The machines encountered in Horizon Forbidden West are highly iconic and well-designed. For the most part, every machine is intended to look like some kind of animal. Among all the machines that appear throughout the game, there are few as iconic as the Tallneck.
Tallnecks are large machines that slowly roam around on four legs. They are not hostile and will ignore players. Despite these machines being indestructible, players do benefit from climbing up them. Just like in the first game, Horizon Forbidden West players get valuable map data when they climb up a Tallneck and override it. Here is how players can override the Tallneck roaming around the Stand of the Sentinels.
How to Override the Stand of the Sentinels Tallneck
While exploring Stand of the Sentinels, players will notice a Tallneck walking in a circle around the ruins of an old Tenakth settlement. There are also several Stalkers in the area as well, so players may want to deal with them before attempting to climb the Tallneck.
To begin with, look for a spot near the ground where the Pullcaster can be used to reach the first level of the ruined settlement among the large trees. There is a campfire up here, which will allow players to save their progress before attempting to climb the Tallneck. Look for spots to climb further up the ruins. Eventually, Aloy will comment on how she should be high enough to reach the Tallneck. Before attemping to jump onto the Tallneck, make sure to kick down the rolled up ladders to have an easy way back up.
Time the jump to reach a spot on the Tallneck that can be grabbed and climbed on. While normally this would be enough to reach the top of the Tallneck, this particular one is tricky because it is missing a few parts.
Instead, ride the Tallneck and wait for an opportunity to jump to one of the platforms on the left. From there, climb up and then carefully go across the ruined remains of a bridge. There will be several ladders along the way, so make sure to knock them down and create a shortcut.
After crossing the broken bridge, look for a ladder that can be shot down with an arrow. Climb it and then use the zip line to reach a spot that is high enough to make jumping onto the Tallneck possible. Wait for the Tallneck to get close enough to jump onto it and then take a leap. It might take a few tries to get onto the Tallneck, but it will be easy to get back quickly if the ladders were kicked down previously.
Once on the Tallneck, climb up to the top and approach the middle of the disc. Override the Tallneck to gather map data from it, and then use the glider to safely jump down to the ground and avoid taking fall damage.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now on PS4 and PS5.
