Board 8 > Any interest in a blind Horizon: Zero Dawn playthrough topic?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Tearblast arrows are so satisfying

Also yeah Fire arrows are great against those Glinthawks
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Tbh I almost never used the tearblast arrows

But the chargeable super powerful bow in the DLC? Used that alllllll the time. So so so awesome. Notched three arrows, full charge, and deal massive damage.
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Sadly I don't think I have tearblast arrows. I think those things were available at a shop but I didn't buy any, unless I'm thinking of something else.

Speaking of, any specific weapons or items or whatever I should really keep an eye out for? I haven't bothered with those sling things yet at all, or that "Rattler" whatever the hell it is. Ropecaster and the various bows to get different types of arrows are all I've gone with so far.
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The Carja Sling will be very very very important because it allows you to freeze enemies way quicker than the War Bow will. Rattler is optional - my main way of taking things down was to freeze then rattle, but you can quite effectively do practically anything to kill machines. That's why this game is so incredible, you can fight the machines in 20 different ways to the same effect if you wanted to!

Lots of people swear by the Blast Sling for raw damage, lots of people say the ropecaster is a must (tie down then stab/barrage), and lots of people think that precise shots with elemental arrows are really the best. Try out some different things and see what you like best. Just about everything except the trap wire weapon is incredibly useful.

Oh and there's a weapon in the DLC that's pretty worthless too but you're not worried about that yet.
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I loved Ropecaster > face full of Rattler.

Rattler is basically a machine gun.
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Just be prepared to gather quite a bit of the wood if you're going to use the rattler, cause it uses ammo decently fast and you've gotta be able to replenish your ammo. It's really fun to use so it's worth it
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Tearblast arrows were my jam -- loved those suckers.
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Well I went to take a stab at my epic rematch with the Glinthawks. It went, well, uh...

So I decided to take a more cautious approach (well, I tried the same "Shock Arrow to the Scrapper's explodable thingy" tactic but for whatever reason it didn't set off explosions nor give away my position completely and I got bored), used silent strikes to pick off the Scrappers and then just shot all the cultists from stealth, ultimately clearing the camp without the enemies ever being entirely sure I was there. Never even saw a Glinthawk. I don't know if they're a long ways away and just detected the fight from great distance last time or if they only spawn if the alarm is set off, but whatever it was, my epic rematch never actually happened. Never even saw them through my PURPLEVISION (yes I am determined to make PURPLEVISION a thing here).

Hooray?

I like how the Nora braves that are with you to join in the assault if you get spotted celebrate after the camp is cleared as if they won a great battle even though they literally did nothing but sit there watching me do all the work.
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Glinthawks are scavengers so they show up to scavenge from other machines you kill sometimes, that may have been it. Just RNG.
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Oh. Well fuck those guys anyway.

Moving on, the third camp gets wiped out silently just like the second. Well, I say silently but one guy got shot once, survived and then died to the second arrow and had it count as a stealth kill. Perhaps not the most brilliant opposition I'm up against here. Also after clearing the camp, the Nora Braves promptly attracted the attention of some Watchers. Perhaps not the most brilliant allies either!

Regardless, Varl the badass and I sneaked into the enemy's main base, and then...okay this was kind of odd, I think it would be easier if I had just sniped all the humans from the shadows and THEN blown up the gate to the others in, but they wanted me to blow it up so I did. By which I mean I got spotted and made a mad dash to blow up all the blaze canisters, then a big ol' war happened. In which I kind of got bogged down fighting a single Fire Bellowback for the entire thing. Holy shit those guys have a lot of health, takes quite a few shots to blow up their tanks too. I'm glad I didn't try to deal with one of those fuckers from stealth, can't see how I could kill one without a protracted battle.

And then we all celebrated, I collected a lot of stuff from all the dead dudes my friends took out while I was fighting the Bellowback, Varl the badass acted like he wants in Aloy's pants and everyone is happy. Except for all the people that just died, but they were a bunch of dicks anyway.
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And then I climbed some ruins to find another look into the past, almost fell to my death, teleported back to a village to pick up yet another side quests that may or may not ever get done, and talked to a generic NPC who asked why I thought he'd have anything of value to say. Very self-aware, game.
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fire arrows make glinthawks obsolete

i saved ropecaster ammo on the real big machines. only way i found anything the size of a bellowback and up to be manageable.

iirc, tearblast arrows were op when the game came out. got nerfed by the time i played the game. still incredibly useful against the bigger enemies that have a lot of armor!
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Brief update to say I'm still playing, mainly did some inventory stuff to make money and get some new weapons/ammo that I haven't found cause to use yet. I'm rounding up side quests right now so this might be a tad dull for a while, if you're holding out for more epic plot advancement you might need to be patient, but if random faffing about is your thing I can surely fit some PURPLEVISION references in here somewhere
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Alright, so I delivered a package to a dude, then went searching for "Dreamwillow", which I'm going to assume is basically morphine. Went up a cliff to meet some herbalist dude who got robbed, then locked inside his house...this guy is a loser. I feel ripped off, I was told the area around his house had Scrappers and Sawtooths but all I saw were a couple of Watchers. Maybe I'll encounter the real enemies while I follow the tracks of the thieves. Well I did get to find a Sawtooth at least. It and some Watchers were attacking the outcasts, so I saved them. Turns out they're just trying to survive, blablabla isn't it all so nice. They gave me some morphine so I could go back to Jun the coward. He's a douchebag and Aloy called him out on it to little avail. Still don't know if these dialogue choices actually result in anything meaningfully different happening but whatever, completed the quest and everyone is happy. Or at least not dead, and that's just as good isn't it?

And then I went off to collect a Lancehorn Lens for Sona. Lancehorns, new enemy type, yay, so happy. They basically seem like more competent Grazers. I now have Tearblast arrows and have been having some fun sniping pieces off these machines. I think next up will be...another side quest, but then I think I'll probably move on to clearing out some corrupted zones so I can move on with the plot.
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Well first I cleared a corrupted zone since it was right next to where I was. I was expecting something substantial, but...okay I can kill three Corrupted Grazers. Maybe the next one will be tougher? With that done I head out in search of some missing people someone asked me to look for. I think it's near where that Tallneck thing was. Let's see what happens...oh, a pair of Sawtooths to fight. Yay! The AI on these things is so weird, shoot them like crazy and they rarely even come after me. Took a while to bait one into those blast traps, which barely even do any damage. Eventually settled on just pelting one with fire arrows, which seemed to slow it down a bit and then stabbing it while it was on fire, then repeating on the next one. I can never seem to actually hit the blaze canisters on these guys, I shoot and shoot and shoot and it always seems to catch a leg instead. Anyway, that's that, now I can go...uh I think that Cauldron thing I heard about is en route to my next plot destination, or at least close by the route, so that might be my next stop. I can learn to override more machines there, yay. Because I've been using that feature so much (aside from testing it out the first time I haven't used it at all)

PURPLEVISION!
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Some of the corrupted zones get pretty insane. There's one corrupted zone in particular with two of the harder enemies. It's hell. I had to cheese it.
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Okay I'm posting up a storm here but on my way to the cauldron I ran into a Freeze Bellowback. Remembering my brutal fight with its fire brethren I decided to do the smart thing and stay far away...just kidding went ham on it. I have double shot now, and with that I was able to pump out enough damage to blow up its top weak point very quickly. Then some fire arrows got it burning and I closed in to melee it to death. Poor thing never even got to try a melee attack on me, it shot two ice volleys and that was it. Freeze Bellowback, you are kind of weak compared to the Fire one...not to mention those damn Glinthawks that I still haven't been able to get a rematch with.

Then I saw some Grazers, blew them up (wasted an arrow though, the first two exploding took out the third, it alerted some others...wait a Lancehorn? And the map says this is a Strider site? And there's...people yelling? Okay this is worth looking into. Oh, some Nora Brave was fighting. Helped him out and...nothing really happened? That was odd, but it's cool that at least some shit is happening out in the wilds besides my pointless meandering. Speaking of pointless, I stumbled across some people being attacked because of a hilarious mix up with their cargo. Oh you guys. I guess this isn't pointless at all considering it's a quest, and ooh, I even get to meet a new machine: Longleg. Long. Leg. It looks like some sort of psychotic chicken. That's...okay, that's not what I expected. It's weak to shock and can shoot sonic booms. Evil metal chicken that shoots sonic booms. Not. What. I. Expected. I like this thing.

Anyway these people want me to track down a dude that stole stuff from them. Cool, guess I will. I'm leaving a note to myself here that I need to come back to this location because my PURPLEVISION was picking up some sort of signal...plus the cauldron, of course. And by leaving a note, I mean posting this. Yeah board 8, you are now my notebook. I hope you feel proud.
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I found that ice sling + sticky bomb sling tears through absolutely everything and there's little point using anything else
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Okay this whole constant posting is probably annoying compared to doing bigger updates, but I keep not being sure if I'm going to stop for the night or not.

Tracked down the thief Dirid, who said he's got debts. And then he gets sniped by a new enemy, the Stalker. That thing was kind of cool, hard to keep track of with its stealth sniping powers but easily dispatched with shock arrows and physical abuse once spotted. Aloy makes fun of the game as he died, kind of. Damn Aloy, cold as ice. Dude sounded like a sun tribe fellow. Still suspecting they may prove evil and linked to the cult, so maybe I should feel bad I didn't get to kill him myself and start practicing the sun tribe killing? Eh, if they're evil I'm sure I'll end up killing plenty eventually, this is a video game after all, there's always more mooks to mow down.

Finally reach this alleged Cauldron. Why do I keep switching between capitalizing cauldron and not capitalizing it? I don't know. It's guarded by some Watchers and Scrappers, all of whom go down easily. Took some damage when a Scrapper got close enough to me that its canister exploding from the shock arrow caught me, but meh, doesn't hurt too bad. Also see a new machine called a Shell-Walker in the distance, not sure yet if I'll be fighting that or not...I probably will once I get finished with what's in front of. Well it ended up getting close before I could attend to the cauldron, so I killed it. It apparently has an energy shield that I haven't figured out yet, but eventually I sniped some pieces off of it and wrecked it. It's shock attacks are pretty neat, but it's rather slow and predictable. Probably be a threat if encountered in groups or with other dangerous enemies, but in this case I picked off its Watcher buddies first and then dealt with it easily enough one on one.

On to the Cauldron finally! No idea if there will be enemies in here so I'm taking it slow. Aloy comes to a big drop and immediately rappels down...Aloy you realize if there's no way up you just killed yourself via starvation or thirst down here, right? So much for learning to survive. I guess falling down that pit as a kid made her think falling down into holes will always bring cool things like PURPLEVISION into her life. This place looks cool...okay I just stabbed a Watcher to death through a wall. That probably shouldn't have happened.

Continuing to wander through here, Aloy hops onto a moving mechanism...thing. That seems like a bad idea but this is a video game so of course it works. Kill a Shell-Walker, override stuff to make bridges, find a Fire Bellowback at the center of it. With a freeze bomb sling on my side, this thing is much less dangerous than it was the first time I met one. And tada, Cauldron complete! Now I can override some new, cooler stuff! Probably won't, but I could if I wanted to.

That was kind of a cool place.
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That Bellowback kicked my ass the first time. Luckily they let you prepare for the fight, so I surrounded his "cage" with traps and bombs and just lured him into all of those before releasing him
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I kind of thought I could just sneak around him entirely so I didn't set anything up for him. Now that I have the sling to shoot freeze bombs and double shot arrows to hit his weak points with and better damage mods for my bow, he wasn't the nightmare the previous one was. Iced him and just shot the thing on his back for huge damage, went by pretty fast. I did use that trap stacking method against a Sawtooth somewhere earlier, maybe I'll try to remember to use it again tomorrow as a tribute to you lol
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Do you have the perk that lets you topple small and mid-sized enemies with heavy melee attacks? Got a lot of mileage out of that one.
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Not before releasing him. After.

Stupid one-hour edit limit
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Shotgunnova posted...

Do you have the perk that lets you topple small and mid-sized enemies with heavy melee attacks? Got a lot of mileage out of that one.

Not yet, I'm working towards getting triple shot first.
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Alright, time to continue. When we last left our intrepid (?) hero, she was aimlessly wandering in the general vicinity of the plot but mostly getting sidetracked with a lot of funny business that generally involved killing things for little reason beyond personal profit and satisfaction. We pick off with more of the same as I make slow, agonizing progress towards the next corrupted zone. Along the way I run into all kinds of machines, most of which I ignore, as well as some Nora Braves who were being attacked by Watchers. And Bandits. And Broadheads. And a Scrapper...Sheesh. They all died, but at least I got to kill a lot of enemies. Scrapper ended up escaping my wrath though, damn thing literally ran over, shot one of the NPCs and immediately ran off to god knows where.

Came across some bandits fighting machines...? Okay cool, a Scrapper exploding from a shock arrow to the back solved an awful lot of problems all at once there. I'm still barely halfway to my destination, man. Stumbling across things everywhere! Speaking of, found a wiped clean a Scrapper site. Man, I remember when one of those things was a problem, seems like just a few days ago...oh wait, it was. Now four or five of them get wrecked in minutes with shock arrows and liberal spear attacks to finish off the immobilized ones. Onward! I wonder if this corrupted zone will be as pitiful as the last?

A few Watchers and two Scrappers. Eh, bit of an upgrade. Corrupted Scrappers have enough health to not die instantly from their power cells being blown up, which is neat, but it still immobilizes them long enough to be easily finished off. The Watchers went down to some brilliant, perfectly executed aiming that definitely did not involve wasting a bunch of arrows missing easy shots. With corrupted machines scanning as red and the ground in the corrupted zone having red lines on it, PURPLEVISION is slightly impaired, since the machines and ground kind of blend in. I almost missed the Scrappers at first because of it.

Up next...there's a bandit camp nearby and the map seems to suggest a settlement may be close as well. No guarantees I can resist the urge to go visit those places before moving on with Operation: Get to The Damn Plot Already.
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Okay turns out the settlement was just a random merchant. Bought a Rattler and a Blast Sling, maybe I'll remember to use them at some point. But first I decided to go investigate yet another corrupted zone that happened to be very close. Game told me to clear two before I could make progress, what harm could there be in doing a third? It featured some Longlegs. That...was not a trivial fight. Especially when the Scrapper also showed up. But in the end, with help from an ample supply of healing, I cleared it. Hooray! I also saw something across a lake called a Snapmaw...or rather, about four of them. They look like crocodiles. I probably don't want to fight them right now, especially since there are so many of them together. I will resist the temptation to suicidally go after them. Hopefully.

I did resist that temptation! But not the temptation to go after that bandit camp. Made some use of the Rattler to mow down my enemies, got spotted and had to run away briefly, let prisoners free and promptly lured the bandits into them and got them killed, good times for everyone involved except the twenty or so people who died. They probably didn't enjoy it at all. But I got experience points out of it, so their sacrifices are not in vain. I like this snowy area I'm heading through now, it's very grim and frostbitten. Kind of a shame I didn't run into Nil around here or have any sort of unique dialogue for that camp but I suppose that's how it's got to be. Maybe dramatic drama will dramatically unfold at my next destination.

Oh hey the Carja border fort is under attack by corrupted machines led by a Corruptor. I don't understand how to get at the weak point on this thing, it says its exposed when the machine overheats but I literally hit this thing with nothing but fire arrows and nothing ever happened and it eventually just died from the NPCs shooting at it. Well, whatever, bunch of machines dead while I live on with more experience points than I started with, can't be too bad an outcome. I have to say, I can tell how the Carja control the border so effectively, it's very convenient how impassable the terrain around here looks! The gate guard seems a jovial fellow who lets me in and sends me to chat with his captain for advice on the apparently difficult journey ahead. Oh boy, more long walks through areas full of stuff to distract me from my goal!
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Oh my god based on the map the walk to Meridian is about as long as it took me to get here from...that gate where I met Varl maybe?

I'm never going to make it there, am I?
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Picking up new quests and continuing old ones, oh baby. This Captain Balahn dude seems nice, but he had kind of a shifty answer when talking about the attack on the Nora. Not doing much to assuage my fears you sun dudes will be the villains there, captain. Also a while back I got a quest to track down a woman who was seeking revenge on a Carja leader named Zaid, who is apparently here and enjoys a pleasant reputation among the Carja. Also that woman got arrested for trying to kill him. So I guess I better go talk to him and sort that out. But Aloy takes a break from important business to go shopping, picking up some nicer weapons and also noticing that she's one Fox Skin away from the Golden Fast Travel Pack. Foxes beware, you gon get got. A Sawtooth Heart will also allow me to pick up a fancy new version of the Sharpshot Bow, so I'll be keeping an eye out for any of those guys too.

I also stumble across a note that basically says the Carja have no clue what's causing the Derangement (aka driving the machines kill crazy) either but are trying to figure it out. That note might be worth keeping in mind.

Anyway. Zaid acts pretty helpful, saying he let Nakoa (that's her name, if you're not aware) go because he figured she's simply mistaken in who she blames. However, he claims she might have been kidnapped from bandits. I need to go...god damn that's a long way to go. Putting that off for later! Not inclined to trust this Zaid fellow yet because I've played enough games to know when someone tells you a dude is evil and you meet the dude and he acts all reasonable, there's a 72.817% chance he's totally evil, but who knows, maybe the 27.183% will include this time. Instead of trekking halfway across the map when I already have a different half of the map to trek, I think I'll backtrack a bit to investigate some lost Carja soldiers. That sounds easy enough. Which means it will probably send me on a wild goose chase across yet another half of the map.

Well, it wasn't that far I suppose. In the process of finding the guy I was looking for I alerted some Watchers totally on purpose with a brilliantly planned arrow that passed right beside its eye totally intentionally, then after lured in a Snapmaw by accident and somehow messed up the Silent Strike and got a regular attack instead. Oops! That would have killed it a bit quicker, but it didn't end up being too big of a problem, pretty cool enemy though, would hate to get stuck fighting multiple at a time...though granted it seemed to pause between attacks a lot so maybe that would help. There are some more nearby and I will totally go test it out...no, I'm heading back to sanity. Well, "back" as if I were there to begin with.

Think that's about it for major progress tonight, might go hunting foxes/Sawtoothes for the parts I need but I doubt anything of substance will happen.
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Don't forget to mount a machine to move faster

I feel like at least one bandit camp has Nil being quite far away from it and I didn't find him until after

Also yeah Stormbirds are just about killable at your current level but you'll lose a lot of health, ammo and items so just don't bother right now
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Is Nil hanging out at every bandit camp or something?
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Think so. Maybe all but one
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So a combination of factors make it seem unlikely I'll be playing this tonight. But never fear, I will pretend to update! So in this exciting episode, Aloy wandered up a mountain and met the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who told her it was her duty to learn why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And then forty seven Glinthawks showed up and murdered everyone. The end.
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I guess I can get a little bit of progress in tonight before I fall asleep. Or a bit of aimless wandering that may or not involve...no, I'm not dumb enough to go after the Stormbird, keep out of its sight...so tempting though...

I can't get over the abrupt shift from snowy mountains to this rocky desert, it's crazy. Kind of cool to be in an area that looks different, but my natural inclination towards snowy forests will make it hard for this area to appeal more than the last. Heading down the trail I see a hunting ground (still haven't done one of these yet) with a new machine in it called a Trampler. I'm ignoring it for now, I'll probably have plenty of time to fight them in the future. Also that Stormbird is visible from an insane distance. So tempted to go over there and give it a piece of my mind...and in all likelihood, a piece of my ribcage when it murders me.

Oh, well then. Those Tramplers are in my way. Guess I have to fight them. These guys seem neat, their attacks have gigantic areas of effect. And just as I finished them off, four Glinthawks appeared. Okay I know I wanted my rematch with these things but this is excessive! I had to retreat a bit to get my bearings, then those Glinthawks apparently scavenged the dead Tramplers, preventing me from collecting items from them? Mother. Fuckers. Got their attention again as I approach some random Carja dudes by a gate or fort or something who helped me wipe the floor with the god damn birds. Triple fire arrows really help with putting them down. Speaking of birds, I see that Stormbird again, off in the distance. Taunting me. Mocking me. Daring me to go over there and pick a fight with. Will I resist the urge? I sure hope so...

Looks like I did. Hooray! I'll probably teleport back here at some point and go suicide into the damn thing but not quite yet. For now, we're continuing to move on to that fort the sidequest with Zaid sent me to. Turns out its more or less on the way to the next story destination, so I might as well just take the detour there. Hmm, this place looks kind of cool at night when it gets foggy. Shame it probably will allow something unpleasant to sneak up on me, but hey, that happens sometimes. You can't make an omelette without dying a few times, they say. Do they say that? They should. I came across a little settlement and found another book or glyph or whatever that gives some info on what the various tribes believe about the history of the world and the "Old Ones" (aka probably all of us losers). Hooray for learning!

Oh hey, some Carja dudes fighting some Glinthawks. Why did I join in? Because I'm dumb. Between those four and that Trampler/Glinthawk area I have basically nothing in my medicine pouch, and I just went around a corner and saw something called a Thunderjaw. This thing looks like it might be a bit of a problem to fight head on. Kind of tempted to just sneak around it, but we'll see what ends up happening. There's a campfire nearby so at least I won't lose progress if I can make it there and then fight. Which is what I did! Holy shit that thing was intense. Hard to keep track of all the parts on it that can be destroyed in some way. Burned through all my potions in the process but I killed it. I'm going to call that an accomplishment and also try very hard to not fight one of those again any time soon <_<

I pass by some Broadheads and Longlegs but given my distinct lack of healing at the moment, I figure discretion is the better part of valor and Aloy bravely hides from any and all threats. Well, except the Sawtooth I saw, took a detour to kill that thing since I need his heart for...a bow, I think? Didn't get it, of course. Oh well. And now I'm at Lonesome Rock (I think that's what it's called, at least). Time to go in and see what's going on. Is it a trap? Is it all a misunderstanding? Perhaps the truth shall soon be revealed...!
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My goodness it turns out it was a trap and the guys immediately want to capture me, who could have foreseen such unanticipated treachery?! Perhaps these guys should learn that when they try to capture people, they should try to not get effortlessly mowed down in a moment. They can learn that in the afterlife, I suppose. Some tracks show the way to go, but off in the distance I see some bandits fighting some dudes, so I decide to go help. Might have been a bad idea, as I stumbled across a Shell-Walker convoy with two of them plus some Longlegs. Almost died, am even lower on healing than I already was...I am getting the shit kicked out of me tonight. Just think, if I had ignored those Glinthawks, and the Tramplers and the Thunderjaw, and this...if I hadn't done anything, I'd be in much better shape!

Followed the trail to a camp where I killed a lot of people, freed Nakoa, and surprise surprise, Zaid shows up on the way out. We kill him and his friends. Well, technically Nakoa killed him, but I feel like I did it like I do everything else around here. Turns out he was evil all along - OH MY I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING - and selling people into slavery. Nakoa plans on taking her fellow prisoners to Meridian, so maybe I'll see them there.

And that's that for tonight. Next time on the Adventures of Aloy, we find out if there any other god mode machines wandering around that I can get into ill advised fights with.
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Interest seems to be dying here. No matter, I know the way to rekindle it - actually accomplish something...like going off after the nearest Tallneck on the map to see what's over there? Maybe not the best idea, but hey, at least it's better than rambling about the Stormbird.

Alright it wasn't exactly the nearest one, but I found one to go for. Had some Snapmaws to deal with but ended up only needing to kill one to clear a path to the Tallneck. Also spotted a new machine called a Redeye Watcher in the distance, but I didn't bother fighting it. I'm assuming it's nothing more than a Watcher that will take an extra arrow to one-shot. A bunch of the map got cleared up and I can see a symbol on the map that is probably a Cauldron, but I think my first order of business should be to actually head for Meridian. With how easily distracted I am there's nothing to say I'll make it there even if it's my destination.

Well turns out the last campfire I had reached before turning north for that sidequest was near a series of bridges the Carja have locked down, so that's an easy path to follow. Looks like there's a few settlements in the area, a side quest to be picked up and a Vantage to investigate. Might as well try to get on with all of that while I'm nearby. We're just going to pretend that whole falling to my death thing while trying to get to the Vantage didn't happen, okay? Okay, good. Found a side quest to investigate some murdered miners. The foreman is very adamant that machines couldn't have done it, so it's probably going to be some sort of machine that's responsible. Better go find out.

Might take a short break, go for a walk. I haven't been commenting much on the various audio/text logs about the history of the world but I am reading them and trying to piece things together. It's a question of whether the obvious answer (future Earth after shit went to hell and slowly rebuilt) is too obvious to be true in my mind (or maybe we're on the moon...!)

edit: Oh hey, a Rockbreaker. That was a pretty fun fight aside from the part where I almost died.
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Turns out I was much closer to Meridian than I thought, just have to walk across some bridges. Apparently merchant traffic is being searched at the gate, which I guess is not normal, but luckily for me I'm not a merchant so I can just walk on in. This place looks neat from a distance, kind of reminds me of...I can't think of the name. Actually I'm not entirely sure where it even was, I think somewhere in southern France. Anyway when I was younger my parents and I went on a lot of vacations around Europe (we lived in Germany for four years) and at some point we went to a monastery or similar religious building that was really old and well known for being scenic and requiring you to like, cross bridges and climb a hill to get up to it (and you couldn't actually go in anyway). I'm struggling to remember details but for whatever reason it came to mind. This isn't a "oh this game is set there" prediction, the surroundings are all wrong (this is a desert, that place I'm pretty sure was on the coast), just pointing it out because...I have no idea! Moving on.

Some generic NPC said the city is on lock down due to a murder. See, generic NPC from ages ago who asked me why I thought you'd say anything of value? THIS IS WHY! We get to the city gate and find out...okay, the former leader of the Vanguards (which sounds like basically the Carja Secret Service, I guess?) was killed by "Shadow Carja" forces. Hmm...Erend, the dude we met earlier and who is the brother of the woman that died, is now the leader, conveniently shows up to say hello to Aloy and let us into the city, and also is kind of drunk. Best time for a conversation - when the other person is too out of it to lie! Except he probably could lie if he wanted to, it's still a bit too early in the plot for dramatic reveals to happen. What a shame. Aloy decides the best way to handle this is to just kind of outright demand to see Olin, insisting he's a traitor. Uh, Aloy, you realize all you actually know for sure is someone used his Focus to track you, right? Very confident he knew. Granted he was shifty as hell so it's probably at least mostly true, but still, got to love video game characters always knowing things for sure with minimal evidence. Regardless, we're off to search his house.

When in doubt, just break a hatch open by dropping metal on it. Convenient placing but it got me in. Olin is being blackmailed into helping the killers, who have kidnapped his wife and son. See Aloy, he's not so evil after all. After a brief conversation with Erend about how Aloy can figure these things out, he is made aware of the power of PURPLEVISION and wants us to help him figure out exactly who killed his sister. Kind of a nice scene there. Guess I'm off to investigate a murder now. Somehow I expect this to lead to trouble...
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Continuing on, Meridian is home to all kinds of side quests that I pick up, some of which I may or may not be pursuing at some point. Maybe. But my main goal is to go help Erend. On the way I run into a Snapmaw and some Longlegs, who go down, though not without doing some damage first, then I meet yet another new machine, the Ravage. Seems like its basically a powered up Scrapper with a cannon that can be shot off or have its shots rolled through. Decent enough enemy I suppose. Only a few machines I haven't encountered yet according to the notebook, and one of those is the Stormbird who I didn't save after encountering. Only two or three things left I need to kill before I've killed everything in the game!

Erend decided to come out here alone and is now under attack by some random shit. Luckily for him Aloy is good at killing random shit. Aloy also killed some random cultists and a corrupted Watcher along the way, it seems I'm passing close enough to the place I'm supposed to track Olin to that I'm running into those guys. Anyway, off to investigate what happened to Ersa. Erend mentions her having been beaten too bad for them to show her face at her burial...is the game trying to imply she may still be alive, or am I reading too much into that? We discover signs that the bodies may have been dumped off after being killed elsewhere, which would explain why the Carja didn't find much evidence at the supposed ambush site. Also Aloy suggests the Shadow Carja (I'm assuming that refers to the exiled followers of the previous Sun King) may not have been responsible, which Erend doesn't like to hear.

We get to the top of a mountain and are ambushed by some...Oseram? Erend and Ersa's tribe. The plot thickens! We kill the dudes and also the two Ravagers they called upon somehow and then investigate...and discover the possibility that Ersa wasn't killed and the body was actually disfigured to cover up that it isn't really her. Erend heads back to Meridian to try to confirm if the body is really Ersa or not, while Aloy...might follow him or might just go after Olin instead. We'll find out...tonight? Tomorrow? Not sure yet.

edit: Tonight it is! Aloy runs into a place and shit gets real. The cultists, who I now know are called the Eclipse, are excavating Corruptors, which Olin is not happy about. A mysterious voice speaks to Aloy and says it knocked the Focuses of the Eclipse offline for a while to help me out, and a massive, ugly battle ensues. Two Corruptors in an area with tons of junk hindering your ability to run around is brutal. Plus a bunch of cultists but they get shot down easily enough. Eventually I prevail, and Olin informs us of several facts. Namely, the Eclipse are a subset of the Shadow Carja who don't worship the sun, but rather some sort of machine called Hades. Their leader, the big dude that Rost saved Aloy from earlier, is named Helis and was one hell of a war criminal during the previous Sun King's reign. I decided to spare Olin, and the two of us will be going to set his family free at some point. So now I know the Eclipse are out to dig up machines, explaining the references to new types of machines appearing in recent years, and there's apparently some sort of even nastier version of the Corruptors out there called Deathbringers. Olin has only seen them still dead and buried, but I feel pretty good about my chances of encountering them eventually.

So. Shit got real, and the plot is finally progressing a bit after my endless meandering. Up next I'll probably follow up on that business with Erend and his sister.
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Well this is probably dead, I'll give it one more update to see if anyone is still following and if not I will wander off into the sunset enjoying my aimless wandering without concern for whether it kills the pace of this topic.

So we confirm that Erend's sister wasn't the body that had been found earlier, and Aloy gets to meet the Sun King, Avad. He seems like a surprisingly reasonable guy, not at all what you'd expect of someone whose traditions say is basically a god. Maybe he won't turn out to be evil after all and it will just be the remnants of his father's era that are the only bad guys around here. Also come across several datapoints to read, nothing too fancy or groundbreaking is learned but it's nice to read. I'm generally liking the backstory of the tribes and their relations in this game, it's good stuff.

So I set out to the far north to seek out this Devahl guy that seems to be the likeliest culprit. Along the way I have to sneak through a gauntlet of machines because fighting any of them would have had a high risk of bringing all the others onto me. I had to pass through a corrupted zone and figured I'd clear it out...then I saw what was in there. Two. Corrupted. Rockbreakers. Yeah...sorry game, don't think I can handle that right now. So I went around. Then I saved and went back to try to fight them. That didn't end in Aloy being alive, let me tell you.

Continuing the epic journey north eventually leads to a running battle with some Snapmaws and a Ravager and some Tramplers, luckily not all at once though. The tendency of the AI to forget about you if you get a bit of distance is very helpful in allowing multiple enemies to be gradually whittled down. I'm almost out of wire though with all the arrows I'm firing, so I need to head back to a merchant to buy some more. So I guess that's where this stops for the next...few minutes?
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Rockbreakers are great fun
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XIII_rocks posted...

Rockbreakers are great fun

They're great fun until you die

Anyway continued on a bit and finished off the Ersa business. Long ass journey north featured meeting Chargers for the first time. Not all that special, but hey, another machine I've now killed. There's a Stormbird on the way to the place I needed to go to that I brilliantly dealt with...by which I mean avoided antagonizing in any way. Got to the camp of Dervahl's men, killed a lot of dudes, exploited their very dubious security measure of having machines tied down with restraints that break from one arrow, killed a dude with a heavy weapon and found Ersa. Who then promptly died. Poor Erend. Now we have to go back to Meridian to stop Dervahl from doing something unpleasant. Guess that's on the agenda for tomorrow.
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Oh I forgot to mention I apparently had the materials needed for the Golden Fast Travel Pack for a while and just didn't realize, so once I noticed I finally got it. Now I can teleport around infinitely, which I totally couldn't before with how easy to afford the regular packs are. I decided to teleport way back to the beginning of the game before saving for the night just to celebrate my ability to do so freely. Actually, there were the ruins Aloy went into as a kid that I was told had something in them, maybe I'll do that at some point...
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Oh BTW if you go back to Aloy and Rost's house occasionally there's a grave marker for Rost and Aloy will talk to it and update him on her adventures.

I didn't realize this until like 3/4 of the way through the game but it's a nice detail.
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Reminder that some people read without posting! Don't stop unless you want to stop
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Unfortunately, reading without posting and not reading look suspiciously similar, and there comes a point where I realize it looks like I've been talking to myself for several days and start to wonder if maybe I've lost my mind
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Panthera posted...

Unfortunately, reading without posting and not reading look suspiciously similar, and there comes a point where I realize it looks like I've been talking to myself for several days and start to wonder if maybe I've lost my mind

I'll post everytime I read if you want.
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Post however often you feel like! I'm just saying if I go enough days without a response it will make me not feel like continuing with this.
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Panthera posted...

Post however often you feel like! I'm just saying if I go enough days without a response it will make me not feel like continuing with this.

Then I will post every time I read just to insure you know there is at least one person enjoying the fruits of your labour.
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Yeah I'm reading

My posts are in part to show that I am
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Oh well then I guess I better put in some labour to generate some fruit...that phrase doesn't really hold up to scrutiny, does it?

Taking advantage of my freedom to teleport around at will, I go to handle some earlier in the game business. I visit Rost's grave for a nice scene (thanks for pointing that out!) and also the ruins Aloy went to as a kid, where...I get turned around and don't find anything? I'll have to try again some other time when I'm not dumb, assuming such a time ever comes. Clear out a corrupted zone I missed earlier, collect some collectibles, definitely didn't try to jump off a ledge into water and misjudge the depth resulting in a pointless death, good times all around. I also did some serious selling of resources to free up inventory space but I'll spare you the details of EPIC INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SIMULATOR 2018.

While I'm at this meandering business I decide to go after another Tallneck. On the way I encounter another Thunderjaw not too far north of where I met that first one. I figured what the hell, let's fight. Went a lot smoother this time around, I knocked off both its disc launches before it really got to notice me, used one of them to deplete almost half its health, put some freeze arrows into it and conveniently managed to blow up its freeze container in the process, then pelted it with precision arrows while it was frozen, including one that managed to hit the weak point and did over 900 damage, which is the biggest damage number I've seen yet in this game. All it ever did was shoot me from long range with its lasers that never came close to hitting, then tried to stomp on me a few times. Killed it without even taking damage. Moving on up in the world! Probably still would struggle with that damn Stormbird though.

Hmm, I only used one of its disc launchers against it, didn't I? The other one got blown off a ways back and it ran towards me after, so I never went close to it. I wonder if I can carry this disc launcher with me until I encounter whatever machines are guarding that Tallneck...

I pass by a very odd little area next to the river where there's a ton of Snapmaw corpses laying around. Aloy comments on how strange it is, but as far as I can see there's nothing for me to do there, and I can't drop down without risking not being able to carry my precious disc launcher with me back up to where I'm going. Is there anything to do here or is this just a random weird place that's there to confuse you? Maybe I'll come back later to investigate further if I can remember. Anyway, moving on, carrying this weapon prevents me from sprinting but given how much time I spend crouching for stealth purposes I'm probably actually traveling slightly quicker than normal here <_<
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Oh. The cultists are here? That's odd. I wonder if this is some sort of sequence break shenanigan where I'll be sent here at a later date in the plot? Either way, going to slowly wipe these guys out. Well, not so slowly for the first few. You wouldn't think an explosive disc launcher was a great sniper weapon but you'd be WRONG! Annihilated a few dude with it, fought a Corruptor that went down in strangely short order (seriously, I lit it on fire then just took pot shots at it until it died, that's what I did for the last ones and I'm pretty sure I haven't gotten much better weapon mods since then, no idea why this one was such a wimp). Now I'm very gradually picking my way through the rest of these dudes, a bunch of them are in an annoyingly good position that makes it hard to shoot them so I'm taking the very long way around to get a better angle. Saw a page that said the cultist plans are tied to overriding the Tallneck or something? Maybe I get info on the Eclipse for overriding this thing? We'll find out soon enough...

Turns out I get nothing besides the usual map clearing? Okay...maybe I'm coming here for plot purposes later and will have to clear out the dudes again, but won't need to override the Tallneck to read the cultists plans I found lying around? That was an odd experience. I took all that damage for nothing. And by damage, I mean the dude with the Deathbringer Gun got like one hit on me. Curse you, imperfection!
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