The Bristlebacks Part 1 - Horizon Forbidden West Guide - IGN (2024)

This Horizon Forbidden West The Bristlebacks walkthrough includes who to talk to, what to do, and any tips or tricks to help you defeat machines that come your way. The Bristlebacks is a two-part Side Quest in Horizon Forbidden West you receive in The Daunt.

The Bristlebacks is one of the few quests you start in one Main Quest and finish in another. In this case, The Bristlebacks starts during the To the Brink Main Quest, but it can only be finished when you have completed The Embassy and the Death’s Door Main Quest begins.

Aloy must aid the Carja Sun-Priest in the Daunt in order for the Embassy to occur. Along the way, she is reunited with an old friend. Aloy must find out how the Bristlebacks got into the Daunt and put a stop to it.

This walkthrough will only go through the first part of The Bristlebacks Side Quest. For the second part of the Quest refer to The Bristlebacks Part 2 walkthrough.

The Bristlebacks Part 1 Guide

When Aloy arrives in The Daunt, she meets a Carja Sun-Priest, Vuadis, who is on his way to Barren Light, the location where the Embassy will occur. Aloy needs the Embassy to happen so that she can enter the Forbidden West. Unfortunately, the Sun-Priest refuses to move on as there are Bristlebacks everywhere. He has sent an old friend of Aloy’s, Tap to Reveal, to fight off the Bristlebacks.

Talk to Ulvund and Javad in Chainscrape

Unwilling to wait for Tap to Reveal and his group to clear a path, Aloy sets out for Chainscrape, the first main settlement in the Daunt. There she speaks to Ulvund, the unofficial official leader of Chainscrape. He tells her about the Bristleback problem and in response to it, he has shut down all work in the quarries outside of Chainscrape. Aloy goes to speak to the Carja magistrate, Javad the Willing, in an effort to get things moving along. Of course, he is unable to help her unless she uncovers the cause behind the recent surge of Bristleback activity.

Enter the Mine

Leave Chainscrape and head southwest. There will be a quarry, Split Crag, located in the mountains that shows signs of a Bristleback stampede. Enter the mine and follow the minecart track. At the end of the track, go right through the small tunnel. Follow that path until you come to a rock face that you must climb. This will lead you to a large cavern. There will be Acid Bristlebacks in the area that you will need to clear out and they will be a bit of a challenge to defeat. They are big, bulky machines that can do a lot of damage if you are too close to them. Keep at a ranged distance from them or keep the high ground. They are weak against Shock but they have acid canisters on them that can do a good amount of damage if you hit them with acid arrows.

Return to Javad

Once they are eliminated, head to the far right of the cavern. You will see some smoke coming out of a tunnel. Go up the crumbled minecart track through the tunnel. Follow the track and Aloy will comment on how far back the tunnel goes. Turn around and look to your right. Aloy will notice the sheer amount of blaze barrels located in the storage below. Drop down and scan the piece of parchment (Text Datapoint) with your Focus. From the parchment, Aloy learns that the mine was supposed to be shut down, but Ulvund wanted to go deeper into the mountain. Leave the mine and return to Javad in Chainscrape to let him know.

Knowing that perhaps the explosions allowed the Bristlebacks to enter the Daunt, Aloy must now figure out where the Bristlebacks actually came from. At this point, this side quest will be put on hold until you are able to further investigate what happened in the cave. This will happen after the events of the Main Quest The Embassy.