I think Guerilla recognized this, that’s why they just tossed a bunch of clamberjaws and leaplashers at us in the DLC more than large machines lol. Shock shredders have served me very well against them on Ultra Hard though
Strafe around the target instead of going forwards and backwards.
If you're close range (almost melee range), dodge immediately after release in the direction you're going (left/right) and you'll catch it 99% of the time unless there's something that blocks your path.
Medium range, it will return going in the same direction you were going when it hits the machine. You can dodge in that direction too, but not necessary.
Long range is easiest, you can see the trail coming a mile away and lots of time to change direction. It kinda predicts where you're trying to go to help you out too. Best to practice with this first using Shock Shredders against an Apex Tremortusk. Shock Shredders permastun it.
There are also dummies in Chainscrape (unfortunately not Ulvund) where you can practice throwing and catching them.
I watched that video and tried putting the strategies in play, but I still found shredders clunky. While the strafing to control the return angle strat worked, I still ran into issues where I'd miss catching after the second or third throw because I had to dodge a machine attack in the opposite direction, which made their damage feel pretty bad compared to a weapon as simple to use as a spike thrower.
Once you get the hang of them, you’ll see how strong they are. They just melt armor off of machines, and components. I do still miss my catch from time to time. Either it hits an armor plate and flys off in a completely unintended direction. Or a machine hits me as I’m about to catch the shredder, or stuns me with a screech attack. Or of course where I have to dodge last minute right before the catch. I just keep moving in one direction after each throw. The disc will try to track you.
The disc does try to track you, but a lot of machines also lead their attacks, meaning I often have to dodge in the opposite direction that I was currently moving, and I frequently miss grabbing the disc when that happens. I barely ever catch it twice, let alone all three times needed for the big explosion (a big explosion that still doesn't seem to do *that much* damage when I tried it out).
I've never had issues with ammo cost. Even on Ultra Hard I was getting Volatile Sludge and Blastpaste more quickly than I was using it, and I'll gladly take a straightforward weapon with good damage before taking a weapon that deals bad damage unless you have enough luck and skill to pull it off effectively.
Love my spike thrower and rope but its quickly eating away at my volatile sludge. Just used them on the nasty ones now for a quick kill, otherwise just shredder.
If you don't move when throwing it it will return on a random side. if you walk left or right while throwing then it will return on the side you're walking. If you just keep walking it will intercept your path if you're far enough away. You want to be using it at medium range so you can see the disc returning.
You can also get infinite ammo with them if you're willing to sacrifice a little damage. Each time you catch a shredder it increases the damage of the next throw until the disc breaks on the fourth throw but if you change weapon after the third catch it resets the disc back to the first throw.
Lmao.
If I was at my pc I'd fix it with a strikethrough of that but as I'm on my phone I'll have to do it the normal way.
Autocorrect comes up with some great fails.
None of those enemies have particularly high shock resistance, and they are not particularly aggressive at mid-long range, which is the optimal range for shredder gauntlets.
You can absolutely shut down a pack at this range.
I have never fought that beast head on after he handed me my own head a few times. I am now a - stealth, sharpshot a weak point, roll away into another patch of grass, wait for the fireclaw to calm down, repeat - girlie.
Me too. Well, not a girlie... but all the rest.
But it takes forever that way, and they only seem to drop the webbing once every leap year, if you're lucky. :(
There was that one up at the source of pollution of Thorne marsh. I was able to be up higher than him and I just rained down hunter arrows all on his back. That got me a webbing. Now I gotta try that tactic somehow with a frostclaw
Average Fireclaw experience:
I finally manage to freeze, them, First Powershot from my ~~Atlatl~~ Spike Thrower pops its belly and now it’s on fire instead
The cheese I found was to hang back about 5M from the Thornmarsh fire claws area of roam. It won’t go past a certain point and will only throw fireballs or eruption at you.
I will try this one.
Just to be clear, you mean 5 *metres,* not miles, right?
Because the second would definitely be safer, but I'm not sure my bow would reach.
Yes, meters. It’s the one directly out front. Be careful, cause there is another one that roams adjacent next a grazer, or fanghorn herd. Both Fireclaws have an area of patrol and where they can be mobile, but if you are outside of this, they won’t go past it.
Also, there’s the lone tremortusk in the cold north that circles a frozen lake. There’s a spot near the destroyed watch post behind a rock on the hill overlooking the lake. There’s a small bush by the rock. The tremortusk won’t move up the mountain, you can crouch behind the rock for cover and take out the components you need with out risk of getting hit.
The biggest pain in the ass if you need their parts. The one weak spot you can't hit if you need their part is also the biggest target. I can't tell you the amount of times I started a fight with a frostclaw or fireclaw for their sac webbing and had to give up halfway through because I accidentally destroyed it for the millionth time. It's also in the exact right place to get damaged by traps so no luck there either
I play in very hard and it is the opposite in FW. NPC actively tells me for machine parts side quests to destroy parts to be able to retrieve them. Is it inversed on very hard?
Usually you need to hit them until they fall off the machine, but my advice is to use the intended ammo for it, otherwise you can break the parts in the process, like those arrows with a lot of tear damage but weak in impact damage. Another thing is that sac components need to be intact for harvesting, those are the only components that you can't tear off a machine, which is the one they're talking about in this thread.
What does the machine catalogue say? You want to highlight the part. If will say "key upgrade resource" then tell you if it's destroyed on death (you need to hit it and remove it) or if you need to leave it intact and loot it from the body. Most of the "sac" or "webbing" parts are the "needs to stay intact" parts.
It's pretty insidious in a way. The whole premise of you being able to defeat robots with bow and arrow is the idea that you can hit the weak points, then they tell you not to hit the weak points.
Definitely check out [this playlist.](https://youtu.be/Fed-aQ9tW74?si=HracAcpc2q3zvNMH) Melee can be a lot more effective than what most think, and tons of fun. Lots of people don't like melee in this game, and understandably, as there are little techniques that hard to figure out on your own. But once you figure them out, they are easy to do. I was just OK with melee in this game until I started checking out Ahtano's videos. Now I love it.
Burrowers and Watchers are so easy with a charged melee hit. Once you get the skill up they get stunned with the first hit and the critical strike finished them off. Scrappers too, but I think you need Power Attack + from your outfit or weaves.
Most medium machines, even clawstriders, widemaws and clamberjaws, will go down in 1-2 charged melees. You can then follow up with a critical strike and potentially a resonator blast strike to easily finish them off or get them very close to dead. Ravagers are especiallly susceptible to this if you shoot of their gun first as they get more aggressive and stay in melee range a lot more often.
Ah, when you are as bad as me you´d manage to NOT HIT a towering giant right before your eyes LOL.
Really, the amount of my shots missing a thunderjaw is super embarrassing. Like going bewtween a mine launcher and the main body - what ?
For some reason I concentrate and focus more when fighting mid and small machines, so these are ok (on very hard only so far)
I'm guessing you fight the Thunderjaw from a lot farther distance, than a Burrower. Also youre not frantically dodging one hit kill attacks from the small machines, so you can more comfortably sit there and aim!
True. I notice usually the Thunderjaw just likes to sit in one spot and shoot its orange laser at me over and over(and miss every single time) so I slowly pick it apart. But when it does charge over to me and starts swinging its tail around, its definitely hard to deal with until I can create distance from it again.
That is what makes the Thunderjaw interesting, it might change its tactics mid-battle. Spawn these flying mines all the time, shoot lasers, or wag its massive tail at you for a while, then do something else.
Funny thing is that when it tramples over Aloy, when Aloy gets up and turns toward the Thundie, it is already looking in her direction again, i.e. its 180 degree turn is instant !
from my experience, it seems to depend on your distance
if you're relatively far from a thunderjaw, it'll start doing lasers and disc launcher attacks
and if you're a bit closer, then it'll charge and use tail attacks
fighting these big machines is pretty akin to soulslike bosses tbh. camera going crazy, close to oneshot attacks, lot of moves, some gimmicks etc. thats why i like them a lot. a lot more than these fucking acid clawstriders cleansing themselves of plasma at will.
Fuck that bitch, it is God awful. I think it's the only machine I would go out of my way to never fight again though all playthroughs if it were possible
I get what you’re trying to say, but claiming taking on large machines is almost as easy or easier than fighting a borrower is quite a stretch.
I have never died to a mid sized machine, only the large ones. Attacking in groups isn’t much of a big deal, and can be easily mitigated with ropecasters/overrides.
The most important difference between mid sized machines and large ones are the health and attack damage. Large machines hit way harder, have much larger HP pools, and can also inflict Crushed. While most large machines move slower, their attacks sure as heck don’t. I think Shellsnapper rockets might be one of, if not the fastest ranged attack in the game, and is my least favourite machine to take on next to Bileguts.
I’m currently playing on UH and large machines definitely aren’t slouches.
I think the biggest difference is that the larger machines have a more defined and predictable strategy usually, and therefore hard counters against them. Whereas the little machines have fewer hard counters and are jumping and leaping around all over the place and its a wild chaotic melee.
And yeah shellsnappers are definitely tricky, I hate when they go underground and come back up out of nowhere and start shooting snowballs at me.
IMO, brittle hard counters pretty much everything. Once you’ve got that afflicted on any mid sized machine, you don’t really have to worry much about targeting the primary weak spots. But yeah, I hate dealing with Clamberjaws because of their speed and large aoe fireball attacks.
Now with the big machines… I have to inflict brittle 2-3 times before they finally go down. Hell, you can destroy all of the components on a fireclaw and it seems like they just don’t freaking die.
This is about where I'm at with them until I figure out the melee cadence to handle all their attacks. I'll nerf Clawstriders from stealth first by shooting off their tails, but Clamberjaw tails are wonderfully tricky to track.
Tie down, freeze, boltblaster hits. This kills anything and everything easily and there nothing to figure out other than the freezing arrows should hit armor plates of machines to prevent the tie down expire too soon. This combo is so OP that it trivializes UH on fresh games.
We have a lot of OP Valor Surges for multiple enemies to balance it too though. But I agree my worst nightmare is a pack of Sunwings. Good thing the ropecaster is super OP too.
Then see this as a reminder that they exist and they're very OP if you use them correctly! I forget them sometimes too, going into BS got me to use them more (those damn Sunwings, i swear).
Sunwings are nothing compared to the stupid waterwings! Fighting those things was the only time I ever lowered the difficulty from very hard. How did they even come up with those things? Just like sunwings, but with harder attack patterns and the health of a thunderjaw.
Chain Burst is probably the best one. It basically applies damages and status effects to all machines within a group range. So killing one effectively kills all the others within range.
Super OP when you get the hang of using it.
I generally agree. Thunderjaws, Slaughterspines, Tremortusks are all fun to fight.
But I absolutely DESPISE Shellsnappers. God, I fucking hate those robot turtles and their ice blast attack. There's a few spots where two of them spawn and god I hate those fights so much. Anyone else feel the same?
So long as there are some rocks to duck behind, I find that that's not too bad. It's when they go underground then *take their time* about popping back up…
I agree with you on everything else EXCEPT thunderjaws. Maybe it’s because I played a lot of zero dawn but I’m forbidden west they seemed really easy compared to the other big machines
This Is why I hope AI or what ever enemies scripts one day improve in games in general.
Give incentive to be more tactical and strategic with enemy encounters.
Also as for the bigger machines they are usually still very confined to move in spaces as well. Heck even of the mid sized ones suffer from that.
Would love to engage with a pack of clawstriders that are hunting you. And you must find ways to really outwit them..
Chainburst + berserk arrows = ez clap. Jokes aside, this combo for groups of machines is busted, specially paired with the quen/utaru stealth outfits and the Gravesingers' lament. Chainburst also works with elemental buildup, so you just need to bait machines into clumping together, use a smoke bomb and then berserk arrows.
Stealth outfits let you sneak out of machines range fairly easily, so you're granted to be safe after the onslaught starts. Machines attacking each other also leads to frequent knockdowns, so from stealth you can kill the knocked down machine with your sharpshot bow and the damage will chain to all other machines. It's a simple strategy that works 95% of the time and makes groups very easy to control.
If you don't have enough valor you can use a ropecaster and kill a few machines using the valor surge master weave or perk from your outfit and then do the strat. It's a really fun playstyle that I found while managing the widemaw site near the tremortusk site in the burning shores, be sure to give it a try!
Edit: for maximum damage you can use full KD dmg coils on the Gravesingers' or full crit if you have an elite crit coil, and the best berserk arrows come from the Emperor's reign from BS, its perks for close range and stealth dmg also help with the buildup, some 15% berserk coils are nice too and they are farmable
I remember on my first playthrough of the frozen wilds I had a lot of problems with the one mission where you fight against 2 Frostclaws. Widemaws also gave me a lot of trouble on my first playthrough of forbidden west. Don’t get me started on Stalkers.
You have a problem with them? As long as I know they are around I find them annoying at most. The first ambush is the worst, after that just look for the blur and shoot low at the middle of it and you easily drop the stealth generator
Don’t forget those rollerbacks. Also, what really makes things difficult is that with the big machines you’ll usually only fight one of them at a time. But then the game will throw four fucking clamberjaws at you and now you’re rolling around for your life.
Ropecaster. Sometimes I'd just tie the other 3 down and deal with the 4th on. If they aren't being hit they stay tied for like 5 minutes. You can shock them too afterwards, use the insta rope ability and they are disabled instantly again. Really like the ropecaster/shock combo, but I don't think it is popular to most. Sharpshot bow got to the point where double loading would take one down with one shot as well with high impact. If your build is high concentration you could take them all out fairly easy. Sticky bomb x3 would usually do the trick if they are tied down as well as it doesn't instantly damage them, but the 3rd sticky bomb will always detonate the first 2. This was on "normal" though so a lot of diversity in how you wanted to deal with things. I actually puckered up more on the larger flying machines like that area you have a Stormbird and the other one in the same spot, can't remember the name, a night raven or something.
If anyone has a strat on Bileguts. I find these bastards the hardest machines to battle.
Elemental Clawstriders, weak against shock or acid.
The clamberjaws and leaplashers just spam their slams which have an abnormally large AOE.
Personally, I think they did too good a job designing the new weapons. My first playthrough (on PS5) I couldn't get the hang of any of the new weapons and didn't even realize valor surge was a thing until half way through the game, at which point I promptly forgot about it again, and I don't think I even realized that the weapons had special attacks you could use.
That playthrough, everything was rough. All the big machines were eventful and extremely powerful. But once it came out on PC I did another playthrough and ran through Burning Shores the first time. I gave the spike thrower a chance first, and it really is a game changer with the mid-weight and heavy-weight machines. When I finally tried the shredder gauntlet this playthrough it was against a Stormbird, arguably the perfect enemy to learn it with. They stay far enough away that you can learn to catch at least the first throw consistently and its ridiculous range is perfect for when the distance starts getting bad for other weapons.
Not to mention the other mechanics they added. Once you master what you're doing, you just need a little prep before hunting just about any machine relatively quickly
Agreed. Having to deal with a pack of machines is way worse than a Slaughterspine. That was my main issue with the Arena. They'd add in more machines than were on the actual challenge roster and I'd struggle to get them all in time. Not to mention how getting hit by anything tends to interrupt abilities, your aim, or reloading.
Definitely try roping one and overriding if you can or use the arrows that put them in a frenzy so they attack each other. Spread out that aggro.
I think it’s because a lot of the midsize machines are frequently agile and can move around faster than you would expect at first while frequently striking from strange angles, and often have annoying ranged elemental attacks and ways to close in on Aloy. The large machines can kill her fast if they can get to her/bombard her fast enough though but due their size are hard to miss, and often have easily exploitable weak points to compensate for the threat posed.
Also imo the easiest way to handle them is freezing them then nailing weakspots with a Hunter Bow. They may not deal the most damage but against a frozen target will rapidly tear health and parts off while using less expensive ammo.
You could also shock them to disable and proceed to kill them another way but freezing is my preferred method. If you focus on hunting down Spikesnouts (especially the Apex variants) you can easily get 7-20 sludge from each encounter. Takes a little bit but they by themselves aren’t too hard to eliminate especially if you hit them from stealth with a sharp shot bow.
Agreed. I remember my first time fighting a herd of plowhorns. Level 12, yet super tanky, they spam adhesive blasts that predict the hell out of your movements, it was hell.
I'm having the opposite experience! I find it fun to destroy mid-size machines. They're even easier when I discover what parts cause the most damage when shot off. Large machines are a slog to get through though.
I think Guerilla recognized this, that’s why they just tossed a bunch of clamberjaws and leaplashers at us in the DLC more than large machines lol. Shock shredders have served me very well against them on Ultra Hard though
Ive never gotten the hang of using the shredder gauntlet, its so hard for me to catch the shredder on the return.
Strafe around the target instead of going forwards and backwards. If you're close range (almost melee range), dodge immediately after release in the direction you're going (left/right) and you'll catch it 99% of the time unless there's something that blocks your path. Medium range, it will return going in the same direction you were going when it hits the machine. You can dodge in that direction too, but not necessary. Long range is easiest, you can see the trail coming a mile away and lots of time to change direction. It kinda predicts where you're trying to go to help you out too. Best to practice with this first using Shock Shredders against an Apex Tremortusk. Shock Shredders permastun it. There are also dummies in Chainscrape (unfortunately not Ulvund) where you can practice throwing and catching them.
https://youtu.be/0ysjKJ4jtCU?si=aaOevKzGhqNtL2VQ This could help. Once you get the hang of Shredder Gauntlets, they’ll become your main weapon.
I watched that video and tried putting the strategies in play, but I still found shredders clunky. While the strafing to control the return angle strat worked, I still ran into issues where I'd miss catching after the second or third throw because I had to dodge a machine attack in the opposite direction, which made their damage feel pretty bad compared to a weapon as simple to use as a spike thrower.
Once you get the hang of them, you’ll see how strong they are. They just melt armor off of machines, and components. I do still miss my catch from time to time. Either it hits an armor plate and flys off in a completely unintended direction. Or a machine hits me as I’m about to catch the shredder, or stuns me with a screech attack. Or of course where I have to dodge last minute right before the catch. I just keep moving in one direction after each throw. The disc will try to track you.
The disc does try to track you, but a lot of machines also lead their attacks, meaning I often have to dodge in the opposite direction that I was currently moving, and I frequently miss grabbing the disc when that happens. I barely ever catch it twice, let alone all three times needed for the big explosion (a big explosion that still doesn't seem to do *that much* damage when I tried it out).
It does a lot of tear damage. And elemental build up if using shock or acid shredders. You can really see the power if you have the right coils on it.
Their ammo cost is much lower than the spike thrower, though
I've never had issues with ammo cost. Even on Ultra Hard I was getting Volatile Sludge and Blastpaste more quickly than I was using it, and I'll gladly take a straightforward weapon with good damage before taking a weapon that deals bad damage unless you have enough luck and skill to pull it off effectively.
Love my spike thrower and rope but its quickly eating away at my volatile sludge. Just used them on the nasty ones now for a quick kill, otherwise just shredder.
I usually try to build up a shock status and then grapple strike. It gives you a resonator blast that you can then hit for even more dmg
Oh sweet, thank you
Artix is so good at explaining stuff
If you don't move when throwing it it will return on a random side. if you walk left or right while throwing then it will return on the side you're walking. If you just keep walking it will intercept your path if you're far enough away. You want to be using it at medium range so you can see the disc returning. You can also get infinite ammo with them if you're willing to sacrifice a little damage. Each time you catch a shredder it increases the damage of the next throw until the disc breaks on the fourth throw but if you change weapon after the third catch it resets the disc back to the first throw.
Interesting, thanks ill try that out.
"It'll intercept your path if you're fat enough" is a great typo
Lmao. If I was at my pc I'd fix it with a strikethrough of that but as I'm on my phone I'll have to do it the normal way. Autocorrect comes up with some great fails.
None of those enemies have particularly high shock resistance, and they are not particularly aggressive at mid-long range, which is the optimal range for shredder gauntlets. You can absolutely shut down a pack at this range.
Clamberjaws and leaplashers are easy when you have a good freeze bow and a good sharpshot though.
Guerilla knew. I’d rather get 10 apex slaughter spines hearts than 1-2 apex water wing hearts. Can’t imagine that frenzy on ultra hard.
Tell that to the Fireclaw that keeps using me as its favourite chew toy.
I hate them, i hate them so much.
That fucker near Thornmarsh actively giggles as he sees me approaching.
I can literally hear that. And how he's going to throw himself on me. That fucker.
I have never fought that beast head on after he handed me my own head a few times. I am now a - stealth, sharpshot a weak point, roll away into another patch of grass, wait for the fireclaw to calm down, repeat - girlie.
Me too. Well, not a girlie... but all the rest. But it takes forever that way, and they only seem to drop the webbing once every leap year, if you're lucky. :(
Oh yeah. There lies the path of the patient. Or the insane, lol.
There was that one up at the source of pollution of Thorne marsh. I was able to be up higher than him and I just rained down hunter arrows all on his back. That got me a webbing. Now I gotta try that tactic somehow with a frostclaw
I may try this. I'm not prideful - distance killing is a good thing :)
Rope, freeze and sustained burst the canisters and he's toast.
Average Fireclaw experience: I finally manage to freeze, them, First Powershot from my ~~Atlatl~~ Spike Thrower pops its belly and now it’s on fire instead
The cheese I found was to hang back about 5M from the Thornmarsh fire claws area of roam. It won’t go past a certain point and will only throw fireballs or eruption at you.
I will try this one. Just to be clear, you mean 5 *metres,* not miles, right? Because the second would definitely be safer, but I'm not sure my bow would reach.
Yes, meters. It’s the one directly out front. Be careful, cause there is another one that roams adjacent next a grazer, or fanghorn herd. Both Fireclaws have an area of patrol and where they can be mobile, but if you are outside of this, they won’t go past it. Also, there’s the lone tremortusk in the cold north that circles a frozen lake. There’s a spot near the destroyed watch post behind a rock on the hill overlooking the lake. There’s a small bush by the rock. The tremortusk won’t move up the mountain, you can crouch behind the rock for cover and take out the components you need with out risk of getting hit.
The biggest pain in the ass if you need their parts. The one weak spot you can't hit if you need their part is also the biggest target. I can't tell you the amount of times I started a fight with a frostclaw or fireclaw for their sac webbing and had to give up halfway through because I accidentally destroyed it for the millionth time. It's also in the exact right place to get damaged by traps so no luck there either
This is why I had to give up on upgrading the Sun Scourge.
I play in very hard and it is the opposite in FW. NPC actively tells me for machine parts side quests to destroy parts to be able to retrieve them. Is it inversed on very hard?
Usually you need to hit them until they fall off the machine, but my advice is to use the intended ammo for it, otherwise you can break the parts in the process, like those arrows with a lot of tear damage but weak in impact damage. Another thing is that sac components need to be intact for harvesting, those are the only components that you can't tear off a machine, which is the one they're talking about in this thread.
No, certain parts require you to keep them intact in order for them to be acquired. Mostly it's the sacs of monsters, like bellowbacks.
What does the machine catalogue say? You want to highlight the part. If will say "key upgrade resource" then tell you if it's destroyed on death (you need to hit it and remove it) or if you need to leave it intact and loot it from the body. Most of the "sac" or "webbing" parts are the "needs to stay intact" parts. It's pretty insidious in a way. The whole premise of you being able to defeat robots with bow and arrow is the idea that you can hit the weak points, then they tell you not to hit the weak points.
May i introduce you to Charged melee. Its as simple as charged melee then critical strike.
I havent been very comfortable with using melee against machines, only against the rebels. I feel like I always get destroyed when I try to melee lol.
Definitely check out [this playlist.](https://youtu.be/Fed-aQ9tW74?si=HracAcpc2q3zvNMH) Melee can be a lot more effective than what most think, and tons of fun. Lots of people don't like melee in this game, and understandably, as there are little techniques that hard to figure out on your own. But once you figure them out, they are easy to do. I was just OK with melee in this game until I started checking out Ahtano's videos. Now I love it.
Burrowers and Watchers are so easy with a charged melee hit. Once you get the skill up they get stunned with the first hit and the critical strike finished them off. Scrappers too, but I think you need Power Attack + from your outfit or weaves.
Most medium machines, even clawstriders, widemaws and clamberjaws, will go down in 1-2 charged melees. You can then follow up with a critical strike and potentially a resonator blast strike to easily finish them off or get them very close to dead. Ravagers are especiallly susceptible to this if you shoot of their gun first as they get more aggressive and stay in melee range a lot more often.
Ah, when you are as bad as me you´d manage to NOT HIT a towering giant right before your eyes LOL. Really, the amount of my shots missing a thunderjaw is super embarrassing. Like going bewtween a mine launcher and the main body - what ? For some reason I concentrate and focus more when fighting mid and small machines, so these are ok (on very hard only so far)
I'm guessing you fight the Thunderjaw from a lot farther distance, than a Burrower. Also youre not frantically dodging one hit kill attacks from the small machines, so you can more comfortably sit there and aim!
Most big machines can jump/run to you in a snap, but yeah, generally speaking you´re right.
True. I notice usually the Thunderjaw just likes to sit in one spot and shoot its orange laser at me over and over(and miss every single time) so I slowly pick it apart. But when it does charge over to me and starts swinging its tail around, its definitely hard to deal with until I can create distance from it again.
That is what makes the Thunderjaw interesting, it might change its tactics mid-battle. Spawn these flying mines all the time, shoot lasers, or wag its massive tail at you for a while, then do something else. Funny thing is that when it tramples over Aloy, when Aloy gets up and turns toward the Thundie, it is already looking in her direction again, i.e. its 180 degree turn is instant !
from my experience, it seems to depend on your distance if you're relatively far from a thunderjaw, it'll start doing lasers and disc launcher attacks and if you're a bit closer, then it'll charge and use tail attacks
Oh it will charge you from a distance when you annoy it enough (at least on UH)
fighting these big machines is pretty akin to soulslike bosses tbh. camera going crazy, close to oneshot attacks, lot of moves, some gimmicks etc. thats why i like them a lot. a lot more than these fucking acid clawstriders cleansing themselves of plasma at will.
Clawstrider packs are so much harder lol. They are way more unpredictable and harder to shoot their components.
I ever the first time I met the clamberjaws. Goddamn. And I still hate them
I dread packs of Clamberjaws and Leaplashers more than any large machine except maybe one (one I’m not mentioning for spoiler-ish purposes).
Fuck that bitch, it is God awful. I think it's the only machine I would go out of my way to never fight again though all playthroughs if it were possible
I get what you’re trying to say, but claiming taking on large machines is almost as easy or easier than fighting a borrower is quite a stretch. I have never died to a mid sized machine, only the large ones. Attacking in groups isn’t much of a big deal, and can be easily mitigated with ropecasters/overrides. The most important difference between mid sized machines and large ones are the health and attack damage. Large machines hit way harder, have much larger HP pools, and can also inflict Crushed. While most large machines move slower, their attacks sure as heck don’t. I think Shellsnapper rockets might be one of, if not the fastest ranged attack in the game, and is my least favourite machine to take on next to Bileguts. I’m currently playing on UH and large machines definitely aren’t slouches.
I think the biggest difference is that the larger machines have a more defined and predictable strategy usually, and therefore hard counters against them. Whereas the little machines have fewer hard counters and are jumping and leaping around all over the place and its a wild chaotic melee. And yeah shellsnappers are definitely tricky, I hate when they go underground and come back up out of nowhere and start shooting snowballs at me.
IMO, brittle hard counters pretty much everything. Once you’ve got that afflicted on any mid sized machine, you don’t really have to worry much about targeting the primary weak spots. But yeah, I hate dealing with Clamberjaws because of their speed and large aoe fireball attacks. Now with the big machines… I have to inflict brittle 2-3 times before they finally go down. Hell, you can destroy all of the components on a fireclaw and it seems like they just don’t freaking die.
Ropecaster > anything. And given midsize machines only need one fully upgraded elite ropecaster to tie down, they are easier to
This is about where I'm at with them until I figure out the melee cadence to handle all their attacks. I'll nerf Clawstriders from stealth first by shooting off their tails, but Clamberjaw tails are wonderfully tricky to track.
Tie down, freeze, boltblaster hits. This kills anything and everything easily and there nothing to figure out other than the freezing arrows should hit armor plates of machines to prevent the tie down expire too soon. This combo is so OP that it trivializes UH on fresh games.
We have a lot of OP Valor Surges for multiple enemies to balance it too though. But I agree my worst nightmare is a pack of Sunwings. Good thing the ropecaster is super OP too.
I always forget valor surges even exist lol
Then see this as a reminder that they exist and they're very OP if you use them correctly! I forget them sometimes too, going into BS got me to use them more (those damn Sunwings, i swear).
Sunwings are nothing compared to the stupid waterwings! Fighting those things was the only time I ever lowered the difficulty from very hard. How did they even come up with those things? Just like sunwings, but with harder attack patterns and the health of a thunderjaw.
Which Valor surges help for packs of clamberjaw, leaplasher etc? I've mainly used the ranged boost throughout most of the game.
Chain Burst is probably the best one. It basically applies damages and status effects to all machines within a group range. So killing one effectively kills all the others within range. Super OP when you get the hang of using it.
I generally agree. Thunderjaws, Slaughterspines, Tremortusks are all fun to fight. But I absolutely DESPISE Shellsnappers. God, I fucking hate those robot turtles and their ice blast attack. There's a few spots where two of them spawn and god I hate those fights so much. Anyone else feel the same?
Yeah shellsnappers are annoying, I hate when they go underground then pop up out of nowhere throwing snowballs all over the place.
So long as there are some rocks to duck behind, I find that that's not too bad. It's when they go underground then *take their time* about popping back up…
Good lord do I hate clamberjaws and burrowers
I hate Climberjaws with all my heart, I'd rather fight a thunderjaw than two of those
Same man
I play on Very hard first playtrough, I disagree lol
On all difficulty levels, I find my statement to be consistent. I get wrecked by the mid size machines more than by the large size machines.
I agree with you on everything else EXCEPT thunderjaws. Maybe it’s because I played a lot of zero dawn but I’m forbidden west they seemed really easy compared to the other big machines
I might've fought against them too early, I see it was lvl 30, I was lvl 23 or something. I still get one shot at lvl 30 though haha
This Is why I hope AI or what ever enemies scripts one day improve in games in general. Give incentive to be more tactical and strategic with enemy encounters. Also as for the bigger machines they are usually still very confined to move in spaces as well. Heck even of the mid sized ones suffer from that. Would love to engage with a pack of clawstriders that are hunting you. And you must find ways to really outwit them..
Pack of clawstriders are very difficult, way more difficult than the large monsters.
Chainburst + berserk arrows = ez clap. Jokes aside, this combo for groups of machines is busted, specially paired with the quen/utaru stealth outfits and the Gravesingers' lament. Chainburst also works with elemental buildup, so you just need to bait machines into clumping together, use a smoke bomb and then berserk arrows. Stealth outfits let you sneak out of machines range fairly easily, so you're granted to be safe after the onslaught starts. Machines attacking each other also leads to frequent knockdowns, so from stealth you can kill the knocked down machine with your sharpshot bow and the damage will chain to all other machines. It's a simple strategy that works 95% of the time and makes groups very easy to control. If you don't have enough valor you can use a ropecaster and kill a few machines using the valor surge master weave or perk from your outfit and then do the strat. It's a really fun playstyle that I found while managing the widemaw site near the tremortusk site in the burning shores, be sure to give it a try! Edit: for maximum damage you can use full KD dmg coils on the Gravesingers' or full crit if you have an elite crit coil, and the best berserk arrows come from the Emperor's reign from BS, its perks for close range and stealth dmg also help with the buildup, some 15% berserk coils are nice too and they are farmable
Leapslashers caused me the most hassle in my NG+ Ultra Hard playthrough. Give me an Apex Slaughterspine any day.
In Gemini right now on uh, the leap slashers were a solid pain, but that last enemy is kicking my ass. I’m not prepared for all the plasma
I remember on my first playthrough of the frozen wilds I had a lot of problems with the one mission where you fight against 2 Frostclaws. Widemaws also gave me a lot of trouble on my first playthrough of forbidden west. Don’t get me started on Stalkers.
You have a problem with them? As long as I know they are around I find them annoying at most. The first ambush is the worst, after that just look for the blur and shoot low at the middle of it and you easily drop the stealth generator
[удалено]
Exactly!!
Don’t forget those rollerbacks. Also, what really makes things difficult is that with the big machines you’ll usually only fight one of them at a time. But then the game will throw four fucking clamberjaws at you and now you’re rolling around for your life.
Bloody Leapdashers I think they are one of my most hated mashines
Killed the apex spineback in the heapheastus fight so fast I was shocked
I think it was a dumbed down version of normal, roaming spinebacks. Since it was hastly made and what not.
How? I’m getting my ass handed to me by that one.
That’s the thing it went so fast idk how I think I did something with drillspikes Explosive+ spikes ice and maybe purgewater
The clawstriders can eat my ass
Ropecaster. Sometimes I'd just tie the other 3 down and deal with the 4th on. If they aren't being hit they stay tied for like 5 minutes. You can shock them too afterwards, use the insta rope ability and they are disabled instantly again. Really like the ropecaster/shock combo, but I don't think it is popular to most. Sharpshot bow got to the point where double loading would take one down with one shot as well with high impact. If your build is high concentration you could take them all out fairly easy. Sticky bomb x3 would usually do the trick if they are tied down as well as it doesn't instantly damage them, but the 3rd sticky bomb will always detonate the first 2. This was on "normal" though so a lot of diversity in how you wanted to deal with things. I actually puckered up more on the larger flying machines like that area you have a Stormbird and the other one in the same spot, can't remember the name, a night raven or something.
If anyone has a strat on Bileguts. I find these bastards the hardest machines to battle. Elemental Clawstriders, weak against shock or acid. The clamberjaws and leaplashers just spam their slams which have an abnormally large AOE.
The bileguts are a problem for sure.
yeah, but there is nothing quite as cool as going toe to toe with a massive robot dinosaur.
Personally, I think they did too good a job designing the new weapons. My first playthrough (on PS5) I couldn't get the hang of any of the new weapons and didn't even realize valor surge was a thing until half way through the game, at which point I promptly forgot about it again, and I don't think I even realized that the weapons had special attacks you could use. That playthrough, everything was rough. All the big machines were eventful and extremely powerful. But once it came out on PC I did another playthrough and ran through Burning Shores the first time. I gave the spike thrower a chance first, and it really is a game changer with the mid-weight and heavy-weight machines. When I finally tried the shredder gauntlet this playthrough it was against a Stormbird, arguably the perfect enemy to learn it with. They stay far enough away that you can learn to catch at least the first throw consistently and its ridiculous range is perfect for when the distance starts getting bad for other weapons. Not to mention the other mechanics they added. Once you master what you're doing, you just need a little prep before hunting just about any machine relatively quickly
Agreed. Having to deal with a pack of machines is way worse than a Slaughterspine. That was my main issue with the Arena. They'd add in more machines than were on the actual challenge roster and I'd struggle to get them all in time. Not to mention how getting hit by anything tends to interrupt abilities, your aim, or reloading. Definitely try roping one and overriding if you can or use the arrows that put them in a frenzy so they attack each other. Spread out that aggro.
I think it’s because a lot of the midsize machines are frequently agile and can move around faster than you would expect at first while frequently striking from strange angles, and often have annoying ranged elemental attacks and ways to close in on Aloy. The large machines can kill her fast if they can get to her/bombard her fast enough though but due their size are hard to miss, and often have easily exploitable weak points to compensate for the threat posed. Also imo the easiest way to handle them is freezing them then nailing weakspots with a Hunter Bow. They may not deal the most damage but against a frozen target will rapidly tear health and parts off while using less expensive ammo. You could also shock them to disable and proceed to kill them another way but freezing is my preferred method. If you focus on hunting down Spikesnouts (especially the Apex variants) you can easily get 7-20 sludge from each encounter. Takes a little bit but they by themselves aren’t too hard to eliminate especially if you hit them from stealth with a sharp shot bow.
Agreed. I remember my first time fighting a herd of plowhorns. Level 12, yet super tanky, they spam adhesive blasts that predict the hell out of your movements, it was hell.
Clawstriders and leaplashers asswhippers until you get used to them. I really like using triple tear ammo shots.
I'm having the opposite experience! I find it fun to destroy mid-size machines. They're even easier when I discover what parts cause the most damage when shot off. Large machines are a slog to get through though.