Guide/New Player

This guide will help a new player install Horizon and make first steps in it. It offers one way to play Horizon to enjoy it and introduces the important systems. If you have additional questions or feedback about it, you are welcome to ask in our Discord.

## Installation

Horizon is a large balancing & overhaul mod. Because it touches just about every aspect of the game: equipment, enemies, settlements, etc., it is incompatible with most other mods. Some additional mods can still be installed but almost always require patching. Make sure you follow the installation guide, have set the load order correctly and enabled modding. For the first playthrough it is best to play Horizon by itself or with minimal set of quality-of-life mods, like Greb's. Choose the default combat difficulty and Desolation loot mode.

## Character

This guide will help you build a basic ballistic rifle, stable damage, non-VATS character. Ballistic weapons are easiest to start with and provide reliable performance.

## SPECIAL

First choice you face in the game is SPECIAL stats. Perks are rather important in Horizon, so here is a suggested build with 36 points you are given in Horizon:

* 3 Strength: enough for Armorer
* 7 Perception: gives access to Technologist, an invaluable perk to obtain high-value loot from robots and machines.
* 6 Endurance: gives you good Health and access to Hazmat Specialist, perk improving Chemistry and Explosives skills.
* 8 Charisma: Charisma is important for speech checks which offer greater rewards and in Horizon are less random and more Charisma-dependant. With 8 Charisma you can semi-reliably pass a red check and have access to Inspirational, Leadership-increasing perk.
* 8 Intelligence: as well as ensuring you gain XP fast, this gives you access to Robotics Expert and Science skill which are useful for crafting and summoning useful robotic companions.
* 3 Agility: enough to get decent AP for running and have access to Sneak.
* 1 Luck: Luck perks generally do not have a great effect outside of VATS, so you can leave it at 1.

## First Steps

After you go through a pre-war sequence, you wake up in Vault 111. Horizon enhances it with key starter items and materials so make sure to search and loot every room. Note the radroaches can be harvested, yielding meat in various stages of decomposition. At this point with zero hunting skill it will be mostly diseased/gristly meat which is still useful for Compost.

After reviewing your stats, you exit Vault 111 into the wasteland. Proceed to Sanctuary, chat with Codsworth and check out the neighborhood with him. Use the ammunition sparingly, but meleeing the enemies carries the risk of disease or damage to HP, and both are costly to heal, so it's best to use few well-placed bullets unless you are very comfortable with melee and dodging. Make sure to search and loot all the houses. Behind one of them, there is another very important area with starter items: Root Cellar. Use the workbench and scrap the ruined houses after you are done looting, place Scrap Cleanup Station and use it to scrap the three recommended categories, as well as trees and plants/shrubs for Wood and Compost.

Among other loot, you should have a Vault-Tec Training Manual which gives you one extra perk point, and there is a "You're SPECIAL" book in Sole Survivor's house which raises one SPECIAL points by one. It's recommended to increase Charisma and use the perk point on Gun Nut, to be able to use your meager ammo more efficiently.

At this point you should have enough materials to construct Universal Crafting Station which serves most of your Horizon crafting needs. Place it and use to upgrade your weapons and armor.

North across the river from Sanctuary there is a raider shack which holds a stack of Noodle Cups which is a good source of early food.

## Red Rocket Truck Stop

It makes sense to follow Codsworth's hint and rescue the Minutemen in Concord. Concord has starter enemies, useful gear like Laset Musket, raider armor, Power Armor and Minigun. Exit the Sanctuary and proceed through the Red Rocket Truck Stop. On your way grab fragmentation grenades from the mailbox near the bridge but don't use them.

At the Red Rocket, meet Dogmeat and let him join you. Dogmeat does not do a lot of damage, but he distracts enemies and can lock them for a while. Beware, as you explore the interior, a pack of molerats will ambush you. Try not to get hurt, molerats carry disease often.

Loot Red Rocket, deposit and proceed to Concord.

## Concord

Using Custom SMG or 10mm, carefully pick out enemies from reasonable range. Make sure to grab the bobblehead and Robco Fun at the Preston's room. After you exit through the roof and receive PA and a minigun, don't hurry to jump into the action, it's best to snipe whoever is possible first using the musket. When you descend, you can run through the deathclaw spawn spot to cause it to appear and then wait while it fights raiders. Finish the remnants and don't forget to harvest the Deathclaw and loot Gristle for his key.

## Perks

Some time around this, you will receive your second or third level and bunch or perk points. There are two main categories to spend perk points at: weapon upgrades, loot, and settlement building.

Weapon upgrades are covered by either Gun Nut, It's Science!, or Metalworking perks. You should take these as soon as you are able, because these save you ammo and they are rather limited by level.

Main perks that help looting are Technologist, then Scrapper, for Salvaging, which improves yield from robots of all kinds and allows you to scrap machines. You can also take Hunter, which does the same for animals and gives you meat, adhesive, and rare crafting materials.

For settlements, you need Leadership (Local Leader, Inspirational) to speed up missions, Trading (Marketeer) for trading at the Market Trading Terminal and many possible options for increasing Workshop Technology and Workshop Trading. Gaining Workshop Technology 3 is most important goal, since it opens an option to repeatedly use workshop trading sessions to increase the level further, as well as unlocking many useful buildings.

Here is a possible list of perks taken on first 15 levels for the build described above:

## Back at Sanctuary

After following Preston and his gang back, you how have a settlement with several settlers which you can put to use. Sturges' quest gives good suggestions as well as some XP. Upgrading Sanctuary via the bridge panel gives you 15 beds, water can be obtained from Architect -> Water and Town Services -> Water pumps. Crops can be difficult, but you can buy/steal some at Abernathy farm or Drumlin Diner. For security, place Horizon turret base from Architect -> Military Outpost -> Automated defenses.

You should be able to afford a Recruitment Station at this point. Place as many as these as you can afford and make sure you have all positive modifiers there.

Build a Resource Station if you can, too, and set the Master Workbench, Production Storage and Wilson drop all to the workbench of settlement that you choose as your main base.

At this point, there are many ways to continue your adventure. Further sections give you ideas of what to do, not necessarily in that order.

## First Locations

### Abernathy Farm

Another settlement close to the Sanctuary. They offer you a quest in order to join which leads to a nearby location with couple serious enemies. Reward is crop-rich settlement with several people.

### Wicked Shipping Fleet Lockup

A nearby location with easy ghouls, minor loot and a key that unlocks many valuable trucks across the Commonwealth

### Gorsky Cabin

Location with several ghouls and a treasure trove of Nuclear Material that is important for building settlements and items.

### Drumlin Diner

Easiest accessible doctor and junk trader, sells crops. Son of Trudy will join you later if you resolve the local situation.

### Starlight Drive-In

Likely next settlement with good salvage.

### Rotten landfill

Two settlers are being assaulted by molerats here and will join you if you are fast enough to save them.

## Activities

### Diamond City

Diamond city offers several easy quests, companion (Piper) and access to vendors.

### Workshop

As said above, achieving Workshop Technology 3 is important goal, so keep checking for the stuff you need for tech upgrades. If you follow the perk guide, you should be able to upgrade by level 15. Put some settlers to work as Technicians at first opportunity and ensure they have supplies to repeat their missions.

### Missions

When you get free settlers, consider building some Mission slots. Good early ones are Technicians and Craftsmen, but all are useful, so make sure to max out all your slots and have additional mission workers for Worker Production. You need to gain enough Workshop skills by the time you unlock training upgrades for Workshop Technology and Trading levels.

### Wilson

Once you get Workshop Technology 1 and enough resources for Resource Station, you can craft "Summon Wilson" item from workshop/tech crafting bench. This robot can be summoned every 10 minutes to carry your stuff to the base and provide other useful services in the field.

### Greygarden

Greygarden can be a settlement ready to produce a lot of food and Field Supplies, and the quest also lets you build a water purification unit. To do it, you need a good scoped ballistic rifle to use against Super Mutants, and a magazine to control turrets from fallout:Wildwoods Cemetery to make inside dramatically easier. As you leave the elevator, rush to the right to control turrets through the terminal, and utilize them against the murelurks during the quest.

### Water Purification

You can survive on sanitized water and found/purchased water for a while, but ultimately you want to set up your own water production. You will receive a purification module once you do the Greygarden quest, with it you can build a purification module in a settlement with 20 extra water. Then you can set up purified water production in Production. For that you need, most importantly, chlorine, which is obtained from salt using a recipe in Chemical Station, or, later, more efficiently through Production. Salt can be found or obtained from seaside settlements using Seawater Extractors.

### Corvega

Usually, the first mission for Minutemen sends you to Corvega. It is a hard location, with lots of enemies. You might want to wait until level 5-10 to do it. You will need a good scoped weapon and main weapon(s) with around 100+ ammo. Once cleared, you receive good loot and even a possible Operation location.

### Far Harbor

Far Harbor is great if irradiated to hell place. Once you are around level 15 and have good radiation filters, you can consider going there for generous rewards and loot.

## Videos

The following guides might be useful to watch to get an idea of Horizon.

## See Also

* FAQ & Troubleshooting
* Guide/All In One
* Guide/Architect
* Guide/Settlement Building
* Guide/Settlement Building Limitations
* Guide/Useful Locations