Top 10 Must-Have Horizon Allies: Who Diced With Fate?

by

Over the course of Horizon’s eight-year-long history, numerous tribes and significant individuals within them have been encountered as rogue artificial intelligences and warmongering groups threaten the post-apocalyptic world. Throughout Aloy’s journey, seven tribes have been interacted with so far, including the isolationist Nora, the monarchal Carja, the forging Oseram, the shamanistic Banuk, the battle-hardened Tenakth, the choral Utaru, and the seafaring Quen. All of these tribes end up helping Aloy in her quest to save the world in some way, despite some initial hesitation or distrust towards the confidant Nora huntress. However, a select few members from each tribe have aided Aloy in significant, varied ways over the course of the Horizon series.

Horizon may be an action role-playing game, but it doesn’t feature an intricate, omnipresent companion system similar to other contemporary RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, Persona, or The Elder Scrolls. Instead, allies will join Aloy in select quests, helping the Elisabet Sobeck clone solving puzzles, mysteries, and aiding in combat at their own discretion. Aloy cannot direct the actions of any ally, but she can influence some of their reactions to certain events and determine whether they’ll appear in certain large events, such as the Battle of the Alight. What many allies lack in combat abilities, they make up for with their complex stories, with each being able to be tiered by their character arcs, influence, and impact on Aloy and the overall Horizon narrative.

This list does not include allies to the protagonist Ryas of the virtual reality spin-off game Horizon Call of the Mountain.

S-Tier Horizon Allies

  • Alva
  • Erend
  • GAIA
  • Kotallo
  • Rost
  • Sylens
  • Talanah
  • Varl
  • Zo

Some of Aloy’s best allies are those closest to her. At first, this was just her fatherly guardian and fellow Nora outcast Rost, as he raised her from birth, trained her, and defended her from the Eclipse cult leader Helis during the Proving tournament. Rost’s teachings and strength would go on to inspire Aloy to continue to fight even when it seemed like the odds were against her and help others, such as fellow Elisabet Sobeck clone Beta. After Rost, Aloy’s closest allies are fellow Nora Varl and the Oseram Erend. Both are Aloy’s oldest and most loyal friends, with the two helping her multiple times in the battles against HADES and the Eclipse as well as Regalla’s Rebels and the Far Zenith.

Not all of Aloy’s best allies are overwhelmingly selfless or friendly towards her, such as the case with Sylens. At first often dismissive of Aloy’s drive to help people, Sylens would use Aloy’s genetics and combat skills to thwart HADES, the Eclipse, and the Far Zenith. While Aloy was often angry about being used and tricked by Sylens, she likely wouldn’t have been able to defeat HADES, the Eclipse, and the Far Zenith without his technological prowess and knowledge of the old world. Similarly, the Tenakth Marshal Kotallo was initially apprehensive towards Aloy since she was a Forbidden West outsider and his status among the Tenakth was diminished following the loss of his arm. However, Kotallo eventually began to respect Aloy’s craftiness and skill, going on to become one of her closest allies in the battles against Regalla’s Rebels and the Far Zenith.

A-Tier Horizon Allies

  • Beta
  • Gildun
  • Regalla
  • Seyka
  • Teersa
  • Tilda
  • Uthid
  • Vanasha

There are several allies Aloy makes throughout her journey in Zero Dawn and Forbidden West that help her a great deal but aren’t as close to her or vital to events as others. This includes characters such as the Carja Vanasha and Uthid, who both play vital roles in taking down the hostile Shadow Carja and Eclipse factions as well as defeating HADES but played little to no role in the events of Forbidden West. Without Vanasha and Uthid’s help, however, the Shadow Carja and the Eclipse may have been successful in usurping Sun-King Avad and taking control of Meridian, subsequently causing more trouble for other tribes.

Similarly, Gildun and Seyka both become close friends to Aloy in the Frozen Wilds and Burning Shores DLCs, but have yet to make impactful contributions to Horizon’s main story. These two may become major characters akin to Erend or Zo in Horizon 3, but that remains to be seen. Other characters Aloy encounters do become vital allies in helping overthrow villainous factions or unveiling shocking revelations, but remain hostile to her and other tribes. Such was the case for the Tenakth Rebel leader Regalla and the Far Zenith Tilda, who both greatly helped Aloy at times, but only for the benefit of their own selfish goals, including gaining a good death after her army’s defeat and kidnapping Aloy to abandon Earth.

B-Tier Horizon Allies

  • Aratak
  • Avad
  • CYAN
  • Elida
  • Ikrie
  • Inatut
  • Janeva
  • Marad
  • Nil
  • Ourea
  • Sona

Several allies Aloy encounters are strong or highly influential characters in their own right but only help Aloy in smaller events or have little impact on Aloy’s overall journey. One example of this type of character is the former Carja soldier Nil, who often helps Aloy wipe out bandit camps but is unmotivated by her selfless goal of saving all tribes from rogue machines. Instead, Nil simply wants to kill Eclipse soldiers and joins Aloy at the Battle of Alight only to do so. While Nil returns in Forbidden West as a Tenakth Gauntlet Run racer, he doesn’t help Aloy too much and adds little to the Horizon story.

Multiple allies Aloy makes during her journey are leaders of several tribes, such as the Carja Sun-King Avad and the Banuk Chieftain Aratak. While these leaders’ help is vital in several battles against machines and navigating complex politics within their respective tribes, they rarely aid Aloy directly in battle. However, Aloy likely wouldn’t have been able to defeat HADES and the Eclipse without Avad and the Carja’s help, and she wouldn’t have been able to save the AI CYAN and stabilize the Yellowstone Caldera without Aratak and his sister Ourea’s help. Similarly, Blameless Marad is a significant political ally to Aloy as the Carja Spymaster and advisor to Avad, but he doesn’t help in battle physically.

C-Tier Horizon Allies

  • Aluki
  • Itamen
  • Nakoa
  • Namman
  • Nasadi
  • Petra
  • Teb
  • Vala

A few of Aloy’s allies rarely appear in the games or only help in select, specific, non-wide reaching ways. This is best exemplified by the Nora stitcher Teb. While he did help inspire Aloy’s method of climbing as a child and can help craft outfits for her, Teb isn’t much of a warrior and doesn’t help much in battle, though he does help a bit in the Battle of the Alight. Despite not appearing in Forbidden West, Teb does play a more significant role in LEGO Horizon Adventures by running a tailor shop in Mother’s Heart, allowing players to customize Aloy, Varl, Teersa, and Erend in outfits from various LEGO toy lines.

Prince Itamen and Dowager Queen Nasadi play significant roles in Horizon’s lore as the youngest son and widow to the Mad Sun-King as well as the half-brother and step-mother to Avad, but they don’t help Aloy too much directly. Aloy’s rescue of the two does help put her in a more favorable light to Avad and the Carja, but they don’t contribute much to battles or Aloy’s character growth. In contrast, Vala, the daughter of Nora War-Chief Sona and younger sister to Varl, is significant to Aloy as one of the few Nora to initially welcome her during the Proving. However, Vala’s story in Zero Dawn was cut short as she was immediately killed after the Proving tournament was attacked by the Eclipse.

Read More

2025-03-16 22:13