Fireclaw

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

Fireclaw
An enormous prototype machine that circulates molten fluids for its attacks and defensive capabilities. It is extremely lethal.
Size	Large
Weight	Heavyweight
Origin	HEPHAESTUS
Class	Acquisition
Override	Cauldron EPSILON (HZD:TFW) Cauldron CHI (HFW)
Machine Sites	1 (HZD:TFW) 2 (HFW)
Combat
Challenge Level	42 (HFW) 50 (HZD:TFW) 55 (Daemonic) 60 (Apex)
HP	7500 9375 (Daemonic) 11250 (Apex)
Weakness	Freeze Purgewater (HFW; Normal Fireclaws only)
Strength	Fire Shock (Apex)
Explosive Components	Fire Sac (x2) Fire Unit
Weak Points	Eyes Power Cell (x6/x4 (HFW)) Purgewater Canister (x2, HFW) Glowblast Canister (x4, Apex) Chillwater Canister (x2, Apex)

"I guess Fireclaws are terrorizing the Forbidden West, too."

―Aloy

The Fireclaw is a heavyweight machine introduced in Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds, and returning in Horizon Forbidden West and Horizon Call of the Mountain.

History

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds

Fireclaws were designed by the AI HEPHAESTUS at Cauldron EPSILON, in the Banuk region of the Cut. Despite being an Acquisition Class machine, they were designed as anti-human hunter-killers.

The Fireclaw sent by HEPHAESTUS to kill Aloy, Aratak and Ourea.

A Daemonic Fireclaw was used by HEPHAESTUS as the primary defense of EPSILON's core against an expedition that infiltrated the cauldron. The expedition, composed of the Nora Seeker (and acting chieftain) Aloy, the Banuk shaman Ourea, and the erstwhile Banuk chieftain Aratak, prompted HEPHAESTUS to deploy the Fireclaw when Aloy attempted to access the core. In addition to the Fireclaw's highly formidable combat abilities, HEPHAESTUS spontaneously generated Control Towers to repair the damage the Fireclaw was sustaining mid-battle. While the party ultimately prevailed against it, their incursion was too late to prevent HEPHAESTUS from releasing a small number of Fireclaws into the wilds. After her override of EPSILON's core, Aloy was able to override Fireclaws.

An overridden Fireclaw.

Due to the extreme danger that the escaped Fireclaws posed to the region's residents, Aloy hunted and destroyed five of them, engaging two in tandem with Aratak.

Horizon Call of the Mountain

One Fireclaw was called to the ruins of Day's End through a machine lure used by Asera. It was confronted by Ryas at the Sun-Ring at the top and destroyed, though the resulting fight caused most of the arena to collapse.

Horizon Forbidden West

Despite the destruction of Cauldon EPSILON, HEPHAESTUS was able to start producing Fireclaws at other Cauldrons, allowing them, along with Apex Fireclaws, to start inhabiting Lowland Tenakth territory in the Forbidden West.

Aloy and Talanah found Amadis fighting a Fireclaw as they searched for him in the Forbidden West. Together, the three hunters managed to destroy it.

After recovering POSEIDON and most water sources contaminated by Blood Choke had cleared up, Aloy and Atekka investigated why the river feeding into Thornmarsh wasn't also clearing up. Following the water upriver, they found a dam made of dead machines guarded by Regalla's rebels with an overridden Fireclaw, purposefully stopping fresh water from flushing out the contaminated water. Together, Aloy and Atekka managed to take down the Fireclaw.

Regalla's rebels used another overridden Fireclaw to guard their outpost in Bonewhite Tear, which was destroyed by Aloy.

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores

In the Burning Shores, Aloy encountered an Apex Fireclaw guarding the main entrance to Cauldron THETA.

After Aloy returned to the Forbidden West after venturing through the Burning Shores, the Arena had started offering a fight against an Apex Fireclaw alongside a Slaughterspine.

Appearance

Like the Frostclaw, the Fireclaw is ursine in appearance, movement, and locomotion. Its chassis resembles the body and has the gait of a short-faced bear. HEPHAESTUS modeled the Fireclaw and Frostclaw after the long-extinct animal, which was native to the region during the time of the Old Ones. The head ends in a pointed, toothy snout with a three-mandible jaw containing a system of rollers. A pair of optical sensor arrays is located in the same position as a bear's eyes would be. Mounted on each forelimb are a pair of gear-like wheels. There is an armor-protected fire generation unit, known as a Fire Unit, on its chest, and power cells are located on its lower back. Fire Sacs, armored storage tanks containing Blaze, are built into its chassis, similar to Fire Bellowbacks. However, while the Fire Bellowback's tanks are prominently placed on its back and throat, the Fireclaw's tanks are seamlessly built into its shoulders and are much more damage resistant.

At first glance, Fireclaws and Frostclaws are identical in appearance aside from their difference in color palette and elements, however Fireclaws are slightly larger than Frostclaws, standing several feet taller on their hind legs. In Horizon: Forbidden West, it is confirmed that Fireclaw's are classified as heavyweight machines, while Frostclaws are classified as midweight. The two machines also have different icons in the machine catalogue.

Behavior

Like most large machines, Fireclaws are solitary and almost never seen in groups. They are only known to be found in the Cut and in forested regions in the Forbidden West, notably near Thornmarsh.

When not in combat, Fireclaws can be frequently seen mining soil for mineral resources at their respective sites, in the same manner as Tramplers. They also scavenge destroyed machines, much like Scrappers or Glinthawks.

A Fireclaw running its 'paw' across its face.

During combat, Fireclaws will sometimes run a 'paw' across their face, as if wiping away blood or mucus.

Abilities

Like the short-faced bear, the Fireclaw is able to adopt both a Quadrupedal and Bipedal stance. In either stance it employs fast, relentless and deadly fire-based range attacks and fire-augmented melee attacks. Its capacity to sustain damage is rivaled only by four other known machines. Its damage resistance is even greater than that of these machines, particularly against explosives (though this explosive resistance is lost in Horizon Forbidden West). Even if one of its flammable liquid tanks is punctured and explodes, the blast damage is minimal. Furthermore, Daemonic Fireclaws share the immunity of all Daemonic Machines to Corruption and Override, as well as a high resistance to Shock. If they are put into a Freeze state, they can melt themselves free by creating a cloud of fire around themselves, provided that their Fire Unit is intact. Additionally, they are quite agile in spite of their size, able to run and jump with surprising speed. If given the opportunity, they can also rip off ropes attached to them from the Ropecaster if they haven't been fully tied down.

Stances

The Fireclaw can switch between Quadrupedal and Bipedal stances, each with different sets of unique melee and ranged attacks. The Quadrupedal stance is the default posture when roaming around undisturbed, with enhanced agility and traversal options to spring up lower cliffs and leap over gaps to chase Aloy across the environment. During combat, it will typically adopt this four-legged posture when far away, and make use of the improved mobility to close the distance. Most of its attacks while in this stance are melee-focused, repositioning itself with quick tumble-dodges to keep up the pressure, but it can also use two long-ranged terrestrial attacks of small clustered lava-spewing geysers or a single volcano which shoots out burning rocks in a radius.

The Bipedal stance severely limits the Fireclaw's mobility but adds enough ranged attacks to compensate for this drawback. The Fireclaw tends to adopt this upright two-legged posture at close to mid-range, aggressively chaining together multiple claw slashes in a row and weaponizing the Fire Unit mounted on its torso to spew out streams of burning flames. If Aloy is out of reach from the Fireclaw's close-range attacks, it can scrape at the ground with its wrist-mounted grinders to lob molten chunks of solidified dirt and rock in her direction or launch itself in the air and come crashing down back-first at Aloy's position to crush her under its massive weight.

Rock Shield

Once its maximum health has dropped to the 60% mark or below, the Fireclaw gains the ability to tear out a large circular slab of rock from the ground as a makeshift shield against incoming projectiles or bludgeon weapon. It's still possible to damage exposed limbs and potentially induce a Stagger state that forces it to drop the rock. There are three follow-up attacks that the Fireclaw tends to perform while it's currently holding a Rock Shield at different ranges: an advancing charge to close the gap, a descending overhead slam at close-range, and a long-distance hurling throw. The rock deals Fire damage and generates lingering Fire Patches upon impact, which can be permanently disabled by destroying the Fireclaw's Fire Unit.

Fire Storm

After sustaining enough damage, the Fireclaw ignites its chassis and generates a fiery aura around itself which damages upon contact and negates severity buildup or currently applied status effects. This frenzied state is automatically triggered once the Fireclaw's total health reaches 70% of its maximum value and then again at 25%. Destroying the Fire Unit permanently deactivates this special attack.

Weaknesses

As a fire-based machine, Fireclaws are naturally susceptible to Freeze attacks. However, their damage resistance renders subsequent attacks in this state much less effective than on other machines, and their size makes inflicting a Freeze state on it a lengthy process; even high-powered Freeze weapons, such as the Icerail, take several seconds to do so. Destroying the Fire Sacs located on its shoulders disables the fire augmentation of melee attacks, and destroying the Fire Unit located on its chest disables the ranged terrestrial attacks, exploding and inflicting a temporary Burn state, but this state causes minimal damage and quickly dissipates. Provided both Fire Sacs and Fire Unit have been destroyed, a permanent Burn state will be inflicted on the Fireclaw, eventually killing it. However the machine's tough armor plating makes this difficult, and its high capacity to sustain damage endures a lengthy period of time elapses before it is destroyed.

The power cells located on its upper and lower back have little protective armor, and can be overloaded via Shock Arrows, triggering an electrical explosion that stuns the machine; indeed this is the only possible way to electrically stun a Daemonic Fireclaw.

Attacks

Horizon Zero Dawn

Quadruped Stance

Name	Damage Type	Primary Damage	Secondary Damage	Trigger Range	Description
Lava Burst	Melee	135	65 Melee/ Fire (Lava Burst) 50 Fire per second (Groundfire)	15m - 50m	Enemy is engulfed by lava geysers
Volcanic Meteor Shower	Explosion	135	135 Melee/Fire (Lava Jet) 65 Fire/Explosion (Rocks) 50 Fire per second (Fire Pool)	15m - 50m	Enemy is hit by a shower of burning rocks
Back Slash	Melee Fire	200/100	-	3m - 11m (front) 4m - 8m (back)	Defensive Fire-augmented back-handed claw slash
Fury Slash	Melee Fire	225/125	-	4m - 25m	Up to 3 consecutive Fire-augmented claw slashes
Lunge Dive	Melee Fire	250/125	-	4m - 25m	Lunging pounce with Fire-augmented claw slash
Back Crush	Explosion	50 per rock	-	11m - 15m	Crushing back-first dive on enemy

Biped Stance

Name	Damage Type	Primary Damage	Secondary Damage	Trigger Range	Description
Fire Storm	Fire	150 per second	-	10m - 20m	Flamethrower blast from chest unit that tracks enemy
Flame Blast	Fire Melee	180/135	-	0m - 10m	Explosive radial blast of flame from chassis
Grinder Scrape	Fire Melee	110 each	-	15m - 50m	Molten chunks of dirt and rock scraped off the ground at enemy
Claw Slash	Fire Melee	175/125	-	1m - 20m (front) 4m - 14m (back)	Up to 6 consecutive Fire-augmented claw slashes
Inferno Dive	Fire Melee	175 each	60 Melee 100 Fire per second (Fire Patches)	14m - 34m (front) 10m - 23m (back)	Lunging dive with explosion of vertical flames on landing
Rock Shield - Charge	Fire Melee	135 each	-	5m - 60m	Large shield of rock blocks enemy attacks
Rock Shield - Throw	Fire Melee	180 each	50 Fire per second (Fire Patches)	15m - 50m	Rock shield thrown at enemy; ignores the Shield-Weaver shield
Rock Shield - Smash	Fire Melee	200 each	200 Fire/Explosion 25 Melee 100 Fire per second (Fire Patches)	0m - 7m	Rock shield used as bludgeon; ignores the Shield-Weaver shield

Both Stances

Name	Damage Type	Primary Damage	Secondary Damage	Trigger Range	Description
Inferno Slam	Fire Melee	175 each	60 Melee 100 Fire per second (Fire Patches)	0m - 7m	Large, radial explosion of flames on hammering ground
Fire Storm	Fire	50 per second	50 Fire per second (Fire Patches)	-	Desperation defensive attack (employed upon sustaining 70% damage); fiery aura around chassis damages enemy on contact; negates severity buildup or current status effects applied

Horizon Forbidden West

Name	Windup Time	Stance	Damage	Damage Area	Trigger Range	Description
Lava Burst	Medium	Quadruped	180 Ranged	Lava Burst: 180 Ranged,180, 60 buildup Ground Fire: 45/s, 45/s buildup	15m - 50m	Slams jaws into ground and uses Blaze Unit to direct lava that travels underground before bursting from underneath the target. Creates a large explosion as lava erupts and spews from geysers for several seconds. Attack disabled when Drenched.
Volcanic Meteor Shower	Long	Quadruped	Explosion: 453 Ranged Rocks: 135 Ranged 50 45 buildup Lava Jet: 453 120 buildup	50/s 50/s buildup	15m - 50m	Variant of Lava Burst that becomes available at 80% HP or below. Sends out a single geyser underneath target that creates a large explosion before it begins spewing rocks that fall in a 15 meter radius for the next 20 seconds. Attack disabled when Drenched.
Backhand Slash	Short	Quadruped	204 204 120 buildup	-	3m - 11m (front) 4m - 8m (back)	Rises on hind legs and quickly backhand slashes at target. Can be used from the front or from 180o if it perceives a threat from behind. Fire damage removed when Drenched.
Lunging Dive	Short	Quadruped	233 233 120 buildup Crushed 50	-	4m - 25m	Dives at target while slashing at a downward angle. Creates shockwave on impact. Fire damage removed when Drenched.
Back Crush	Short	Quadruped	Body: 233 Crushed 50 Explosion: 233	-	11m - 15m	Rotates 180o before throwing itself backward to crush target.
Fury Slash	Short	Quadruped	208 208 120 buildup	-	4m - 25m	Quickly rises on hind legs and propels itself forward while slashing 3 times. Fire damage removed when Drenched.
Fire Spray	Short	Biped	272 111 buildup	-	10m - 30m	Stands upright and walks towards target while spraying a continuous stream of flames from Blaze Unit. Attack disabled when Drenched.
Flame Blast	Medium	Biped	272 Ranged 272 120 buildup	-	0m - 10m
Grinder Scrape	Short	Biped	180 Ranged 180 120 buildup	-	15m - 50m	Scrapes ground with grinder claws and flings 2 burning rocks at target. Rocks explode on impact and leave a residual Fire damage area. Fire damage disabled when Drenched.
Claw Slash	Short	Biped	204 204 120 buildup	-	1m - 20m (front) 4m - 14m (back)	Augments claws with fire and advances towards target while slashing up to 6 times. Creates residual Fire damage areas. Fire damage removed when Drenched.
Inferno Dive	Medium	Biped	Explosion: 233 233 120 buildup Body: 233	233/s 75/s buildup	14m - 34m (front) 4m - 14m (back)	Dives at target and attempts to crush it, creating a large Fire explosion as it slams down and leaves a trail of residual Fire damage areas. Fire damage removed when Drenched.
Inferno Slam	Medium	All	Explosion: 233 233 120 buildup Body: 233	233/s 75/s buildup	0m - 7m	Quickly smashes ground using front legs, creating a large Fire explosion on impact and leaving a ring of residual Fire damage areas. Fire damage removed when Drenched.
Rock Shield Charge	Short	Biped	453 453 200 buildup Crushed 50	-	5m - 60m	Slides forward while holding Rock Shield as it attempts to close the gap and ram target. Fire damage removed when Drenched.
Rock Shield Throw	Long	Biped	453 453 200 buildup Crushed 50	45/s 45/s buildup	15m - 50m	Lifts Rock Shield and throws at target. Creates a large explosion and residual Fire damage areas on impact. Fire damage removed when Drenched.
Rock Shield Smash	Long	Biped	Rock:453 453 200 buildup Crushed 50 Explosion: 453 453 200 buildup Body: 112	-	0m - 15m	Lifts Rock Shield overhead and smashes it down on target, creating a large explosion on impact. Fire damage removed when Drenched.

Components

Horizon Zero Dawn

Component:	Image:	Information:	Weakness:	Strength:
Body		Hard outer casing to protect synthetic muscle and operational systems.	Freeze	None
Fire Sac		Destruction triggers a Fire explosion, inflicts a temporary Burn state and disables all Fire-augmented claw attacks	All	None
Fire Unit		Destruction triggers a Fire explosion, inflicts a permanent Burn state (once Fire Sacs have been destroyed) and disables all Fire-based attacks other than claws.	All	None
Power Cell		Sparker resource can be looted from this component. Shooting this component with Shock arrows triggers an explosion, electrifying anything in the area.	Shock Tear	None

Horizon Forbidden West

Name	Variant	Image	Description	Attributes
Body	All		Hard outer casing to protect synthetic muscle and operational systems.	None
Blaze Sac	All		Blaze storage. Destroy to disable Fire attacks or leave intact to add loot to the carcass.	Explosive Attack Removal Persists When Killed Contains Resources If Intact
Blaze Unit	All		Destroy this unit along with its Blaze Sacs to inflict a permanent Burning state and disable all Fire attacks besides its claws.	Explosive Persists When Killed Contains Resources If Intact Key Upgrade Resource
Purgewater Canister	Standard		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
Chillwater Canister	Apex		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
Sparker	Standard		Shock storage. Tear off to collect this resource or shoot with a Shock Arrow to detonate.	Chain Reaction Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
Glowblast Canister	Apex		Glowblast storage. Tear off to collect this resource or shoot with a Plasma Arrow to detonate.	Chain Reaction Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed

Loot

Horizon Zero Dawn

Sparker

1

Metal Shards

1

Crystal Braiding

50

Fireclaw Lens

70

Fireclaw Heart

140

Blaze

4

Machine Core - Large

100

Echo Shell

15

Horizon Forbidden West

• Fireclaw
• Apex Fireclaw

Body

• Metal Shards (100%)
• Blaze (100%)
• Braided Wire (76%)
• Fireclaw Circulator (69%)
• Large Machine Core (68%)
• Fireclaw Primary Nerve (64%)
• Volatile Sludge (51%)
• Machine Muscle (45%)
• Metal Bone (28%)
• Luminous Brainstem (28%)
• Crystal Braiding (27%)
• Sturdy Hardplate (15%)

Blaze Sac

• Blaze (100%)

Blaze Unit

• Blaze (100%)
• Volatile Sludge (100%)
• Fireclaw Sac Webbing (100%)

Purgewater Canister

• Purgewater (100%)

Sparker

• Sparker (100%)

Body

• Blaze (100%)
• Metal Shards (100%)
• Luminous Brainstem (100%)
• Apex Fireclaw Heart (100%)
• Braided Wire (76%)
• Fireclaw Circulator (70%)
• Large Machine Core (69%)
• Fireclaw Primary Nerve (63%)
• Volatile Sludge (50%)
• Piercing Spike (50%)
• Machine Muscle (45%)
• Crystal Braiding (28%)
• Metal Bone (28%)
• Sturdy Hardplate (15%)

Blaze Unit

• Blaze (100%)
• Volatile Sludge (100%)
• Fireclaw Sac Webbing (100%)

Blaze Sac

• Blaze (100%)

Chillwater Canister

• Chillwater (100%)

Glowblast Canister

• Glowblast (100%)

Variants

Variant	Weak Vs.	Strong Vs.
Fireclaw	Frost Purgewater	Fire
Apex Fireclaw	Frost	Fire Shock

Trivia

• Before the first encounter with a Fireclaw, HEPHAESTUS can be heard chanting a series of orders. This is HEPHAESTUS constructing the Fireclaws.
• During The Frozen Wilds' development, Fireclaws were referred to as LavaBears.
  • Adding onto this, footage of an out-of-bounds developer testing area shows that another name for the Fireclaw was InfernoBear.
• The Fireclaw is the only machine seen so far with red armor plating. The reasoning of this is unknown.

Bugs

• When playing The Forge of Winter on PlayStation 4 Pro, there is a glitch that can occur while fighting the Fireclaw. After the first Control Tower is destroyed, the Fireclaw may freeze in place; the player is still able to damage it, however.
• Overriding a Fireclaw and having it kill another one will not count as Aloy killing a Fireclaw, so you may actually need to kill more than 6 for the trophy "Killed 6 Fireclaws".

Videos

Fireclaw Hunting - The Frozen Wilds Episode 16 - Let's Play Horizon Zero Dawn BLIND

All Fireclaws on Hard mode