Scorcher

The Scorcher is a category of machine in Horizon Zero Dawn exclusive to The Frozen Wilds. A medium-sized Combat Class machine, the Scorcher exists only in The Cut, and employs fire-augmented attacks to make it an agile and highly lethal combat machine.

History
Scorchers were created by the artificial intelligence (AI) HEPHAESTUS at its R&D cauldron, Cauldron EPSILON, in The Cut. As EPSILON’s creator, HEPHAESTUS had absolute command and control authority over it and the machines it produced, and thus was able to design, field test, and deploy whatever machines it devised at this cauldron without limit. It augmented their armour and resilience to a degree that exceeds that of any known machine outside The Cut. These machines are referred to as Daemonic Machines.

Appearance
The Scorcher’s chassis somewhat resembles that of a fox or coyote as well as a Ravager, but does not have the Ravager’s tactical vulnerability to fire. Its head is vulpine, with a long, toothy snout and large ear-like structures. A pair of optical sensor arrays is positioned in the same location as a fox’s eyes. These flash bright red when the machine is about to employ a fire-based attack. Mounted on its back, between its heavyset shoulders, is a mine launcher. Positioned atop each shoulder is a heavily-armoured Blaze canister, and between its haunches is an equally heavily armoured power generator.

Behaviour
Scorchers are found singly or in packs of up to three, either guarding a herd of Zero Dawn terraforming machines or in the herd’s immediate vicinity, near enough to hear and immediately respond to their alarm cries on detecting a threat. Their servomotors produce a characteristic heavy, clanking sound, and embers periodically fall like spittle from their mouths, increasing their intimidating appearance. If a perceived threat such as an a human is identified, either by them or a nearby machine, they immediately converge on the position and engage it.

Abilities
Scorchers attack relentlessly and ferociously with close-range fire attacks or fire-augmented melee attacks. Their speed and agility allows them to close the distance between themselves and perceived threats with overwhelming aggression. Indeed, one of their attacks involves using a hidden pair of thrusters to zoom toward the enemy like a rocket. Additionally they deploy mines from their mine launchers, fired in anticipation of the enemy’s projected position. Unlike the mines of a Stalker, these mines are not proximity mines, and are not scattered as a means of distraction. Instead they are fired directly at the enemy and its anticipated change of position, and they detonate about a second after they hit the ground. If The Scorcher loses track of the enemy, its large ears are equipped with an auditory detection system that is more advanced than those of other machines, allowing it to scan tall grass.

In addition to these abilities, Daemonic Scorchers have considerably tougher armour than normal, and thus are much more damage resistant. Furthermore, they are immune to Corruption, and thus cannot be turned against other machines with Corruption Arrows, they cannot be overridden, and have considerably higher elemental resistance than normal, especially to Shock. They therefore are extremely difficult to inflict a Shock state upon. Indeed, a Shock state can only be inflicted on a Daemonic Scorcher by destroying its power pack, which takes multiple strikes from very high-powered ranged weapons due to its tough armour plating.