Horizon Zero Dawn: The Face of Extinction - How to kill Helis, defend the ridge and beat the final boss HADES
Complete story walkthrough plus guides, tips, and tricks for Horizon Zero Dawn.
Horizon Zero Dawn's The Face of Extinction is the final mission in the game. With preparations made in the previous mission, The Looming Shadow, things are well and truly underway.
If you're after help for other parts of the game, consult our complete Horizon Zero Dawn walkthrough and guide.
How to kill Helis in The Face of Extinction
After a cutscene sequence, with you woken up on the morning of battle, and the siege underway.
Talk to Avad - This one's practically automatic as part of the mission's early cutscene, and you'll be rudely interrupted by the attack. Helis is here!
Time to put an end to this chap and his ridiculous obsession with the Sun. Helis will follow you around the rectangular area you have for the battle, and quickly, too.
Avoid melee range, as he deals out heavy damage there, and stick to distanced combat. There are tons of Blaze barrels conveniently placed around the area, which you can lure him through as you fight, and the Cultists who attack with him - which you should take down first - will also drop a Deathbringer gun for you to use as well for a good chunk on Helis' health. F
Finally, there's a nice rope for you to slide down from one end of the area to the other. Luring him up to that end whilst attacking him, sliding down to the other end, luring him there with more ranged attacks, and repeating, is a nice way to whittle him down. There are also plenty of restorative items in chests dotted around the area too, so crack them open if you're in trouble.
Defend the Ridge
With Helis finally disposed of, your next stop is the Ridge.
Defend the Ridge - Once there, waves of machines will begin to attack. Pick up the cannon on the upper right platform first, and try to hit the Deathbringers with a full stack of six grenades, whilst you can spread that volley across several of the smaller machines at once.
Aloy will constantly talk of needing to move, but that's just a sign that an attack is incoming from a Deathbringer. You only need to swap sides when machines start coming from the other angle, so keep an eye out and otherwise you should be fine.
Follow the Trail of Destruction - After a short cutscene, you'll wake up with no health and a trail of fiery destruction in front of you. Head through it, defeating any small machines you encounter along the way, and then sprint up to the Spire.
Go to the Spire and stop HADES - There are medicinal plants along the way here, whilst you'll need to scale the wall on the way up to the Spire, rather than taking the winding path. It's the same as always in terms of climbing: follow the marked ledges and yellow-tinged signifiers to climb and hop across.
How to beat the final boss HADES
Kill the Deathbringer that's guarding HADES - Up at the Spire, it's not just a Deathbringer that you've got to worry about. HADES also summons multiple machines like Corruptors to attack.
Fortunately, your pals will help with those, but we recommend focusing them down as quickly as possible to give you some breathing room with the Deathbringer. As for that, the same tactics as usual apply: keep moving, using the natural cover of the area and rolling away as it's destroyed, focus its weaponry first, then the exposed parts when it overheats or staggers, and look for the various medicinal plants if you're getting low on health.
There are also several areas that give you decent shelter from its attacks if you need to catch a breather, too, so don't feel you have to stay exposed out in the open.
Destroy HADES with the Master Override - Those machines down, it's finally time to put an end to the Corruption and take down HADES. Walk over to the panicking program and give it a good old jab with your Master Override Lance, and it's job done.
For more tips, explainers and advice on Horizon be sure to check out our main Horizon Zero Dawn guide and walkthrough hub, which includes advice for things like Horizon Zero Dawn's override Cauldrons and which machines they let you control, getting hold of the Golden Fast Travel Pack for unlimited fast travel, finding and unlocking the very powerful Horizon Zero Dawn Shield Weave Armour and Power Cell locations, and then for DLC players there's our main Horizon Zero Dawn Frozen Wilds walkthrough and guide, a page on how to earn Bluegleam quickly, and finally, a page on the handy A Secret Shared quest and how to upgrade your spear in Horizon Frozen Wilds.
That's it for our Horizon Zero Dawn walkthrough! But there's still plenty more to do in game, including side-quests and many collectibles, which we'll be detailing more of in the coming days.
