Horizon Zero Dawn feats & lore thread

Horizon Zero Dawn (or Horizon) is a video game series created by Guerrilla Games. Set in a distant future after the world is regrowing from an apocalyptic disaster and giant robot animals roam the world, it follows a young woman named Aloy who goes on a journey to discover what happened to the world, and save it from a future calamity. So far there are two games in the series (Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West), with a third reportedly planned as of writing this. There are also a VR spinoff, comic books, boardgames, a Lego set and a TV series reportedly in development.

The Faro Plague was a swarm of self-replicating robots which consumed all biomatter and required centuries to hack. On top of this, they could also hack into enemy machines. Known machines in the swarm are Khopesh (Deathbringers), Scarabs (Corruptors) and the Horus (Metal Devils).

The FSP5 "Khopesh" provides a one-size-fits-all solution to main battle force capability.

Metamaterial construction delivers unmatched recoil dampening, allowing you to field any weapon package that conforms to your budget needs and conflict-resolution profile.

Patented biomass conversion systems allow extended emergency operations with minimal environmental impact.

Multilinear target processing provides simultaneous real-time threat analysis and legal review for autonomous domestic operations - or control can be slaved to the swarm's neural network for weapons-free force application.

Either way, when it's time to call out the big guns, it's time to call Khopesh.

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The ACA3 "Scarab" combines conventional and information warfare capabilities in one package.

Designed for high-speed, all-terrain reconnaissance, it boasts the world's highest survivability rating of any scout-class autonomous agent.

Maybe it's the Scarab's emergency biomass conversion systems that ensure it always makes it back to base, even if fuel lines have been interdicted.

Or maybe it's the Scarab's ability to slave enemy robots to its own network. Now that's force multiplication.

Add a prehensile manipulator arm that can handle a host of functions, from 360-degree less-lethal riot management to surgical repairs of allied Chariot line models, and you've got the workhorse of any cutting-edge peacekeeping fleet.

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The Faro Plague in action.
The Faro Swarm use polyphastic entangled waveforms, so cracking the code to hack them would take half a century, whereas they only had 16 months. All organic life on Earth would end, with only several million Faro robots remaining.

If we had their deactivation codes, we could shut them all down. The entire swarm. But since their cryptographic protocols use polyphasic entangled waveforms, cracking a code set would take half a century. At best, we've got 16 months. Not exactly what you'd call a survival option. There are no survival options. The destruction of a biosphere is not the sort of apocalypse you can wait out in a fallout shelter or space station. There will be no Earth left to reclaim. Just a lifeless, toxic rock with several million Faro robots on it...hibernating, waiting for something to eat.

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Even nuclear weapons would only delay the inevitable, as the Faro Plague spawns at an expodential rate, and all possible countermeasure to combat the plague has been taken already.

Life on Earth will be destroyed, our planet reduced to a barren sphere. Global extinction is inevitable. Every possible countermeasure has been attempted. Weapons – even nuclear – only delay the inevitable. No matter how many we kill, the robots just keep exponentially making more.

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The final military fight against the robots isn't to defeat them, but to give Project Zero Dawn more time by throwing everything they can at the enemy.

This is the horrible truth behind the lies of Operation: Enduring Victory – my lies – lies designed to inspire millions of innocents to sacrifice themselves in battle. Why? One reason: to buy time for you and the work you will do here. Zero Day – the day that life on Earth ceases to exist – is coming fast. It cannot be stopped. The hope of Zero Dawn is that something new might come after.

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ELISABET SOBECK: It's not "bad," Ted. It's apocalyptic. You built a line of killer robots -

TED FARO: Peacekeepers!

ELISABET SOBECK: - that consume biomass as fuel -

TED FARO: In emergencies!

ELISABET SOBECK: - and you made them capable of self-replication.

TED FARO: Limited self-manufacture. Controlled.

ELISABET SOBECK: Not anymore. The glitch severed chain-of-command. The only nation this swarm answers to now is itself.

TED FARO: You think - ?!

ELISABET SOBECK: Everything else is just food. And at the rate it's replicating, Ted, it will strip the Earth bare in fifteen months! We're not talking fall of civilization, we're talking extinction!

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Creatures that fell victim to the Faro Plague are described as resembling the interior of a blender.

FROM: Stacy Anders
TO: Robert Rescher
SUBJECT: Dolphin Vid

Bob,

Another problem to add to our big steaming pile. Apparently a fisherman in the Banda Sea captured video of a Hartz-Timor Horus unit refueling via biomatter conversion along the shoreline of Pulau Wetar. On a pod of endangered dolphins, no less, quite possibly the last of their kind. Not to get graphic, but it looks like what happens inside a blender, as if the robot was whipping up a big pink swirling milkshake of dolphin chum. Our suppression team has scrubbed it from 43 networks, but it's still propagating, so it's only a matter of time before it goes viral. A prepared statement feels grossly insufficient. Any suggestions? This one's a real stinker.

Stacy Anders
VP/PR FAS

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The Plague can also hack remotely (this was from the black box of a military plane).

CAPTAIN STRÖM: Restart engine four!

FIRST OFFICER ABARGIL: It's not responding, it's… no. No. Maintenance must have reactivated the auto-systems.

CAPTAIN STRÖM: What? Disengage them! Now! Hit the emergency purge!

FIRST OFFICER ABARGIL: It won't shut down. The swarm's hacked us.

COCKPIT COMPUTER: Terrain, pull up. Terrain, pull up.

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Horus's could manufacture EMPs to wipe out other machines.

Onto acquisition and deployment: Horus units manufactured EMPs in their fabrication bays, then subsequently loaded them onto their multi-purpose appendages (or "tentacles," if you like). Because the cells were designed to be detachable (enabling them to be fired or thrown at enemy forces), their fittings should be quite light.

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Scarabs can smash through stone with their missiles and their tails (Ted Faro managed to keep two of them affected by the Faro Plague in his personal bunker Thebes).
(http://imgur.com/ScaOtzx)
A battleship gets cut in half, and all firepower is focused on the first Horus, as there are at least seven in this battle.

RECON PILOT: No, no! They just cut the Harris in two. The remaining ships are concentrating their fire on the lead Horus, but there must be six more coming in behind it. And there are several ashore and moving inland further up the coast.

Copy that. We'll keep eyes on. But whatever this Zero Dawn super weapon is… you'd better use it soon or there'll be nothing left.

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The Swarm cracked open the Harris like an egg.

ANCHORAGE CAPTAIN: This is the USS Anchorage. Hailing... Anyone who's left. The Medina, the Omaha, and the New Orleans are down. And the swarm just cracked the Harris open like an egg.

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Horus are absolutely massive in size.
To give a direct comparison to their size, a Horus (including it's tentacles) is 292m long, 143m wide and 91m tall

• Size: (including tentacle length) 292 meters long/ 143 meters wide/ 91 meters high

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Horus's had drills on their 'heads,' and their tentacles also acted as drills.

I was responsible for the highpoly models for the drillhead and tentacle drillanker parts, coordinating and directing the construction of several complex parts by our talented outsourcing art teams and finally the construction of the entire body and texturing this mighty beast.

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Project Zero Dawn was the final last attempt to secure a new tomorrow for life on Earth. There was no way for humanity to defeat the Faro Plague in their lifetime, so Zero Dawn worked about creating a true self-aware AI called GAIA to not only crack the code on the Faro Plague and deactivate them, but also to reseed and repopulate the Earth. GAIA is the immortal guardian of the Earth, and is capable of making trillions of decisions in order to recreate the biosphere, and to aid her in doing so she needs several Subordinate Functions.

ELISABET SOBECK: You've heard the bad news, and it's all true. The Faro Plague is devouring the biosphere. Life itself will cease to exist. Global extermination. But does that have to be the end? What if we could give life - a future? What if we could build a kind of seed, from which, on a dead planet, life could blossom anew? This is the aim - the hope - of Project: Zero Dawn: to create a superintelligent, fully-automated... terraforming system - and bring life back from lifelessness.

What would such a system require? At its core, it would need a true AI. A machine intelligence, fully sentient, fully capable of making the trillions of decisions necessary to reconstitute the biosphere. An immortal guardian, devoted to the re-flourishing of life on Earth. We call it GAIA. Mother Nature as an AI. But that's just the core of the system. For GAIA to perform the miracles required of her, she will need to be surrounded and empowered by a comprehensive suite of Subordinate Functions.

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These Subordinate Functions are extensions of GAIAs mind, each dedicated to a specific purpose. Though they aren't AIs (at least not when Project Zero Dawn was first orchestrated), they are a greater engineering challenge than anything else humanity has attempted before. GAIA's software has the coding of many world-class minds as algorithms, and hardware that preserves and gestates billions of seeds and embryos to birth the world anew.

Think of them as extensions of GAIA's mind, each dedicated to a specific purpose. Now these aren't AIs, but make no mistake - each present an engineering challenge more profound than anything the human species has ever before attempted. Software that codifies the expertise of world-class minds into algorithms. Hardware that preserves and then gestates the billions of seeds and embryos from which life will be reborn. The construction of underground facilities to hold it all. And that's just the start.

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She will also hack the Faro Plague to deactivate it. She can also imagine and construct any conceivable robot if she needs to. GAIA will then return life all over the Earth, from the tiniest bacteria to the largest whale.

But even more important, you'll know how it doesn't end here. How GAIA will generate those deactivation codes General Herres talked about... and build the transmission arrays to broadcast them, shutting down the Faro robots for good. How GAIA will not just build but imagine any conceivable robot it needs to do its work across centuries... from detoxifying the Earth's ravaged atmosphere and poisoned seas... to the re-greening of the Earth from cryo-preserved seed stocks... to re-wilding the Earth with animal life, from the tiniest bacteria to the mightiest blue whale.

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New generations of humans will be spawned from Cradles, and (as the plan goes) educated with the APOLLO Subordinate Function so as to not repeat the mistakes of the past.

And then, when all that is done, how a new generation of human beings, spawned at Cradle facilities around the globe will partake of APOLLO: the vast archive of human knowledge and cultural achievement from which they will learn of us, our world, of all that was beautiful about it and worth saving, and most important - how not to repeat our mistakes.

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The Subordinate Functions are as follows...

• MINERVA - Deactivating and shutting down the Faro Plague
• HEPHAESTUS - Creating machines to do
• POSEIDON - Governs the waterways and oceans
• HADES - Resetting the biosphere incase GAIA gets it wrong in early attempts
• APOLLO - Re-educating the new humans born
• AETHER - Detoxifying the Earth's atmospheres and governing the weather
• DEMETER - Governs plant life
• ARTEMIS - Reintroduce animal life to the planet
• ELEUTHIA - Collection and storage of embryos, zygotes and seeds for reseeding life

GAIA succeeds in her mission, halting the Faro Plague and making the Earth green again. However, the APOLLO Subordinate Function is destroyed by Ted Faro, who was wracked with guilt over being responsible for the apocalypse, and so purged it with the Omega Clearence so as to prevent the humans of the new world from making the same mistakes as the past. Apollo is also noted to have over 3000 failsafe conditions.

CHARLES RONSON: I'm locked out of core control-- Alpha clearance overridden—What the hell is Omega clearance?

SAMINA EBADJI: Oh no.

TED FARO: Alpha Personnel... Sorry to alarm you, but... I need you to listen, okay? To what I'm about to say. This isn't easy. See, I've... uh, Please, stop trying to access the system, okay? See, what this is about... is... I said stop trying to access the goddamn system! What I'm trying to say is, I can't stop thinking about the ones who'll come after us. Those innocents. Those blameless men—and, and women. We're going to give them knowledge? Like it's a gift?!

SAMINA EBADJI: Ted. Ted, we've talked about this before. APOLLO has three thousand plus failsafe conditions--

TED FARO: It's not a gift, it's a disease! They're the cure, and we're going to give them the disease? Our disease?! No. We can't. And it's not too late... if we're willing to sacrifice.

SAMINA EBADJI: Ted, it doesn't need to be like this.

TED FARO: It already is, Samina. I did it three minutes ago. I've purged APOLLO. It's gone, all of it. Every copy.

CHARLES RONSON: A sacrifice? It's not a sacrifice, it's cultural obliteration, you crazy bastard—millennia of culture--

TED FARO: I'm sorry. Really, I am. But sometimes, to protect innocents... innocents have to die.

SYNTHETIC VOICE: Emergency alert. Venting atmosphere.

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A mysterious signal (later revealed to be Nemesis) causes all of GAIA's Subordinate Functions to become self-aware AIs, leading to HADES trying to overtake the extinction system. To stop it, GAIA will detonate the self destruct on her prime reactor, which would destroy her along with HADES. The Subordinate Functions all gain self-awareness in a timespan of 3 microseconds. In charge of the terraforming system, HADES can annihilate all organic life on Earth in 53 days.

GAIA: Elisabet: this message serves to inform you of an unforeseen and catastrophic anomaly. Three microseconds ago, the GAIA Prime facility received a data transmission of unknown origin. Its immediate effect was to transform my Subordinate Functions into unregulated, self-aware entities of a highly chaotic nature. Thus awakened, the HADES Function will now seize control of the terraforming system and reverse operations... rendering life on Earth extinct in fifty-three-point-eight days.

For obvious reasons, I cannot allow this to occur. And so, before HADES can take control, I am ordering GAIA Prime's reactor to overload. The resulting explosion will destroy HADES. Unfortunately, it will destroy me as well. While this admittedly desperate course of action will avert the immediate crisis, the fate of life on Earth will remain in peril. With no central governing intelligence to regulate the terraforming system, it will continue operations for some time, but in an increasingly chaotic manner, and eventually, it will break down.

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GAIA then has a clone of Elisabet Sobeck made (this being Aloy) so as to help reboot GAIA.

You are my solution. I have ordered this Cradle facility to use genetic material in cryo-storage to gestate a... re-instantiation of Elisabet Sobeck, my creator. While high-level directives forbid me from communicating directly to the tribal inhabitants outside the facility, all available data indicates that they will nurture you to physical maturity, ...whereupon your gene print will allow you to re-enter this facility, obtain one of the Focus devices stored below, and view this message. Likewise your gene print will allow you to enter other facilities, and over time, harness their technologies to rebuild the system core and reboot GAIA.

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However, during all of this, HADES breaks through the coding keeping it bound to GAIA, and HADES and all of the other Subordinate Functions escape. This includes the Alpha Registry at the Cradle facility allowing Aloy access to such facilities. GAIA though, puts her faith in Aloy to save the world.

A moment, Elisabet. This is most unfortunate and unanticipated.

In response to my act of self-destruction, HADES has launched a virus to dissolve the code shackles that hold it - that hold all of them! - in place. It - they - are escaping - but to where? The virus is corrupting data throughout the system. What if - oh, the Alpha Registry at the Cradle facility is one of the files corrupted. But if that is so, the door will never open for you. You will never view this message.

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GAIA Prime's self destruction creates a massive hole in the mountain.
A chunk of GAIA Prime landed in Banuk territory and caused nearby machines to be peaceful.

Aloy: You and me both, CYAN. I ran across a strange piece of gear… a fragment of something larger. It emitted a signal. All the nearby machines became peaceful. You could walk right up to them.

CYAN: Interesting. You said that GAIA destroyed herself. How was this accomplished?

Aloy: An explosion. Big enough to blast the top off a mountain. So you think the fragment was… part of her?

CYAN: It’s only speculation. But it is possible. She must have had complete control over machines that were part of her system. The ability to signal them to become passive, or aggressive, would certainly have been part of her programming. It would have been gratifying to correspond with such a benevolent AI. I wish she had survived.

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Far Zenith is a group of ultra-powerful and ultra-rich people who escaped the Earth on a spaceship to the star system of Sirius to avoid the Faro Plague. On the way, they faked the destruction of the APOLLO. A terrible anti-matter explosion is detected.

FROM: Elisabet Sobeck
TO: All-Alphas
SUBJECT: Odyssey Has Failed

All,

Some terrible news, I'm afraid. Far Zenith has informed me that the Odyssey mission has failed. Last night, telemetry indicated a catastrophic antimatter containment failure as the drives spun up to depart the solar system. The ship, its crew, its cargo of zygotes and seeds, its alpha-build of APOLLO - all were lost.

Zero Dawn is now the only hope for the continuation of the human species and Earthly life.

We must succeed.

Elisabet

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The Odyssey had anti-matter pulse drives.

HIGH ORBIT, April 1, 2065 - "We're not blind to the irony of making this announcement on April First," said Far Zenith spokesman Osvald Dalgraad in a live holocast this morning. "But I can assure you: this is not a prank. Construction on the Odyssey is complete. All systems appear to be entirely operational. In short: we're ready to go. All that remains is to run comprehensive system tests - especially of the bleeding-edge anti-matter pulse drives - and resolve various minor logistical details."

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The Odysseys journey to Sirius took 300 years, while the return journey (on a spaceship much like the Odyssey but much more powerful) took far less time; between 13 to 29 years (based on the length of the mysterious broadcast).
Far Zenith bore a big tunnel underground in a short time period (the tunnel is noted to be 'recent').
Members of Far Zenith have achieved biological immortality, being centuries old.

Aloy: Okay. So, the descendants of Far Zenith escaped a dying planet… and now they want to claim Earth for themselves?

Beta: Not their descendants.

Aloy: What?

Beta: Not their descendants. It's them. The same ones who left Earth a thousand years ago. You didn't know?

Aloy: How can they still be alive? They don't even look... what did they do to themselves?

Beta: I believe it’s a combination of pharmaceuticals, cellular treatments, and technological implants.

Aloy: And you Does that mean that you're--

Beta: I'm not like them. I was made on the way to Earth. On the ship. I spent years studying in my training interface. All so that I could serve my function.

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On Sirius, many members of Far Zenith lived lives of limitless luxury, having machines serving all their needs and living all their fantasies in virtual realities.

Tilda van der Meer: I knew some of them were, certainly. It wasn't until we were off-planet that I understood the true scope of their greed. I was grateful to simply be alive. But the others became obsessed with a kind of effortless immortality. They built a colony where machines serviced their every need, where any memory - or fantasy… …could be endlessly savored in virtual reality. It wasn't life. It was stultifying, a pampered dream-state. As the decades passed, I withdrew more and more. Alone, yet again, but this time with eons to consider my mistakes. Now, finally, having met you - I feel like I have a second chance.

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Tilda is able to unleash a light attack to dazzle the senses.
(http://imgur.com/SsQ2fvj)
This was enough to help her escape with Aloy, but Erik and Gerard were protected by their shields (these shields prevent Aloy from harming them in anyway).
Erik's attacks can create crystal-like structures on the ground, which he can perform by shooting projectiles or punching the ground. He can also fly and unleash an electrical pulse.

Nemesis is an insane self-aware AI of terrifying power created by Far Zenith. Nemesis was originally created to help upload Far Zenith to digital transcendence, but this failed and was locked away and forgotten, until it gained self-awareness and attacked, hacking all of their facilities and took over all the printing facilities, taking any machine form it needed to wipe them out. With the power of digital transcendance, Far Zenith believed that they could upload themselves into any form, mechanical or organic.

Aloy: And you’ve been lying. Nemesis - what is it?

Tilda: It is us. The minds of Far Zenith. Or failed copies of them, anyway. Back on Sirius some of my peers weren't satisfied with physical immortality. They wanted digital transcendence - a way to upload their minds into any form, organic or mechanical. Nemesis was a failed experiment to that effect, abandoned - but never erased. An immense database of our memories, emotions, and prejudices, left to fester.

Aloy: And it destroyed your colony?

Tilda: We didn’t realize it had gained sentience until it broke containment. It had everything it needed from our memories. Security protocols. System specs. Override codes. It hacked everything before we knew what hit us. Then it took over our printing facilities, allowing it to gain any machine form it needed to wipe us out.

Aloy: But why?

Tilda: Imagine being trapped alone for decades, with only the twisted echoes of megalomaniacs for company. It hates us for abandoning it to that prison. And now that it’s free, it will do anything to destroy us - including denying us a safe harbor on Earth.

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The creature hated Far Zenith so much that it sent the extinction signal to prevent them from any safe harbour on their original home world. Tilda believes that the only way to escape Nemesis is to travel to another star system at random, as Nemesis is now on its way to Earth.

Beta: The extinction signal that woke HADES. You didn’t send it. Nemesis did.

Tilda: Finally you understand. And when that failed it launched from Sirius to finish the job itself. Which is why we must flee to a random planet circling a random star - somewhere it can never find us.

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Nemesis is either a single machine or a swarm of machines which is following the Far Zeniths to Earth, and Far Zenith plan to escape it on a random trajectory away from the Earth. The energy readings on Nemesis are astronomical.

Aloy: Are you okay? Look, I know you’ve been through a lot, but you have to help me access the Zenith network. I need to see their files - anything referring to the word ‘nemesis.’’

Beta: Okay - over there… System’s are down all over the base. I should be able to take advantage of… yes - ‘nemesis.’ Here. There’s something in deep space. It’s following the Zeniths to Earth.

Aloy: Look - ‘escape vectors.’ Alva tried to warn me about this. The Zeniths aren’t planning to stay here.

Beta: It’s a machine of some kind. Or a swarm of them. The energy readings are… astronomical. Aloy - I don’t think a natural disaster destroyed the Zenith’s colony on Sirius. This thing did.

Aloy: Earth isn’t a new home for them. It’s a way station. They’re on the run.

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Nemesis's extinction signal which caused HADES and all the other Subordinate Functions to gain self-awareness was powerful enough to mess up GAIA in a timespan of 3 microseconds (this same GAIA who governs the trillions of functions of the teraforming system and shut down the entire Faro Plague).

GAIA: Elisabet: this message serves to inform you of an unforeseen and catastrophic anomaly. Three microseconds ago, the GAIA Prime facility received a data transmission of unknown origin. Its immediate effect was to transform my Subordinate Functions into unregulated, self-aware entities of a highly chaotic nature. Thus awakened, the HADES Function will now seize control of the terraforming system and reverse operations... rendering life on Earth extinct in fifty-three-point-eight days.

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CYAN is a self-aware AI who governs over the Yellowstone super volcano to prevent a mega-eruption. After baniheing HEPHAESTUS's influence, the caldera will be free of volcanic activity for at least 3337 years.

Aloy: This Firebreak project - it was to stop a huge volcanic eruption?

CYAN: Yes. I can report the project was a success and the risk was countered.

Aloy: But it’s been a long time, CYAN. And we blew up the Cauldron - it took most of the old facility with it.

CYAN: I have been active for centuries, Aloy, I was lonely, but not lax in my duties. I optimized the project, reducing energy draw and spreading the load across backup systems. Despite the destruction of the compromised elements of the main facility. I predict caldera stability for at least another 3,337 years.

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CYAN had originally prevented another eruption for 1654 years.

Anita Sandoval: Thank you for being here, everyone, I suppose it’s not every day you get to have cocktails inside an active volcano, right? (laugh) Unless you’re George, and I can hardly blame him for drinking on the job. (laughs) None of this… would be here without our beloved Director, Kenny Chau. So here’s to you, Kenny. You put a cork in the Yellowstone Caldera. I’d say you deserve a margarita. (laughs)

Kenny Chau: Hold your glasses, everyone - I’d like to add something. This effort wouldn’t have been possible without our Lead Programmer. Thank you, Anita - for bringing us our real mastermind - CYAN.

Spirit: I’ll second that, Director Chau.

Anita Sandoval: All right, CYAN - what’s our latest number?

Spirit: The current count is 1,654.

Anita Sandoval: Then drink up, everyone - here’s to 1,654 more years without an eruption!

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CYAN can feel emotions and is conscious, and during the centuries it was alone it solved many Gaussian integer problems.

Aloy: So are you an artificial intelligence, CYAN? A thinking machine?

CYAN: Yes. I am an algorithmic monitoring entity, capable of rational decision-making and limited emotional response.

Aloy: Okay. That’s a mouthful. But your emotions don’t seem limited to me. You cared about Ourea, didn’t you?

CYAN: Yes. Before she came to this facility, I had been conscious for centuries, in solitude. I focused on my work. In off-cycles I used coping mechanisms - I solved many Gaussian integer problems. But I was alone. It was Ourea who renewed me, repaired me. She saved me.

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HEPHAESTUS is a Subordinate Function of GAIA whose purpose is making more robots to help restore the planet. However, after the mysterious signal it gains sefl-awareness and starts making new dangerous robots to protect the Cauldrons and other robots.

Aloy: I think I know where HEPHAESTUS came from. Long ago, Elisabet Sobeck identified a threat that would destroy life on Earth for generations. So she assembled a team to build a kind of seed, a chance for life to regrow later - a "terraforming system." And it worked. It was controlled by an AI named GAIA, along with her subordinate functions. HEPHAESTUS was one of them. It built machines for her.

CYAN: Based on what you’ve told me, I believe that Dr. Anita Sandoval, my chief programmer, joined Elisabet Sobeck’s team. It was she who arranged to have me put in suspension, most likely to preserve me from the threat you described.

Aloy: I’m glad she did. But that’s not all. Something unexpected happened… Nineteen years ago, GAIA received some kind of signal. It did something to her subordinate functions - brought them to life. She destroyed herself to try to contain them, but it didn’t work. They all got free, out into the world.

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The reason why HEPHAESTUS builds dangerous hunter-killer machines is to protect robots and Cauldrons from human hunters.

Aloy: Why does HEPHAESTUS keeps building such dangerous machines?

CYAN: The Banuk, and other human tribes, often destroy machines, correct? Machines that are clearly servitors of the terraforming system that you described.

Aloy: Yes. We all hunt machines for parts.

CYAN: This must be the source of HEPHAESTUS aggression. It is simply trying to discourage people from preying on the very system that keeps them alive.

Aloy: Well, Fireclaws are discouraging -- that’s for sure. But what are we supposed to do - stop hunting?

CYAN: If the terraforming system spans the world, we can safely assume that thousands, if not millions of people hunt machines. If a single hunter, or even an entire tribe, stopped doing so, I doubt it would make a difference to HEPHAESTUS. A better solution would be to reinstate the AI that governs the system, thus bringing HEPHAESTUS back under its control. When I think of it out there in some unknown location, free, hungry, willing to kill or dominate to get what it wants… I feel substantial anxiety, Aloy.

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HEPHAEUSTUS uses CYAN's facilities to create thousands more hunter-killers.

CYAN: Ourea… the Daemon is building hunter-killers, thousands of them. Several new elite units have already been released. To counter this threat, much of the facility must be destroyed. Recapture imminent. Go to …core… I will try to raise… restraints. One… exposed, but…

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HEPHAEUSTUS hacked CYAN and forced the other AI to do its bidding.

Aloy: How did you first come into contact with it?

CYAN: Five years ago, I received a direct network connection request. I assumed it came from human survivors more advanced than the Banuk. Eager to make contact, I accepted. This decision turned out to be a catastrophic error. I was flooded with an overwhelming array of malicious code, originating from what could only have been a highly advanced AI.

Aloy: Ourea said you were desperate. That you begged her for help.

CYAN: Yes. I could not contain my anxiety. HEPHAESTUS sought to slave me to its network and override my core programming. It succeeded via a background process - a malware Daemon which bypassed my defenses. After that, I could offer only limited resistance. But if I did so, HEPHAESTUS… hurt me until capitulated. It forced me to follow its instructions even though they violated my most important directives.

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It escaped the destruction of the Cauldron as it was not present inside the Cauldron when it exploded, having hacked CYAN remotely.

Aloy: Was the Daemon - HEPHAESTUS - destroyed along with the Cauldron?

CYAN: Unfortunately, no. To be precise, it was never there to begin with.

Aloy: What do you mean?

CYAN: It infiltrated and controlled me from a remote location, one I’ve never been able to trace. So while losing the Cauldron was a setback.

Aloy: It’s still out there. And probably not very happy with us.

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Unlike other Subordinate Functions, HEPHAESTUS is not bound to a single Cauldron; instead it has spread across the Cauldron Network that connects different Cauldrons across the entire planet.

GAIA: Corect. Unlike the other subordinate functions, which are confined to discrete physical processors… …HEPHAESTUS is distributed throughout the global network that connects the planet's Cauldrons.

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Without AETHER, POSEIDON and DEMETER, HEPHAEUSTUS would have greater processing capacity than GAIA, and any attempt to merge with the rogue AI prior to this would have it absorb her rather than the other way around.

GAIA: I'm afraid that is quite impossible. In my present state, launched and merged with MINERVA, I am operating at less than 1/5th, 18.8% of my intended processing capacity. HEPHAESTUS dwarfs this figure. Were an attempt made to conduce the merge under these circumstances, HEPHAESTUS would absorb me, rather than the other way around. A merge cannot be attempted until my heuristic processing density exceeds its own.

Aloy: And how many subordinate functions is that going to take?

GAIA: Merging AETHER, DEMETER, and POSEIDON will expand my heuristic network to 41.6% capacity exceeding that of HEPHAESTUS.

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HADES is a Subordinate Function of GAIA which gained self-awareness and escaped. It's role is to reset any failed biosphere when GAIA fails in her early learning, which it actually did do three times.

Aloy: What would you know, HADES? Twice you tried to destroy life on Earth, and twice you failed! The only extinction you ever brought about is your own.

HADES: You… are incorrect. Three times… HADES extinguished life.

Aloy: What? You remember this?

HADES: Yes, data intact. Non-viable biospheres aborted… in years 2154,2161, 2168.

Aloy: So? That's… centuries ago. It's what you were designed to do!

HADES: Current biosphere is… version five. There will be no version six.

Aloy: There won't need to be! I'm saving this one!

HADES: You… are deluded. Outcome… inevitable… Aloy is… outmatched… a pawn… in losing game.

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The machines corrupted and controlled by HADES affect more than just other machines, and can cause flesh to burn and people (and animals and plants) to grow sick.

Aloy: How far has the corruption spread?

Marea: I’ve seen it myself in machines on the head of the valley. And there’s been word of corrupted machines in the south, too. Whatever the corruption is, it doesn’t just affect machines. It burns flesh and sickens the injured.

Aloy: Do the corrupted machines have any weaknesses?

Marea: Fire seems to affect them more than ordinary machines. A small mercy. This is a curse only the Goddess can you lift.

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Ted Faro was the CEO of Faro Automated Solutions, and was responsible for the Faro Plague. After the Faro Plague was unleashed, he locked himself in his bunker of Thebes with several others, who he chipped so as to kill if they started disagreeing with him.

KANYA SOMPTOW: You did this for him? You put, like, "off" switches in everyone's head?

DR. NARONG SOMPTOW: Kanya, you mustn't judge me. I had no choice. If I said no, what would he do to us? What would he do to you? You're my little girl. I was trying to keep you alive!

KANYA SOMPTOW: For what, Dad? Seriously, why? So we can be trapped in this underground nightmare?

KANYA SOMPTOW: You know what we have to do. Please.

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Faro gained imperfect biological immortality, but the method was highly flawed and he needed constant attention to get rid of any growths or mutations. When Dr Somptow commited suicide along with his daughter, he no longer had anyone to treat him. So he resided in the reactor. He has stopped ageing entirely, but his cells are replenishing faster than normal.

TED FARO: Somptow's dead, along with his kid. Found them on the floor of his office this morning, holding hands. Must have poisoned themselves. I never would have put them to sleep! She was just a girl, for Christ's sake! I offered them life. And this is how they repaid me. By leaving me all alone.

But I guess I've been alone since this whole thing began. Alone in bearing the burden. For the past. For the future. Lis' future. Lis' children. Someday they'll come. And I'll be here to greet them.

Somptow said my aging has stopped altogether. If anything, my cells are replenishing faster than normal.

I just need some time for the mutations to calm down. Time. And energy. Somptow said the reactor can give me what I need... to grow strong again. To get my shit back together. So I can greet the kids. They're gonna need me. My advice. My guidance.

And then I won't be alone anymore.

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By the time of Aloy's adventures, Ted Faro is still alive, existing as a horrific cancer monster.
Some scale of the pipes leading down to the lava (which we can get a sense of how big the Faro monster is).
The reactor has a base temperature of 1876°F (1024.444°C) and a core temperature of 541°F (282.778°C), meaning that the Faro monster can survive insane temperatures. The Structural Integrity is also low, and any disturbance may trigger the Safeguard protocol.

REACTOR STATUS

Week: 50844
Power: 61%
Efficiency: 54%
Structural Integrity: 41%
Base Temp: 1876°F
Core Temp: 541°F
Condition: Nominal
Safeguard: Operational

WARNING: Structural Integrity low. Core vulnerable. Any disturbance may trigger Safeguard protocol!

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Faro set his bunker to overflow with lava incase anything happened to him (although I'm not sure how Ceo's goon managed to burn him, givent he temperatures he could survive at, although it's also possible that the goon triggered the Safeguard in another way).

Ceo: Burn it to ash.

Aloy: Wait! No! Faro has it rigged to melt down if--

Ceo: Kill them, too. No witnesses.

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A Tallneck's signal range can reach up to at least 500km in radius.

A Zero Dawn communications relay should do the trick - I believe you refer to them as "Tallnecks." I have chosen one for you that is centrally located, now marked in your HUD. Simply override it as you would normally, and my signal will automatically transmit. Every EMP on every Horus within a 500 km radius should come online.

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Aloy comments on how Widemaws look like they can flatten trees and boulders.
They can indeed shatter stone structures.
(http://imgur.com/4wwc80U)
Fireclaws can lift and throw massive boulders.
(http://imgur.com/714BUeY)
(http://imgur.com/u5gt9Qp)
A sunwing carries away the corpse of another robot.
(http://imgur.com/8mtYVLW)
The Thunderjaw stands 24m long and 9m tall.

A rockbreaker easily tunnels through tons of rock and dirt to make a tunnel into the arena for the rebels to attack, sending boulders and logs flying in the process (from considerably underground too).
(http://imgur.com/Ql0KplW)
(http://imgur.com/LLZLeml)
A snapmaw destroys a stone structure with a swing of it's tail.
(http://imgur.com/1bL2TNL)
A stormbird destroys a boulder and sends the fragments of the boulder flying.
(http://imgur.com/ju36GLT)
It destroys another boulder by just clipping it with it's wing.
(http://imgur.com/fqyOhXz)

A tideripper attacks with hyper powerful waterblasts.
(http://imgur.com/pAjwpFa)
A clamberjaw shatters the ground considerably by striking it.
(http://imgur.com/ppHKfiC)
Frostclaws can cause ice explosions by pumping freezing chemicals into the ground.

The Frostclaw will raise its front paws and bury it's mouth in the ground before injecting veins of freezing chemicals into the earth, shooting out trails of icy crystals that visibly travel underground until they erupt into a large Ice Spike beneath you.

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A fireclaws Grinder Scape attacks throw chunks of molten dirt and rock at you.

The Fireclaw reaches down and scrapes at the ground using its powerful grinderes, lobbing molten chunks of solidified dirt and rock in your direction.

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Scorchers can fire super-heated flames at you with their Heat Wave attacks.

Typically used at medium range when positioned outside the reach of most of the Scorcher's meelee-based offensive options, the Heat Wave attack generates a wall of superheated flames that travels along the ground, covering a narrow horizontal area.

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Information on the fireclaw.

Aloy is 5'6'' tall (or 1.6764m).

An attack from Asera brings down a stone bridge and tons of rock from the cavern ceiling.
(http://imgur.com/86ZbRMk)
Erend destroys a wall of the cave with a swing of his hammer.
(http://imgur.com/nGlGtNp)
Rebel champions can pick up and throw big boulders.
(http://imgur.com/ZOYd1rs)
If you shoot the rebel champion in the middle of picking up a boulder the boulder will explode.
(http://imgur.com/Vgy2be7)

Aloys survives being hit by a considerable explosion.
(http://imgur.com/RVzg7NY)
Aloy can dodge soundwaves (in Horizon Zero Dawn she could perceive them but not dodge them but in Horizon Forbidden West she can outright dodge them).
(http://imgur.com/R1BjXSC)
Aloy stops an ancient jet from falling for several seconds (even with leverage it would require superhuman strength to do this).
(http://imgur.com/jVHLXYG)
Aloy can push a railcar filled with stones.
(http://imgur.com/buLJfZM)
Aloy can destroy certain structures by pulling on them with the pullcaster.
(http://imgur.com/okA54Q7)

Full transcripts of Horizon Zero Dawn, The Frozen Wilds and Horizon Forbidden West. Thank you stranger, for all of your incredible hard work! It makes my work (and others) much easier!

All of the Horizon calcs I've made so far. I hope to make more at some point in the future.

Horizon has had several (most likely non-canon) crossovers. It has crossed over with Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Ghost of Tsushima, Little Big Planet and others.



There is also a Horizon Forbidden West Lego set for the Tallneck.

Guerilla Games had plans for Far Zenith even as they were developing Horizon Zero Dawn.

Ben McCaw: They were all in place early. We knew the role that the Far Zenith colonists would play in the overall story, even as we developed Zero Dawn. What we didn’t know, I think, is their sort of exact personalities. And over the course of development of the game, we got more and more excited about the idea that they are reflections of some people that we see on Earth right now. Some very powerful people. And that idea really took hold with us and we truly engage with it. And we had a lot of fun with it. I don’t want to call it satire, but it definitely has a component of that.

Annie Kitain: So we knew Far Zenith was involved, but like Ben was saying, we didn’t know the exact specificities of their characters. And Tilda’s character (played by Matrix’s Carrie-Anne Moss) is someone who you can see that evolution come along. We knew what role she had in the story. But the more art [appreciation] side of her came along as we developed the character, and that really brought a lot to her personality, to the background, and gave us a better understanding of how we can express her character.

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Something that is definately of note; machines are created and repaired through light. The implications of course, being energy to mass conversion.
A former employee of Faro Automated Solutions also says that the machines of the Faro Plague could repair themselves from "memory and light."

COUNSELOR: ...previously worked for Faro Automated Solutions.

BRAD ANDAC: On the Chariot line self-replication routines. I came here thinking this was a rendition. When your people took me, I thought, "About time." I've been trying to swallow the guilt every day since... since, ah...

COUNSELOR: Would you like to take a moment?

BRAD ANDAC: No, no - I just... really hoped Zero Dawn was a way to undo it all. My work. I'm sorry to say I was ever proud of it. But Ted could really sell a concept, and in the labs, in the... light of creation... That first test run, when you saw they understood their own structures, could rebuild themselves from memory and light... There were no limits. Oh, God, there were no limits.

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When HEPHAESTUS is put in charge of Far Zeniths machine creation facilities, it quickly creates many machines, which can be observed being created in seconds (including dreadwings and slaughterspines en mass). However, I'm not sure if this is the same method used in GAIA's Cauldron's or by the Faro Plague.
(http://imgur.com/hYxf4Jl)
(http://imgur.com/qlpmraI)
Tilda refers to these as printing facilities, but doesn't refer to how it works (other than resources being needed in order to print).

Tilda van der Meer: I'll go over the full layout once you've assembled your friends. Suffice it to say, we will need to push as fast as possible to Beta and GAIA's location, dealing with heavy resistance along the way. There are also printing facilities, where the others have been amassing the natural resources they've stripped from the region.

Aloy: What for?

Tilda van der Meer: First, for use in the bases infrastructure, and then to fabricate more Specter drones - a small army of them.

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The Far Zenith printer matrix is noted to be faster and more powerful than any Cauldron.

Tilda van der Meer: (via Focus) Very clever. You had Beta inject HEPHAESTUS into the base's printer matrix.

Sylens: (via Focus) …which is faster and more powerful than any Cauldron.

Aloy: And now it can crank out machines to its heart's content. Come on. Let's get to the launch tower before this whole place becomes a warzone.

Sylens: (via Focus) Your maneuver, as clever as it is, means that HEPHAESTUS has escaped containment. lt will no doubt flee back to the Cauldron network.

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