Los Angeles is underwater. Well, in Guerrilla Games' version of the future, it’s a fractured, volcanic archipelago where the Hollywood sign is crumbling and the lava is very, very real. If you’ve just finished the main quest of the base game and you’re looking at the Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores map for the first time, it can feel a bit small compared to the massive trek from Meridian to San Francisco. Don't let the scale fool you. This isn't just more of the same. It's vertical. It's dense.
Honestly, the map design here is a deliberate response to how players explored the Forbidden West. Guerrilla knew we were tired of just running across flat deserts. They gave us the Waterwing. They gave us thermal updrafts. They basically told us that if we aren't looking up or diving deep, we're missing half the content.
What the Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores Map Actually Looks Like
When you first pull up the map, you’ll notice it’s roughly a third of the size of the main game's playable area. It’s centered around the ruins of Los Angeles. You've got the mainland to the north, but the rest is a collection of jagged islands separated by deep, treacherous water. This isn't a place for the Strider or the Charger. If you try to boat everywhere, you’re going to spend twenty minutes just trying to find a shoreline that isn't a cliff face.
The topography is aggressive. You have massive volcanic ridges that cut off entire sections of the map, forcing you to use the new flying mechanics. One thing people often overlook is the sheer amount of subterranean and underwater space. There are flooded metro tunnels and hidden volcanic vents that don't show up on the 2D map interface until you’re literally standing in them.
The Key Hubs You Need to Find
Fleet's End is your home base. It’s built into the side of a massive ancient ship, and it’s where you’ll find the Quen. Unlike Hidden Ember or Chainscrape, this hub feels lived-in in a way that’s almost claustrophobic. You’ll be coming back here constantly to upgrade the new Specter Gauntlet, which is basically the only way to deal with some of the tankier machines in the DLC.
North of Fleet's End, the map opens up into several distinct biomes. You have the "Lava Flows" to the east, which are exactly what they sound like. Don't touch the orange stuff. Seriously. The game’s physics engine treats lava as instant death for Aloy, though some machines seem perfectly happy to chill in it. Then you have the "Ancient Ruins" section, which is a graveyard of skyscrapers. This is where the Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores map really shines because it utilizes the Sunwing (and later the Waterwing) to create platforming challenges that are hundreds of feet in the air.
Dealing With the Fog of War
The fog of war on this map is stubborn. In the base game, you could usually find a Tallneck, override it, and boom—everything is revealed. In the Burning Shores, there is only one Tallneck. And it’s broken.
Getting that Tallneck back online is a whole ordeal involving a drone and some high-altitude gymnastics. It’s located near the center of the archipelago. Until you fix it, you’re flying blind. This was a smart move by the developers. It forces you to actually look at the landmarks. You start recognizing the shape of the ruined Capitol Records building or the way the light hits the Hollywood Hills. It makes the world feel like a real place rather than just a checklist of icons.
Hidden Points of Interest
If you're a completionist, the map is a nightmare in the best way possible. There are Delver’s Trinkets scattered around that don't have clear map markers. You have to find letters, follow clues, and actually use your brain. One trinket is hidden behind a destructible wall in a ruin that looks completely generic from the outside.
Then there are the Aerial Captures. These are the "Vistas" of the DLC, but they require you to follow a flight path in the air. These paths wind through the canyons and under bridges, showing off the technical prowess of the Decima engine. If you're playing on PS5 (which you have to be, since the DLC skipped PS4), the draw distance on these islands is staggering. You can see a Slaughterspine patrolling an island three miles away while you're standing on top of a volcano.
The Waterwing Factor
You can't talk about navigating this map without talking about the Waterwing. It’s a variant of the Sunwing that can dive underwater. This changes everything.
In the base game, water was an obstacle. You swam slowly, you hid in kelp, and you hoped the Snapmaws didn't see you. In the Burning Shores, the water is a highway. You can dive from a thousand feet in the air, submerge to avoid a stray Fire Clamberjaw, and then burst out of the waves on the other side of the island. The Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores map was clearly designed with this transition in mind. There are several ruins that are only accessible by diving through underwater tunnels and surfacing inside the basement of a skyscraper.
Why the Map Feels Different
It’s the "Density vs. Distance" argument. The Forbidden West map was about the journey across a continent. The Burning Shores map is about the excavation of a single city.
Every square inch of this map has a purpose. There’s very little "dead air." In the Stillsands of the main game, you could run for five minutes and see nothing but sand. Here, if you walk for thirty seconds, you’re either hitting a machine site, a Quen camp, or a collectible. The inclusion of the "Bilegut"—the giant frog machine—also changes how you view the terrain. These things jump. They spawn small drone-like flies. Fighting them in the cramped, vertical ruins of LA is a completely different experience than fighting a Tremortusk in an open field.
Common Misconceptions About the Map Boundaries
A lot of players think they can fly back to the main map from the Burning Shores. You can't. There’s a massive storm wall. The game handles this gracefully by letting you fast-travel back to the Forbidden West, but the Burning Shores is its own contained instance.
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Also, the "Heat" mechanic isn't just visual. While there isn't a survival meter for heat, the environmental hazards like boiling water and lava pools are integrated into the combat encounters. If you’re fighting a Zenith-tech boss near the volcano, you have to watch your footing just as much as your health bar. The terrain is an enemy.
The Final Boss Arena
Without spoiling the narrative, the final area of the map is a massive set-piece that occupies the southern portion of the islands. It’s a gargantuan ruin that dwarfs everything else. When you look at the map, it looks like a solid landmass, but it’s actually a multi-layered dungeon. It’s a feat of level design that justifies why this DLC was current-gen only. The sheer amount of moving parts and environmental destruction in that final zone would have melted a PS4.
Practical Steps for Mastering the Map
If you want to clear the Burning Shores without losing your mind, don't just rush the main story. You’ll end up under-leveled and frustrated by the traversal.
- Prioritize the Tallneck. It’s located in the "Shining Wastes" area. You can't miss it once you have the flying mount. It reveals the majority of the island clusters and makes finding the Pangea Figurines much easier.
- Look for Thermal Updrafts. These are glowing orange vents on the ground. They give your mount a massive speed and height boost. They are essential for reaching the highest Aerial Captures.
- Invest in Underwater Skills. Since a good chunk of the map is submerged, having the "Deep Breather" perks or just getting comfortable with the diving mask is non-negotiable.
- Farm the New Resources. You’ll see "Brimshine" glowing yellow in caves and on cliffs. This is the currency of the Burning Shores. It’s usually tucked away in the most vertical parts of the map. If you see a high ledge that looks hard to reach, there’s probably Brimshine on it.
The Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores map is a masterclass in how to do a "smaller" expansion. It doesn't need to be 100 miles wide because it's five miles deep. Every ruin tells a story of the "Old Ones" in Los Angeles, and every island offers a new way to use Aloy’s expanded toolkit. Stop looking at the icons and start looking at the horizon. The best stuff isn't marked on the map anyway. It's hidden in the shadows of the Hollywood sign or at the bottom of a volcanic lake. Go find it.