In Horizon Forbidden West, you have the ability to ride your own flying machine-like animal. This is an addition to the franchise’s gameplay that improves the feel and the pacing of the game.
When you finally get to override your own Sunwing, it feels earned. Players get to quickly move from an area to another and observe the world of Horizon from over the mountains.
Flying is more than a traversal mechanic. It is often used in quests to advance the story, and there are plenty of side quests that need you to ride a flying mechanical beast.
This guide will show everything you need to know about how to fly a Sunwing in Horizon Forbidden West. Buckle up and get ready to conquer the skies.
How to Fly in Horizon Forbidden West
As mentioned before, flying doesn’t come early in the game. It can even be confusing since many side quests need you to fly but can be initiated before you can actually ride your own Sunwing.
In other words, some players might get stuck trying to finish a quest that they won’t be able to do until later in the game.
First, you need to complete the 14th mission of the game. It is the one called Gemini, and you should be over level 30 by the time you get there. Aloy will put her hands on a Sunwing override key during this mission.
Keep playing through the main story until you reach the 16th mission, Wings of the Ten. In this mission, Aloy will go to the mountains. This is when you will get your own Sunwing.
It shouldn’t be too hard since you will see a few Sunwings just waiting to be captured once you get to that part of the mission. Just go ahead and do so.
After that, Aloy will have to go to Shining Wastes to override a Tallneck. She will also need a Horus Energy Cell from a Titan. Once that is dealt with, all that is left is to defeat Regalla.
I know it sounds like a lot, but it’ll be worth it. Once you’ve finished all those tasks, you are finally able to ride your Sunwing as you please.
How to Control a Sunwing
This is the easy part. There’s nothing too complicated about riding your flying mount, which makes it more enjoyable, in my opinion.
Here are the buttons that you will be using:
- X: Accelerate
- R1: Hover UP
- R2: Land
- Circle: Break
- Square: Dismount
- Triangle: Roll
Press X to move forward and use the analog to change directions. As most flight controls in video games, up and down are invested when you are flying.
Holding the circle button will make your Sunwing stop and hover in the air. While flying, R2 will make you go down to land, and R1 will cause you to rise. Also, you can roll by pressing the triangle button.
As I’ve mentioned, flying is pretty straightforward in Horizon Forbidden West, so enjoy the ride.
Final Thoughts
Generally speaking, flying mounts can be used to quickly achieve specific tasks. Primarily those that demand any form of height, such as bringing down recon drones, scanning machines, and overriding Tallnecks.
Flying feels great in most video games. Besides all that, flying machines are obviously helpful for traversal purposes. It is often associated with late-game content since it generally allows you to go to any area of the world map.
My favorite use of a Sunwing is taking gorgeous screenshots of the game. Jokes aside, it is certainly nice to have an easier way to do things when you are close to the final mission of the game.
Later in the game, you can use Sunwings to find dangerous machines and farm their parts.
If you know how to fight a Thunderjaw or how to defeat a Slaughterspine, flying on a Sunwing will save you a lot of time to gather some really good resources.
It’s a long game with many sidequests and chores that might get tiresome after a while. Although the game looks fantastic, you can only walk around so many times before you start wishing for a faster and easier way to do things.
Luckily, the devs understood that and implemented a way to make you feel powerful that looks insanely cool, and I can certainly appreciate that.
