Horus

"The lesson will be taught in due time, Aloy. Until then, we wait." This article contains heavy spoilers. Read ahead with caution.

Horus
The ultimate weapon of destruction from the Old World. Capable of devastating attacks and machine production, though its ancient systems are prone to overheating.
Size	Titan
Origin	Faro Automated Solutions
Class	Chariot
Combat
Challenge Level	60
Weakness	None
Strength	All

The FAS-BOR7 Horus, generally dubbed the Metal Devil by modern tribes, is a machine in the Horizon franchise. It is not a contemporary machine; rather it is one of three machines of the ancient Chariot Line, manufactured by the robotics and technology giant Faro Automated Solutions during the mid 21st century. However, one swarm of Chariot robots, including Horuses, went out of control, becoming the Faro Plague, which ultimately eradicated all life on Earth.

History

Pre-Extinction

A holographic schematic of an FAS-BOR7 Horus in the ruins of Faro Automated Solutions

The FAS-BOR7 Horus was designed by FAS' owner and CEO Ted Faro, and developed as part of FAS' Chariot Line of combat robots. Faro designed the Chariot line to operate in swarms similar to those of certain insects. Horuses were the colossal "queens" of a swarm, replicating other swarm robots as well as themselves, in numbers that invariably overwhelmed any enemy force. Additionally, they themselves were formidable combat machines, adept at tearing into and destroying huge enemy fortifications. They could consume biomass as fuel in the event of fuel line interdiction, and their network was virtually unbreakable.

The Faro Plague

In 2064, a swarm owned by the Hartz-Timor Energy Combine suffered a bug that caused it to become an independent entity, answering only to itself. The swarm began attacking company personnel, ignored shutdown codes and began replicating at an extreme rate, defaulting to biomass conversion as its fuel supply. The swarm came to be called the Faro Plague, and began to relentlessly consume the biosphere, ultimately eradicating all life. With no chance of containing or retaking control of the swarm, Project Zero Dawn was implemented to eventually brute-force the swarm's deactivation codes, shut the robots down, terraform the ravaged Earth and re-establish life after its extinction. The Faro Plague's Horuses numbered in the thousands when it was finally shut down. Unlike the other swarm robots, which were buried by the Zero Dawn system, the chassis of the swarm's Horuses were left where they fell when they were deactivated, with many of them now overgrown with vegetation.

In the New World

Centuries passed. Zero Dawn, managed by its governing artificial intelligence GAIA, successfully terraformed the planet and reestablished life, including humanity. Through no fault of their own, the new humans lived primitive, tribal existences. The titanic derelicts of the deactivated Horuses became part of tribal legend and religious belief.

Current Status

HADES in the derelict Metal Devil it used as a refuge

Currently, there are twelve known Horus carcasses in the world, including one that was temporarily reactivated.

Horizon Zero Dawn

There are three derelict Horus units on the map of Horizon Zero Dawn.

• The first sits atop All-Mother Mountain, partially buried under snow. Its Assault Drills extend across the mountain, forming part of the path Aloy takes during the Proving. One of its drills penetrates the ruins outside ELEUTHIA-9.
• The second is far to the north atop the mountains of The Longroam, with the front of the Horus penetrating the The Grave-Hoard ruins, presumably having been destroyed in the battle that took place. This Metal Devil has a Deathbringer unit within it, which Aloy must fight as part of the The Grave-Hoard main quest.
• The third lies in the eastern part of the Sundom, deep within the jungles of The Jewel. It was this Horus that HADES took refuge in, and the Eclipse Base was built around it. The computer core of the Horus is still functional, but HADES is seemingly unable to reactivate the actual Horus.

Another Horus unit can be seen in the post-credit scene of Horizon: Zero Dawn, but it is implied that this Horus is actually one of the Metal Devils in the Forbidden West.

Horizon Call of the Mountain

A single Horus can be seen in Horizon Call of the Mountain, sitting atop the ruins of Devil's Anger. It appears that the Horus was destroyed in a battle that took place here.

Horizon Forbidden West

All Horus Locations in Horizon: Forbidden West. Burning Shore Horus is initially shown in purple, then blue after being moved.

There are seven derelict Horus units on the map of Horizon Forbidden West.

• The first of these sits in the middle of the Cinnabar Sands region of No Man's Land. This Horus is heavily damaged, with the head partially buried in the ground, and the Assault Tentacles curving out around it, some of which are severed. A number of destroyed Corruptors and Deathbringers can be found around it, along with tanks and other military weapons.
• The second Horus is a little to the South in the Jagged Deep region. This Horus is over Sylen's Workshop, and has had its computer core removed to house HADES. It is possible that this is the same Horus that is seen in the post-credits scene of Horizon: Zero Dawn.
• A third Horus can be found to the south again, slightly off the map. This Metal Devil lies across the final bunker accessed in the Drowned Hopes side quest, and was presumably destroyed in the past events detailed within this quest.
• Another Horus can be found in the Shining Wastes, perched across the mountains near Desert's Tear. This Horus seems mostly undamaged, and was likely deactivated by MINERVA's signal.
• The fifth Horus lies on the southern border of the Stillsands, where it forms part of Rebel Camp: Devil's Grasp. This is also the Horus it is recommended to get an Energy Cell from during the Shining Example side quest.
• Yet another Horus sits within the Valley of the Fallen, one that is heavily overgrown and presumably damaged.
• The final of these Horus units is across the water on the Isle of Spires, lying across the ruins of the Golden Gate Bridge. Datapoints suggest that this Horus was destroyed, or at least heavily damaged, when a nearby military ship, as a last resort, ran into the Horus at full speed.

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores

A single Horus can be found in the Burning Shores, lying above the Hollywood Sign on Mount Lee. Walter Londra reactivated some of the Horus's systems in order to power his facility as seen in The Stars in Their Eyes main quest, particularly the forcefield blocking the entrance. This was achieved by hooking up some kind of Zenith generator to the assault tentacles. Londra also utilized the printer unit of the Horus in order to build his ship. Later on, in His Final Act, Londra enters the Horus in order to partially reactivate the Horus and manually control it in his fight against Aloy and Seyka. After being defeated, the Horus ends up on an island to the west of Fleet's End, where it can be seen smoking after breaking down.

As derelicts exposed to the elements in their locations for centuries, the serviceability of most of these Metal Devils is unknown. The one in which HADES took refuge still had a functional computing core, but it was not able to reactivate it. Londra, however, was able to reactivate his Horus through a bypass that allowed him to control it directly rather than as a subordinate. Thankfully, his goal was only to kill Aloy and not the whole world like HADES would have, and eventually Aloy managed to defeat this Horus. However, it should be noted that this Horus was not at its full power, due to centuries of damage and Londra's presumed inexperience piloting it, since Horuses were AI controlled.

The Faro Plague's Metal Devils were able to replicate other swarm robots, including other Metal Devils, at rates high enough to overwhelm the technologically advanced military forces of the mid 21st century. It can therefore be logically surmised that, had HADES managed to reactivate a Metal Devil, the technologically primitive peoples of the new world would have stood no hope at all of stopping it from creating a second Faro Plague.

Appearance

Metal Devils are colossal, large enough to easily crawl over a mountain. Resembling a giant lobster, sea scorpion, or similar aquatic arthropod, a Metal Devil stands on ten legs with four long, triple-jointed legs supporting the segmented "tail" while six shorter legs support the front of the main chassis. Covered in thick, black armor plating, it has four massive tentacles at its front. Each one is as least as long as the Metal Devil's body and is tipped with an enormous drill that can also act like a scout, designed to penetrate into heavily armored fortifications and bunkers as well as grab on to things. These tentacles also have rings of spikes at different points along the tentacle.

The Horus in Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores appears to be of a different design, lacking spikes along the tentacles and with a different head design and drill tip.

Abilities

Rather than acting like contemporary machines, Horus units are found dead across the map. The only active Metal Devil is faced in a scripted battle during His Final Act. The battle is described on the page, but information about the Horus's attacks and components is listed below.

Horus Titan: His Final Act

Londra's Horus does not function like a normal machine. Most of it is invulnerable to damage, it does not have a main health bar, and it follows a set script of actions as the battle progresses. Details about the layout of the fight and how to defeat can be found on the page for His Final Act.

Components

Note that these are just the components that show up in the machine catalogue and that can be scanned with the Focus. The Horus has other weapons it can utilize that cannot be scanned or attacked.

Image:	Component:	Information:	Attributes:	Notes:
	Body		None	The main chassis of the Horus. Invulnerable to damage.
	Assault Drill		None	Seen in the stealth phase of the Horus fight. Invulnerable to damage.
	Processing Module		None	Seen in internal phase of the Horus fight. Invulnerable to damage, but couplings that attach it to the rest of the Horus can be destroyed.
	Abdominal Heat Sink		Weak Spot	Exposed in the beach phase of the fight. Must be destroyed to progress the fight.
	Side Heat Sink		Weak Spot	Initially covered by armor. Can be grappled to to expose. Must be destroyed to progress the fight.
	Tentacle Heat Sink		Weak Spot	One on each tentacle of the Horus. Exposed when the Horus pauses between attacks in the arena phase. Must be destroyed to progress the fight.
	Primary Heat Sink		Weak Spot	Exposed once all other heat sinks have been destroyed. Must be destroyed to progress the fight.
	Gun Turret		Attack Removal	Rapid-fire gun found on the side of the Horus. Is covered by armor when not in use, and can only be targeted while firing. If destroyed, will regenerate after a while.
	Bomb Turret		Attack Removal	Fire-bomb launcher found on the underside and front of the Horus. Is covered by armor when not in use, and can only be targeted while firing. If destroyed, will regenerate after a while.

Attacks

Many of the Horus's attacks are scripted and are used in different phases of the fight. The phases are as follows:

1. Stealth phase in which Aloy and Seyka must reach the cooling system.
2. Beach phase in which Aloy targets the Abdominal and Side heat sinks.
3. Arena phase in which Aloy targets the Tentacle heat sinks.
4. Arena phase in which Aloy targets the Primary heat sink.
5. Final phase in which Aloy enters the Horus and defeats Londra.

Melee Attacks

Name	Damage	Phase	Description
Drill Stab	TBA	1	TBA
Drill Sweep	TBA	1	TBA
Tentacle Slam	TBA	3	TBA
Tentacle Burrow	TBA	3	TBA
Body Slam	TBA	4	TBA

Ranged Attacks

Name	Damage	Phase	Description
Swarm Launcher	TBA	3, 4	TBA
Fire Barrage	TBA	2	TBA
EMP Blast	TBA	2	TBA
Aerial Strike	TBA	2, 3	TBA
Machine Gun Fire	TBA	3	TBA

Londra's Attacks

Name	Damage	Phase	Description
Vent	TBA	5	TBA
Shock Orbs	TBA	5	TBA
Shockwave	TBA	5	TBA

Unofficial Components

• Siege Drills/Combat Drills/Assault Drills: Mounted on the end of immense tentacles, these powerful drills can easily tunnel into the toughest of fortifications, allowing smaller units to breach enemy defenses or allowing the Horus to reduce a structure to rubble. The drills are impervious to standard weapons damage.
  • Ocular Receptors: The tentacles are also equipped with their own ocular receptors, allowing them to effectively see using them limbs, granting them access to detect opponents from any angle. Just like normal machines, the ocular lights change depending on whether they're idle, actively searching, or hostile.
• Replication/Repair Bay: The Horus features a mammoth repair and manufacturing bay where it can churn out new machines at an overwhelming pace to replenish a swarm's losses faster than they could be incurred. Not only this but we have learned that its repair bay is capable of building any machine.
• Size: Horuses could simply use its impressive size and heavily armored chassis to trample anything in the titan's way.
• Biomatter Conversion System: Originally meant as an emergency measure in case fuel supplies were cut, this system allows Horuses to turn any organic matter into biofuel.
• Polyphasic Entangled Waveform Encryption: In order to prevent the Horus possibly being remotely accessed or hacked, this beyond-military-grade security encryption was integrated into the Horus' operating system.
• EMP Charges: Light enough for a Sunwing to carry, these could be fired or flung from the Horus to take out communications or other electronic devices. They would be manufactured in the Horus' fabrication bays and then dispensed on the multi-purpose appendage "tentacles". EMPs were designed to be detachable and triggerable on impact.
• Anti-Aircraft/Close Ground Support: Similar to the Anti-Aircraft weapon known as the C-RAM today these large caliber fast fire rate guns cover the head and sides of the Horus for ultimate coverage (note you can find limited cover behind a Horus' legs from these machine guns).
• Guided Airstrike Missiles: Horuses are capable of deployment in seconds these large guided missiles are fired from the top of the Horus before slamming into the ground over a large damage area.
• Close Anti-Personal Missiles/Firebombs: Horuses can fire projectiles from the front just under their eye or from behind next to its rear cooling system these were designed to take out any targets that got by their main weaponry.
• Laser Cannon: Horus units were capable of firing a massive laser from their central ocular system.
• Aerial Drone Deployment: Horuses could deploy, possibly fabricate, swarms of small, fast moving aerial drones, for anti-air purposes.
• Hanger Bays: Horus units were capable of transporting other Faro machines including Scarabs and Kopeshs. The Scarab hangers are located in a Horus' tail while the Khopesh hanger is located behind an armored plate near the Horus' main eye.

Trivia

• Just like Corruptors and Deathbringers, the Metal Devil's original designation, Horus, is a reference to Ancient Egypt. Horus was one of the first established Egyptian gods and one of the most important in their religion. Horus was a god over many domains, but is primarily recognized as the god of the sky and war.
• The Metal Devil's 3D model is 292 meters long, 143 meters wide, and 91 meters high, including its tentacles. It uses 6.6 million triangles, and is comprised of 596 unique components.
• As referenced in the FAS-BOR7 Horus datapoint, Horus units were categorized as a "Titan-class" machine.
• Metal Devils closely resemble Reapers from Mass Effect.

Gallery

Model render, created by Alex Zapata

Quantum Processing Module model render, created by Jing Zhang

A Horus overgrown with flora near the ruins of what seems to be the Golden Gate Bridge