Horizon: Zero Dawn offers players a vast world to explore. An important place in the study is the crafting system. Finds and equipment in the game are divided by rarity by color: gray (common), green (unusual), blue (rare), and purple (very rare).
The Echo Shell is a common resource in the game, but very popular. It is used in many crafts of armor and weapon, as well as needed for trading with merchants.
In this guide you will find all the necessary information about Echo Shell: what it is, why it is needed, and, most importantly, where to find it.
The best way to farm resources in Horizon Zero Dawn is to kill all the machines you meet. Then you definitely won’t have a shortage of resources. But if you need to farm Echo Shells, there are several basic ways to get them: to collect them from machines or to buy them from merchants.
There are several machines from which you can get Echo Shells. However, these are not the easiest machines to kill, so care must be taken. Echo Shells can fall out of: Behemoth, Longleg, Rockbreaker, Stalker, Stormbird, Thunderjaw (below are photos of these very machines).
The locations of these machines can be easily found by searching the map in the game. Moreover, in my experience, I can say that the easiest way to get Echo Shells is from Longlegs. They are not very dangerous, and one hit of stealth almost completely kills such a machine.
Another good way to get Echo Shells is to kill Stalkers, but they are more dangerous and can be more problematic.
It is important to mention that Echo Shell does not drop out of the machines with 100% probability. So sometimes, when killing these machines, you won’t find the necessary details. However, one of Eloy’s skills in Horizon Zero Dawn is specifically for this. I suggest to take the “Gatherer” ability in the early game, which allows you to find more Echo Shells and other parts from the killed machines.
Fortunately, if you’re not too keen on farming machines, you can buy Echo Shells from merchants. Since it’s a resource of common rarity, you can buy it from most wandering merchants, as well as merchants in cities.
However, for one Echo Shell you need to pay 50 metal shards, which at first glance isn’t very much. But if you use Tearblast Arrows frequently, you’ll need a lot of Echo Shells and, accordingly, metal shards to buy them. This is why constantly buying Echo Shells from merchants is not very profitable.
As you explore the world you may come across many crates, chests, barrels or similar items with loot inside. They can also contain Echo Shells, so my advice is to always look around and collect items from all possible crates.
However, specifically running around looking for boxes like that in the hope that there will be Echo Shells is not very effective. It’s more of a way to get rid of the problem of additional resource farming in the future.
This resource is the primary ingredient for crafting some types of arrows and is prized by merchants. To be specific, here is the list of weapons and armor that cannot be crafted without an Echo Shell:
The list is not long, but I’m sure you will (or maybe already) feel the lack of Tearblast Arrows, as they are extremely useful in battle and quickly consumed. They are basically what the Echo Shell in Horizon Zero Dawn is for.
Furthermore, you can always sell extra Echo Shells to merchants and get metal shards.
