Horizon: Zero Dawn – How To Defeat Stormbird (The Easy Way)

The Stormbird is the largest birdlike machine that Aloy can fight within Horizon Zero Dawn. This bird can be found more than once out in the wilds of the game and is one of the hardest enemies she has to face. Though very tough, the Stormbird isn’t impossible to defeat.

The first Stormbird that Aloy encounters cannot be snuck up on, so this tutorial will not include any stealth tactics. Instead, this will cover skills that will be useful, as well as weapons, and tactics. As the Stormbird is quite difficult, Aloy may have to try these tactics a few times before getting it quite right.

Takedown the Stormbird in Horizon Zero Dawn

First of all, before going into tactics and weapons, players should consider what abilities to have Aloy invested in. Quite a few of the skill lines don’t affect combat at all, but a few do. The Tinkerer trait is a great one to invest in so that Aloy can upgrade all of her various weapons and add modifications to them. Due to the Stormbird mostly being in the air, the only traits that should be considered here are related to her bow. Concentration will help her better aim and hit the Stormbird to knock off its armor, and Double Shot will enable Aloy to shoot two arrows at once at her enemies.

Now that skills have been covered, let’s talk about weapons, specifically bows. There are three main types of bows that Aloy can purchase or gain, hunter bows, war bows, and sharpshot bows. Without getting too specific, the best two options are the hunter and sharpshot bows. The hunter bow is fast and deals a good amount of damage while the sharpshot bow deals a ton of damage while being slower and more accurate.

Finally, after purchasing or grabbing the best weapons, upgrading them, and building Aloy up as a character, she just might be ready to takedown the Stormbird with a plan. As the Stormbird appears out of nowhere and knows exactly where she is it is unlikely that she would ever be able to hide from it. Instead, she should focus on dropping the bird out of the sky. The best ways to do this are to shoot off the bird’s armor to stun it before pinning it down with Aloy’s ropecaster. Once it is pinned re-equip the hunter bow or a rattler and shoot off as much armor to make more of Aloy’s shots count. After this, Aloy may have to repeat the process a couple of times before downing the giant beast of metal feathers.

Horizon Zero Dawn is available on PlayStation 4 and PC.

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