Fireclaw

"The lesson will be taught in due time, Aloy. Until then, we wait." This article contains heavy spoilers, and may reveal plot or quest information.

The Fireclaw is a machine exclusive to The Frozen Wilds. Like its twin machine the Frostclaw, this huge, ursine machine is classed as an Acquisition machine and functions at such. However, Fireclaws have a dual purpose as hunter-killer units for deployment against humans. They are the first and so far only known machines specifically developed for this purpose, a task that they are exceptionally well-equipped to perform. As such, they represent an escalation in their creator HEPHAESTUS' hostility to humans and its efforts to dissuade humans from hunting machines.

History

Fireclaws were created by the AI HEPHAESTUS at Cauldron EPSILON, in the Banuk region known as The Cut. Given that the Frostclaw is similar in appearance and design, they may have served as an inspiration or prototype for Fireclaw design. As previously outlined, Fireclaws are the first and only known anti-human hunter-killer machines. Apparently satisfied with their capabilities and suitability for this purpose, HEPHAESTUS began to mass-produce thousands of them. However, it was only able to produce and release a small number of them before EPSILON’s destruction.

A Daemonic Fireclaw was used by HEPHAESTUS as the primary defense of the cauldron’s core against an expedition that infiltrated the cauldron. The expedition, composed of the Nora huntress Aloy, the Banuk shaman Ourea, and the erstwhile Banuk chieftain Aratak, prompted HEPHAESTUS to deploy the Fireclaw when Aloy attempted to access the core. The machine proved extremely effective against the three expert hunters. In addition to its highly formidable combat abilities, HEPHAESTUS spontaneously generated Control Towers to repair any damage the Fireclaw sustained mid-battle. While the party ultimately prevailed against it, their incursion was too late to prevent HEPHAESTUS from releasing the aforementioned small number of Fireclaws from the Cauldron into The Cut. Due to the extreme danger that they posed to the region’s residents, Aloy hunted and destroyed five of them, engaging two in tandem with Aratak. While Fireclaws are still present in the Cut, only one or two can now be found in the region, both at remote sites. This significantly reduces the threat they pose.

Appearance

Like the Frostclaw, the Fireclaw is somewhat ursine in appearance, movement and locomotion. Its chassis resembles the body and has the gait of a grizzly bear. Presumably, HEPHAESTUS modeled the Fireclaw and Frostclaw after the long-extinct animal, which was native to the region during the time of the Old Ones. Its size is comparable to that of a Thunderjaw, making it one of the largest machines. The head ends in a pointed, toothy snout with a three-mandible jaw containing 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, whose purpose is unknown. 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. Furthermore, while the Fire Bellowback and Freeze Bellowback are identical in all respects except for their respective elements of Fire and Freeze, Fireclaws are are much larger than Frostclaws, have a considerably higher capacity to resist and sustain damage, and their armor is much tougher.^[2]

Behavior

Like most large machines, Fireclaws are solitary and almost never seen in groups. They are only known to be found in The Cut; the region’s geography prevents them from entering nearby territories, such as the Nora Sacred Lands to the south.

As previously stated, Fireclaws have a secondary purpose as acquisition machines, and are classified as such. They can be frequently seen mining soil for mineral resources at their respective sites, in the same manner as Tramplers. They also scavenge destroyed machines, like Scrappers or Glinthawks.

Abilities

Like the grizzly 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 the four other largest and most powerful machines known. Its damage resistance is even greater than that of these machines, particularly against explosives.^[2] 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, and also share their very high resistance to Shock. Additionally, despite their massive size, they are quite agile and fast, able to run and spring with surprising speed.

Weaknesses

Fireclaws are particularly 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. The Fire Sacs on a Fireclaw’s shoulders can be struck with Fire Arrows to cause a corresponding elemental explosion that inflicts a Burn state on the Fireclaw, but this state causes minimal damage and quickly dissipates. However, if these tanks are indeed destroyed, the Fireclaw’s claw attacks are weakened somewhat, and are entirely deprived of their Fire effect. Curiously, the power cell on its back has little armor; strikes on it with Shock arrows on cause an electrical explosion which stuns the machine; indeed this is the only way to stun a Daemonic Fireclaw via Shock. However, even so, the machine recovers faster than normal.

A Fireclaw’s only significant structural and tactical liability is its Fire Unit. Provided that both its Fire Sacs have been destroyed, repeated strikes on the Fire Unit with ranged weapons will destroy it in a massive Fire explosion and inflict a permanent Burn state that eventually kills the Fireclaw. However the machine’s tough armor plating makes this difficult, and the Fireclaw’s high capacity to sustain damage makes the time until the Burn state finally destroys it quite long.

Attacks

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	180/130	-	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 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
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

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

Components

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

Loot

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Sparker

1

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Metal Shards

1

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Crystal Braiding

50

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Fireclaw Lens

70

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Fireclaw Heart

140

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Blaze

4

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Machine Core - Large

100

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Echo Shell

15

Trivia

• Depending on the player's progress in the game, Aloy could be technically be the first known member of the Hunters Lodge to take down a Fireclaw, which is arguably a more worthy game than Redmaw, the latest Sunhawk trophy.
  • However, since the the Lodge's custom only allows Hawks to be promoted to Sunhawk, the feat would not be likely to affect her rank.
• During The Frozen Wilds' development, Fireclaws were referred to as LavaBears.^[3]
• The Fireclaw is the only machine seen to date with red armor plating. The exact significance of this is unclear, though it may be as simple as it just being the default appearance of it's upgraded armor.
• Based on the evidence to date, real bears are among the animals that have not yet been reintroduced by the terraforming system (at least in the area of North America seen in-game), for reasons 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.

Gallery

An overridden Fireclaw

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Videos

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

All Fireclaws on Hard mode

References