Two horseshoes in a room in Factory
Horseshoes are objects that can be collected by walking through them. They are not items - collecting a horseshoe gives you experience points. Horseshoes were introduced in order to implement stealth gameplay - so you can still gain experience without killing enemies.
Horseshoes spawn in rooms on grind maps, on each screen there are 5 horseshoes placed in random places. All 5 give the same amount of xp, with the exception of last one, which gives 5 times the amount of the others.
Some trials contain horseshoes, with various xp values, and not always 5 per room.
Sneak bonus[]
If you collect all 5 without drawing attention to yourself, you get "sneak" bonus experience, equal to amount of xp for killing all the enemies on the screen. If you get sneak bonus, you won't get more experience by killing enemies in the room.
Obvious disadvantage of not engaging enemies is that you don't get the loot that they drop, so you miss out on guns, ammo, weapon parts, and other goods. On the other hand, you don't have to use any resources when you sneak by all enemies.
Xp values by map[]
Horseshoes spawn on multiple maps. Each one has different xp rewards.
| Map | First 4 [xp] | Last one [xp] |
|---|---|---|
| Factory | 100 | 500 |
| Sewers | 200 | 1000 |
| Abandoned stable | 200 | 1000 |
| Manehattan ruins | 300 | 1500 |
| Canterlot ruins | 400 | 2000 |
| Military base | 500 | 2500 |
| Bunker | 500 | 2500 |
| Enclave base | 500 | 2500 |
Note: while Military base and Bunker are not grind maps per se, horseshoes still spawn on them (even in the boss room).
Horseshoes found in trials have the same xp values as horseshoes found in the map they are from. For example horseshoes in Excavation will be worth 200xp because the trial spawns on Abandoned stable maps.