or similar), excluding short-form video hosting services (i.e. TikTok or similar).
- The video must show the entire run. If big parts of the run are missing or if the quality is too low the run will be rejected.
- Make sure the submitted video is cut to mainly show the run.
- Runs in the Top 3 will be removed from the leaderboards if the video is deleted or made unavailable by the runner.
PC Specific Rules
- PC runs must have an RTA timer (Real Time) displayed on screen if the the load remover is not used.
- Settings are only allowed to be changed from the in game settings menu. Any changes performed outside of the game are not allowed.
- Using mods of any kind is not allowed, even if they are just cosmetic.
- The use of any scripts is not allowed.
Time without Loads
- For guidelines on time without loads please refer to this link: https://www.speedrun.com/hzd/guide/6atmp
- If you don't know how to calculate your time without loads, then put the same time as your time with loads and a mod will calculate it for you.
- You can use the automatic load remover for timing your runs. It can be found under guides.
- We recommend using automatic load remover if you can. Since it will make it easier and faster to verify your run.
Timing Rules
- Time starts upon skipping the first cutscene.
- Time ends upon pressing triangle or its equivalent to purge HADES at the end of the "The Face of Extinction" main quest.
NG+ File
For a guide on how to set up your save file, please refer to this article.
Movement
As with most HZD categories, the two primary movement options are sprint rolling and mount riding. Rolling whilst sprinting is faster than regular sprinting by about 1 second per 100 feet. This movement will mainly be used at the start of the run, during smaller travels, and within areas that block access to the mount. Mount riding is used for the longer stretches of travel.
Because of rolling being a primary form of movement, it is essential that you do not have the long roll skill to make optimal rolling easier. If you do have the long roll skill, you can still use short rolls by tapping circle or its equivalent in a more precise rhythm.
Any time that you fall a significant amount, it is faster to hold the aim button right as you land to mitigate the fall damage animation.
Dialogue
For the optimal dialogue selections in each mandatory conversation, please refer to this document.
Abbreviations
A list of useful abbreviations that will be used throughout the guide:
- RFS - Restart from Save
- FT - Fast Travel
- UH - Ultra Hard difficulty
- HDD - Hard Drive Disc (If you play on a PS4 and haven't modified it with an SSD, this is what you are playing on)
- SSD - Solid State Drive (If you play on PC, PS5 or a modified PS4, then this is what you are playing on)
Hololock Codes
Grave-Hoard codes:
- Up, Down, Left, Right
- Up, Right, Left, Down
- Up, Up, Down, Down
Zero Dawn code:
1. Down, Left, Up, Right, Down
Route and Splits
A full written guide for the run is below, for video guides, refer to this part of the article. Video guides are useful in showing how to do certain skips or strategies that are difficult to describe in written form.
Sawtooth
Skip the first cutscene to start your run. Begin rolling towards Rost and talk to him. Mash through the conversation and fast travel to the Northern Embrace Gate if playing on a PS4 with an HDD. If you play on any other hardware, fast travel to the Main Embrace Gate. For PS4 HDD, roll backwards towards Rost and spam through the conversation, then save at the campfire to progress the quest. For other hardware, restart from save as soon as possible once you load in at the Main Embrace Gate, then roll left to Rost. Mash through the conversation and save at the campfire
Skip the cutscene and roll left to the rocks. Keep rolling and drop down, in the process, hold the button you use to aim to charge up the stormslinger. Keep rolling toward the Sawtooth arena, then skip the cutscene. On story, you will need between 2 and 3 shots to kill the sawtooth typically. On UH, you will need around 10, be careful not to die from the damage inflicted by the stormslinger.
Loot the sawtooth and skip the cutscene. Mash through the Rost dialogue and FT to Mother's Heart. Split in the loading screen.
Proving
Roll backwards over the bridges towards Rost and mash through his conversation, upon completion of the conversation, fast travel back to Mother's Heart. Skip the 2 cutscenes and roll to Teb. Mash through the conversation and roll toward the speech held by the Carja. Skip the cutscene and scan Olin. Mash through his and Erend's dialogue, then head to the side of the grand matriarch's house and jump over the river toward the blessing. Skip the cutscenes and jump over the river toward the lodgements for the proving runners.
Skip the 2 cutscenes and mash through Bast's dialogue. Roll backward to the bed and sleep, be careful not to speak to Vala.
Pause the proving cutscene immediately to pause the Loadless Time, then skip as soon as possible. Roll forward a few times and fire a blast bomb into the grazers, loot one and skip the cutscene. Roll forward again and repeat. After looting, RFS. Start rolling towards the trail. Optionally you can save 2 seconds by using the double Proving Fleur Skip. Skip the cutscene and take the zipline. Roll a few times and jump onto the middle of a tree sticking out of the side to clip through a death barrier. This is known as Tree Skip. Make your way to the save point and RFS, check the article or the video guides on how exactly to do this.
If you don't want to use tree skip, you can follow the intended trail.
Now, instead of taking the rappel point, turn left and sprint to drop down, don't jump. Jump up the metal devil arm and follow it, turn left when you can and jump across. Make your way up the mountain and trigger the proving fight cutscene. This is known as Proving Skip, check the article or video guides for how exactly to make your way up.
For the first phase of the fight, shoot the 4 Eclipse members. Once you've done this, drop two proximity bombs, one right before the centre of the ridge, one right above. Now skip the cutscene and shoot the remaining Eclipse members. Drop prox bombs at the spawn location of the Eclipse member with a Deathbringer gun. Shoot the remaining Eclipse members and loot the leader. Skip the cutscene, then pause the following cutscene as quickly as possible, and split.
Corruptor
Skip the cutscene once the load finishes, roll through the mountain toward you gear. Pick it up and skip the cutscene. Follow Teersa or roll ahead to where she will be, be careful not to block her on the way there. Talk to her as soon as possible and skip the 3 cutscenes. Roll ahead to the exit, but make sure not to get too close to not trigger a brief 'you may not exit' cutscene. Once the line "The other grandmatriarchs are waiting for us, let me do the talking." appears on screen, roll out of the mountain and skip the cutscene. Mash through Teersa's dialogue and roll a bit to the right of the intended path. Drop down the mountain by first walking on it a bit before rolling off, this is to prevent dying from fall damage. Roll towards Resh and speak to him and skip the cutscene.
Roll over to the lefthand side of the gate, where some logs are piled up. Use these logs to jump up onto the gate and aim at one of the Corruptor's weak spots. For Story, use one hardpoint arrow. For UH, use the damage icerail. When the gate bursts and the screen shakes, fire at the Corruptor's weak spot. Note that the timing for this is fairly precise, and it may take some practice to get right. RFS after you kill the corruptor, roll forward, loot the corruptor, skip the cutscene and mash through Teb's dialogue. FT to the Main Embrace Gate and split.
Carja Border
Press left D-pad or equivalent once to switch to mount call, and call your mount. Wait a few moments and turn around to get onto it, then ride through the gate. Mash through Varl's dialogue and get back onto your mount. Follow the road park your mount to the left side of the massacre site entrance (see image or video guide). Jump up the rocks and RFS once you see a save in the bottom right. Roll left and investigate the Corruptor, make sure to mash through the dialogue, roll right toward a watcher and examine it. Mash through the dialogue again. Exit the massacre site quickly towards your mount and get onto it, then RFS once the game saves.
Ride forward after the loading screen and get off your mount to talk to Dran, mash through his dialogue. Get back onto your mount and exit the massacre site slightly more to the right of the exit, then ride to Mother's crown. Get off your mount once you discover the settlement Mother's Crown and blow up your mount with a bomb, then FT to the campfire inside Mother's Crown. Roll left towards Marea, and mash through her dialogue. Roll out of Mother's Crown and turn your camera right on the exit bridge, then call your mount.
Get on your mount and ride to the grazer corruption zone, on Story, kill them by lighting their blaze canisters with fire arrows. On UH, hit them with one sticky bomb each. Keep following the path and head towards the corruption zone with scrappers and watchers. When you near the corruption zone, take the path on the right that leads up a hill. On Story, kill the scrappers and watchers with your stormslinger, on UH, kill them with bombs. Now ride towards the side of the Two-Teeth bandit camp, and RFS when the game saves.
Turn around on your mount, for some hardware your mount may have disappeared, call a new one in that case. Ride towards the Carja Border and kill the machines there with your stormslinger both on UH and Story. Roll toward the gate and call your mount before the cutscene. Skip the cutscene, enter the border and mash through the guard's dialogue and split.
Meridian
Excavation Site
Ambush
Maker's End
Dig Site
Camps
Ring of Metal
Grave-Hoard
Eclipse Base
Zero Dawn
Siege
Borderlands
Gaia Prime
Dervahl
Helis
Ridge Defence
HADES
Video Guides
In addition to the written guide, it can be very helpful to learn from video as well. Below are the current NG+ Story and NG+ UH world records, and a guide made by ImBeingIan. Note that the video guide from Ian may not be entirely up to date.
NG+ UH world record by everydayaussie:
NG+ UH world record by everydayaussie:
Ian's guide:
