How to complete the Seeds of the Past main quest in Horizon Forbidden West

Seeds of the Past is the main quest you’ll tackle when searching for the Demeter subordinate AI in Horizon Forbidden West. It’s the most challenging of the initial three main quests from GAIA and pushes you almost as far west as you can go on the map. This guide explains how to complete the quest so you get through it as fast as possible.

Step 1: Kill the soldiers and enter the Greenhouse

When you arrive at Demeter’s coordinates, you’ll immediately be attacked by a group of soldiers. They’re part of a tribe you won’t recognize, but all you need to know is that you need to kill them all. Once they’re dead, head into the building and go to the second floor. There’s a zip line you can use to get into the central hub of this location, the Greenhouse.

Step 2: Find the Metal Flower

Explore the Greenhouse and head into the large building with the hologram outside. A Metal Flower blocks the main path, so use the Pullcaster to open a new one in a side room. You’ll need to climb an elevator shaft to reach a room where you can learn more about the Metal Flowers and how they were made. Then, it’s time to head down into a new central arena to kill more of those soldiers from earlier.

Kill these soldiers and continue to explore the area. When you enter the open building, you’ll meet Alva. She’s an interesting character that also has a Focus, meaning she and Aloy can work together on much more complex matters than your usual companions.

Step 3: The tunnels

After using the consoles in the main building, Aloy and Alva descend into the tunnels below the facility. Explore these carefully because there are legendary treasure caches to find in every dead end. The way out is a ladder, so if you find that and know you’ve got more tunnels to explore, go back and explore them.

Once you emerge from the tunnels, a giant flying machine called a Dreadwing will swoop past. You don’t need to face it yet, but you do need to sneak past a group of machines in the next area. Use the open vent to sneak down into the open test field and sneak past the machines if you can. If you can’t, you’ll have to fight them, and the Clawstriders don’t make that an easy fight.

Once you’ve made it through this area, you need to get into the building on the far side. However, there’s no entrance on the ground floor. The only climbable objects are posts that stick out and form a path above you, but reaching them is difficult. You need to get Aloy to jump at the wall, then press circle and hold the joystick to the right to get Aloy to jump into one of these posts and climb up. Then, use the Pullcaster to open the vent and get inside.

Step 4: Solve the puzzle room

Inside the facility is a large door that requires a Key Module. You need to pull out the two racks next to it to find it. There’s a cache behind one, and the Key Module is behind the other. The Key Module allows you to pull a large machine out and transport Alva to the computer station above. However, she needs you to activate the second station simultaneously.

Alva will open the last rack for Aloy to pull out, revealing a power cell. However, there’s nowhere to put it. Use the Pullcaster on the vent in the corner to get into a new room with a battery slot. Blow up the wall by igniting the flowers, and you’ll be able to bring the power cell through. This allows Alva to open the door on the first floor so Aloy can run through and jump across.

Step 5: Kill the Dreadwing

After a harrowing cutscene, you’ll need to kill the Dreadwing you saw earlier. This is not a simple fight. The Dreadwing can become invisible and deals frost and acid damage using bombs. It can also shoot down plasma close to where it’s flying. This machine is weak to fire damage, so pull out your fire weapons and start shooting. It’s difficult to aim and hit the weak spots on this machine if it’s your first time fighting one, so try your best to deal as much damage as possible by lighting it on fire at every opportunity. If you can aim for weak spots or use Tearblast arrows, that will help a lot.

Step 6: Craft the Vine Cutter and claim Demeter

Finally, you can head to the nearby workbench and craft the Vine Cutter. This tool allows you to hit Metal Flowers to open them before downloading a virus that kills them. Then, go back to the Metal Flower you found at the start of this mission and destroy it. Inside the door, you’ll discover Demeter. Claim it and return it to GAIA to upload it and advance the main story.