{"id":244965,"date":"2025-10-04T12:11:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T12:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/how-horizon-forbidden-wests-new-valor-surges-work\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T12:11:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T12:11:48","slug":"how-horizon-forbidden-wests-new-valor-surges-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/how-horizon-forbidden-wests-new-valor-surges-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How Horizon Forbidden West&#8217;s New Valor Surges Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/how-horizon-forbidden-wests-new-valor-surges-work.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"417\" alt=\"\" typeof=\"Image\" class=\"image-style-body-default\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>Last week, we finally saw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/2021\/05\/27\/new-horizon-forbidden-west-ps5-gameplay-revealed-including-new-locations-and-stunning\">a good chunk of gameplay for Horizon Forbidden West<\/a>, which showcased plenty of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/2021\/05\/27\/everything-new-in-horizon-forbidden-west\">new powers<\/a> for Aloy.\u00a0She can blind foes with smoke bombs, slow and stall machines with adhesive grenades, and shoot off and acquire enemy weapons to turn their own firepower on them. We also saw the addition of Valor Surges to her arsenal and were immediately intrigued.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Va<span><span>lor Surges\u00a0grant Aloy\u00a0unique and powerful abilities, such as the ability to knock back enemies, as the State of Play demo showcased. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/video-interview\/2021\/06\/02\/horizon-forbidden-west-devs-on-new-abilities-release-window-and-more\">our recent video interview<\/a> with members of Guerrilla Games, we couldn&#8217;t resist asking them more about this new feature and what it will add to combat. Turns out, more than we thought, as you can unlock different ones on the skill tree and they&#8217;re tied to the playstyle you invest in there.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>\u201cValor Surges are a new addition and the way you acquire them is via the skill tree, which also has been completely redesigned and repopulated with new skills,\u201d explains game director <\/span><\/span>Mathijs de Jonge<span><span>. \u201cThe skill tree is designed to support many different play styles, and each play style has Valor Surges that you can unlock by spending skill points on them. The player can choose which Valor Surge is active at any moment.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/how-horizon-forbidden-wests-new-valor-surges-work-1.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" class=\"image-style-body-default\" \/> <\/article>\n<p><span><span>While de Jonge said they\u2019ll share more about the revamped skill tree at a later date, he did tell us how to activate the Valor Surges <\/span><\/span>\u2013<span><span>\u00a0by filling their\u00a0own energy bar. &#8220;The way you build up that Valor Surge bar is by playing tactically.\u00a0Because in Horizon, if you play tactically, you are rewarded with tactical combat XP; it\u2019s its own point system. So every time you do a headshot on a human, or if you remove a component from a machine, we count [that] as tactical play, and you get a little bit of combat XP\u00a0and that goes into the Valor Surge bar. So by playing tactically, you are rewarded by being able to execute these powerful moves. [These are] big payoff moments that you can use to your advantage, like the 360 blasts, which knocks back your enemies.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We tried to get\u00a0<span><span>de Jonge to elaborate more on the changes to the skill tree, and while we didn&#8217;t entirely succeed, he did confirm a significant overhaul took place. &#8220;We\u00a0<\/span><\/span>didn&#8217;t redesign the skill tree for you a little, [the old skill tree] is\u00a0completely thrown out the window,&#8221; he said.\u00a0&#8220;We kind of started over. There&#8217;s a whole new skill tree.\u00a0Also, visually, everything,\u00a0it&#8217;s completely new. We spent\u00a0a lot of time on giving more options to the player and [having]\u00a0more cool options to play with. As for which playstyles and\u00a0how exactly it works, I think that&#8217;s something we&#8217;ll go into later when we can actually show it to you because it was not part of the demo, so I cannot really explain it yet.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Color us intrigued by what&#8217;s in store with the new skill tree. We also can&#8217;t wait to find out what other types of Valor Surges are in the game, as they seem to play a pretty big part in combat.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/2021\/06\/03\/how-horizon-forbidden-wests-new-valor-surges-work\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, we finally saw a good chunk of gameplay for Horizon Forbidden West, which showcased plenty of new powers for Aloy.\u00a0She can blind foes with smoke bombs, slow and stall machines with adhesive grenades, and shoot off and acquire enemy weapons to turn their own firepower on them. We also saw the addition of Valor Surges to her arsenal and were immediately intrigued.\u00a0 Valor Surges\u00a0grant Aloy\u00a0unique and powerful abilities, such as the ability to knock back enemies, as the State of Play demo showcased. In our recent video interview with members of Guerrilla Games, we couldn&#8217;t resist asking them more about this new feature and what it will add to combat. Turns out, more than we thought, as you can unlock different ones on&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/how-horizon-forbidden-wests-new-valor-surges-work\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-informer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Horizon Forbidden West&#039;s New Valor Surges Work | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last week, we finally saw a good chunk of gameplay for Horizon Forbidden West, which showcased plenty of new powers for Aloy.\u00a0She can 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