MegaSackman
Member
I think you got some specifics wrong but I prefer that people with more confidence respond to you.
Horizon Zero Dawn SPOILERS Thread
- Thread starter vivekTO
- Start date
I think you got some specifics wrong but I prefer that people with more confidence respond to you.
lightning2k3
Member
The code to deactivate the Faro robots would have taken a hundred years to crack. GAIA was in charge of cracking that code, then building the communications towers to transmit that code worldwide to deactivate the FARO robots once she's cracked it. HADES mission was to destroy the world if he felt the world was going out of whack, and he originally would have done it by taking control of the terraforming operations from GAIA, but GAIA nuked herself so that he couldn't do it. So instead, HADES decides to reactivate all the FARO robots to kill everything.
The reason HADES wants to kill everything is that was what he was programmed to do if GAIA was failing, but it seems the hack turned on his processes even though the world was going well. Also, once GAIA nukes herself, all the cauldrons lose the direction of GAIA, so they start churning out more offensive robots presumably to respond to the threat of humans that have been attacking them, something that GAIA probably suppressed.
The massive Spider bots are the HORUS units that FARO corp created as mobile replication bases. They were all deactivated by the signal GAIA transmitted, and probably fell to earth and crashed into various places.
I think you got some specifics wrong but I prefer that people with more confidence respond to you.
Yeah, there's the Hades corruption and the de-centralization of the nodes / "gods" which is what caused the cauldrons to switch priorities.
There's also notes on hacking attempts being done from the outside into the cauldrons themselves, some of which were blocked, others that were successful.
As others have said, there's some outside influence going on here - Elysium or Ted or Space or whatever - but the spider bots and their locations are throwing everything from a loop, especially as they appear to be going after bunkers, but their age doesn't seem to fit with the timeline as presented (and the bunkers being hidden).
And the whole "when was the swarm brought back under control?" line.
Mustang 00
Member
They had GAIA programmed to crack the code long after humanity is gone. It was stated that it would take half a century to crack the code, time which humans don't have but GAIA does.
I think GAIA's explosion, HADES's trigger, and Aloy's creation(not sure about this one) and other program's unshackling happened within a milisecond as GAIA mentions something along the lines of 0.03 milliseconds ago that she detected something with HADES. Wel they are computers and should be able to process everything in an attosecond (not really attosecond but a really really fast).
I think it was hephaestus who is causing the non faro robots to be hostile to humans due to being unshackled.
Hades wants to use Faro robots to eradicate life again and restart the program.
Does anyone know how many years does the game take place after the apocashitstorm (I love the game and the lore to bits but that was such a bad name for the apocalypse btw)
I think it was mentioned right when you enter the Faro building in Maker's End when the PA system says that Elisabeth was a due for an appointment for X amount of years/time.
I think I heard 350,000 years and Aloy comments something like wow 350,000 years. I did not catch the subtitles and I am not sure if I misheard.
lightning2k3
Member
It was about 350,000 days or around 1000 years.
SiegfriedFM
Member
The original Faro robots included the Corruptors, the Deathbringers and the huge Horus octospider things, which Hades was installed in to wake up his Faro army. All the "modern" robots are animal based and would serve a function in remaking Earth from the presumed barren form it had in 2066.
Ok, so the Horus octospiders - there's one reaching directly into the all-mother bunker, tentacle dramatically stopped right before the door. I'm curious if that was simply coincidence, because as a game maker, that's certainly visual storytelling in a manner that suggests there was more to it than just blind luck that tentacle was right there... when the biomatter ran out and the Horus went into stasis? There seems to be one near each bunker, as if they were going after them specifically, which implies that whatever was controlling them knew specifically about the bunkers.
It's somewhat confusing as to just how Hades was supposed to wipe the slate clean if it was activated normally (which it obviously was not). What if the new world during "boot-up" failed to a point that there wasn't any biomatter to draw from, yet needed to be cleansed due to a toxic atmosphere? What would Hades have used to do that, exactly? Repurposing the cauldrons to crank out Faro-like bots?
It's pretty amazing that being buried for ~1000 years in bedrock completely destroyed and decayed all the human bunkers, yet seemed to have little to no effect on the swarm / Faro bots, which would have been almost directly exposed to seasonal temperature shifts, rainfall, etc. as the world booted back up. I guess Faro really had a "built to last" mentality?
Blackthorn
"hello?" "this is vagina"
I wish there was an in-game map for the world data logs, some of that stuff is fascinating and not revealed outside of them AFAIK, such as New Zealand being wiped out by Faro robots pre-swarm.
This game's gonna have hell of a Wiki once the internet's scoured all its secrets.
Tal Shiar Agent
Banned
We see a Horus in a jungle with no sign of a bunker around. We see one at USRC which was specifically lured there to keep it away from PZD. We see one at All-Mother Mountain. That one is the question. Was it drawn in my the construction of the cradle facility and destroyed by the military? Did it randomly land there once the fuel ran out? Was that cradle facility being built into an existing government bunker like the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and thus a predetermined target?
lightning2k3
Member
Originally, HADES was suppose to reset everything by taking control of the terraforming operations from GAIA. GAIA blew those up along with herself to stop HADES 19 years before the story began, so HADES had to resort to alternative methods - the FARO robots.
H.Cornerstone
Member
Yeah, that epilogue scene was so good and you really felt for both characters.
Well at the point in the timeline that the game is taking place, Hades would have been working on resurrecting the Faro bots for well over a decade. Its not like it happened over night and even then, whoever unshackled Hades and attacked Gaia had some super "hacking" abilities so its possible Hades was gifted with some of that ability by those who unleashed it.
It gave us a lot of good gifs at least.
HADES is designed to wipe the slate clean and then hand back to Gaia. But turning to Faro would potentially risk hades also being compromised and wouldn't be able to hand back to Gaia - So is HADES just 'fuck Gaia I just want to kill everything'?
And even separated, isn't hades only supposed to trigger if it thinks Gaia is doing a bad job? What determines that - seemed pretty good work so far
Hades was turned in a self reliant and chaotic AI much like the other subroutines when they were released from Gaia. Its not the only AI to start doing crazy shit. Hephestus started equipping his machines with weapons and making them more aggressive after it interpreted humanity as a threat.
Tal Shiar Agent
Banned
Just reread the data point concerning Odyssey. Says that Elisabet was informed by Far Zenith that Odyssey was destroyed, she didn't see the data herself. Maybe they lied to her.
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
Given how early an apocalyptic event happened after the necessary technology was developed I'd say its a natural and logical row of events. The very pinnacle of high tech is so ahead of its time that is impossible to have necessary regulations in place.
Well, no. But they still have a few thousand years of development ahead of them.
I doubt any of these tribes would still exist in a time where humanity reaches a similar point in technological advancement again.
Just like the tribes that were around 3000 BC didn't exist anymore when Ted Faro created his killer robots.
Thats why I think the idea to teach humanity about the risks of certain technologies before they actually get them, might be a good one.
Actually Gaia was the one that was supposed to trigger Hades. Only if she needed a reset, because she over or under produced things she needed. It was designed to take control from her and give it back when it was done. Because Gaia was so caring for life, that it would undermine Hades and mess things up.
The problem was that the signal woke Hades. He took control, and she estimated life would end in like 50 days. To prevent that, she decided to blow everything up. Also being self aware, I doubt it would give control back to Gaia. Hades turning to the swarm was his only choice to complete his programming. Once Gaia blew up prime. He lost control of terraforming bots.
In Blazon Arch, there's a pretty descriptive datapoint of the Forbidden West. Definitely sounds like they're describing California - most notably the Pacific Ocean and possibly a location similar to Lake Tahoe.
I love the description of a tribe that drinks the machine's "blood" and have replaced their teeth with metal ones.
I love the description of a tribe that drinks the machine's "blood" and have replaced their teeth with metal ones.
I'm pretty sure that is Cheyenne Mountain and Nora = NORAD. The Horus there is weird due to the way it was deactivated just before reaching the door. Pretty convenient if Minerva deactivated it just in time. There's probably a different explanation for it.
LastMinuteHero
Member
There's a shaman in the game who does that actually
MiniBossBattle
Member
Oh come on Ted.
I believe that this area was one of the last bastions of humanity left on Earth. Most every other place in the world had already been destroyed by the time the machines started invading North and South America. It seems like the human forces were basically constantly falling back until they were right on top of the Project Zero Dawn. I'm guessing a lot of the dead Horus units we see were destroyed while fighting the remnants of the human military forces. There are several datapoints about this.
Are there any tanks near All Mother Mountain? I'm going to have to go back and poke around because there is almost always some military hardware around the hold out areas.
At the end of the quest where you help the shaman, he tells Aloy he'll go west and she should look for him essentially after she's done with her main quest. This of course never happens because the main quest actually finishes the game and you're taken back right before the end. So, that might be another hint at the DLC taking place in the Forbidden West.
MegaSackman
Member
I don't know, Forbidden West sounds big enough to be a sequel location rather than a DLC unless they pull a Blood & Wine which I don't think they'll do.
There are several if I remember correctly
S
Steve.1981
Unconfirmed Member
Yeah but the point I was trying to make is that this new humanity is developing (from their year 0) alongside advanced machine life, and this is the natural way of the world for them, so maybe they're less likely to behave with the same kind of recklessness toward technology that destroyed our civilisation.
I just don't think it's definitively a terrible thing to not teach them about the mistakes that we made. I don't think they'll just automatically follow in our footsteps. They're different people living under different circumstances in a very different world.
And it's really cool that this game is so thought provoking. It's a fascinating piece of work, like all good sci-fi.
Then the Horus being there makes sense. I just never noticed the tanks.
(I just noticed that the Carja have electric (or some kind of powered) lights and I've got over 100 hours in the game. I thought I was pretty observant, but I still keep finding stuff.)
Something else interesting I noticed today. The triangle of flowers that surrounds Elizabet at the end of the game is the same triangle that surrounds Metal Flowers.
Is this similarity explained? I haven't collected all the Metal Flowers yet.
I think it's a tribute from GAIA.
Some people take it as Gaia's way of creating a small memorial for her own "mother" and probably the most important woman in history. Its rather touching as no one will ever remember Elizabet's incredible work and her ultimate sacrifice except for a handful of people.
Bronetta
Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Elisabet story and finale wrecked me. That monologue from Aloy before the final mission about having the weight of the world on your shoulders was heavy.
The best thing about this game is that not only is the story so intriguing and interesting but that the dialogue is so well written.
The final scene with Aloy and Elisabet was very emotional.
lightning2k3
Member
FARObots aren't a risk anymore now that the AI's all have the deactivation codes. The only reason humanity was screwed was decoding those codes took 50 years but they only had 2 to live.
One thing I think I missed was the explanation for was the continued dormancy of the Faro robots. My understanding was after civilization fell and the original human population died, the Faro robots entered a state of hibernation because there was nothing left for them to do as they consumed all available biomass on the planet. After they go into hibernation, Gaia is able to rebuild nature slowly over hundreds of years.
However, once humans start appearing again and building their own civilizations, is it explained why the Faro robots don't detect this and start coming out on their own? Why is Hades the only one that can activate them? Was there an explanation that Gaia/Zero Dawn was able to figure out how to shut down the Faro robots, and then call on Hades to re-activate and shut them down as needed (or at least, that was the plan before Hades went rogue)?
Edit: Ok so reading some more it sounds like Gaia had figured out their deactivation codes.Now that Gaia destroyed itself, I wonder if anyone has these codes anymore?
However, once humans start appearing again and building their own civilizations, is it explained why the Faro robots don't detect this and start coming out on their own? Why is Hades the only one that can activate them? Was there an explanation that Gaia/Zero Dawn was able to figure out how to shut down the Faro robots, and then call on Hades to re-activate and shut them down as needed (or at least, that was the plan before Hades went rogue)?
Edit: Ok so reading some more it sounds like Gaia had figured out their deactivation codes.Now that Gaia destroyed itself, I wonder if anyone has these codes anymore?
FlutterPuffs
Member
It was explained. They went into hibernation, while Gaia worked on decrypting their security for 60 years. She then built the tower at the end of the game that helped sent the signal to disable them.
There was probably a ton of the robots after strewn all across the land and Gaia probably recycled them. What we saw in the game however, was the last few remaining robots that were buried underground and excavated by Shadow Carja.
Gaia cracked the code for the Faro bots after like 50 years then built the spires all over the world to transmit the signal to shut them all down.
Thanks for the explanations. I'm curious if these codes are still stored somewhere after Gaia went offline? I guess it would be interesting if Hades was successful in activating all the Faro bots and corrupting the Spire, whether the next step would've been tracking down the deactivation codes.
It would be a good one but in order to do that Ted would have to let them know what he did and have his name dragged through the mud for all eternity. He didn't come off as being the type of guy that would be okay with that.
I don't think it ended abruptly. Yes, there are quite a few questions unanswered (my main one is where the rogue signal came from to separate Hades), but there's also a reason why lot of stories in fiction don't end with one book. When you create a big world and a larger story, it's challenging to compress it all into 1 book/game/movie etc. As is stands, I feel Horizon: Zero Dawn gave us a lot of answers. In fact, much more than I'd expect for a game that felt like it was built to be the next big Sony franchise from the start. We found out about Aloy's origin, who Elisabet Sobeck was, what caused Human Civilization to collapse, what Zero Dawn was. All of which were questions I had in the opening hours of the game, and I'm glad the game answered so many of them before the credits rolled. Sure, some of the answers beg further questions, but as it stands, I feel the game did a great job of satisfying a lot of my curiosity about the world as it stands and how it got there.
I suppose if you were expecting Zero Dawn to an entirely self-contained story, not getting answers to all the questions you had can feel a bit disappointing. But after seeing the end bit with Sylens all but confirming a sequel, I felt the questions they left seemed reasonable for the next story to tackle. To me, I was pleasantly surprised how much of the backstory and lore this game went into, and made me very satisfied with the story I got in this game. It also makes me look forward to see what happens next.
A lot of the questions posed just on this page are answered by the game. And there's enough left open to keep interest.
My biggest problem is that the tribes left the cradles with no information because they were locked out of Apollo, yet managed to somehow reinvent thousands of years of human invention in just a hundred or so (I'm pretty sure I got that timeline right) and have agriculture and metalwork and commerce and so on...
My biggest problem is that the tribes left the cradles with no information because they were locked out of Apollo, yet managed to somehow reinvent thousands of years of human invention in just a hundred or so (I'm pretty sure I got that timeline right) and have agriculture and metalwork and commerce and so on...
H.Cornerstone
Member
We don't really know what they were taught, It's possible they were still taught basic human survival techniques, just with Apollo being deleted they weren't taught things like physics,calculus/space flight/history etc.
Also, I was misremembering, it was actually hundreds of years, not a hundred, but still, I got the impression from the holos in the cradle that they were basically not being taught anything useful, and were bored out of their skulls. But yeah, you might be right.
H.Cornerstone
Member
I missed holo-points so I don't know for sure, I saw the one about them being disciplined, and they still have the training centers, but I can't imagine they wouldn't have taught them something about survival.