You're standing on a cliffside in the Daunt, rotating a holographic image of a pre-collapse ruin, trying to line up a rusted pylon with a blurry digital ghost. It’s frustrating. Honestly, the Vista Point Shrouded Heights is one of those puzzles in Horizon Forbidden West that makes you question your own depth perception. Most players stumble upon the signal tower near the Zenith base in the far west of the map and figure it’ll be a quick scan-and-match job. It isn't.
The Shrouded Heights Vista Point is located on the western edge of the Isle of Spires. This isn't just another collectible; it's a window into San Francisco before the tides reclaimed the streets. Getting it right requires more than just standing in the general vicinity. You need precision.
Why the Vista Point Shrouded Heights is a Headache
The game gives you a blurry image of what the world used to look like. You have to find the exact spot where the "Old World" perspective matches the current ruins. In the case of Shrouded Heights, you’re looking at a structure that has been partially swallowed by the Pacific.
Most people mess this up because they stay on the shore. They look at the crumbling skyscrapers and think the vantage point must be on a ridge or a high balcony. Wrong.
Diving into the Deep
You have to go underwater. That's the part that catches people off guard. Unlike the early game Vista Points in The Daunt or Plainsong, which are land-based, this one requires the Diving Mask. If you haven't finished the "Sea of Sands" main quest to get the breather, don't even bother trying this yet. You'll drown before you find the sweet spot.
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The signal tower itself is perched on a cliff north of the actual ruins. Once you scan the tower, the "Vista Point: Shrouded Heights" quest activates, and you get that purple-tinted overlay on your Focus. The image shows a massive, futuristic structure—a research facility or perhaps a high-end corporate hub—with distinct angular architecture.
The Exact Location for the Match
To find the alignment spot, head south from the Vista Point tower toward the water. You’ll see a large, rusted structure protruding from the waves. This is your primary landmark.
- Swim out toward the ruins that look like a collapsed dome or a rounded atrium.
- Dive beneath the surface. Look for a glowing yellow oxygen plant if you need a reference point, though with the Diving Mask, you can stay down indefinitely.
- Look for a specific piece of submerged machinery. It looks like a heavy metal pylon or a piece of a bridge support that has tilted at a roughly 45-degree angle.
You need to position Aloy so that she is looking through the gap of this tilted pylon toward the larger building further out in the bay. It's finicky. You might have to swim a few inches to the left or right. When you hit the "pocket," the holographic image will snap into place, revealing the facility as it stood a thousand years ago.
The Story Behind the Ruins
What are you actually looking at? The Shrouded Heights were part of the tech-utopia version of San Francisco. The logs you find in the surrounding area hint at the desperate final days of the Faro Plague. This wasn't just a scenic overlook; it was a high-security zone.
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The contrast is jarring. In the hologram, you see sleek glass and humming neon. In reality, Aloy is swimming through kelp-choked hallways and avoiding the Snapmaws that patrol the nearby waters. It's a somber reminder of the "Enduring Victory" era, where humanity's last stand was often managed from these coastal hubs.
Dealing with the Snapmaws
Let's talk about the giant mechanical crocodiles. The area around the Vista Point Shrouded Heights is infested with them. If you’re playing on Very Hard or Ultra Hard, they will spot you from a mile away.
- Stealth is your friend. Use the tall seagrass on the ocean floor to move between cover.
- Smoke bombs work underwater. If a Snapmaw catches your scent, pop a smoke bomb and reposition. It saves you from a messy fight you don't really need to have.
- Clear the perimeter. If you’re a "kill everything first" type of player, use frost arrows to brittle the Snapmaws and follow up with a high-damage Boltblaster or Sharpshot Bow. Once the area is clear, you can line up the Vista Point without worrying about a tail whip to the back of the head.
Troubleshooting the "Snap"
Sometimes the game is just stubborn. You’re in the right spot, you’re looking at the right building, but the hologram won't lock.
First, check your verticality. Many players swim too deep. You usually need to be about mid-depth in the water column, not scraped against the sandy bottom. Second, make sure your Focus is actually active. It sounds silly, but if you’ve accidentally toggled it off, the matching mechanic won't trigger.
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Finally, look at the edges of the hologram. There’s a specific "V" shape in the rusted metal ruins that matches a "V" in the digital overlay. Line those up first. The rest of the building will usually follow.
What You Get for Finishing It
Completing the Vista Point Shrouded Heights isn't just for the XP. It’s part of a larger set. Once you collect all the Vista Points in the Forbidden West, you get a coordinate for a final reward location.
Without spoiling too much, the final "cache" left behind by the person who set up these points (an Old Worlder named Elisabet Sobeck's contemporary or someone following her trail) provides a massive amount of lore regarding the "odyssey" of the human spirit. It's one of the most emotional sub-plots in the game, tucked away in optional collectibles.
Actionable Steps to Completion
If you're currently staring at your screen wondering where to go next, follow this sequence:
- Verify Gear: Ensure you have the Diving Mask from the "Sea of Sands" quest.
- Locate the Tower: Fast travel to the campfire near the ruin on the north side of the Isle of Spires. Scan the base of the antenna.
- The Swim: Head directly south into the bay. Ignore the first set of ruins on the beach and go for the submerged ones about 50 meters out.
- The Alignment: Dive down. Find the tilted metal pylon. Position yourself about 10 feet behind it, looking through its frame toward the large building in the distance.
- The Reward: Once it snaps, listen to the audio log immediately. It adds context to the ruins you’re currently standing in.
Don't rush it. The Isle of Spires is one of the most atmospheric locations in Horizon Forbidden West. The way the fog rolls over the collapsed skyscrapers—the "shrouded heights"—is exactly what the developers at Guerrilla Games were aiming for. Take a second to look at the hologram and then the ruin. The scale of the destruction in the game's universe is never clearer than when you see a massive skyscraper reduced to a jagged tooth sticking out of the ocean.
Once you've cleared this one, the remaining Vista Points are mostly on the mainland. This underwater one is arguably the trickiest due to the 3D movement of swimming. Get it out of the way, grab the data point, and move on to the next ruin.