Horizon Zero Dawn feats & lore thread

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An expansion to Horizon Forbidden West has been announced! Burning Shores, set in the volcanic archipelago that was once LA. We will also finally see a Horus in action.

 

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aloy became one of the best vgame chicks mc's out there

top 15 levels even

 

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In the upcoming Call of the Mountain (the VR game, which will follow a new hero called Ryas, a former Shadow Carja ooking to redeem himself), a Stormbird is shown to seemingly conjure a storm (which is actually implied to be among their powers in Forbidden West), and summons air to ground lightning.

 

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The stormbird boss fight outside Gaia Prime is always fought in a blizzard. I don't know if this storm was created by the stormbird or it just is there, but I feel this is worth mentioning in anycase.

 

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A large sandstorm appears when a stormbird attacks Aloy and Morlund. However, I cannot yet confirm if the two are connected or not (though it's another implication of stormbirds being about to outright control the weather).

 

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The armies of the Shadow Carja destroy a huge segment of the plateau near the Sundom to let their machine armies in.
Though we don't know how it was started (a machine, a bomb, several machines), we can see the explosion is set off on the top of the plateau.

 

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The technology to print fast food existed before the Faro Plague.

Tilda van der Meer: Most, but not all. There were a few with whom I got along. Anika Moorjani, for instance, was always delightful. She founded the holonet's most successful dance channel, and was herself mesmerizing to watch. And I had fascinating discussions with Song Jiao about her work in cellular biology. Our immortality treatments are due in part to her achievements. But then there were others, like Devin Miller, the CEO of a fast-food printing corporation. His only real preoccupations were perfecting his golf swing and taking self-holos. When I think about all of us we really should've accomplished more. We had eternity.

 

[Stocking Anarchy]

Ancient humanity had mines on the Moon.

Luna Here I Come

Luna Here I Come is a datapoint in Horizon Zero Dawn. It is the forty-ninth item in Text Datapoints - World. Personal Log User 56579637 Looks like I'm heading to the moon! Met with Jerry today, and he told me some of our Helium-3 mines are producing well below specs. Drone ops has eyes on the...

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Personal Log
User 56579637

Looks like I'm heading to the moon! Met with Jerry today, and he told me some of our Helium-3 mines are producing well below specs. Drone ops has eyes on the ground up there, but even they can't say what causing the problems, so the corp is going to send up a team to investigate first-hand. Low-G training starts Monday. Luna, here I come!

Rama5: 30 Years On

Rama5: 30 Years On is a datapoint in Horizon Forbidden West. It is the thirty-seventh item in Text Datapoints - World. NEW DELHI - June 28, 2055 - Thirty years after its commercial debut, we are so familiar with Rama5 it is perhaps easy to forget the impact this revolutionary biofuel had in its...

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She took flight to Xiaolu Lunar Inc, and her arrival there led to a Helium-3 boom that sowed the seeds for Rama5's decline. Since Xiaolu's first automated Helium-3 plant was established over Tycho Crater in 2041, biofuel has lost market share in industrial power generation with every passing year. "It may seem redundant," said Sun in 2042, "but the moon represents the future. Unless Symbio accepts that fact, their days are [DATA CORRUPTED]

Mourn mosquitoes?

Mourn mosquitoes? is a datapoint in Horizon Zero Dawn. It is the tenth item in Text Datapoints - World. Kassabian: Won't someone think of the mosquitoes? Ryan Kassabian only guy on the planet upset about mosquitoes being driven to extinction March 18, 2060 - Blood Moon star and human attention...

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Good thing we've got the guy from that lunar-mining-base-overrun-by-sexy-vampires holo to remind us of our crimes against mosquitoes.

Leaks spark fears

Leaks spark fears is a datapoint in Horizon Zero Dawn. It is the sixth item in Text Datapoints - World. Leaked Xiaolu internal correspondence spark fears of potential mass layoffs/deportations SHANGHAI - July 4, 2062 - The hacker collective Idiot Army has released nearly a terabyte of internal...

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SHANGHAI - July 4, 2062 - The hacker collective Idiot Army has released nearly a terabyte of internal correspondence from Xiaolu Lunar Resources, Inc., sparking rumors that the Shanghai-based lunar mining company is preparing to downsize considerably.

Xiaolu's sizable robotic war fleet and competitive salaries attracted attention from young English-speaking professionals in the mid-2050s, but the leaked files suggest that the company's increasing reliance on automation may have made much of their human workforce obsolete.

The correspondence repeatedly touches on the potential cost of relocating redundant personnel, suggesting that if mass layoffs do occur, former Xiaolu employees will lose the Chinese citizenship guaranteed by their employment.

 

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More evidence that nukes were used against the Faro Plague.

Biosphere Degradation

Biosphere Degradation is a datapoint in Horizon Zero Dawn. It is the fifteenth item in Text Datapoints - Quests. Report: Biosphere Degradation August 2065 - CONFIDENTIAL CHIEF FINDINGS • Despite increased tactical proficiency of elite and civilian guard units and many hard-won engagements in the...

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MILITARY RESPONSE ESCALATION
Addenda linked to this document cover the short-term effects of 'scorched earth' engagements in defense of the Western Seaboard and the ongoing effects of the Oceanic Economic Zone's use of nuclear weapons to delay the enemy's initial advance across the Pacific theater [DATA CORRUPTED]

Counselor Guidelines (1)

Counselor Guidelines (1) is a datapoint in Horizon Zero Dawn. It is the twentieth item in Text Datapoints - Quests. It is located at the (below ground) second floor, on the right hand side of the entrance to the ground. Opening a door (select triangle) is needed in order to enter this area. For...

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Familiarize yourself with data on the catastrophic environmental impact of nuclear engagements vs. the swarm [Addendum B1] and unfeasibility of maintaining life in orbital, lunar, or undersea structures [Addenda C1, C2, C3] so that you can counter candidates' objections in depth.

 

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The Faro Machines consume bio-matter using a nano-haze, a swarm of nanobots which strips organic matter down to return to the robot (although a Horus can also consume in the normal way).

Phantom Limbs

Phantom Limbs is a datapoint in Horizon Zero Dawn. It is the sixty-first item in Text Datapoints - World. Dictation on. My legs hurt. I keep reaching down to rub them but of course they're not there. I tell you, it's one thing to hear about ghost limbs, another to be haunted by them. Moment my...

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Dictation on. My legs hurt. I keep reaching down to rub them but of course they're not there. I tell you, it's one thing to hear about ghost limbs, another to be haunted by them. Moment my hand passes into empty space I'm back in Bridgewater and that nano-haze is stripping my legs layer by layer as the squad's medbot drags me out of the line of fire. And I start screaming like I was screaming there, in two places at once, two halves but one of them gone forever... dissolved.

 

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Some notes from the Horizon Zero Dawn official guide. The Nora Brave outfit can protect Aloy from even the mightiest of strikes from Rockbreakers and Thunderjaws.

Spoiler

Stormbirds can shoot sonic projectiles, which can be dodged.

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Rockbreakers eat rocks so as to process them into minerals.

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The stormbirds thunderclash attack involves slamming into the ground at tremendous speeds.

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Scrappers can attack with lasers.

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Thunderjaws can also attack with lasers.

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Stormbirds can collect and discharge the electricity in the air.

Horizon Zero Dawn - PS4 Games | PlayStation®

Explore the Action/Role Playing Game (RPG) Horizon Zero Dawn on PlayStation 4 (PS4). View game detail, images, videos & more. Buy now on the PlayStation Store.

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Soaring through the sky at high altitude, the fearsome Stormbird is a combat-class machine that can swoop down and attack its prey with tremendous force. It’s just as dangerous on land as it is in the air, with a variety of swift and powerful attacks that range from wing blasts to claw slashes. Its enormous metal wings are also capable of collecting and discharging the electricity in the air.

Behemoths have anti-gravity abilities, which they use for transporting cargo and in combat. Their drills allow them to pulverize rock.

The Behemoth is a huge, rugged transport-class machine that uses anti-gravity technology to transfer precious cargo from smaller acquisition-class machines into its stomach container. When provoked, it may charge at the enemy or use its anti-gravity unit to hurl heavy objects. It is also equipped with a set of grinding drills that allow it to pulverise and propel rock projectiles.

Spoiler

 

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Brin is a Banuk shaman who can seeminly see visions of the past and the future by drinking machine blood. These visions from each robot animal (Sawtooth, Corruptor, Stalker & Thunderjaw respectively) are apocryphal and hard to make out, though there are some notes of interest in there (such as Brin knowing the Corruptors aren't made by GAIA, and of "Corruptor after Corruptor" which may alude to the Faro Plague).

Acquired Taste

Acquired Taste is a side quest in Horizon Zero Dawn. Aloy stumbles upon a small wooden shack in the western region of the Sundom. Inside she finds an exiled Banuk shaman named Brin. Aloy notices that the shaman has been wounded, apparently by a Sawtooth. He explains that he was attempting to...

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Brin: “Before the time of the Sawtooth, the machines ran as one pack. Metal drumming on metal, keeping pace out to the lightning’s edge. The rumble of low storms, that’s them in motion. And then—a confusion. Something has changed. The great direction breaks, splits off like a dead branch! They’re tumbling now. When they recover, violence is what they know. Now metal screeches on metal. A death dance, learned from wars before our eyes learned to see. The Sawtooth, the Ravager, they hunt in the long shadows of others. Jagged shapes, old shapes, with bloody eyes. And the machines no longer rise and swell as one thing, an all-thing."

Brin: “These Corruptors never belonged to the herds. They crawled. From beneath desert or rust, from the bones of old machines. Sickness to spread. That’s how they came. Cold metal runs hot, buckles with thorn-cuts and tail-stings. A fever of obedience. My ears are ringing. I grasp at my tongue—an ingot falls out, stamped with circles and lines! Directions. Instructions. To break a machine’s will—I heard the metal screaming, huntress! I leave the ingot where it falls. This isn’t for us to know. Corruptor after Corruptor tramples it in their greedy tread.

Brin: “A Stalker, watching us. Watch by us! In red eyes I thought to see ourselves reflected! No—they were dull, and set. Set with a purpose precise from their machine-mother foundries. They prey. They will not flinch. They are indifferent to the wild, they are… final. They are weapons, that’s all. My heart drops. Why look for understanding in the ax the moment before it splits your skull? No. No, there is more. The ax does not remember its smelting. These machines do, and pine for the Metal World."

Brin: “I followed red trails through a green world. Thunderjaw, striding, with the majesty of an old god. These wicked parts, fashioned to kill men—this great whole, made to haunt the sleep of children. And I realize: it is a young beast. It was not there to see the first strange birds roost upon a metal skull! It came because of us. Hunters. I saw many, of tribes gone and yet to come. I even saw you there, fiery-haired, fierce, bared—
"Aloy: "What--"
Brin: "Bared of metal, huntress! Bared of what we tore from their hides to be strong like them, savage like them. We built our world in the machines’ shadow. Called them out with every strike of rock and hammer."

The final vision though, is not of the past but of the future. He sees a vision of the future in the Forbidden West, and of jungles on fire and the blue lights of machine eyes dying out in the eddies of ash, and Aloy herself seemingy dead. He talks about an onrushing storm, and a Metal World different to the one he knew (maybe a reference to the blight or to Far Zenith).

Brin: “They must know how the orbit slows, fades, falls, decays. And yet, returns to more than zero."

Aloy: “You look… startled. Are you okay?”
Brin: “I must leave. You should, too.”
Aloy: “Without a story? I brought down a Stormbird—“
Brin: “You did. You’re very able. And you’re right. Owed is owed. But no more stories of the past—all told! All done! Future stories. I saw an onrushing storm. The future comes hungry, for man and machine. It will catch me, I expect. Catch us all! So enough hunts, enough visions. I’ll run—chase that teasing sun to the Forbidden West.
Aloy: “ I don’t understand – I mean, not that I ever understand – but are you saying we should fear what’s coming?”
Brin: “Ohhh. Yes. Jungle on fire. Machine-blue light dying out in the eddies of ashes. You, fallen, pale as snow-flash… eyes staring open. The Metal World, but not the one I sought! The future is a frightful dream, huntress!”

We later see reference to him in the journal of an Oseram worker, where he's continuing on his way to the Burning Shores.

Machine Dreams

Machine Dreams is a datapoint in Horizon Forbidden West. It is the fifteenth item in Scanned Glyphs, written by an Oseram. So there we were, picking our way along the trail when we saw him - a Banuk Shaman! In the Forbidden West! A sight as strange as a Carja swinging a hammer! But that wasn't...

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So there we were, picking our way along the trail when we saw him - a Banuk Shaman! In the Forbidden West! A sight as strange as a Carja swinging a hammer! But that wasn't where the strangeness ended, oh no. This Banuk was kneeling beside a Bristleback carcass, SLURPING its oil as a man dying of thirst laps up a puddle. And here I thought the Tenakth were the crazy blood drinkers!

And that's when he noticed us. A smile on his stained lips, oil streaks running down his chin. Kept muttering some nonsense about machine dreams and visions. And then he shouted that he had to keep running, to "the place of flames and brine," wherever that is. And then off he scattered, quick as a startled rabbit!

So tonight, we'd downed six rounds of Spitfire ale when Vulgert brought out a heavy flask, machine oil slick down its side. Now I'm as sensible as any other of my kinsmen, but I wasn't about to back down from a dare and let that softwelded boltbrain think he's made of tougher stuff!

Ugh. Gut won't stop aching. Better sleep it off. Everybody else passed out already. Who knows, maybe they're dreaming of Ravagers dancing in a meadow. Oof. Gotta remember to punch Vulgert in the morning. Right where it counts.

The official guide seems to confirm that he can indeed see visions of the ancient world and of the future.

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Gurellia games reference a sudden change in weather in relation to the Stormbird in Call of the Mountain. While we'll have to wait and see, this is further evidence that Stormbirds outright create storms.

 

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Waterwings are a type of machine which can fly and swim underwater (and Aloy can ride them).

 

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I'll need to actually play the game (which I will, should I eventually get a PS5), but Burning Shores actually has a Stormbird creating a storm! There's a storm located entirely over just one island due to an Apex Stormbird.

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After it's killed it causes a considerable burst of electrical energy, and the ground very noticably shakes (this happens the same way in the above walkthrough boss battles with the Stormbird too).

Spoiler

 

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Saved this to the Archive just in case anything happens to the Imgur album hosting most of the images and gifs (some were in another album, and sadly already gone). However, I should restore them (or similar) on my next playthrough (whenever that may be).

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...

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