The Horizon Zero Dawn base game includes four cauldron locations for players to complete. These are underground facilities where robots make machines. Although they’re scary places full of robots, it’s worth completing cauldrons because doing so gives Aloy new overrides plus additional skill points. The cauldrons are in various locations across the map, marked with arrow symbols, you’ll need to find to enter. This is where you can find the Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron locations and how to enter them.
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The SIGMA Horizon Zero Dawn Cauldron
SIGMA is a Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron location directly north of the nearby Mother’s Crown settlement on the eastern half of the map. The best way to find it is to speak to the Dral NPC character within Mother’s Crown. She tells Aloy a little about cauldrons and provides further info about where SIGMA is. This unlocks a Cauldron SIGMA activity that marks and directs you to SIGMA.
The SIGMA cauldron location
Entering SIGMA is easy because all you need to do is override its main triangular door entrance. SIGMA is the first Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron location you should complete because it’s the lowest level one. It’s a level 8 cauldron for which you’ll receive overrides for the Sawtooths, Scrappers, Grazers, and Lancehorn robots, plus 4,000 XP and a skill point.
The RHO Horizon Zero Dawn Cauldron
You can find the RHO Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron entrance almost directly east of the Gatelands Bandit Camp in the approximate center of the map. It is also south of the nearby DayTown settlement. The best way to get to it is to follow the path out of DayTown to enter the desert region of the map. Head south from there to walk toward the RHO cauldron location shown in the screenshot below.
The RHO cauldron location
When you find RHO’s location, the cauldron is seemingly inaccessible because of a hole in the ground. You’ll need to fall into that hole to enter the cauldron. However, jumping straight into the hole could kill you because of the height. Walk toward the firelit torch on the left side of the entrance to fall onto some lower platforms that lead you toward a branch from which you can rappel down into the cauldron.
This cauldron can be tricky to navigate since you need to grab onto some automated mechanisms to get through it. It includes large circular turbines you’ll need to hold on to and sometimes whack to change their directions. Completing the RHO cauldron gives you machine overrides for the Ravager, Longleg, Shell-Walker, Snapmaw, and Trampler robots along with 6,000 XP and a skill point.
The XI Horizon Zero Dawn Cauldron
The XI Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron location is in the southwestern part of the map near SunStone Rock. It is almost directly south of Meridian Village. So, head south from the Meridian Village, passing the Blackwing bandit camp, until you reach the bottom of the map where you’ll find an Eclipse excavation camp that includes the XI cauldron entrance.
The XI cauldron location
XI is the most unique Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron in the game because it’s the only one Eclipse has infiltrated. To enter it, you’ll need to kill a human guard in the excavation camp to pick up an excavation key from him. You can unlock the door to the cauldron within the camp with that key.
You’ll need to fight through numerous human enemies to reach this cauldron’s core. However, you’ll also have to deal with some robots after overriding XI’s core. Completing this level 18 Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron rewards you with the Behemoth, Fire Bellowback, Stalker, Glinthawk, and Freeze Bellowback robot overrides, 8,000 XP, and a skill point.
The ZETA Horizon Zero Dawn Cauldron
ZETA is a level 20 Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron in the northwestern region of the map near the Maker’s End ruin area. It’s also close to the Shattered Klin bandit camp. To find Zeta, walk directly east from Sunfall toward the cauldron location shown on the map below.
The ZETA cauldron location
When reaching ZETA, you’ll notice its inaccessible triangular exit. To enter the cauldron, you’ll need to climb up the nearby rock shown in the snapshot below. Jump from that rock onto a nearby ledge to reach the ZETA entrance.
The rock you need to climb to enter the ZETA cauldron.
There’s not much to fight in ZETA other than a large Thunderjaw robot. However, that’s the toughest robot boss in the cauldrons. Defeating that robot to complete ZETA gives you Thunderjaw, Stormbird, and Rockbreaker overrides, 8,000 XP, and one skill point. Aloy also says a few interesting things about cauldrons at the end, leading into the Frozen Wilds DLC.
The Thunderjaw robot
If you need more help finding the Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron locations, check out this HZD map page. That interactive map shows you the locations of pretty much everything in the game. Click Hide All to clear that map, and select Cauldron to see where they are.
Cauldrons in the Frozen Wilds DLC
The Frozen Wilds DLC includes the EPSILON Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron location. However, you can only access this cauldron by completing the main quests within that expansion pack. Playing through the Frozen Wilds main story quests will lead you toward that cauldron’s location.
You can play through the Frozen Wilds DLC in Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition for PC. The Frozen Wilds DLC story reveals why the cauldrons are building aggressive robots. GAIA originally directed the cauldrons to build terraform robots for rebuilding Earth. However, a different, subordinate AI handles the cauldrons after GAIA’s breakdown.
The EPSILON cauldron
Tips for Completing the Horizon Zero Dawn Cauldrons
You’ll need to do quite a lot of fighting to complete the cauldrons. So, don’t attempt any of the above Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron locations until you’re at or above their recommended levels. The higher your character level is, the easier they’ll be.
Don’t forget to stock up on supplies before entering a cauldron. Stock up on potions, ammunition, traps, medicine plants, and crafting resources before you head off to a cauldron. Just make sure you’re not short of supplies for cauldrons.
Traps can be especially useful for fighting robot bosses at the end of cauldrons. Place traps all around the robot bosses before activating them with the cores. The robot bosses will almost certainly walk into many traps you’ve placed because they’re in enclosed areas.
Unlocking the best combat skills will also make it easier to complete Horizon Zero Dawn cauldrons. Silent Strike, Critical Hit, Strong Strike+, and Knock Down are some of the best skills for fighting robots. So, unlock those skills as soon as you can.
When you’ve found and conquered all those Horizon Zero Dawn cauldron locations, you can pacify most robots in the game by overriding them. This can be useful because robots you override will also fight alongside Aloy against other machines. So, utilize your overrides to turn robots against machines, creating handy combat diversions.
