Can't start the Burning Shores DLC in Horizon Forbidden West? Here's the fix

The expansion for one of the best PS5 games is great – when you finally find it

Horizon Forbidden West burning shores
(Image credit: Sony)

The Burning Shores expansion for Horizon Forbidden West, one of the best PS5 games and one of my very favourite games on any platform, is brilliant. Starting it, though, is not as obvious as it should be. If you've installed the expansion and can't seem to start it, you're not alone. It didn't work for me either.

The problem appears to be if you've already finished the game and then install the DLC. What's supposed to happen is that once you've finished the Singularity mission, you get a call from Sylens setting your adventure in motion. What happened for me, and it seems plenty of other gamers too, is... nothing. 

I installed the DLC, got the confirmation that Burning Shores was installed, and then spent ages mooching around the place waiting for Sylens to call me. Loading saves, rebooting the console... nothing. 

The good news is that the fix is simple. Just get yourself to a campfire and go into the map view.

How to start the Burning Shores DLC

It's important to stress that you can't play Burning Shores until you've completed Horizon Forbidden West: it picks up where the main game ended, so if you haven't completed it the Burning Shores stuff is not available to you yet. But if you have completed the Singularity quest, the trick is simple: simply Fast Travel from a campfire wherever you are in the game world back to your base. When you do that, Sylens will call you immediately and tell you to meet him at Tilda's Mansion.

For me that was particularly annoying, because I'd fast travelled to my base after spending ages wandering around, you've guessed it, Tilda's Mansion.

The good news is that when you get the call everything works perfectly, taking you straight into the next stage of Aloy's adventure. And while it's a shame PS4 users aren't invited to this one, you can see why: the game looks absolutely stunning on my PlayStation 5. I'm only a few hours in and I'm absolutely loving it, and I'm sure you'll feel the same. 

Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series. When she’s not scribbling, she’s the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR (havrmusic.com).