Horizon Forbidden West Valor Surge Guide: Ultimate Abilities Explained

In Horizon Forbidden West, new Valor Surge abilities give Aloy the equivalent of ultimates to unleash on enemies. You can activate them on demand once you’ve built up Aloy’s “valor meter” and, depending on the Valor Surge, can then watch her become sturdier, stronger, deadlier, or even invisible. Here’s an explainer on Valor Surges including a tour of each of them. They’ll cost you a lot of skill points each, so it’s vital to unlock the ones that are right for you.

Horizon Forbidden West Valor Surge

There are 12 Valor Surges and each can be upgraded up to three times to further enhance its usefulness. Across the game’s six-pronged skill tree, each category features two Valor Surges. Here’s how they all break down:

Warrior Valor Surges

• Critical Boost: Gain a greater chance to land critical hits and increase critical damage
• Melee Might: Deal more damage with melee attacks

Trapper Valor Surges

• Elemental Fury: Increase the buildup of elemental attacks while gaining a greater resistance to elemental damage
• Trap Specialist: Increase the effects of traps and tripwires

Hunter Valor Surges

• Ranged Master: Deal more damage with ranged weapons
• Power Shots: Deal more damage for a certain number of shots with Bows, Boltcasters, Ropecasters, and Spike Throwers

Survivor Valor Surges

• Toughened: Restore health and gain resistance to status effects
• Overshield: Gain a rechargeable, damage-absorbing energy shield

Infiltrator Valor Surges

• Stealth Stalker: Activate a cloaking device (temporarily disabled when aiming or using melee attacks)
• Radial Blast: Trigger a powerful shockwave, damaging all enemies in the vicinity

Machine Master Valor Surges

• Part Breaker: Deal more damage to machine components and weak spots
• Chain Burst: Damage chains from one enemy to another within 15 meters, and boosts knockdown power

Which Valor Surge is the best?

Deciding what the best ability is in a game can be quite subjective, but it’s important to know where some skills may be better or worse than expected, so you can plan accordingly. In our opinion, one of the game’s very best Valor Surges is Radial Blast. This area-of-effect attack acts like a “get off me!” button, instantly shedding close attackers and giving yourself some breathing room. This sort of ability is very helpful in some of the game’s tough late-game battles, and it can even help out a bit during some open-world activities such as hunting grounds and rebel camps.