Corruptor

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

Corruptor
Long buried in the earth, leaving it weak to heat. It remains an agile, deadly war machine.
Size	Medium
Weight	Midweight
Origin	Faro Automated Solutions
Class	Chariot
Override	Impossible
Combat
Challenge Level	18
HP	1900
Weakness	Fire
Strength	Corruption (HZD) Berserk (HFW)
Weak Points	Eyes Heat Core Grenade Launcher Spike Launcher

Nora: "By the Goddess, what’s it doing to them?"
Aloy: "Taking control."

―First Corruptor encounter

The Corruptor, known in the Old World as the FAS-ACA3 Scarab, is a machine in Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.

History

In the Old World

Scarabs in the Faro Plague.

The FAS-ACA3 Scarab was developed as part of Faro Automated Solutions’ Chariot line of peacekeeping robots. FAS designed the Chariot line to operate in swarms similar to those of certain insects. Scarabs were the all-terrain reconnaissance units of a swarm, capable of rapid movement over any type of terrain. Additionally, they could repair themselves and other swarm robots, consume biomass as fuel in the event of fuel line interdiction, conduct electronic warfare by turning enemy robots against their masters, and their OS’ security was virtually unbreakable.

In 2064, a swarm owned by a corporation called the Hartz-Timor Energy Combine became independent, replicating at an alarming rate, and defaulting to biomass conversion as its fuel supply. This came to be known as the Faro Plague, and began to relentlessly consume biomass, degrading the biosphere towards collapse, eventually eradicating all life. With no chance of containment or reassuming control of the swarm, Project Zero Dawn was implemented to brute-force the swarm’s deactivation codes, shut the robots down, terraform the ravaged Earth and reestablish life after its extinction. The Scarabs and other Faro robots that had overrun the planet numbered in the millions by the time of Zero Day.

In Thebes, Ted Faro kept two Scarabs inside to act as guards for the bunker, standing on standby like statues behind the giant statue of Ted.

Around the year 2116-2126, GAIA was able to use MINERVA to successfully shut down the Faro Plague using several transmission arrays around the world.

In the New World

While Zero Dawn restored the planet to a habitable state, the millions of Scarabs and other Faro Plague robots remained inactive, frozen in place all across the world. With no knowledge of the Old World and the Scarabs' true purpose, the new humans dubbed these ancient machines Corruptors.

However, Bohai and the Ceo doesn't appear to recognize Corruptors, hinting that Corruptor remains may not exist in the Great Delta.

Horizon Zero Dawn

An active Corruptor in the New World.

Centuries later, after HADES was awakened by Nemesis to destroy Earth's biosphere, but after it failed to do so with the Zero Dawn terraforming system, it manipulated Sylens into forming a cult in its service, the Eclipse. HADES then had the Eclipse exhume numerous Corruptors and Deathbringers, which it reactivated to bolster the cult’s strength, as it planned to use the cult as an army to gain access to the Spire on the Alight in order to reawaken the entire Faro Plague to destroy the biosphere again.

While Aloy was ordering Resh to open the gate and let her out of Mother's Watch to perform her work as a Seeker, a loose Corruptor suddenly appeared outside the settlement and corrupted some nearby Striders, adding them to its group. Together, they rammed down the gate into Mother's Watch and attacked the Nora. Together, the Nora were able to take down the Corruptor and the corrupted Striders. As Aloy looted the Corruptor, she found its override module, which granted her the ability to override machines.

While searching for War-Chief Sona, Aloy found a destroyed Corruptor that Sona and her Braves were able to take down.

While on her way to Meridian, Aloy found another loose Corruptor attacking Daytower from the eastern side with some more corrupted machines, to which the Carja had closed to gate to prevent them from getting into the Sundom. In order to make it safe to open the gates, Aloy destroyed the Corruptor and corrupted machines.

Aloy found Olin and the Eclipse in the process of reawakening two more Corruptors in the Rockwreath. As she began attacking them, Olin betrayed the Eclipse and helped her destroy the Corruptors and kill the Eclipse.

The Eclipse brought a Corruptor with them on their expedition to Maker's End to revive a Deathbringer, as well as later during their invasion of the Sacred Lands.

Helis presented two Corruptors to the Shadow Carja and demonstrated their ability to corrupt a Behemoth. After Aloy destroyed the corrupted Behemoth, Helis sent the Corruptors to finish Aloy. Before they could do so, Sylens broke into the Sun-Ring with two overridden Striders and three Ravagers to save Aloy, leaving the Ravagers to fight the Corruptors. Before they parted ways, Sylens mentioned that he had to take down a Corruptor in order to get an override module so he could override machines like Aloy.

Under Brin's request for Corruptor Blood, Aloy hunted down another loose Corruptor to collect the blood for him.

Corruptors were among the machines used by the Eclipse to attack Meridian to allow HADES access to the Spire. Some of the Corruptors were destroyed by Aloy and some Oseram wielding Oseram Cannons, while others were destroyed by Aloy, Erend, Varl and Sona/Talanah at the Battle of the Alight.

Horizon Forbidden West

Dead Corruptors in No Man's Land, covered in Red Blight.

Aloy found scores of Corruptor carcasses in Rebel Camps, having been salvaged by Regalla's Rebels for their override modules.

The Arena at the Memorial Grove somehow use Corruptors in their battles, one of which known as the 'Ancient Corruption' requires hunters to kill three Corruptors in a single fight.

While Aloy and the Quen searched Thebes, they found the two Corruptors that Ted had kept in the bunker, which attacked them. Aloy and Alva, with the support of other Quen on the paths above, successfully took down the machines.

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores

Walter Londra had his reactivated Horus manufacture several Corruptors to act as guards, then later to attack Aloy directly. The guarding Corruptors also overrode two nearby Apex Clamberjaws to add to their numbers defending the Horus.

Appearance

A Corruptor’s appearance is vaguely akin to that of a large, black scorpion. The lower chassis consists of four arachnid legs attached to a central hub. Atop the hub sits the upper chassis whose shape gives the distinct appearance of a head and snout. A single visual sensor is on the tip of the “snout.” At the back of the upper chassis are a grenade launcher and a spike launcher. Attached to the back of the upper chassis is a long, prehensile appendage similar to a tail. Their sleek, black, alien appearance sets them apart from any Zero Dawn machine.

Two Corruptors are found in Thebes during Aloy's expedition with the Quen. Since those haven't been corroded by the elements for a thousand years, they still sport their original white striped paint job.

Like all Chariot Class machines in Horizon Zero Dawn, Corruptors appear with red outlines when scanned with a Focus.

Behavior

Being an ancient war machine, a Corruptor has no behavior other than hostility to enemy forces as defined by its master. In the case of the Faro Plague Corruptors, enemy forces were any human forces and any machines that were not part of their swarm. In the case of Corruptors that had been reactivated by HADES, enemy forces were any enemy of the Eclipse.

Abilities

Corruptors are extremely fast and nimble. They employ a variety of ranged and melee attacks, including a melee attack in which they execute a crushing leap onto the enemy. A Corruptor is capable of utilizing its electronic warfare capability to control other machines and make them fight alongside it, quickly plunging an enemy into a fight against overwhelming odds.

Weaknesses

Corruptors have two significant weakness: due to centuries of being buried, they are particularly vulnerable to weapons that utilize fire, and they are prone to overheating. When they overheat, they expose a cooling rod. Ranged attacks that hit this component inflict significant damage to the Corruptor.

Attacks

Horizon Zero Dawn

Attack	Damage Type	Primary Damage	Secondary Damage	Trigger Range	Description
Inferno Blast	Fire	60	25 per second	15m - 80m	Spread of 6 grenades fired at enemy
Rock Shrapnel	Melee	120	-	5m - 8m	Bats rubble off ground at enemy with tail
Talon Swipe 180	Melee	120	-	4m - 10m	Uses tail as bludgeon through 180 degrees
Talon Swipe 360	Melee	120	-	3m - 8m	Uses tail as bludgeon through 360 degrees
Talon Strike	Melee/Explosion	110	40	5m - 10m	Forward strike at enemy with tail
Corruption Spike	Projectile/Explosion	80	50	15m - 50m	Shoots a spike of Corruption at enemy
Boulder Throw	Projectile	150	-	15m - 80m	Throws a boulder at enemy with tail

Horizon Forbidden West

Name	Windup Time	Damage	Trigger Range	Description
Explosive Spikes	Short	200 Ranged 50 Melee (explosion)	15m - 65m	Fires three explosive spikes at its target. Will not fire if there's a chance ally Corruptor is hit.
Grenade Launcher	Short	120 65 buildup	15m - 95m	Launches grenade directly at target that splits and scatters before impact, leaving a wide area of fire.
Rock Throw	Medium	200 Ranged Crushed 17	15m - 95m	Tail pierces ground and pulls up a boulder, throwing at target. If target is moving sideways, the boulder is thrown in a predicted location.
Tail Swipe 180	Short	200 Melee	4m - 14m	Lunges at target while rotating its torso 180o, whipping its tail around.
Tail Swipe 360	Short	200 Melee	3m - 11m	If target is at its sides or behind, spins in place while whipping its tail around.
Tail Strike	Medium	125 Melee 125 Melee (explosion)	5m - 15m	Tail strikes over its head and stabs into the ground directly in front of it.
Dirt Blast	Medium	200 Melee	5m - 12m	Whips its tail around and diagonally into the ground.
Jump Attack	Long	250 Melee Crushed 17	10m - 28m	Leaps high into the air, landing on top of its target. Attack disabled while Slowed.

Components

Horizon Zero Dawn

Component	Image	Information	Weakness	Strength
Body		Hard outer casing to protect synthetic muscle and operational systems.	Fire	Corruption
Grenade Launcher		Destroying this component disables the Grenade Launcher attack.	Tear	None
Spike Launcher		Destroying these component disables the ranged spike launcher attack.	Tear	None
Heat Core		This component is exposed when the machine overheats. Hitting it when exposed causes massive damage.	All	None

Horizon Forbidden West

Name	Image	Description	Attributes
Body		Hard outer casing to protect synthetic muscle and operational systems.	None
Spike Launcher		Quick-firing weapon. Detach or destroy to disable the ranged spike launcher attack.	Detachable Attack Removal Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
Heat Core		Energy dispersal mechanism. Especially vulnerable to damage, but only exposed when the machine overheats.	Indestructible Weak Spot
Grenade Launcher		Fires grenades that split in mid-air, impacting a wide area and setting the ground on fire.	Detachable Attack Removal Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed

Loot

Horizon Zero Dawn

Metal Shards

1

Metalburn

15

Machine Core - Medium

50

Luminous Braiding

30

Corruptor Lens

38

Corruptor Heart

75

Horizon Forbidden West

Body

• Piercing Spike (100%)
• Metal Shards (100%)
• Medium Machine Core (100%)
• Volatile Sludge (51%)
• Corruptor Circulator (33%)
• Machine Muscle (30%)
• Corruptor Primary Nerve (22%)
• Braided Wire (21%)
• Crystal Braiding (11%)
• Sturdy Hardplate (10%)
• Metal Bone (10%)

Spike Launcher

• Blastpaste (100%)
• Volatile Sludge (100%)
• Piercing Spike (100%)

Heat Core

• None

Grenade Launcher

• Blastpaste (100%)
• Crystal Braiding (49%)

Mentions

Brin: "The machines that drive other machines mad--Corruptors. It's their venom I must taste next... 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."
Aloy: "That is how they work... kind of. How do you know these things?"

―Acquired Taste

Trivia

• Like all Faro machines, the Corruptor's original designation "Scarab" is a reference to ancient Egypt. The Egyptians revered the scarab (also known as dung beetles) and associated them with Khepera, a scarab-like god who pushed and rolled the sun across the sky like a scarab rolled balls of dung.
• Concept art and the hologram pictures found in the "FAS- ACA3 Scarab" datapoint show the Corruptor with six legs instead of four. This was likely just a mistake or a small change in the final design of the machine.
• According to the "The Bad News" cutscene, there were at least 485 million Scarabs produced by the Faro Plague. Given the exponentially-multiplying nature of Faro robots, it can be assumed that the total amount had surpassed at least 1 billion at some point before Zero Day.
• During development, the Corruptor was referred to as the Hackbot.
• Corruptors can only be found in two locations in Horizon: Forbidden West, guarding the lobby of Ted Faro's bunker, Thebes, or as an Arena challenge. This caused some backlash, as it made it difficult for players to earn the trophy for scanning all machine types if they were to forget to scan those two machines. As of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, they can also be encountered during His Final Act.
• According to Special Item descriptions in Acquired Taste, Corruptor blood is "oozing" and "malodorous".
• When Brin samples one's blood, he finds the taste of it notably "disgusting," despite happily drinking other machines' blood.

Gallery

3D concept by Miguel Angel Martinez