Plowhorn

The Plowhorn is an Acquisition Class machine in Horizon Forbidden West, and a mentioned machine in The Official Horizon Cookbook: Tastes of the Seven Tribes.

History[]

Plowhorns were designed by Zero Dawn's governing artificial intelligence GAIA to work under DEMETER, sowing seeds and maintaining the soil conditions needed for the seeds.

Pre-Derangement[]

Plowhorns and Plants — A Plowhorn at work.

At this stage, like all Zero Dawn machines, Plowhorns were docile and skittish, tending to run away from humans as they would often hunt machines for parts and resources. Plowhorns can be found in Plainsong and in the northern and western Clan Lands.

Seven Plowhorns working around the ruins around the Western Grand Array returned for maintenance at Repair-Bay TAU for two days, each in turn at a specific time each year. These Plowhorns were discovered by the first Utaru, who settled around the ruins and dubbed these specific Plowhorns the 'land-gods'.

The Utaru use the flowers produced by Plowhorns as a medicinal drink to sooth minds.^[1]^[2] A meal and beverage have been named in honor of the land-gods: the Land-god's Gift and the Land-god's Libation.

The Derangement[]

At the advent of the Derangement, almost all Zero Dawn machines started becoming increasingly aggressive towards humans, including the Plowhorns. By the time of Aloy reaching adulthood, most Plowhorns will attack any humans they see. While Zo claims that the land-gods sometimes attack too, this behavior cannot be seen in them and later dialogue conflicts this statement.^{[note 1]} The land-gods began to also overfertilize the soil around Plainsong, making it incredibly susceptible to the Red Blight, and they stopped visiting the TAU, leading to their wearing and eventual breakdown.^[3]

Horizon Forbidden West[]

Three weeks prior to Aloy and Varl's arrival at Stone's Echo, one of the land-gods, Fa, returned to TAU. This raised the Utaru's hope that their problems were ending, but when Fa didn't return, this dashed their hopes.^[3] When Aloy, Varl and Zo went into TAU, they found Fa had been converted into a Grimhorn. When Aloy overrode TAU's core, she gained access to the information needed to override Plowhorns, albeit corrupted.^[4] She later used the equipment in the Base to restore the override.

A new model of Plowhorn, the Apex Plowhorn, was released into the wilds alongside their regular counterpart sometime after Apex machines were first released from Repair-Bay TAU.^[4]

Wanting to use Plowhorn Salvage to build a set of armor as well as collect some plants grown by Plowhorns, Handa hired Aloy with a contract to hunt a herd of Plowhorns and retrieve their salvage and plants for her, which Aloy successfully did.^[5] A Plowhorn was among the machines being used in the Kulrut, which Ivvira fought. An overridden Plowhorn was used by Regalla's rebels to attack the Kulrut, which was destroyed by Aloy, Dekka and some other Tenakth soldiers.^[6]

The Second Verse — A land-god during the reboot sequence.

With GAIA's help, Aloy and Zo were able to use modified Grimhorn Control Cores to put the remaining land-gods into a reboot sequence, restoring them back to their pre-Derangement behavior.^[7]

Appearance[]

Plowhorns resemble ceratopsids such as Triceratops, bearing a large cranial frill and four large horns, with a smaller fifth horn atop its "nose". A single eye is found in the "mouth" of the machine. The frill is more akin to a Torosaurus (or a Pentaceratops, due to the machine having five horns) and is equipped with a fertilizer sac on the back of the frill. It has two massive sacs in its back, the front one with adhesive substance and one with Purgewater. On the sides of the adhesive sac are two seed dispensers, which bring out small seed bombs that, when detonated, release small fertilizer clouds that can be used for stealth. Its long tail splits in two, plowing the land behind it as it moves. Two orange clamps keep the tail as one when not plowing, and a storage capsule can be found inside the tail when open. It is covered head to tail in white armored plating, except the sacs.

Behavior[]

The Plowhorns' primary function is soil maintenance and seed dispersal.

Plowhorns are relatively passive, being generally oblivious to their surroundings while they till the earth. Because of this, they are far more likely to respond to sound than sight, even more so than other grazing machines.

Abilities[]

The machine's horns and tail provide great plowing capabilities, immediately sprouting up flowers and collectible bitter leaf as it goes behind. Despite this, it can use these horns to charge and eject adhesion substances or launch seed bombs to hide itself.

Upon sustaining significant damage, Plowhorns will activate their Rock Storm ability, using its rock churner to continuously spit out rock shrapnel on both sides of its body. This deals 10 Ranged damage per second and wears off after 45 seconds.

Weaknesses[]

The Plowhorn's horns can be shot off, leaving it unable to charge. The adhesion sacs can be exploded, leaving it sluggish, and destroying the fertilizer sac on the frill will cover it in vines. It cannot do its tail attacks if the tail is open.

Attacks[]

Name	Windup Time	Damage	Damage Area	Trigger Range	Description
Adhesive Volley	Medium	135 35 buildup	10/s 10/s buildup	20m - 75m	Lobs glob of Adhesive from each horn, exploding on impact and generating residual Adhesive damage areas.
Gravel Barrage	Short	35 Ranged 15 buildup	10/s 10/s buildup	20m - 40m	Aims horns at target and advances while firing a barrage of rocks covered in Adhesive. Projectiles generate residual Adhesive damage areas.
Viscous Slam	Medium	90 Melee 90 40 buildup	10/s 10/s buildup	20m - 40m	Coats horns in Adhesive and rises on hind legs before dropping forward and slamming the ground. Adhesive splashes forward and generates residual Adhesive damage areas.
Piercing Charge	Medium	90 Melee 90 50 buildup	10/s 10/s buildup	13m - 18m (front/back) 30m - 52m (sides)	Charges at high speed, kicking up dirt mixed with Adhesive fluid and leaving damaging Adhesive areas. Stops in front of target and releases a wave of Adhesive, coating the ground in Adhesive damage areas. Attack disabled when Slowed.
Impaling Slash	Medium	137 Melee	-	10m - 14m	Whips tail in 270^o spinning motion, lunging forward as it slashes and rotates to face target.
Impaling Dredger	Short	137 Melee	-	20m - 55m	Dives at target while slamming both horns into ground. Skids on landing, dealing damage with its body. Desperation Attack

Variants[]

Variant	Weakness	Strength
Plowhorn	Acid	Frost Purgewater
Apex Plowhorn	Purgewater	Frost

Components[]

Name	Description	Attributes
Body	Hard outer casing to protect synthetic muscle and operational systems.	None
Horns	Plowing horns. Detach or destroy to reduce the effectiveness of its Adhesive attacks.	Detachable Attack Removal Destroyed When Killed Key Upgrade Resource
Adhesive Sac	Adhesive storage. Destroy to disable Adhesive attacks or leave intact to add loot to the carcass.	Explosive Attack Removal Persists When Killed Contains Resources If Intact
Seed Dispenser	Seed dispersal system. Upon impact, seed bombs release a harmless cloud of fertilizer and seeds that can provide stealth.	Detachable Ability Removal Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed
Purgewater Sac	Purgewater storage. Destroy to cause a Purgewater explosion or leave intact to add loot to the carcass.	Explosive Persists When Killed Contains Resources If Intact
Fertilizer Sac	Potent fertilizer storage. Destroy to instantly cover the Plowhorn with fast-growing plants, rooting it temporarily in place.	Explosive Ability Removal Persists When Killed Contains Resources If Intact
Tail Clamp	Shooting this component causes the tail to split open temporarily, exposing the Tail Capsule.	Indestructible Ability Removal
Tail Capsule	Heavily protected resource storage. Only accessible after shooting the Tail Clamp, which causes the tail to split open.	Detachable Contains Valuable Resources Destroyed When Killed

Loot[]

Body

Horns

Plowhorn Horn (100%)

Adhesive Sac

Stickpaste (100%)

Seed Dispenser

Purgewater Sac

Purgewater (100%)

Fertilizer Sac

Blastpaste (100%)

Tail Clamp

None

Tail Capsule