How to defeat Skydrifters in Horizon Forbidden West?

Skydrifters can be pesky machines to take out. Their ability to fly and attack on land makes them a difficult target, and their quick attacks can deal devastating damage to Aloy. The best way to combat these flying machines is to take out the body parts responsible for their most devastating attacks or focus heavily on their weak spots.

The Skydrifter's Tail will be responsible for the majority of the damage that these machines do to the players while they are on the ground. Taking this body part out will stop all future attacks caused by it. Players can also choose to heavily focus their attacks on the Skydrifter's weak spot, the Booster on the front of their body, to deal massive amounts of damage to them in battle.

Skydrifter's information

Strengths and Weaknesses

Players can attack machines with different kinds of elemental attacks. Elemental attacks in the game include Fire, Shock, Frost, Plasma, Purgewater, and Acid. Skydrifters will be weak to damage from Frost attacks. They will also be strong against damage from Fire attacks.

Related: How to defeat Tideripper in Horizon Forbidden West?

Body Parts

There are many different body parts on a Skydrifter, and each one will drop different loot and deal different amounts of damage to the machine when attacked by players. The body parts on a Skydrifter are:

• Body
• Scanning Unit
• Tracking Container
• Booster
• Antenna
• Sparker
• Razor Tail

Loot

Machines in Horizon Forbidden West will drop different loot items, with many being specific to each kind of machine. Some can be looted from a fallen machine, while others will need to be removed (shot off with an arrow or removes with a hit from the spear) while the machine is still alive. The Skydrifter will drop a long list of loot items:

• Echo Shell (Uncommon) - Dropped from Body
• Metal Shards (Common) - Dropped from Body
• Skydrifter Circulator* (Uncommon) - Dropped from Body and Scanning Unit
• Piercing Spike (Rare) - Dropped from Body
• Skydrifter Primary Nerve* (Uncommon) - Dropped from Body, Tracking Container, and Antenna
• Machine Muscle (Uncommon) - Dropped from Body
• Braided Wire (Common) - Dropped from Body, Scanning Unit, Tracking Container, and Antenna
• Small Machine Core (Uncommon) - Dropped from Body
• Metal Bone (Rare) - Dropped from Body
• Sturdy Hardplate (Common) - Dropped from Body, Scanning Unit, Tracking Container, and Antenna
• Sparker (Common) - Dropped from Sparker
• Skydrifter Razor Tail* (Very Rare) - Dropped from Razor Tail

*Loot items marked with an asterisk are exclusively dropped from the Skydrifter machine.

Cauldron

In Horizon Forbidden West, Cauldrons allow players to override the machines within that Cauldron once they have completed it. Completing a Cauldron usually means traversing through its dungeon-like corridors and facing off against a boss at the end. The Skydrifter is a part of the IOTA Overrides Cauldron.

Interested in other machine guides in Horizon Forbidden West? Check out How to defeat the Slitherfang in Horizon Forbidden West on Pro Game Guides!