#this was from a dead tremortusk

[robo-dino-puppy]

little spark

[thessalian]

Thess vs Raintrace

Welp, did it again. Managed to avoid any and all actual main quest. And the side quest I was really aiming for. And the collecting bits I logged back in to do in the first place. Because sometimes I am Like That.

Okay, I am going to head in a Talanah-ward direction. I could just fast travel to that campfire I picked up near the meet-up point, buuuuut I'd really like to get a few more campfires in the area. Maybe pick up that black box on the way. Also ... the map says there's something up there, and the interactive map online says it's another black box and I don't know if I have it or not. So I'll start there.

Well, either the interactive map is lying to me or I somehow got this black box already. Because there is not one there. However, there is a chunk of greenshine. Not much, but made scaling the mountain worth it.

And gliiiiiiiiiiding down--ofuck.

Apparently my stealth armour is not yet so good that things don't notice me when I drift by. Really need to hunt a frostclaw or two at some point. Anyway, I can just hide in this bush until the Clawstriders go away.

Yeah, I checked the hunter bunch but it wanted me to do too many specifics that weren't "target it in its weak spots from hiding until it's dead". I am, however, going to scan and kill that Tremortusk because I understand I'll be seeing one as part of main quest and I want practice.

(I do love it when their weak spots are, like, bigger than I am.)

Right. Black box. And... Why are there Apex Stalkers fucking everywhere right now?!? What did you Oseram lunatics do?!?

Yeah, you can have the missile launchers but I KEEP THE STEALTH FIELD GENERATORS. Okay? Okay. ...Wait. Wut.

So off I go to chase after a guy who was in turn chased by a Thunderjaw. I mean, I get that those buggers can be persistent, but ... what was one even doing here? As we can plainly see, those things crunch the everloving shit out of the ecosystem.

Oh, hi, GAIA. ...Cauldron this way, you say? Well, I'll keep an eye out but I might well end up with a Thunderjaw up in my business soon, so--

Oh. Thunderjaw is dead. But so is Oseram dude. Poor Oseram dude. Aaaaaaaaaand he doesn't have the key on him. ...Okay, either he threw it somewhere as a weapon or something with manual dexterity pickpocketed him--

Yep. Fuck. Clamberjaws. NO I WILL NOT USE THE DISC LAUNCER THANK YOU. Poonk time is now.

One ... and two ... and three right off the damn wall. I rule. Now. Do any of you little fuckers have the key? No. Guess I'll have to go to your nest or whatever. Because of course I get a climbing montage.

...Okay, this is not their nest, but I have a feeling that the approach of the main door of Cauldron: CHI is going to involve, "You can't get in that way; find another entrance" and "another entrance" will be this perfectly triangular hole in the cliff face. But there's no way to climb past it so up the other way.

Key! Okay, back we go.

...Okay, via a couple of campfires and-- Aaaand that rebel camp.

"You're gonna make me work for it, aren't you?" Yeah, well, making you come to me is compensation. You jackasses spread across the camp and I generally kill you all from such long range that I underestimate how far away you were and then spend fifteen minutes looting your corpses. Nice to have one of you close for a change. *silent STRIKE* Also melee is for chumps unless you're absolutely sure where your target is. kthnxbai.

Right. So, back to Danur via a couple of campfires, a rebel camp-- And that question mark.

That question mark is ... a Sunken Cavern, patrolled by Watchers and an acid Clawstrider. Yaaaaaaaaaay. Maybe I'll come back another time.

Here you go, Danur-- Ah, yeah, none of you are in shape for scavenging. Yes, I can do that.

Behemoths? No problem. There's the stomping grounds for one right over there and--

Oh. You want ... different Behemoths. A long way away. Right. Anything a little closer?

Well, you're sending me underwater fairly close to where I have to be to help a friend of mine, so ... yeah, okay.

But first I'm going to go settle down in that shelter. Night is falling in-game, night has fallen out of game, and there is a rebel camp ripe for the picking just across what used to be a highway from my spot. I could probably shoot about half of them without getting out of what passes for bed. So it'll be a nice little bit of hyperfocus-plus-wakeup in the morning.

And then I am going back via the salvager guys because there's a greenshine slab not far south of there and I need it to upgrade a new bow. I have a Sharpshot bow that fires Plasma arrows and Tear arrows. The Tear arrows I might use. The Plasma ones ... meh.

...See, this is why I never really get anywhere. There's always one more thing I need. I need the greenshine slabs. I need that Frostjaw up north. I need bass bits. I need carp bits. I need moonfish bits. I need duck bits.

(Okay, to be fair, I no longer need duck bits. Spent a lot of my jungle time shooting ducks out of the sky for feathers and wishbones. It's a thing.)

Anyway, yeah, the collecting and the crafting is Zen and kind of my jam. Just there are so many kinds of Zen-jam for me in this. Hunting ducks and owls. Hunting machines. Systematically picking off rebels in their camps with them wondering where the fuck the arrows are coming from. Just ... I shouldn't Zen out so much that I don't get the actual story quest done.

This is how I do, apparently. And now I will wind down with, like, Logic Town or House Flipper 2 or something.

[metalgearsolidexclamationpoint]

Finished Death's Door, The Dying Lands, and gained access to the Base. Subsequently climbed up the mountain and overrode a Sunwing, who is currently parked outside of Memorial Grove. I really hate to tempt fate, but… UH has not shown itself to be, like, ultra hard.

I think part of this is resource management. Supposedly HZD made it infamously difficult to get resources on UH. Merchants jack the prices way up, and drops are much more limited. I circumvented this problem by doing a whole-ass NG+ playthrough where I opened every chest, picked every berry and ridgewood, and used hardly anything but advanced hunter arrows so that when UH rolled around, I would have enough echo shell or crystal braiding or whatever. I'm also trying to be a little more conservative with my ammo, although it does feel like aiming is less forgiving -- perhaps there's some secret aim assist on Normal difficulty. Or maybe it's just more "realistic" in arrow trajectory? I feel like I'm going high with a lot of shots, and nerves definitely caused me to miss the stupid attachments in the Recluse Spider room. Luckily, Erik didn't actually do that much damage, and my outfit was my shock-absorption outfit (not to be confused with my anti-acid attire).

The Dying Lands was the first quest I had any worries about (assuming UH wouldn’t be overwhelmingly difficult from the get-go), and indeed, the first battle I died in was the Clawstrider bonanza. I remember dying to that fight a few times in my first playthrough. But I was also not great at strategizing (there are elemental pots/dead Bellowbacks all over the place that I didn’t use very effectively), and pretty sloppy overall. This time I played much more defensively and Berserked the Clawstriders in hopes it would give me time to pick off the stupid scroungers or whatever who apparently show up just to cause chaos. I need to be a little smarter about environmental assets, because I was trying to brittle them and wondering why Varl seemed to have an ice weapon, when in fact he had set off a little frozen pot.

The Grimhorn wasn’t bad (or the Leaplashers in the beginning of the cauldron), and Varl and Zo were much, much better at distracting and taking out the weaker enemies than I anticipated. They pretty much kept the Grimhorn’s companions at bay while I worked at taking down the big boy – much more so than I expected from non-controllable companions. I’ve always been diligent about placing traps around the arena every time it looks boss-like (the final override of a cauldron, obviously, but also the room where you meet Beta, the elevator where you fight Erik), but I haven’t used the tripcaster or ropecaster at all, and I barely use special stamina moves. Half the time I can’t figure out how to use them (how do you notch 3 arrows?? Do you keep hitting R1?? I get knocked the fuck over every time I try and it seems to all come to nothing!!). I really thought that I was going to suffer in UH based on how little of the new mechanics I bother to use – the aforementioned special moves, melee combos, shredder gauntlet/specter gauntlet (I can’t lock-on to an enemy then line up the aim to shoot it without getting fucked up for enough time to make the lock-on disappear – skill issue, sure, but my stupid hunter bow with advanced arrows has killed everything fine so far, and only takes a few shards (of which I have 60K) and ridgewood (of which I have 2.5K) to make new arrows)/boltblasters (takes waaaaaaaay too long to do anything), but so far it seems like I’m fine without it. And if I beat UH without it, why learn to master it at all? Sigh.

I finished The Fraud by Zadie Smith during the cutscenes. Fantastic read, and a great example of historical fiction being, basically, a parable for modern issues without being too winky or didactic (for the most part. There were a few moments that were too on-the-nose…). I had time to do this because besides the a few rebel back-stabbys, the Tremortusk, what is more or less an on rails section, and a Slitherfang that dies in a cutscene anyway, the next two chapters were basically just talking.

The Tremortusk was the imminent fight I was dreading the most -- I thought it would be the wake-up call (again…). It killed me a few times in my first playthrough. Funny thing, I’ve fought so many Dreadwings, Slitherfangs, and Tiderippers to farm upgrades that I’m not worried about those upcoming battles (in Demeter, the Kulrut, and Poseidon) even though I’m sure they can fuck me right up.

As it turned out, the Tremortusk was a simple matter of freezing and dodging it. The Kulrut was a simple matter of holding down the R2 button (my wrist is not pleased with me). And the Slitherfang was a simple matter of setting it on fire. Apparently there was a Tenakth giving me fire support, as she kept yelling at me to get it in range, but I saw no actual evidence of her hitting it. And I guess I just never noticed before that it dies specifically in the cutscene. I know that this is so it can collapse in such a way that it forms a bridge to get out of the arena, but it really gave me the impression that actually I only had to survive for five minutes and the fight would be over. Maybe it just felt that way because UH does feel a little like you are just chipping away at a huge and yet indeterminate health bar.

So now I'm worried about the Specters in the next mission. I think it will be my next potential wake-up call, followed by the Apex Thunderjaw in Faro's Tomb, plus doing the end of that quest in the stupid outfit. I'll probably be there in about three hours… it's kind of crazy how linear and quick the main quest line is. You know, if you already put 125+ hours in it so moving from point to point is a breeze.

[socialfilter]

headcanoning HFW characters’ favourite machines because I can:

Aloy: Easy, it’s her Sunwing. No ifs, buts or maybes. It’s her damn bird, might be her favourite because Beta gave it to her, might be because she seems to quite like heights. I should also include Tallnecks, purely because I just love the way she interacts with them.

Talanah: Now I want to say it’s Stalkers but tbh that’s my personal preference. For Talanah, it’s most likely Stormbirds. If that girl could have a pet, it’d be a Stormbird. Change my mind.

Kotallo: It has to be said I absolutely adore that boy. His favourite machine is either the Tremortusk or Behemoths. Honestly if you found him a mount, it would be a Behemoth because they’re such big bastards - I just think he likes them.

Zo: Grimhorns and Plowhorns. Easy peasy.

Varl: I like to think it’s Chargers. They’re the machines he learned to ride and was the first one he got to interact with after Aloy gave him a Focus.

Erend: For Erend, although he hates machines, he does have a favourite and that, for me, is Fireclaws and Frostclaws. Anything that would take one hell of a smack from his hammer to take down, he likes. Fireclaws are absolutely huge and he likes a challenge. If it’s not the bears, it’s definitely Widemaws.

Alva: Alva doesn’t hate machines but she doesn’t like being near them. If we were talking personality-wise, it would probably be Burrowers because they’re not too threatening and let’s face it, pretty cute. That being said I like to think, if she looks at them from a distance, it’s Tiderippers.

Beta: Burrowers. At some point, she’ll override one and use it as an assistant to help her make things. You know she wouldn’t tell Aloy about it either and chaos would ensue.

Regalla: Slitherfangs, ‘nuff said.

Yarra: Yarra doesn’t have a favourite. Meat is her favourite. (it’s totally Rockbreakers)

Drakka: Drakka’s favourites are definitely Thunderjaws. The meaner the better.

Dekka: With Dekka, I think she’d have a favourite machine she could ride that wasn’t initially fearsome-looking but could still pose a threat if she wanted it to. For that reason, it’s Bristlebacks.

Hekarro: Slaughterspines and Rollerbacks. He’s such an imposing figure, I reckon his taste in machines is the same.

Fashav: hmmm I struggle with Fashav because we don’t know him awfully well. But I think it would be a machine that is something you’d also find in the Sundom so…Ravagers?

Elisabet: Look I know she’s dead but you can’t tell me she didn’t have her favourites. Aside from GAIA and her obvious sub functions, I think her favourites would be Grazers. They’re non-threatening and pretty normal to look at. If it’s not Grazers, it’s Plowhorns.

Tilda: Again, she’s probably barely seen any actual machines but I think - if we’re talking Aloy’s world, it would be Sunwings or Scorchers. Sunwings because I think they’re quite elegant when they’re not squawking all over the place. Scorchers because idk, if they were domesticated animals they’d give off ‘I’ve been expecting you Mr Bond’ sorta vibes. does that make sense?

——————————————————————

Me, I have too many personal favourites. It’s probably Dreadwings, Stalkers, Tiderippers and Shellsnappers. Anything massive or anything that can turn invisible - I’m in.

[jessicatredes]

i was tagged by @chloefrazer (like a week ago........) to do this fun thing - thanks!!

rules: list your 10 favorite characters from 10 different fandoms and tag 10 people!

1. arcade gannon <3 (fallout new vegas)  2. parvati holcomb (the outer worlds) 3. steve rogers (marvel) 4. ghost (destiny) 5. ellie williams (the last of us) 6. stiles stilinski <3 (teen wolf) 7. elena fisher (uncharted) 8. ellis (left 4 dead) 9. westley (the princess bride) 10. adrian “that bitch” veidt (watchmen movie)

i’m tagging @trvelyans @tremortusk @jmiacolt @jennystahl @joelmiller @uncharted2007 @talwyngf @myrcella @corpo-rat​ @chuckhansen​ + anyone else who wants to :-)

[meggannn]

more notes on the forbidden west footage:

erend was not kidding when he said the raiders "slaughtered" his vanguard. when aloy finds the survivor, another guy's body is lying on the ground next to them and his head is completely missing. (maybe they had the tremortusk... erm... crush them to death? it would make their little "joke" where they nearly do it to him even worse.)

dead corruptor in the water when aloy goes swimming?

lots of people have already noted SF locations... the golden gate bridge is a big one, obviously, and there is the big shot of the transamerica tower when aloy reaches the beach.

there are what looks to be a few ruined churches or towers around the pyramid, but i wasn't able to find any corresponding buildings that looked similarly in a close radius on google maps. maybe they're just office buildings. (it has been a few years since i've been to SF so forgive any inaccuracies.) while escaping from clawstriders, aloy runs into a ruined building with lots of arches and climbs the pillars inside it. i wondered if that was meant to be a church the audience could recognize, but i wasn't able to find anything that really matches. the closest church that looks similarly to this might be notre dame des victoires church which is about half a mile away from the transamerica pyramid. it does have columns indoors and apses at the front, but the front windows don't match and the ceiling arches are more rounded instead of pointed like in the game, so this one might just be a random building, unless someone can recognize it.

someone on reddit seems pretty sure it's grace cathedral, although from what we can see, i don't think the front windows of the buildings match up and the real cathedral doesn't seem to have round apses, although the arches are definitely more pointed at the top and it is within about six blocks of the pyramid.

the words on the ruined buildings say "diner" and "liquor." there are also quite a few cable cars scattered around all the beaches (i can only add 10 photos per post otherwise i'd add more, but they're in the background in a lot of places).

row houses!

possibly lombard street?

@thewritersramblings said lombard street is much further away from the transamerica pyramid in real life, although the golden gate bridge is a couple miles from the downtown area irl and probably would not be able to be walked/ridden to so quickly, so it's likely they condensed the map. (i'm pretty sure they condensed the map for utah/colorado in HZD too)

in another shot you can see apartment balconies over "lombard street," and aloy uses what i THINK might be a destroyed metal devil leg as a "bridge" to cross over it.