All Horizon Forbidden West Tallneck locations and puzzles

Horizon Forbidden West tallnecks — (Image credit: PlayStation)

There's 6 Horizon Forbidden West Tallneck locations for players to find, and climbing the long-throated mechs there will reveal the area around them. Tallnecks are effectively living towers, but knowing where to find all the Tallnecks - and how to reach their heads - is a big challenge, and each one has its own difficulties to overcome. With that in mind, we've laid out how to find all the Tallnecks in Horizon Forbidden West below, with their locations on the Horizon Forbidden West map - which, of course, they'll help fill out! We'll also address the mysterious locked Tallneck, which seems unclimbable at first until you can fulfil certain esoteric conditions.

Where to find all Tallneck Locations in Horizon Forbidden West

There are six Tallnecks in Horizon Forbidden West. Although you'll probably only see five when you start playing. Tallnecks are visible from the beginning of the game as little stylised icons on the map - you don't have to find them manually as their locations are revealed as a default.

You can see all their positions on the map above and below we'll explain how you can specifically climb, access and override each of these Tallnecks.

1. The Cinnabar Sands Tallneck

One of the first Horizon Forbidden West Tallnecks you'll probably find is circling a damaged satellite dish. To reach them you'll need to move the dish to a position where you can jump from it, to the machine's neck or head.

It's not that hard but it's possible you might find this before you fully understand all the mechanics you can use. So to be clear, here are all the steps needed to reach the Cinnabar Sands Tallneck.

Underneath the Satellite dish you'll see a generator with a battery icon on it which needs a power cell to start it up.
Shoot the ladder on the North side of the Satellite to drop it, and climb up. Head right past the inactive console and leap across to the ladder, climbing further up.
This'll bring you to a wide platform with another ladder on its South side. Kick it down, but rather than drop off the end, leap to the climbing point on the right side and shuffle round to a device with another battery hologram on it.
Interact with the device to pull out a power cell. Carry it and drop down to ground level, then use it on the generator to power up the dish.
Climb back up to the console and use it so the dish turns and partially flattens out. Now turn left from the console rather than right, leaping across the gap and climbing up the ladder to the central platform again.
The dish is stuck so use your focus to identify two glowing power cables, and destroy them with arrows to let the dish to finish flattening out.
Now Aloy can climb up a ladder on the dish's central support. Walk to one of the edges of the dish, then leap and glide to the Tallneck's head when it's close enough.

2. How to override the locked Shining Sands Tallneck

The locked Shining Sands Tallneck will probably bother you for most of the game -whenever you try to approach it Aloy will simply state she can't climb it. However, without spoiling anything, it's locked for reasons and will only be accessible when you reach a late stage mission. You basically can't climb it until the story lets you. Wait until you unlock the mission The Wing of the Ten, and then at that point the machine will be overridden as part of the story.

3. The Stillsands Tallneck

The Stillsands Tallneck is damaged after locals tried to destroy it with ballistas, only to be attacked by machines sent in to protect it from just this kind of interference (read the documents nearby for the full story). You can act out their plan to hack this machine if you follow the steps below. However, you can skip it all if you wait until the after the mission The Wing of the Ten. If you wait until then the way to override this Tallneck is much, much easier.

Clear the area of machines. There'll be more later, but you want to thin the numbers now before they get overwhelming.
Use your focus to scan the Tallneck and identify the weak points. These are fairly obvious glowing blue sections across its neck, body and legs, but make sure you are aware of all of them for what's next.
Find the ballistas. There's at least four spread around the Tallneck's path.
Use the ballista and shoot one of the weak glowing points to tie a large anchor to it. Your goal is to use each ballista to put an anchor in each weak point.
Each successful shot will summon machines to protect the Tallneck so either sneak around cautiously with smoke bombs or try and just deal with the new wave of machines each time you move to a new ballista.
Once you've shot anchors into every weak point, the Tallneck will stumble and fall over, so leap onto its head and override it.

4. Cauldron Iota Tallneck

The Iota Cauldron tallneck in Horizon Forbidden West — (Image credit: PlayStation)

The fourth Tallneck is hidden away inside Cauldron Iota. You'll need to find this location and work your way through it to the core where you'll find a partially built Tallneck that's got stuck. You can override the core but the platform that usually lets you out is being blocked by the incomplete Tallneck.

To both get out and finish the Tallneck so you can hack it you'll have to go further into the Cauldron and find its head. You can then ride the head back to reunite it with the body. Then you can just stand on top of the completed Tallneck as it's carried up and out of the Cauldron.

5. The Stand of the Sentinels Tallneck

This Tallneck patrols around a series of abandoned treehouses, surrounded by machines. There's a fiddly climbing puzzle here to reach a point where you can reach the Tallneck, as you'll have to reach a point high enough to deal with the fact that many of the neck parts you'd normally grab onto have broken off.

Here's how to reach the spot you need:

Stealth around the machines at ground level or kill them.
Head to the Southwest corner of the settlement where a ramp leads up to a grapple point to take you into the treehouses.
Follow the path around to the North, then left. There'll be a ladder to kick down.
Jump over the ladder and glide across - you can't reach the platform itself, but the trunk supporting it has a network of climbing points to grab. Clamber around and up.
Lower the ladder to the North side in case you fall, then wait for the Tallneck to come round in the gap to the left of that. When it does, leap across onto its neck prongs, wait for it to walk forward a little, then leap across again to the platform on the other side of its path (Aloy will even thank it for the ride).
Head East along the platform, kicking down another ladder, then jump across the log struts and up to some ropes you should tightrope across.
From here, glide or grapple hook across to the big complex of treehouses to the South. Be warned - there's machines here dealing high fire damage.
Clear out the machines and go to the West part of the treehouses, where they'll be a ladder to shoot down. Climb up.
Take the zipline South, then climb up the tree it puts you in, all the way to the highest point.
Look for three platforms placed side-by-side, each with ramps you can use to jump to the Tallneck when it passes. It's tricky, but a well-timed jump will let Aloy grab the ridge on the side of its head, finally pulling herself up to the top and letting her override it.

6. Landfall Tallneck

You'll find a partially submerged Tallneck in the sea when you reach Landfall. It's just off the coast and one of the lengthier ones to override as you have to find the parts to repair, and then find a place to jump onto it's head once it's up and moving. Here are the steps to do that.

Swim to the Tallneck and examine it, which will prompt you to head underwater and check out the damage. There are two empty sockets on either side.
You'll now have to retrieve parts from the Glinthawk nests marked on the map.
At the first site push the crate into the water and use the Pullcaster to pull it near the ladder you can shoot down to reach the nest.
A rope from this roof will let you reach the second nest.
You'll have to swim to the final site, where you can either go inside the building to find a Pullcaster point to take you to the roof, or you can find a pile of rubble around the side you can jump up.
Once you have all the parts, return to the Tallneck and head underwater to install them.
When the Tallneck is repaired, it will start patrolling around three partially submerged buildings. There's no obvious way to climb them from outside so explore underwater where you should find a way inside one of the building where stairs lead to the roof. From there jump to one of the Tallneck's shoulder blades as it passes and climb up.