Horizon Forbidden West is full of locations to travel to and secrets to uncover. Among these secrets are the Cauldrons – locked places in the world of Forbidden West that feature quests, puzzles, and bosses to fight.
Completing one of these levels nets you a Cauldron Core that allow you to override specific machines and let them fight alongside Aloy. So, with a use-case as imperative as that, you can probably tell that every player must take their time playing through all the Cauldrons.
However, getting through these Cauldrons can be a little tricky – don’t worry, though, because that’s what we’re going to discuss now.
That said, here are all the Cauldron Locations with their Rewards in Horizon Forbidden West.
1TAU Cauldron Location and Guide
Location – Plainsong
Recommended Level – 15
So, you get to complete this Cauldron through “The Dying Lands” primary story mission – you need to make your way to Plainsong and interact with Vari and Zo to proceed.
As it’s probably going to be your first time around, this Cauldron is actually pretty easy to get through.
Much of it involves stepping on these triangular plates, shooting the discs that appear in front of you and shutting off the network uplink – this leads to a boss fight (Grimhorn). It’s not the hardest-to-beat machine out there, and all you need to do is attack its weak points to beat it. Simple enough.
Completing this Cauldron allows Aloy to override:
- Bristleback
- Plowhorn (with machine parts)
Other Rewards: 9000 XP, 2 Skill Points, and an Utaru Whisperer.
2MU Cauldron Location and Guide
Location – Northwest of Stone’s Edge
Recommended Level – 18
This Cauldron’s a little more technical than the last one. Firstly, you’ll probably end up falling in a pit the moment you enter the Cauldron – don’t worry, you can climb out of it using the vents around the place.
Secondly, the place is littered with Burrowers and Scroungers, and a Shell-walker as well – once you beat them up, you’ll come across a doorway shaped like a triangle. Break it down to process through the place.
After overriding a couple more nodes, you’ll come across Widemaws all ready to fight you. Once you overcome the machine, you’d have completed the Cauldron.
Completing this Cauldron allows Aloy to override:
- Scrounger
- Burrower
- Scrapper (with machine parts)
- Widemaw (with machine parts)
- Fanghorn (with machine parts)
- Grazer
Other Rewards: 8000 XP, 3 Skill Points
3GEMINI Cauldron Location and Guide
Location – Don’t worry about it (You reach the place at the end of a lengthy story cutscene)
Recommended Level – 30
After talking to GAIA and Vari at The Base sometime during your playtime, you’ll make your way to this Cauldron. If the recommended level tells you anything, you know that you need to prepare beforehand.
The moment you enter this Cauldron, a fight with the Behemoth will ensue. Fortunately, it’s weak to acid attacks, so having some of those arrows will really help you destroy him with ease.
After you finish him off, you can make your way to the next room – here, glide down from the ledge using your Shieldwing. You can use a pipe nearby to climb up on the left ledge. Once you climb the second pipe, a machine would pop up that Aloy would be able to ride.
Riding your way into the next room, you’ll encounter a large group of machines – take them out right away before doing anything else.
Head over to the Assembly Chamber now, override some nodes, and move on to the next room without alerting the machines to fight the next boss – Slaughter Spine.
Defeating the Slaughter Spine is simple enough – just make sure to carry some Purgewater Canisters to whittle down its HP slowly and easily. With that, you’ll be down with the GEMINI Cauldron.
Completing this Cauldron allows Aloy to override:
- Sunwing
Other rewards: 24000 XP and 2 Skill Points
4IOTA Cauldron Location and Guide
Location – North of Scalding Spear in the Salt Bite region
Recommended Level – 22
A little less demanding than GEMINI, the IOTA Cauldron is just as challenging for the players. You can enter the Cauldron using a small hole in the ground.
Use the nearby wall now to find yourself an alternate entrance – once you find it (which is really easy to do), override the door, unlink it and open your way through.
Inside, you’ll come across some Leaplashers. They’re fairly easy to defeat, so do that and move right on to the next room. Here, you’ll find a forge with a door nearby – you need to override it and make your way inside. There will be two Apex Burrowers here – make short work of them.
Move on, pullcast your way through the gap, beat the heck out of the Claw Strider and the Scrounger, and finally override the node on your right corner. You might spot a vent across the room from here – use it to get to the next area.
There will be another node around here, and once you override it, you’ll have to fight a boss called the Rollerback. It’s a straightforward boss – just dodge its attacks and strike whenever the opportunity arises.
Once you do that, though, all that’s left is to override the Cauldron Core. Now, you just need to make your way back – there will be the head of a Tallneck on your way. Don’t forget to override it. With that, you’re done with the IOTA Cauldron.
Completing this Cauldron allows Aloy to override:
- Leaplasher
- Langhorn
- Glinthawk
- Longleg
- Clawstrider
- Bellowback (with machine parts)
- Skydrifter (with machine parts)
- Ravager(with machine parts)
- Rollerback(with machine parts)
- Snapmaw (with machine parts)
Other Rewards: 10000 XP and three skill points.
5CHI Cauldron Location and Guide
Location – South of the Thornmarsh settlement near the bay
Recommended Level – 30
The Chi Cauldron is one of the more challenging Cauldrons in Forbidden West. When you first come across the door leading inside and into the Cauldron, you’ll encounter a glass panel that you can easily obliterate – do that and get in to begin traversing through the place. Your first enemy within this Cauldron is going to be a Frostclaw. Focus on attacking the Frostclaw’s shoulders and stomach to make quick work of it.
Now, move to the node and override it – this will allow you to ride the elevator in the area down. Once down there, you’ll find a core regulator – ignoring it, for now, use your focus ability to find tracks leading to a crate with which you can climb right into the vents.
Coming out of the vents, you’ll come face to face with a Clamberjaw – an easy enough enemy beat – you then need to climb your way up using the pillars in the area. Doing so will lead you to a platform and open up a bridge to carry the Core Regulator across.
When you get to the barrier, override the node present there, grab the crate in one hand, and place the regulator on it. Now you need to place the regulator on the Stand with red lights. Fair warning – this will spawn in two more Clamberjaws for you to beat.
As the last enemy of the area, a Slitherfang would also appear out of nowhere – considering your level since you’re completing the CHI Cauldron, you’ll be able to defeat the machine quite easily. With that, though, you have successfully completed the CHI Cauldron.
Completing this Cauldron allows Aloy to override:
- Fireclaw (with machine parts)
- Scorcher(with machine parts)
- Shellsnapper (with machine parts)
- Frostclaw
- Behemoth
- Clamberjaw
- Stalker(with machine parts)
- Redeye Watcher
- Spikesnout (with machine parts)
Other Rewards: 12500 XP and 3 skill points.
6KAPPA Cauldron Location and Guide
Location – West of The Bulwark
Recommended Level – 40
Lastly, we have the KAPPA Cauldron, the most difficult of the bunch. You will need to head underwater for this and open the Cauldron door to enter the place.
As soon as you enter the place, your first objective would be to not get detected by the Sapmaw roaming about – simply stealth your way to the opening in the middle of the room.
Making your way along the corridor in the next area, grab the nearby crate using your Pullcaster. Here, you’ll also encounter a Spikesnout – defeat it and use the previously acquired crate to move on to the next room. From here on, glide across the gap using the Shieldwing and continue to the next room.
Now, you’ll encounter a moving pillar as it rises out of the ground – climb it to make your way to the ledge. Once you get there, override the node and attempt gliding over the handholds. They would unfortunately break, leading you straight into the water.
Now, you need to avoid all the enemies using the water as cover. In the back-left of the room that you’ve dropped into, you’ll find some more moving pillars and a wall that you can climb. Climb your way through it to reach the next platform.
When you come across a triangular doorway, you’ll have to fight a couple of Apex Burrowers. Once you’ve dealt with them, override the node to raise the water level – ignore the Burrowers that spawn in and continue on.
Now, use the crate to make your way to the other node – you need to override it and raise the water level yet again. Venturing into the other rooms from here, a few Spikesnouts, Burrowers, and Scroungers would be awaiting your arrival. You need to defeat them to proceed further.
Now, climb up to the next wall and unlink the next Cauldron door to face the area’s main boss – a Tideripper. By now, you’ve probably mastered the game’s combat, meaning that the Tideripper won’t pose any threat to you. So, do that – afterwards, simply unlink and get hold of the KAPPA Cauldron Core to complete this puzzle.
Completing this Cauldron allows Aloy to override:
- Thunderjaw
- Dreadwing
- Slaughterspine
- Slitherfang
- Tideripper
- Stormbird
- Tremortusk
- Rockerbreaker
Other rewards: 12500 XP and 3 Skill Points.
About Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West is the sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn by Guerilla Games. An open-world, action adventure game, players control Aloy, a Nora hunter who is on a quest to reverse the effects of a strange crimson blight which is infecting the land. Set in a completely new world, Horizon Forbidden West has many new machines, threats and adventures for Aloy.
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