Horizon Forbidden West Tallneck Locations: How to Climb Tallnecks and Remove Map Fog

Tallnecks in Horizon Forbidden West are fun to climb, but they also rid the map of the fog that is blocking your view. Here's how.

Guide by James Billcliffe Guides Editor

Updated on Feb. 21, 2023

Towering Tallnecks survey Horizon Forbidden West’s huge landmass, revealing vast swathes of the map to Aloy once she’s managed to climb them. In this Tallnecks explainer, we'll detail what Tallnecks are, and explain how you can climb them all in Horizon Forbidden West - some being trickier than others.

Horizon Forbidden West Tallnecks Explained

Aloy is a capable climber throughout Horizon Forbidden West, but making it to the top of these Tallnecks isn’t as straightforward as scaling a cliff.

Really, Tallnecks in Horizon Forbidden West are platforming puzzles where you have to figure out the perfect path to reach the summit. Reaching the top is worth it, though, as you'll remove the fog that's covering the map around their location.

Some of them can be tough to get to, so we’ve gathered the solution to dealing with every Tallneck below.

How do you climb the Cinnabar Sands Tallneck?
How do you climb the Shining Wastes Tallneck
How do you climb the Stillsands Tallneck?
How do you climb the Stand of the Sentinels Tallneck?
How do you climb the Landfall Tallneck?

How do you climb the Cinnabar Sands Tallneck in Horizon Forbidden West?

Aloy finds the Cinnabar Sands Tallneck circling a dilapidated satellite dish in Horizon Forbidden West. Your goal is to scale the dish to get high enough to jump across to the Tallneck, but it's not as simple as just climbing up.

Before you can approach the dish, there are a few machines to deal with, a Skydrifter and a couple of Scrappers.

By this point in the game you probably don't have Frost ammo to exploit the Skydrifter's weakness, but you might have Shock to overload the Sparkers on both the Skydrifter and Scrappers.

Either way, once they're defeated, approach the base of the satellite dish and scan the note and the generator. You will see there's a slot for an energy cell here.

To your right there's a ladder. Shoot the red latch with your bow to drop it, then climb up the two ladders.

At the top, go right past the console and jump to another ladder there. Then once you've climbed the set of stairs lower the ladder in front of you.

Drop onto the ladder, shimmy over to the right, then grab the energy cell from the generator.

Hop off the platform and slot this energy cell into the generator at the base of the dish.

Now climb up the first two ladders again and activate the console you passed earlier.

From the platform, go left and use the handholds to climb up to the higher platform. There, use your spear or bow to dislodge the crackling electrical cables jamming the dish. This will probably take quite a few hits.

This will orient the dish straight up, which lets you climb the ladder and jump across to the Tallneck from the high platform using your glider.

How do you climb the Shining Wastes Tallneck in Horizon Forbidden West?

To override the Shining Wastes Tallneck in Horizon Forbidden West, you have to wait to complete the main story mission, Wings of the Ten.

This happens much, much later in your adventure than when you first encounter the Tallneck, so don't worry about leaving it incomplete until basically the climax of the game.

While this leaves the central portion of the map clouded, there's nothing you can do about it other than explore until then. Once you complete the mission, the Tallneck and surrounding fog will be cleared.

How do you climb the Stillsands Tallneck in Forbidden West?

In the south of the Forbidden West, near Hidden Ember, you find the Stillsands Tallneck circling an abandoned Oseram camp.

As you approach, you get a quest marker to investigate a machine corpse next to a nearby campfire. Use you Focus to scan the bodies and Tallneck parts and you'll be directed to a ballista aimed at the roaming Tallneck.

Use the ballista and wait for the Tallneck to come back around. Fire a tether onto the machine's neck and it will attach a rope.

Once you've attached one, your objective switches to finding more ballistas and some machines come to attack Aloy.

Deal with the machines, the used ballista comes in very handy here, and open your Focus to highlight some tracks leading to the next ballista.

You find it guarded by more machines in another part of the camp to the south.

Wait for the Tallneck to come back around and fire the second weight onto its neck.

At this point, you'll begin to be attacked by Skydrifters as well, but make a beeline to the third and final ballista over to the east on a raised platform.

Grapple up and fire another weight - this didn't work very well for me, but make sure you're hitting the Tallneck and eventually the hit should register even if it takes a couple of rotations.

With the Tallneck grounded, head over to its dish and override it to reveal this part of the map.

How do you climb the Stand of the Sentinels Tallneck in Horizon Forbidden West?

The Stand of the Sentinels Tallneck is the toughest climbing puzzle you've likely come across in Horizon Forbidden West so far.

As you approach the abandoned settlement from the east, make you way into the forest and watch out for invisible Stalkers in the area.

Aim for the stealth generators on their back legs to make them visible, then focus on their top mounted laser to stop them zapping you.

Once they're defeated, look down into the abandoned village and you will see a large area of red corruption. In the middle of it, there is a bridge which you can use to grapple up to the first level.

At the campfire, look up with your Focus and you will see Fire Clamberjaws above. Save the fight for later and sneak over to your left across the bridge.

Follow the path until there's a ladder you can drop - in case you fall off - then look to your right.

Wait until the Tallneck is walking past, then use the protruding branch in front of you to glide over to its back, hop across the bars, then onto the platform on the other side.

Walk across the tightrope to your right, then run forward until there's another ladder you can lower on your right.

Hop across the poles next to the ladder, then cross the tightropes on the other side, jumping between them to get past the blockages.

Lower the ladder on the other side, then look to your right and assess the two Clamberjaws. You can either take them on from a distance here, where they throw fire at you, or jump and grapple over to them for a closer encounter... where they still throw fire at you.

Once they're defeated, climb up the handholds on the tree from the platform they were on,and shoot the ladder latch to continue upwards.

At the top, take the zipline on your left, then climb the handholds at the bottom.

To mount the Tallneck, grapple over to the right, run across the tightropes, then glide off the platform on the end and onto its head.

If you miss you chance, your best bet is to wait while it walks all the way around. If you try and do it from another platform, you will likely fall due to the uneven ground the Tallneck is walking on.

How do you climb the Landfall Tallneck in Horizon Forbidden West?

The Landfall Tallneck is different from the others across Horizon Forbidden West, since it involves just as much swimming as jumping.

Scan the Tallneck with your Focus, then swim underwater up to it. Scan the socket on its back, then examine them and Aloy will comment on the missing pieces.

Swim up to the surface, then look over to the Glinthawk next just to the north.

Once you're over there, get things started by shooting the ladder latch with your bow, then push the crate on your right into the water.

Swim over to the hole in the wall opposite you, then turn around and use your Pullcaster to yank the crate over towards the ladder. You can then use it to climb up to the Glinthawk nest and search it.

Next, use the tightrope next to the nest to get over to another building. Turn right and jump across towards the second Glinthawk nest, grappling over the last jump before you fight the Glinthawk and search all the nests.

They didn't have all the parts either, so turn your attention to the north again, jump in the water and swim towards the last building, avoiding the circling Snapmaw as you do.

Inside this building, grapple up to the second floor, defeat the Glinthawk, then grapple up again to the roof. The nest here has the other power converter.

Make your way back to the Tallneck and slot the converters into its back. To climb it, follow it over to the two submerged buildings it circles.

Go to the place on the screenshot above, then dive underwater and go through the hole in the building. Once inside, there are some stairs you can climb to the roof.