The Hardest Trophy Award In Horizon Zero Dawn Goes To…..

The Blazing Sun Marks trophy! But you may know this trophy better as one of the “Hunting Grounds” trophies. There are four obtainable there, and they are all designed to test your fighting skills in a time-limited fashion. Two of them are bronze, one is silver, and the most coveted one is gold. The one and only golden, shining trophy in Horizon Zero Dawn. In order to get your hands on it, you have to earn a high score called a “Blazing Sun” in each of the 3 hunting ground challenges comprising of 15 trials, across 5 hunting grounds.

Is that Golden, Burning, Shining Trophy Worth It?

Should you want to earn the only gold trophy in the game and have a shot at getting platinum, then yes, it’s absolutely worth it. Necessary, even! However, this trophy feels somewhat disjointed from the rest of the game since it isn’t tightly connected to the storyline or a sense of exploration in the world. It’s not recommended to even attempt the hunting grounds until level 30.

If you’re struggling to achieve these trophies, we recommend leaving it for now. The hunting grounds trophies are strange in that they require a type of gameplay deviant from the rest of the game. They are about stealth, resource management, and skill, but rarely time. When you’re fighting machines out in the wild you can nope out and regroup, gather more resources and come back with a better attack plan. The timed element of the hunting grounds and the lack of spiky red grass mean that it’s a test of brute force and power, something the game as a whole doesn’t focus on.

Alternative: Downed 23 Grazer Dummies Trophy

Perhaps you’ll still take a while to reach the required level of power, or maybe showing off your raw power is just not your cup of tea. Focus your aim on the “Downed 23 Grazer Dummies” trophy instead.

We recommend this trophy as an alternative to the hunting grounds trophy simply because it’s fun and full of exploration whilst still being difficult to achieve in an entirely different way.

To earn this trophy you have to destroy 23 Grazer Training Dummies which look similar to the Grazer machines but instead are made of metal and straw.

These dummies are dotted randomly around the battlefield like hidden grass snakes and can be difficult to find since you can’t buy maps to locate them, unlike other collectibles. This trophy thus gives you a run for your money, no matter the size of your virtual pecs.