How to Level Up Fast: EXP Grinding Guide

This is a guide to leveling up quickly in Horizon Zero Dawn. Read on to learn what to prioritize to gain more XP, farming areas, and what skill points you should unlock to help with leveling.

How to Level Up Fast

Hunting Grounds

Location of the Nora Hunting Grounds

Repeatedly earning Blazing Suns at Hunting Grounds is one of the best ways to earn XP due to the tremendous amount it gives. Also if you practice even one of the trials and can do it quickly, you can level up extremely fast.

Hunting Grounds are timed trials that can give a lot of experience, and even a skill point the first time you achieve the highest rank. In addition to the Blazing Sun bonus, most trials involve killing enemies, so Hunting Grounds can also act as farming areas. They are marked on your map by a bow and arrow icon.

List of Hunting Grounds

Side Quests and Errands

Exclamation Point over Quest Giver

Aside from doing Main Quests, make sure you also finish the Sidequests and Errands that pop up as you travel the world. They won't appear on the map immediately so exploration is key. These give decent amounts of XP and can be finished in quick succession.

They can be identified by the green exclamation point that hovers over the quest giver.

List of Side Quests

Early Game Farming Area

An early farming spot that can give you tremendous amounts of experience is an area to the south of Devil's Thirst, right beside a campfire with a merchant. This area's populated with Grazers, which are great machines to farm due to the flammable canisters on their backs.

If you shoot flame arrows at the canisters, the Grazers will blow up and harm the machines around them. This makes for quick and easy kills to gain experience. After looting their corpses, head to the nearby campfire and save your game, then load this save. This will reset the Grazer area and you can repeatedly farm them this way.

How to Beat Grazers

Skills to Prioritize

There are a couple of skills that will give you the tools to gain XP much quicker. The primary ones would be all the stealth skills, namely Silent Strike, Strike From Above, Strike From Below, and Leader Strike, since they allow you to kill enemies instantly, and stealth kills will give bonus experience.

You can also level Precision and Precision + because knocking off machine components will grant bonus experience.

List of Skills

Corrupted Zones and Bandit Camps

A Bandit Camp and a nearby Corrupted Zone

While exploring the world, you'll encounter many Corrupted Zones and Bandit Camps that are filled with enemies. Corrupted Zones are marked by a red zone encircling a whole area, while Bandit Camps are marked by a blue icon of a skull under a roof. Defeating all the enemies here will give both plenty of experience and resources.

List of Corrupted Zones

Tutorials

Tutorials are open quests that involve mastering each of the weapon types in the game. These tutorials are very doable and will net you great experience. These are particularly helpful in the early game.

Remember to activate the quest, otherwise they won't be marked as completed even if you finish the objective logs. Also note that these don't count towards the completion percentage of the game.

List of Tutorial Quests

Horizon Zero Dawn Related Guides

Beginner's Guide: Tips and Tricks for Getting Started