- "You bring me the blood, I tell you what it reveals."
- ―Brin
Acquired Taste is a side quest in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Synopsis[]
Aloy stumbles upon a small wooden shack in the western region of the Sundom. Inside she finds an exiled Banuk shaman named Brin. Aloy notices that the shaman has been wounded, apparently by a Sawtooth. He explains that he was attempting to drink the machine’s blood when he was attacked. He asks Aloy to bring him blood from a Sawtooth and offers to share his vision with her in return.
Brin suggests that she hunt in the Ridge of Veils, but any defeated Sawtooth can be looted for its blood. Once acquired, Aloy returns to Brin who drinks the blood and relays a vision of machine swarms suddenly driven mad. He then asks Aloy to bring him the blood of a Corruptor, pointing her to Coiled Canyon's cliffs where she will find Corruptor corpses. Aloy collects the Corruptor blood from the downed machines and returns to Brin, who has a vision of Corruptors ravaging the land and bending other machines to their will.
Next, he asks Aloy to retrieve blood from the "hidden machines" found deep in the Jewel. Aloy acquires the Stalker blood and brings it to Brin, who tells of a vision about the unflinching precision of these machines. He next requests blood from a Thunderjaw, noting that they can be found in the eastern valleys. Aloy hunts a Thunderjaw and loots it, returning to Brin for the next vision. He drinks the blood and is struck by a vision that shows Thunderjaws to be young machines created because of humans. Aloy then asks Brin whether there are any machines whose blood he has never tasted. Brin tells her to hunt a Stormbird. Once Aloy takes down this machine and loots the blood for Brin, she returns to his hut for the final vision. Instead, Brin appears frightened by his vision and insists that he and Aloy should leave. He tells her that he has seen a vision of the future and dangerous storm is approaching.
Brin's Visions[]
Sawtooth Blood Vision[]
- Brin: “Before the time of the Sawtooth, the machines ran as one pack. Metal drumming on metal, keeping pace out to the lightning’s edge. The rumble of low storms, that’s them in motion. And then—a confusion. Something has changed. The great direction breaks, splits off like a dead branch! They’re tumbling now. When they recover, violence is what they know. Now metal screeches on metal. A death dance, learned from wars before our eyes learned to see. The Sawtooth, the Ravager, they hunt in the long shadows of others. Jagged shapes, old shapes, with bloody eyes. And the machines no longer rise and swell as one thing, an all-thing."
Corruptor Blood Vision[]
- Brin: “These Corruptors never belonged to the herds. They crawled. From beneath desert or rust, from the bones of old machines. Sickness to spread. That’s how they came. Cold metal runs hot, buckles with thorn-cuts and tail-stings. A fever of obedience. My ears are ringing. I grasp at my tongue—an ingot falls out, stamped with circles and lines! Directions. Instructions. To break a machine’s will—I heard the metal screaming, huntress! I leave the ingot where it falls. This isn’t for us to know. Corruptor after Corruptor tramples it in their greedy tread.
Stalker Blood Vision[]
- Brin: “A Stalker, watching us. Watch by us! In red eyes I thought to see ourselves reflected! No—they were dull, and set. Set with a purpose precise from their machine-mother foundries. They prey. They will not flinch. They are indifferent to the wild, they are… final. They are weapons, that’s all. My heart drops. Why look for understanding in the ax the moment before it splits your skull? No. No, there is more. The ax does not remember its smelting. These machines do, and pine for the Metal World."
Thunderjaw Blood Vision[]
- Brin: “I followed red trails through a green world. Thunderjaw, striding, with the majesty of an old god. These wicked parts, fashioned to kill men—this great whole, made to haunt the sleep of children. And I realize: it is a young beast. It was not there to see the first strange birds roost upon a metal skull! It came because of us. Hunters. I saw many, of tribes gone and yet to come. I even saw you there, fiery-haired, fierce, bared—"
- Aloy: "What--"
- Brin: "Bared of metal, huntress! Bared of what we tore from their hides to be strong like them, savage like them. We built our world in the machines’ shadow. Called them out with every strike of rock and hammer."
Stormbird Blood Vision[]
- (Upon giving the quest objective)
- Brin: “They must know how the orbit slows, fades, falls, decays. And yet, returns to more than zero."
- (Upon Brin drinking the Stormbird blood)
- Aloy: “You look… startled. Are you okay?”
- Brin: “I must leave. You should, too.”
- Aloy: “Without a story? I brought down a Stormbird—“
- Brin: “You did. You’re very able. And you’re right. Owed is owed. But no more stories of the past—all told! All done! Future stories. I saw an onrushing storm. The future comes hungry, for man and machine. It will catch me, I expect. Catch us all! So enough hunts, enough visions. I’ll run—chase that teasing sun to the Forbidden West.
- Aloy: “ I don’t understand – I mean, not that I ever understand – but are you saying we should fear what’s coming?”
- Brin: “Ohhh. Yes. Jungle on fire. Machine-blue light dying out in the eddies of ashes. You, fallen, pale as snow-flash… eyes staring open. The Metal World, but not the one I sought! The future is a frightful dream, huntress!”
Objectives[]
- Gather Sawtooth Blood
- Deliver the Blood to Brin
- Gather Corruptor Blood
- Deliver the Blood to Brin
- Gather Stalker Blood
- Deliver the Blood to Brin
- Gather Thunderjaw Blood
- Deliver the Blood to Brin
- Gather Stormbird Blood
- Deliver the Blood to Brin
Walkthrough[]
Trivia[]
- One of Brin's visions has him mention that machines that were made after what appears to be the Derangement have "jagged, old shapes". This might be a reference to how post-Derangement machines like the Thunderjaw, Stormbird and Sawtooth are modeled after prehistoric creatures that were long extinct before the Old Ones (eg. theropod dinosaurs, Haast's eagles, and sabertooth tigers).
- Brin can be asked to repeat his vision-tellings as long as the quest has not been concluded. After giving the Stormbird blood, he will proceed to disappear and no longer can be talked to.
- Brin's vision of an "onrushing storm" after drinking Stormbird blood could be a reference to the supercell storms forming in the Forbidden West - although after the reveal of Nemesis, it could be a reference, or even a possible foreshadow, to the malevolent AI.
- The name of the quest has two meanings:
- An "acquired taste" is something/someone that many dislike, but some have an appreciation for.
- Aloy is collecting - or "acquiring" - machine blood samples for Brin to literally taste.
- According to the Special Item descriptions, Sawtooth blood is clear and acidic, Corruptor blood is oozing and malodorous (even Brin finds its taste notably "disgusting"), Stalker blood is bubbly and sour-smelling, Thunderjaw blood is thick and viscous, and Stormbird blood is pale and sparkly.