Essential. You haven't seen the Forbidden West’s beauty until you remove the sticky highlighter goo.

Meridian, the golden city, is notorious for dropping frame rates by 20-30 FPS due to inefficient draw calls. (by WT3WD ) optimizes the city’s NPC spawning logic and shadow rendering. It won't double your FPS, but it will smooth out the stutters, making the elevator ride to the palace feel majestic rather than chuggy.

With these mods, Horizon Zero Dawn on PC becomes the definitive way to play—smoother, better looking, and less tedious than vanilla or even the PS5 version.

A well-curated set of mods can significantly enhance Horizon Zero Dawn on PC—improving visuals, fixing QoL issues, and extending gameplay longevity. Start with Mod Engine and QoL improvements, then add visual or gameplay mods based on hardware and desired experience.