Watcher

The Watcher is a category of machine in Horizon Zero Dawn. The smallest of machines, Watchers are designed for reconnaissance and scanning for potential threats in the area in order to warn other machines. The Watcher comes in two forms, the original, unarmed version and the upgraded, armed version.

History
Not much is known about the Watcher's past or its first appearance, except that it is presumed that GAIA created Watchers to help in the re-terraforming of the Earth. Their original function was to scout the area and find areas with weak ground for other terraforming machines to reseed the earth. However, when the Derangement occurred, Watchers became increasingly aggressive towards humans, while the AI HEPHAESTUS reprogrammed Watchers to scan for human hunters in order to protect other machines.

Appearance
The Watcher's chassis mainly resembles that of a small theropod dinosaur, more specifically a small velociraptor. It has an abnormally large head with one large blue eye, which serves as the Watcher's only weakpoint. It has a long, flexible neck composed of synthetic muscle which gives it a larger field of vision. It has a small metallic body with a pair of thin springboard legs attached to it, as well as a long tail of synthetic muscle.

Behaviour
Watchers are primarily deployed in groups with other machines such as Striders, Grazers and Lancehorns, but can also appear in sites by themselves. Each Watcher patrols a circuitous path around the herd, stopping at intervals to crane its neck vertically to its full length and optically scan the area. This allows the herd to work without having to stop and look out for threats. If a watcher detects and identifies a threat, it loudly sounds a warning, causing the herd to break and flee. Frequently Watchers are deployed in tandem with a combat machine such as a Sawtooth, which will immediately converge on the alerting Watcher’s position as a primary threat response.

However, even in the absence of a combat machine or if not protecting a herd, Watchers immediately and aggressively attack threats upon detection and identification. Most notably this includes any encountered human. Furthermore, their loud alert call summons any nearby, more dangerous machines, quickly escalating a battle.

In addition to reconnaissance, Watchers are also deployed as escorts for machine convoys bringing resources to Cauldrons.

Abilities
Aside from their ability to detect and alert other machines to threats, Watchers utilize their numbers to flank and attack an enemy. Their basic attack is a melee in which they jump and throw themselves at the threat; their momentum can cause significant injury to any human they employ this attack against. They will also use their tails in a bludgeon attack at close range. Additionally, they also employ a stun attack in which they emit an extremely bright flash from their ocular sensor array, which blinds an disorients humans.

Attacks
*Blinding stun flash does not work against machines*

Trivia

 * Watchers are the first machines that Aloy encounters through her training with Rost when she is a child (thus the first machine type the player encounters).