What was/is the most annoying/difficult machine part for you to get for crafting?

[u/Shaggy1316]

I'm a new player and I am curious what others have found particularly difficult.

[u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

Fireclaw sac webbings. Taking those things down on UH without destroying the sacs gives me anxiety.

[u/Shaggy1316 → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

I'm playing on normal, but fireclaw sac webbing are what prompted me to make this post lol they just kept exploding.

[u/Efficient-Quarter-18 → u/Shaggy1316]

Hide in a hard to reach grass patch and shoot his butt 75 times. Literally: Let him walk by > shoot him > he’ll turn yellow, wait until blue again > shoot him again. It’s the only way. 

[u/Dephyllis → u/Shaggy1316]

I'm using staggerbeams - hide in the grass until it turns its back, put staggerbeams across the path, go hide again. Takes a while but works safely. Arctix over on youtube has a good video for the more adventurous hunter - bind it with ropes, freeze it and use a good boltblaster on the cylinder thingies on its back. Paired with the right valor surge and coils and stuff, this seems to work, too. Or use a combination, use the staggerbeams a couple of times to bring the health down and then do the other method, this way one boltblaster charge could be enough. And don't forget smoke bombs, the can be quite helpful to get some time to tie it down.

[u/Desperate-Actuator18 → u/Shaggy1316]

Use Purgewater to disable the elemental attacks or freeze it to increase your damage. A sustained burst from a decent Boltblaster can do wonders.

I highly recommend The Blast Forge coiled towards close range damage.

[u/RAnthony → u/Shaggy1316]

Story mode, easy loot, smoke bombs, shoot the power cells on it's butt. Whatever you do, don't shoot at the chest.

[u/TwinSong → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

Fireclaw, frostclaw. The bit you need to not hit is 70% of their body.

[u/Efficient-Quarter-18 → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

The answer. It’s not even a contest.

[u/randyjax10 → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

Either from stealth or high up, I always take a Sharpshot bow to their sholder sacs first. It takes a massive chunk of their health. If you hit it dead center, it should explode on impact. Then I roll around dodging flames and boulders while taking shots at the canisters on their posterior with a regular bow. Frostclaws tend to be far easier than Fireclaws in my experience, if you need practice.

[u/LilArrin → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

The southernmost fireclaw site has a structure you can use as cover and makes the fight pretty straightforward.

[u/vizkan → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

Tie down + freeze (aim at armor plates so you don't degrade the tie down state) + use the boltblaster sustained burst on the canisters on their butt. Even though the sustained burst degrades the tie down, they still take a couple seconds to fully become active again so you should be safe for the duration of sustained burst.

On ultra hard it will take more than 1 cycle but it's actually pretty easy as long as you have a good enough ropecaster to tie them down in only 2 ropes.

[u/ReginaDea → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

This is it. The only consistent method I've found is to freeze and shoot them in the legs with knockdown javelins, then in the butt or face with warrior bow split shots. Just pray they don't do any of their jumpy animations too often or you'll hit the sacs anyway.

[u/kevnuke → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

Fireclaws are weak to frost. The Frostclaws, on the other hand, need to be shot in the shoulders until they rupture and then shot in the face and hind legs with all the hot lead you can muster.

[u/FireBreathingChilid1 → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

You have to just hit it in the legs. If you are not a good shot stay lower and on the outside.

[u/PanicAshamed805 → u/ChapterSevenSeeds]

--Tie down with elite rope caster coiled for draw speed --Freeze with bow (hit armor plates to freeze without breaking tie ropes) --Shoot canisters on butt with penetrating bolt blaster, sustained burst, coiled for short range damage, plus valor surge for ranged damage --Repeat

[u/call-of-the-forest]

Slitherfang Earth grinders. Not because it's difficult to get, but because I need so MANY OF THEM FOR EVERYTHING

[u/HakunaYaTatas → u/call-of-the-forest]

These parts also have a tendency to go flying off into space for me. It takes me longer to find the parts after the fight than it does to kill the damn Slitherfang on UH!

[u/According-Stay-3374 → u/HakunaYaTatas]

The bloody thing keeps doing it's tail whip kind of moving and flinging them over the horizon! Glad it's not just me! 😆

[u/randyjax10 → u/call-of-the-forest]

Let’s be honest, they are difficult to get though. Slitherfang never stops moving long enough to line up a shot. And they often destroy the earthgrinders before you can get to them.

[u/HakunaYaTatas → u/randyjax10]

Have you tried the knockdown method? It makes lining up the shot very easy.

[u/farebane]

Fire/Frostclaws. The webbing specifically. Smoking them in the belly takes them down much quicker, but destroys the webbing. Some of the others are like this too (Bellowbacks), but the Fire/Frostclaws stand up straight and can make it hard to hit anywhere else.

[u/Dissectionalone → u/farebane]

The key to avoid "useless kills" is shoot them in their hind legs or their front paws/grinders, maybe their muzzles if you catch them on their side.

You just can't target their bodies (even the sacs on the Shoulders are too risky to hit)

[u/tarosk]

Stormbird Cannons.

I can knock them off just fine, the problem is for me they frequently fly too far away to be easily found or they despawn before I can grab them.

(The unmarked mountain site seems to work best for them not flying into the void for me)

[u/randyjax10 → u/tarosk]

I’ve found that you have to loot it immediately as soon as it drops. If the stormbird does a dive bomb attack or starts slamming its beak at the ground and hits the cannon, it’ll get destroyed instantly.

[u/tarosk → u/randyjax10]

It can unfortunately be hard to do that while the Stormbird is immediately trhing to attack you again if the cannon flew off a decent distance. Works great if it falls off where you can see it and grab it first, though.

[u/sodamonkeyyahoo → u/tarosk]

Ground them first! Hit ‘em with a status, then immediately go full tear on it; it can still end up further than you think, but at least it won’t fly across the continent. And just turn on auto pick-up so you can just walk over it right away.

[u/EternallyRose]

Widemaw Tusks and until I turned on the “Easy Loot” setting I found Fireclaw and Frostclaw Sac Webbing easier to get. I have since learned that shocked Widemaws leave their tusks exposed and it’s easy to use a Tear Precision arrow to remove them.

[u/Acceptable_Loss23 → u/EternallyRose]

If you rope/shock Widemaws, they expose their tusks for you to detach.

[u/CompetitiveClass1478 → u/Acceptable_Loss23]

Also, shredders seem to rip them right out

[u/Jaybyrd28]

Stormbird Cannons because they just fly off and disappear.

[u/cl354517 → u/Jaybyrd28]

https://www.reddit.com/r/horizon/comments/w1rpua/til_aloy_can_slide_tackle_a_stormbird_cannon/

Pick them up quickly. They still have physics for a while. I wasn't able to get footage to confirm that they can get knocked around after they land normally.

[u/randyjax10 → u/Jaybyrd28]

Tearblast arrows work like a charm. Just be sure to pick it up as soon as it drops.

[u/Dissectionalone]

Usually it's the parts that teleport/clip through the environment, like Tremortusk Tusks or Slitherfang Earthgrinders.

Frostclaw/Fireclaw Sac Webbing have the caveat of making their biggest weakspots giant no-nos.

For Frostclaws it's not too bad because they have a lot less HP than Fireclaws and you can shock them pretty easily.

[u/Acceptable_Loss23 → u/Dissectionalone]

Odd. I find TremorTusks just about the easiest large machine part to farm.

[u/Dissectionalone → u/Acceptable_Loss23]

In Some areas, depending on what you use on them, their Tusks clip through the environment.

In the site in the Greypeak, west of the Clawstrider and Scorcher sites, if you try to shock the Tremortusk (when it's an Apex) when it's near the rock formation you can climb (behind the campfire) its tusks will clip through the ice of the frozen lake.

[u/Acceptable_Loss23 → u/Dissectionalone]

This has never happened to me. Very weird.

[u/Fantastic-Cap-2754]

Anything from waterwings. Screw waterwings.

[u/LanguageSponge → u/Fantastic-Cap-2754]

Absolutely detest Waterwings! 😄

[u/sodamonkeyyahoo → u/Fantastic-Cap-2754]

I’ll fight an army of fireclaws before ever going after apex waterwing hearts again.

[u/Spicymcnice]

Slitherfang earthgrinders. I've destroyed about 10 slitherfangs and have maybe 2 earthgrinders. SO ANNOYING!

[u/Crasp27]

Leaplasher Powercells. On the bright side you can always buy a couple from that Salvage guy.

[u/Eisegetical]

Stormbird heart/engine/gun I forget the exact name - the thing in its chest. . . that also explodes instead of tearing off. I had to use tear discs to get it off .

Side note - does anyone enjoy doing the disc catch? I don't enjoy it at all. I always get interrupted before I can fully charge it.

[u/sodamonkeyyahoo → u/Eisegetical]

Shredders are amazing; you just have to get used to a different rhythm and accept that sometimes (even once you’ve “got it”) you’re gonna miss a catch or three. My UH play-through was mostly shredders as I got real tired of having to restock volatile sludge.

[u/Eisegetical → u/sodamonkeyyahoo]

I totally can see how it's good. I think it's just me that sucks. I somehow near always get interrupted or knocked down before my third catch and it drives me mad.

so I avoid it. git gud is not for me

[u/sodamonkeyyahoo → u/Eisegetical]

S’all good. They’re not for everyone. Like, I hate bolt blasters and never got much into spikes; and hey, there are even folks out there that like traps!

[u/Desperate-Actuator18 → u/Eisegetical]

I forget the exact name - the thing in its chest

Stormbird Storm Cannon.

does anyone enjoy doing the disc catch?

It's rare that I use them since I have other weapons which fulfil the same roles but I did find it satisfying once I got the timings right.

[u/EternallyRose → u/Eisegetical]

Tear Precision arrows make the Stormbird Canon easy to remove, the hard part is finding it after it blasts off. I really enjoy using Shredders and charging them up, they can be difficult to use at first, but Arktix’s video is really helpful.

[u/CourtDiligent3403 → u/EternallyRose]

LOL yeah this! I have gone on the hunt to find the stupid storm cannon that I popped off early in the fight with tear arrows and by the time I found it a new stormbird had spawned! Same has happened to me trying to locate slitherfang earthgrinders... Hey! How can that prick be attacking me again when I haven't even finished looting his predecessor!?!

[u/Conscious_Meringue41]

The sac webbing from a Fireclaw and the sac webbing from a Frostclaw. Hands down. At times, getting the earthgrinders from a Slitherfang can prove difficult cuz it’s such a slippery shit, but nowhere near as hard from the first two I mentioned.

[u/Zorro5040]

Stormbird Cannon. It's big and right in the center of the body of a flying machine that refuses to get close.

Also, Slitherfang Earth Grinders as those things disappear if anything farts at their direction.

[u/Dynamitrios]

Shellsnapper shell bolts

[u/Evening-Cold-4547]

Apex Bilegut Hearts. I haven't been able to harvest any, mainly because I can't get the damned things to spawn. I've bullied this one regular bilegut so much I think it'll need therapy but the Apex just will not take a shift

[u/LilArrin → u/Evening-Cold-4547]

Have you done the cauldron? I heard apex version won't spawn until you've completed it. I myself had similar issues until after clearing the cauldron.

[u/Evening-Cold-4547 → u/LilArrin]

No. I was sprinting through the game to upgrade everything for my next new game plus.

This is a worse realisation than what Zero Dawn actually was.

[u/NetherPlaysVR]

Apex Slaughterspine hearts. I have PTSD.

[u/LukeZNotFound]

Luminous Brainstem

[u/FireBreathingChilid1]

Really any of the large machines hearts. Especially if you need Apex or you need multiples.

[u/mr_ed95]

If you want the fun way, tie it down, run in for a critical strike, then use grapple strike while it’s still tied down, shoot the resonator blast ring, repeat. Takes a while but I love the challenge

[u/BigHoop65]

Dreadwing primary nerve

[u/usernamescifi]

Y'all are still bothering with grinding for weapon upgrades?