When you first start out in Horizon Forbidden West, Aloy will only be able to hold her breath underwater for a short — but still impressive — period of time. This is enough for creeping up on enemies out of sight, or doing a  bit of light underwater exploration, but it’s not enough for you to explore the underwater caverns that are scattered throughout the Tenakth’s territory. In this guide, we’ll be running you through how to swim underwater for longer in Horizon Forbidden West with the help of the Diving Mask.

Breathing Underwater for Longer in Horizon Forbidden West

In order to breathe underwater for longer, you’ll need to get the Diving Mask, which you’ll unlock as part of the main story.

Specifically, it’s when you go after the POSEIDON protocol found in the southeast part of the Forbidden West section of the map, which is actually the flooded ruins of Las Vegas.

Using the Diving Mask

The good news is you don’t actually have to do anything to use the Diving Mask to swim underwater for longer in Horizon Forbidden West.

  • Head to the quest marker, and find the building with water pouring out of its sides. Make your way inside and speak to Morlund. He’ll explain that he and his pals have been trying to explore the ancient ruins below, when suddenly it started flooding with water. He’ll ask that you get him the compressed air capsule from his Mk. 1 breathing apparatus, and get the machine parts from the herd nearby. Grabbing the compressed air capsule is simply a case of diving into the watery hole in the building itself and grabbing it from the objective-marked item.  The herd nearby will move a few times, but there aren’t any particularly tricky machines that you’ll need to deal with. This is also marked on your map with a quest marker. When you’ve grabbed the parts, return to Morlund. You can then use the workbench to create the Diving Mask.

He’ll explain that he and his pals have been trying to explore the ancient ruins below, when suddenly it started flooding with water. He’ll ask that you get him the compressed air capsule from his Mk. 1 breathing apparatus, and get the machine parts from the herd nearby.

This is also marked on your map with a quest marker.

You can then use the workbench to create the Diving Mask.

Aloy will automatically equip it when you dive underwater, allowing you to freely explore underwater caverns throughout the world.

That’s everything you need to know on how to swim and breathe underwater in Horizon Forbidden West. For more tips, tricks and guides, head over to our wiki or see more of our coverage on the game below.

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