“The Blood Choke” is a late-game side quest in Horizon Forbidden West where Aloy must head out to Thornmarsh to find why and how the water is being polluted.
The following guide will walk you through the entirety of the Blood Choke side quest in the game.
How To Unlock The Blood Choke
The Blood Choke side quest will become available once you complete the main quest, The Kulrut. You are also recommended to be around level 27.
Once ready, head to Thornmarsh and speak with Atekka. She will ask you to help her as the river has become covered with strange, red algae. People have started becoming sick after drinking the water.
Atekka will also inform Aloy that the troops previously sent out to investigate the polluted water have gone missing. Here, you will have two options. First, to either go alone and meet Atekka later or go along with her to the Red River.
How To Complete The Blood Choke
You should head south of the Thornmarsh and go all the way alongside the river. Atekka has sent you to discover the way around. You will witness some machinery left on the soil.
Just continue along the river to find more machinery ahead with some blood as well. This is evidence of Atekka’s troops. Just continue your path until you hear someone fighting. Run towards them and you will see troops fighting Fire Clamberjaws. Help them defeat the machine.
Do remember that they are very good against fire and plasma so don’t use them. You should focus on purgewater damage as it is their weakness. They will have concussion sacs on their faces, sparkers on their shoulders, and blaze sacs on their legs. You should aim for these but do keep in mind that they will explode when you hit them.
This will be a tough fight. They will sometimes climb on the rock to attack you from above. Do not get too close as you will receive heavy damage. It is in your best interest to use Blastslings and Spike Throwers which will be pretty effective from a distance.
Right after you defeat the clamberjaws, you should talk to Atekka who will tell you to climb the waterfall. Face left and you will see the starting point. Climb on it and try to reach the top by going in the right direction.
Alloy will go up using yellow handholds but during her climb, one of them will break and she will fall on the one below her. There will be machines patrolling above her. Alloy will notice something that Regalla has taken the area where she has made the dam on the river diverting all the water from Thornmarsh so that’s why no fresh water reached Thornmarsh.
The place is best suited with stealth mode as there are a lot of places to hide. Do roam around quietly to take down the rebels. You will also notice some fireclaws. You can get a good chance of defeating both the rebels and the fireclaws if you somehow get your hand on ballista, which is placed on the side of the area.
You should remember that fireclaw is strong against fire and weak against purge and frost. As mentioned above, the fireclaws will have all the abilities such as Blaze sac, Blaze unit, Purge water and sparker. Also, beware of the lava which will be thrown at your feet. Do note that when it stands on its feet, be ready to dodge the fire rocks which will be coming right in your way.
You will notice that rebels had a machine near the dam along with machine parts all across the camp. Finally, the message from Gunda datapoint will ensure of enough evidence that they were messing with the water supply. Those machines which could not be overridden were destroyed causing the water to be polluted.
Use your focus to search for the weak spot. Then use Pullcaster to pull away the log and ask Atekka to aim for the sac using ballista. This will destroy the dam and the supply of fresh water will continue.
The Blood Choke Side Quest Rewards
After you are done destroying the dam, you will have a quick chat with Atekka and she will thank you for helping her.
She will then reward you with the outfit of Tenakth Reaver and for completing the quest. You will also get XP worth 11,700 and 2 Skill Points.
