This is Samurai Gamers‘ walkthrough for the mission Into the Borderlands in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Into the Borderlands follows the previous mission, The Field of the Fallen, and has Aloy investigating Ersa’s death further. The mission starts at the Palace of the Sun in Meridian.
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Main Quest Walkthrough – Into the Borderlands
Objective 1: Meet with Marad
Make your way through the crowd until you reach the gateway to the Palace of the Sun. Talk to the man on your right; he is known as Blameless Marad, and he will accompany you to the Sun-King Avad, where he says Erend is, too. You will hear some snide comments about you from the nobles in line to see the Sun-King.
When you have your audience with the king, Avad tells Erend to reveal what he knows. In turn, Erend says that after checking Ersa’s tomb, he is convinced that the body there is not Ersa. Avad believes that Ersa is still alive. Marad, meanwhile, says that she has an enemy among the Oseram – a warlord named Dervahl. Avad talks to you privately and reveals dark secrets about the past.
Objective 2: Go to Pitchcliff
Pitchcliff is a long way away to the north, so you better get going. After talking with Avad, go down the staircase that you climbed with Marad, then exit the gateway. Once outside, follow the on-screen guide. If you have Fast Travel, use it to reach Pitchcliff quickly.
Climb the trail going up the mountain until you reach the settlement of Pitchcliff about halfway up. Enter through the archway, then move on up. You will come upon a tall fortress, but the person you are looking for (Marad’s operative) is at the left-side fork in the road just before the fortress, so go down and turn RIGHT if you are already at the fortress. Once you reach the fork in the road, a cutscene will play, and Erend will appear. Apparently, Marad’s operative has gone missing.
Locate the operative: Use your Focus to find tracks on the ground. Tag the tracks you have seen using RT for them to stay visible even when you’re not in Focus mode. The tracks lead back up to the fortress, but before following it, go up the stairs to the upper level, where there is a crate you can loot for items. Save at the bonfire nearby, then move on.
Find the operative: Follow the tracks to the back of the fortress, where a man is lying face-down on the ground. He’s the operative you are looking for, and he’s already dead. Examine the corpse, and a cutscene reveals that he was found out by Dervahl’s men. He drew a map with his blood though, so it’s not a total loss. Erend leaves you to get his men, while you go further north to where Dervahl is hiding out.
Go to Dervahl’s camp: Go down the mountain to ground level. The waypoint is some distance away, so if you have a Machine to mount, use that to Fast Travel. There are a lot of Machines in your way, so Fast Travel is the best way to conserve health and weapons. However, if you’re there to loot from machines, take down as much as you can.
The waypoint guide leads you up a mountain trail; if you’re riding a Machine, go up as far as possible, then get off the Machine. At a certain point up the trail, a cutscene with Erend will play. He is watching a campsite from a high point, and from there, you can see that Dervahl’s men have several Machines chained down.
Kill the Outlanders and the Machines: You have two ways of accomplishing this: you can either charge into the camp and slaughter everyone and everything that’s inside, or you can free the Machines and let them do most of the hard work for you. However, you will need to take out the Machines as well after they have run amuck inside the camp, so pick wisely. Make use of the tall grass and hiding nooks in the area as well. Don’t worry if you find yourself low on firepower, as Erend and his troops will pick up the slack after some time.
Get to the raised part of the campsite. You will find a small fortress similar to the one you saw at Pitchcliff. Be careful of the Machines chained up here, as one of them is a Ravager. Head to the hut indicated by your waypoint when you’ve beaten the Machine.
Defeat Dervahl’s champion: He will appear as you are entering the hut. The champion will use a weapon that acts like a semi-automatic rocket launcher; that is, it can fire several shots in succession. You won’t be alone in facing him, though, as Erend will join the battle.
Equip a high-accuracy bow like the Sharpshot, then fire off headshots as you keep your distance and evading shots as necessary. Meanwhile, Erend will distract the Champion with close-quarters combat. Once he’s down, loot the champion for some earplugs to let you enter the hut, which is protected by a sonic barrier.
Find Ersa: Enter the hut where the Champion came from, then interact with the flashing button at the side of the stairwell to turn off the sonic barrier. Head down the stairs and into the room on your left. You and Erend will find a heavily-injured Ersa in a cell inside the room.
The dying Ersa confesses that she kept Erend safe by keeping information from him. She also reveals that the warlord Dervahl has sinister plans in motion for Meridian.
After Ersa dies, scan the room using Focus. The supply crate in the corner contains Dervahl’s notebook, which provides a clue to his plans. Talk to Erend to complete the Into The Borderlands mission.
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