The Slaughterspine is a Combat Class machine in Horizon Forbidden West and Horizon Steel Frontiers.

History

Development

Like all combat class machines, the Slaughterspine was created by the rogue subordinate function HEPHAESTUS with the sole purpose of combating humans and curtailing the hunting of various machines.

Horizon Forbidden West

The first Slaughterspine Aloy encountered was Unit S-Mark-1, having been hastily created by HEPHAESTUS while trapped within Cauldron GEMINI in an attempt to fight her off, but it was unsuccessful.^[1]

After Beta released HEPHAESTUS into Far Zenith's machine printing network as part of Aloy's final assault on the Zenith base, the rogue AI fabricated several Slaughterspines, along with Thunderjaws and Dreadwings, with which it combated the Zenith's Specters, as well as the Zeniths themselves, to devastating effect.^[2]

Burning Shores

As Aloy and Seyka confronted Walter Londra in Pangea Park to save Kina and Peera, an Apex Slaughterspine ploughed its way into the ruins, immediately killing Peera underfoot. As Londra escaped, Aloy and Seyka destroyed the Slaughterspine.^[3]

After Aloy returned to the Forbidden West after venturing through the Burning Shores, she found that the Arena had started offering a fight known as the 'Plasma and Fire', requiring hunters to destroy an Apex Slaughterspine and Apex Fireclaw in a single fight.

Appearance

The Slaughterspine has a design based roughly on an outdated reconstruction of Spinosaurus. The face of the Slaughterspine easily shows the long extinct creature's influence in the machines design, with a long, slender snout with a split jaw, orange headpiece and a pair of quad optical sensors. It is covered head to tail in heavy armor plating, protecting it from plasma, fire, shock, and acid damage. Armor juts around the neck, up to the back.

The Slaughterspine has a massive saw-bladed sail across its back, with two smaller, similarly sized spines around the main sail that serve as missile launchers. On its chest, it has a plasma earthblaster that covers a plasma core, and above it is a plasma energizer, which it uses to charge up its attacks. It has two massive legs, with the hips having circular plasma energizers that it uses to further charge its attacks, and two long forelimbs with Metalbite sacs on the shoulders. It has a long tail that ends in a three-pronged fan, each prong being capable of opening up to fire out lasers. It has Chillwater canisters on its neck and Purgewater canisters on its tail-limb.

Behavior

Like many large machines, Slaughterspines are solitary, almost never being seen near other machines. They are frequently found along coasts, patrolling the beaches and attacking any human on sight.

Abilities

The Slaughterspine is one of the most dangerous machines created yet by HEPHAESTUS, combining agility with a large arsenal of Plasma attacks, as well as incredibly heavy armor which makes damaging the machine difficult. Both varieties of Slaughterspine are resistant to most elemental damages, with Shock and Plasma resistances being shared among them.

The Slaughterspine can bite the ground and try to charge into Aloy, slash her with its tail or stomp her if she gets too close. It can power up with the Plasma Energizers on its legs and release a massive plasma-infused shockwave, along with a high pitched screech that can deafen targets, giving the machine a window of opportunity to attack. Using its tail, it can fire 5 plasma beams at Aloy or infuse its normal attacks with Plasma. It can also blast a laser of plasma from its mouth, launch a plasma wave from its earthblaster, and shoot energized plasma missiles from its spinal launchers.

Weaknesses

While the Slaughterspine is incredibly deadly with its plasma attacks, it can only do this for so long before needing to recharge. Whenever it needs to recharge (or when the fight starts) it will open the plasma energizers on its hips and above the earthblaster. Hitting these allow for high damage and will cause them to retract, with one energizer fully retracting resulting in its deactivation. Shutting down all three prevents the Slaughterspine from getting enough charge, forcing it to attack with kinetics alone.

The Plasma Lancer and Plasma Spine Launcher can be shot off and used against it, though the machine itself is resistant to Plasma, making the weapons virtually useless against it.

Removing the armor around the plasma core in its chest reveals a key weak spot which can be shot for extra damage.

Finally, the machine has a Metalbite sack (Purgewater in case of the Apex variant) on each of its shoulders, which can be destroyed to cause an elemental explosion that automatically inflicts the status ailment on it.

The regular Slaughterspine is weak toward Freeze and Purgewater, whereas the Apex-variant is weak toward Acid and Fire.

Attacks

Name	Trigger Range	Windup Time	Damage	Description
Enraged Plasma Blast	15m - 45m	Short
Raging Breath (Lead Up)	25m - 60m	Short
Raging Breath (Wave)	25m - 60m	Short
Enraged Atomic Breath	10m - 40m	Very Long
Spine Barrage	15m - 40m	Medium
Precision Spine Strike	15m - 40m	Long
Lancer Wave	15m - 50m	Medium
Lancer Eruption	0m - 52m	Long
Core Earthblaster	15m - 40m	Medium
Thundering Roar	0m - 31m	Very Short	Deafened
Raging Plasma Discharge	25m - 40m	Very Short
Slaughter Bite	14m - 22m 30m - 90m	Short
Rampage Rush	31m - 62m	Medium
Dragging Plasma Sweep	15m - 22m	Medium
Slaughter Sweep 180	12m - 32m	Medium
Slaughter Sweep 360	7m - 16m	Medium
Double Maul	4m - 19m	Medium
Rampage Stomp	4m - 19m	Very Short
Slaughter Crush	0m- 9m	Very Short

Components

Slaughterspine

Image	Name	Description	Attributes
	Body	Hard outer casing to protect synthetic muscle and operational systems.	None
	Processing Capsule	Resource and materials storage for internal functions. Tear off to collect its contents.	Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Purgewater Canister	Purgewater storage. Tear off to collect this resource or shoot with a Purgewater Arrow to detonate.	Chain Reaction Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Metalbite Sac	Metalbite storage. Destroy to disable Acid attacks or leave intact to add loot to the carcass.	Explosive Attack Removal Persists When Killed Contains Resources If Intact
	Plasma Core	Highly protected Plasma storage. Detach or destroy the Plasma Earthblaster to expose this weak spot.	Indestructible Weak Spot
	Plasma Earthblaster	Part of the Plasma arsenal, this devastating weapon launches homing payloads along the ground. Detach or destroy to disable.	Detachable Attack Removal Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Plasma Energizer	When fully charged, this plasma generator can enhance the machine's attacks. Damage it is while it is charging to prevent this.	Indestructible Ability Removal
	Plasma Spine Launcher	Part of the Plasma arsenal, this powerful weapon fires homing orbs of Plasma.	Detachable Attack Removal Persists When Killed Useable Weapon
	Capacitator Capsule	Reinforced resource storage. Tear off to collect its contents.	Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Antenna	Signal transmitter used to call in machine reinforcements.	Detachable Reinforcement Call Removal Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Chillwater Canister	Chillwater storage. Tear off to collect this resource or shoot with a Frost Arrow to detonate.	Chain Reaction Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Tail Canister	Storage container for valuable resources. Tear off to collect its contents.	Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Spinetail Lancer	Part of the Plasma arsenal, this powerful weapon fires Plasma beans either as a long-range wave or a ground eruption.	Detachable Attack Removal Persists When Killed Useable Weapon

Apex Slaughterspine

Image	Name	Description	Attributes
	Body	Hard outer casing to protect synthetic muscle and operational systems.	None
	Processing Capsule	Resource and materials storage for internal functions. Tear off to collect its contents.	Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Acid Canister	Metalbite storage. Tear off to collect this resource or shoot with an Acid Arrow to detonate.	Chain Reaction Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Purgewater Sac	Purgewater storage. Destroy to disable Acid attacks or leave intact to add loot to the carcass.	Explosive Attack Removal Persists When Killed Contains Resources If Intact
	Plasma Core	Highly protected Plasma storage. Detach or destroy the Plasma Earthblaster to expose this weak spot.	Indestructible Weak Spot
	Plasma Earthblaster	Part of the Plasma arsenal, this devastating weapon launches homing payloads along the ground. Detach or destroy to disable.	Detachable Attack Removal Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Plasma Energizer	When fully charged, this plasma generator can enhance the machine's attacks. Damage it is while it is charging to prevent this.	Indestructible Ability Removal
	Plasma Spine Launcher	Part of the Plasma arsenal, this powerful weapon fires homing orbs of Plasma.	Detachable Attack Removal Persists When Killed Useable Weapon
	Capacitator Capsule	Reinforced resource storage. Tear off to collect its contents.	Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Antenna	Signal transmitter used to call in machine reinforcements.	Detachable Reinforcement Call Removal Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Blaze Canister	Blaze storage. Tear off to collect this resource or shoot with a Fire Arrow to detonate.	Chain Reaction Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Tail Canister	Storage container for valuable resources. Tear off to collect its contents.	Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
	Spinetail Lancer	Part of the Plasma arsenal, this powerful weapon fires Plasma beans either as a long-range wave or a ground eruption.	Detachable Attack Removal Persists When Killed Useable Weapon

Loot

Gallery

See Slaughterspine/Gallery

Notable Slaughterspines

Destroyed

Trivia

• Slaughterspine sites are usually located along coasts and beaches. This may be a reference to its animal inspiration, as Spinosauri were semi-aquatic and frequently found on both land and water (although the Slaughterspine has displayed no aquatic capabilities).
• The Slaughterspine can be seen as something of a newer or more powerful alternative to the Thunderjaw introduced in the previous game, Horizon Zero Dawn; this is similar to the film Jurassic Park III, where Spinosaurus was presented as a newer, deadlier alternative to the Tyrannosaurus Rex used in previous Jurassic Park films.
  • Additionally, both the 2D and 3D model prototype versions of the Slaughterspine have designs that are very similar to the Thunderjaw.
• The Slaughterspine's appearance heavily deviates from its animal influence, Spinosaurus, in some areas. Most likely due to it being based on an outdated design:
  • Its legs seem to be based off typical bipedal theropods dinosaurs, whereas Spinosaurus' legs were relatively short compared to its bodylength and was thus likely partly quadrupedal.
  • Its tail is long and thin similar to typical theropods dinosaurs, whereas Spinosaurus' tail had a sail to propel itself through the water.
• The Slaughterspine's combat behavior and attack styles are a heavy reference to the titular monster Godzilla from the franchise of the same name, specifically the incarnation from the 2016 Shin Godzilla, many of the Slaughterspine's attacks ranging from the mouth to the tail and the split beams are almost identical to Godzilla , even one of its attacks the Enraged Atomic Breath, is of the same name as Godzilla's infamous attack.

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Gemini
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Singularity
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} For His Amusement

Wiki Navigation

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Variants	Apex Machine - Corrupted Machine - Daemonic Machine