In Horizon Forbidden West, Coils are used to upgrade weaponry, boosting certain stats and allowing players to make aspects of their weapon stronger. A bow with fire arrows can be upgraded to make the flames more potent, for instance, while players can also get coils that allow them to tear machines off enemies with ease. However, while the system makes sense in theory and the core idea works well, the way Coils are acquired leaves something to be desired.
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Coil Crafting in The Next Horizon Game
As players progress through Horizon Forbidden West, they will collect Coils constantly. Whether they are looting the corpse of a machine, spending Shards at vendors, or completing side quests and errands, gamers will be getting new Coils all the time in the PlayStation exclusive title. Unfortunately, the process for earning them feels too random and unnatural, as players will never know when they are about to stumble upon a Coil that suits their choice of weapon.
Coil quality is also something to keep in mind, as the legendary Coils in Horizon Forbidden West are a bit lacking. Not only are they limited, but when gamers finally get their hands on them, it rarely feels like the effort was worth it. This is a far cry from the Painted Coils seen in The Frozen Wilds expansion from Horizon Zero Dawn, as the weapon-specific upgrades were came changers. Not only should the next Horizon game bring these back, but it could allow gamers to craft the Coils they want to use.
A Coil crafting mechanic seems easy enough to imagine, as it could work just like the weapon upgrades seen in Horizon Forbidden West. To make a Coil, players could be tasked with putting together different machine pieces, with the pieces in question leading to a guaranteed type of Coil. This would give players another reason to hunt down specific machine parts, pushing them to engage with the various machine sites scattered across the map.
For instance, if a player combines a Tideripper piece with a Fire Bellowback part, they could be guaranteed a Coil that boosts Purgewater and Fire damage. Depending on the quality of the pieces that the player combines, they could be given a Coil of higher rarity. Continuing with the Tideripper example, combining an orange piece from this machine with an orange item from a Thunderjaw could always result in a Legendary Coil. With this crafting option, players could make the perfect Coils for their weapons whenever they want to, not needing to rely on the unpredictable rewards from crates or the limited Coil lineups in vendor inventories.
A crafting feature could allow Horizon fans to make some weapon-specific Coils, too. By combining a special Shredder Gauntlet item or token with the two machine pieces, gamers could be guaranteed a Coil that is particularly strong for Shredder Gauntlets, further improving their weapon of choice. Getting these tokens could be as simple as killing a human enemy that wields one of these weapons - each melee enemy Aloy kills can drop a spear Coil item, while each archer could drop a bow upgrade. Though all the other methods of acquiring Coils could be kept intact, being able to craft them would make the system more in-depth and would make hunting for machine parts far more rewarding.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now on PS4 and PS5.
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