Zero Dawn Skip

General

Zero Dawn Skip is one of the larger skips in Horizon Zero Dawn, saving around a minute in the Zero Dawn split. It is generally considered one of the hardest skips in the run and is one of the few skips to glitch the game in any way.

Discovery

The pillar and where to jump

The initial discovery for the Zero Dawn Skip was made by wirednotes in October of 2019, and saved around 25 seconds by jumping up a pillar to avoid the fight you usually would have to do during the Zero Dawn quest. An interesting side-effect of skipping the fight was that the quest would become glitched and not progress. The day after the skip was posted in the community discord server, Elkjaer would find a use for this glitched quest state. Because the game doesn't realize that you are no longer working on Zero Dawn, you can fast travel straight to Mother's Crown to do the corrupted thunderjaw fight, saving another ~25 seconds by eliminating the need to travel from the embrace gate.

How to Perform

In order to do Zero Dawn Skip, you will first need to head to the room in which you fight several Eclipse troops. These would usually come in several waves, but it is crucial that you do not progress the fight. Some runners choose to kill one or two of the initial three Eclipse soldiers to reduce interference while trying to do ZD Skip. Head to the couple crates in the room, and jump up the pillar (see image).

When doing the first jump from the crates to the pillar, land on the right-hand side of the rock. The 2nd jump is the most difficult, you need to try and have Aloy land right in between 2 rocks. The third and fourth jump are fairly easy, just jump up to the next rock. For the final jump, line yourself up with the catwalk, then sprint and jump. It is essential to not jump too quickly, but rather wait until you almost fall off the rock. This is to prevent hitting the stalactites hanging from the roof.

Once you make your way up, continue through as you would normally. Note that the Behemoth fight after Zero Dawn will be made more difficult, as the Behemoth will lack it's usual behaviour of smashing into the pillars. Lure the behemoth to the pillars by standing centred behind the pillars. (Watch a run of a high-level player for more detail)

Finally, after the fight, fast travel to the Mother's Crown settlement, and restart from save afterwards. Then, jump through the gate on the left side, as it will be closed.

Note that ZD skip is considered one of the hardest skips for a reason, and can be difficult to get down.

Trivia

• ZD skip is the only skip in Horizon Zero Dawn that uses a glitched quest state.