It would never have occurred to me to free prisoners until the area was clear anyway :P I've only cleared the one so far, I intend to go and do the ones I've not been to yet next time I play. I haven't been to the area the second one is in at all yet, so I'm wondering what's up there or if you go there later on.
Fought a Snapmaw last night, as part of an errand quest. Kinda took me by surprise, and while I was fighting that one I could see icons of two others that could hear the noise but not actually find us. I really didn't want to fight three at once.
edited 7th Mar '17 5:52:13 AM by artfulscruff
Do you know what happens when you decide not to approach a large machine and, thus, doesn't really know much about it? The game forces you to fight it. Corrupted. In a pit. Without your focus, so you can't scan for weak points and you have to figure them out by your experience. Damn thing killed me twice. And you are taken out of there afterwards, so you can't even loot it in the end.
Also, can confirm you'll get back to the mountain so you can collect the power cell back there. Edit: I thought there would be another cell in there, but I was wrong. You do have to go through the All-Mother in order to eventually access the final cell somewhere else, though, so the point remains.
edited 7th Mar '17 10:47:59 AM by KusaMigeru
... And that's called jazz!Kinda late to answer because of reasons, but my suggestion is: don't bother doing the glitch to return to the All-Mother just to get the cell. I just learned today that you'll be able to return to the All-Mother before you get the chance to reach the final power cell, so there's no reason to hurry.
... And that's called jazz!Both Gates were open. There was also wood and healing plants up and down the hill to All Mother. I just fast traveled to the site.
Speaking of fast travel if you guys have enough shards a fox skin and something else I can't recall, get yourselves to Meridian. A merchant there sells an infinite use fast travel pack.
Who watches the watchmen?SO I went off the beaten path to get a Vantage point and found out they're called that not because of them being good vantage points, but in fact the name of the project that made them! and ran into a cutscene.
Clearly I wasn't supposed to be there yet. Had to kill a SODDING HUGE BIRD MONSTER when I had nil health potions and barely any heal items.
Bloody epic fight, but I get the nagging feeling I'm not using the right weapons at times... Lots of tear arrows and then fire stuff.
Top of the mountain and I'm clearly not supposed to be there YET. Ah well, I guess I better head to Meridian at some point.
Get all the flowers and vessels and Banuk figures on the eastern part of the map before you head to Meridian. There are traders there that'll cough up treasure boxes for sets of them.
I'm Charlie Owens, good night and good luck. PSNID: CEOIII 1117Gonna double post to say the human AI in this game has more balls than brains.
I just finish a sidequest, walking towards Meridian, I pass by a group of 4 guys. I walk by them, then I hear "FOR THE SUN!"
I turn, they're running at me, weapons drawn. I dodge roll out of the way, expecting a fight, but they keep running. The reason?
These dudes thought they could take the FUCKING THUNDERJAW we were all walking towards.
I helped as best I could, shot off both its disc launchers and one cannon, but that didn't stop Thunder from bending those poor bastards over and screaming "SAY MY NAME, HUMAN!" in their ears.
I did manage to avenge their deaths. Once you've shot off a launcher, pick it up and hammer TJ with it. For a vicious looking killing machine, he goes down pretty easy.
Seriously. This thing had 4 guns, they had spears. Talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight.
I'm Charlie Owens, good night and good luck. PSNID: CEOIII 1117
x5: The merchant at Daytower sells it too. I know this because I created an errand for it, and I haven't got to Meridian yet.
Story time. I was heading back east to have a look at the bandit camp out that way (it turned out to be a level 25 quest so I didn't bother in the end), but on the way I hunted Shellwalkers, trying to get a heart so I can trade it for the Nora Protector Heavy outfit. After taking out a couple of lone machines, the next shellwalker site actually had a group of four of them. With Watchers patrolling. I hide in some long grass and whistle at one of the 'walkers, to draw it away. I got it far enough away, laid a tripwire or two, and lured it in... The noise brought every single machine in the area to me
◊. At this point, some Glinthawks, a new machine to me, appeared and started circling. I don't know if they were there already or not, I think it's cooler if they weren't.
I waited for them all to piss off, then managed to lure the damaged shellwalker back and kill it. The loot icon was blue, so I figured there was a good chance the heart had dropped.. and then the Glinthawks descended and started tearing up the carcass. I shoot at them, but of course that brings all the other shellwalkers back over, I'm forced to run, and by the time the area is clear the 'hawks have stripped the corpse.
Lesson learned, pick my battles more carefully.
Oh, I fought a Stormbird too, soon after leaving Daytower. Fun fight, and not terribly difficult. Then again, there were a ton of Carja soldiers around too, so maybe they helped.
Oh yeah. I guess few things feel more badass than killing a Thunderjaw in this game. Especially when you kill a Thunderjaw along with your tribe, with Marea growling insults at it.
And yeah, the cutscene with the Stormbird is at a late game location, I guess. And you don't even have to fight it when the time arrives (just run straight to the objective), but more power to you if you beat it, of course.
Oh, and one more thing: if you ever meet someone named Jon Faro, could you punch them in the face for me? I think I'll never forgive them for what they did.
... And that's called jazz!I've decided I have another pet peeve with the game; I don't like the outfits with headgear, because I like Aloy's hair a lot and the headgear hides it.
I fought a Rockbreaker as part of the quest at the quarry, that was some proper Monster Hunter stuff. Finished up the sidequest to find Nakoa as well, I should have known something fishy going on after Zaid sent Nakoa on her way after a murder attempt. I actually thought he was being reasonable, I see now he was being too reasonable.
Someone needs to make a list of things you can safely sell. My resource bag is full.
I'm Charlie Owens, good night and good luck. PSNID: CEOIII 1117Sell anything you don't plan on immediately using. I don't use the potions much outside of the health ones so I sell all flowers. Various pieces of items have no use in crafting or as requirements for trade with vendors. Their description will be sell for shards and nothing else. Followed by trade with vendors-sell for shards, followed by any crafting materials that are common as muck like lenses, green mods, and eventually blue mods. Keep any item you use to replenish ammo stocks obviously sell most of the rest.
edited 8th Mar '17 4:23:23 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?Yeah, anything that says only 'Selling for shards' is fine to sell. I also tend to sell things I just have too many of, like if I have two or three stacks of Watcher Lenses.
I made a point of upgrading my resource bag as soon as possible.
I sold every mod that only has one effect as well, since I have way more mods than I'll ever be using at once, and if there's one that does one, I always seem to have one that does that and something else too. I also managed to find somewhere a very rare mod that's +47% damage or something outrageous, it's very nice. I put it on my Shadow Hunter bow.
I still don't understand why the different weapons can only fire certain kinds of ammo, when it's pretty much just all variants on bows and crossbows. I'd rather have had a more involved or flexible upgrade system than three or four different bows. Three bows is the most you need, I think; one balanced one, one fast but weak one, and one slow but powerful one, each of them able to fire any arrow type.
I feel the game wants you do a Monster Hunter type thing of preparing for a particular encounter, but I think generally speaking you don't know what you're going to be up against unless you go specifically hunting a particular machine, and any given encounter might have different machines with a mix of strengths and weaknesses, so your loadout might not be effective. That's why I'd have preferred less specialised weapons.
To be more positive, I'm really liking the machines' behaviours. I think I mentioned earlier the Glinthawks scavenging one of my kills, which I didn't expect. Another thing I thought was cool happened when I was hunting Shell-walkers (again), and executed a perfect ambush on a convoy. I'd knocked the cargo off both 'walkers, and the last one was almost dead, and seemed reluctant to approach and attack me. I was just watching it, seeing what it was going to do. It went back to its cargo pod, picked it up with its weapon arm and held it on with that. I thought that was so cool. It made the machine seem like more than just an enemy for you to kill, like it had other things it wanted to do (same with the aforementioned Glinthawks), and I also thought it was cool how it made it an easier target now, because its main weapon was being used for something else.
I destroyed the arm, forcing it to drop the pod again (I'm assuming you only get loot from the pods if they're dropped, else what's the point in being able to knock them off?), and killed it. Still didn't get the Shell-walker heart I so badly want.
I seem to be making a lot of long posts, sorry :P
edited 8th Mar '17 3:08:04 PM by artfulscruff
So, Thunderjaw was my first big machine kill. I'm a little concerned about my second. (or maybe third, I killed a Rockbreaker during a sidequest.)
I was doing some arrow fishing in a part of the map, and I kept hearing this whooshing noise. I look around, nothing but some scrappers nearby. I nail one in the power cell with a shock arrow, and when he explodes I get 3 "alert" icons.
One from overhead.
From the bird roughly the size of Wyoming.
I damn near wet myself, and fast travel away before I even scan it. Speaking as someone who hates killing Glinthawks (firing up throws me off for some reason), PLEASE tell me that bionic giant eagle isn't as deadly as it looks.
I'm Charlie Owens, good night and good luck. PSNID: CEOIII 1117OY. Forget it, I'm doing other quests and hunting until I get heavy armor.
Oh, go back to earlier settlements periodically. I got 2-3 new side missions while hunting grazer dummies.
I'm Charlie Owens, good night and good luck. PSNID: CEOIII 1117I can honestly tell you it isn't as deadly as it looks. Glinthawks are annoying in part because they're small and numerous, allowing obnoxious ice carpet bombing and making them hard to hit. Stormbirds are huge, solo, and have a giant elemental weapon in their chest begging for tearblow arrows, and once that shock cannon is gone, it's limited to inelegant swooping attacks and acting as an awkward land enemy. If you're having trouble dodging the shock blasts, try dropping a resist shock potion until you get rid of that weapon.
My biggest problems are behemoths and their rock shotgun and rockbreakers and their horrible landshark act.
edited 9th Mar '17 12:10:27 AM by Balmung
I've killed two stormbirds. The first one took ages. The second one was easier once I worked out they REALLY don't like frost and sharpshooter arrows.
Oh and the blast launcher is great once you have them grounded.
Just watch out for their flapping wing attack that sends you flying (Like a worse Longleg attack, basically)
Only thing I'm finding hard to get are the specific hearts so I can buy better weapons - Sawtooth hearts are hard and I've slaughtered so many ruddy Snapjaws with no joys. Going to go after the Lancehorns later for the Rattler requirement, then go to Meridian and start the Hunters Lodge quest. Apparently their weapons are "shiny".
With the frost sacs I'm never sure if I have actually hit them half the time.
And totally agree on the living element - scrappers "eating" corpses of downed robots. Glinthawks stealing kills. Stumbling onto rnadom combat in the middle of deserts. So so so much fun.
Public service announcement before I forget it and in case anyone didn't know: If you fast travel while on a mount, the mount comes with you.
Caught up with Olin. Spared him. He seems like more of a victim in this than anything else. Can you actually kill him? Most of the dialogue options so far have seemed inconsequential, but that one seems like it would have a noticable effect.
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There are new sidequests back in old areas?
There's a merchant in Meridian who sells machine hearts for shards. Expensive, but can save you trouble. I shelled (hah) out for a Shell-walker heart to save me the bother of hunting them.
I'm no trophy hunter, but I'm going to seek trophies and see if I can platinum this, since I only do this with a game I really like - and, like I said before, this game is the reason I bought a PS 4. Back in 2015. Yeah, a risky bet, but I've done this before, and it was worth it.
On another note, I know you usually end up with so many wood and shards you'll hardly worry about ammo, but I don't know how to feel about my money being used to make ammo (and things worsen when you start using stronger arrows). I mean, I got to a point where I get worried whenever my "bank account" goes below 1000 shards, even though I've never had to burn through so much ammo in any mission. I think I need to relax.

So killed my first Thunderjaw. JESUS that was an epic fight. Had to use its disclauncher against it. They are MASSIVE.
Found two at the same time decided against fighting them - wasn't sure of the quickest way to take it out - used all my health items. Probably should have used traps more or the sling. Damn thing was VICIOUS.
Not found any stalkers "in the wild" as it were yet. Cleared another bandit camp and Tallneck. Absolutely beautiful screenshots.