Clearing the Dig Sites¶

Return once again to the Campfire and from there head along a trail to the north to reach the outskirts of the Maker’s End ruins, the beginning of an extensive dig-site. It’s populated by lesser Cultists and a few Corrupted Watchers, the latter of which will probably be your first victim, as one patrols near this entrance to the dig site. There’s plenty of tall grass to aid you, and the Cultists immediately ahead are of the weaker variety, so a Double Shot of Precision Arrows from a well-modded Sharpshot Bow should, frankly, be overkill, even if you only are ambitious enough to go for body-shots. Use the tall grass to snipe as many as you can, after which you’ll need to abandon cover to pick off the stragglers. Another Corrupted Watcher lies to the north, and a third is west of this little pocket of the dig-site.

After killing all the Cultists and machines in sight, continue west and scrap the aforementioned Watcher, loot the fallen and restock by plundering some Supply Crates. When that’s all done, continue to the west to find a walled-off section of the dig-site, with some tall grass conveniently placed in the entrance. Take cover in this grass and scan the low ground to the west to note that there are several more weakling Cultists joined by a few Corrupted Watchers and a Corruptor.

The ideal course of action here is to thin out the Watchers and Cultists and isolate the Corruptor, and to this end you’ll have to use the plentiful, if small, patches of tall grass scattered around the dig-site here. Again, Cultists can be shot down with the Sharpshot Bow, while Corrupted Watchers can be disposed of with the good old Lure Call/Silent Strike combo. After the field is cleared, use Fire Arrows to bring down the Corruptor and head northwest past the Corruptor, then turn northeast to find a wall with hand holds on it.

The Damaged Deathbringer¶

Climb the wall and continue east, then northeast through some ruins, stopping only to grab the Ancient Vessel - Thunderheads out of a pile of Ancient Debris. Brave explosions and continue to - and drop down - a ledge, where Aloy will again utilized a convenient bit of cover to spy on the situation ahead (there always seems to be one of those handy, right?) A number of Cultists toil over a massive machine, brimming with weaponry: A Deathbringer.

Despite the scary name, however, this particular unit is very much a poor example of the machine’s true capabilities. It’s immobile and severely damaged, but its guns do work well enough to cause you trouble… should you provoke it. Fortunately there’s plenty of tall grass to hide in, and you should utilize this grass to take out the Cultists nearby. Just use your trusty Sharpshot Bow and pick off the Cultists one at a time, being patient in between shots so their suspicion dies down. If you’re willing to take your time with the Cultists and use Lure Call/Silent Strike to demolish the Watchers, there’s no good reason why you can’t end up with just the Deathbringer and you, just move from tall grass to get better shots as needed, including moving south through (and under) the enemy structures.

As for the Deathbringer, a proper write-up isn’t suitable here. As mentioned earlier, this particular robot is simply not an example of the machine at its prime. That’s not to say it can’t put up a fight - it’ll be more than happy to fire at you if you present an opportunity, but you can simply shoot at its Heat Vents and Cooling Rods as the machine exposes them, then take cover behind the rocks nearby until it loses focus. Rinse, wash, repeat and it should fall soon enough, especially if you’re willing to use Triple Shot.

Once everything is dead or destroyed, search the Shadow Carja leader to find an Eclipse Focus, which Aloy will try and use. Fortunately, things don’t go quite as planned, and she probably ends up giving more away than she learns. Looks like you’ve got no choice to continue northwest of the Deathbringer and into a cave. You’ve got an old world tower to climb.

Faro Automated Solutions¶

Squeeze through a crack and Aloy will interact with an ancient security system, which actually opens for her… although it refers to her as “Doctor Sobeck”. Weird. Enter the door and an automated voice will chastise you with absurd figures. As it does so, head to an elevator shaft and drop down to the ledge, then climb down a ladder. At the bottom of the shaft head out a doorway to the north, northeast and into a room across the hall where you can log the Audio Datapoint “Entangled Waveforms” .

Exit the room and head down the hallway to the west, northwest and follow the linear path ahead until you come to a room with a Deathbringer statue. In this room an automated voice will boast of the accomplishments of this long-extinct Faro “tribe”. From the Faro Focus to their “peacekeeper” robots, it seems Faro left a linger mark on the world. Use your Faro Focus™ to scan a Text Datapoint - Quest “Reception Log” north of the Deathbringer display, then go through a doorway to the north, northwest, which will automatically get you a call from the mysterious voice that infects your Focus and several Text Datapoints.

Continue down a hallway to the north, northwest and enter a room in that direction to scan the Audio Datapoint “R&D/Lab Retooling” . Return to the hallway and turn west, southwest to reach a stairwell. Ascend the stairs and continue east, northeast until you reach a fork, at which point turn south, southeast and enter a room to find the Text Datapoint - Quest “Complaint” . After logging that datapoint turn south, southeast then east, northeast to bypass a cave-in before turning back south, southeast and going through a doorway to reach an elevated part of the room where the Deathbringer model is presented.

Unfortunately, this is a rather old building, and structural integrity is a bit of an issue. After your fall, turn east and climb a ladder, then use some yellow hand holds to climb around the edge of the room to reach another ledge. Go through the door to the west and ignore an elevator shaft to the south for a moment. Instead continue west and explore a large control room to the south where you’ll find a hologram which will proudly present a “Horus” machine, which could apparently create more combat machines and sustain its operations on biomass. Not a good combination. This earns you the Hologram Datapoint “FAS-BOR7 Horus” . In another, smaller office to the west you’ll find the Text Datapoint - Quest “Spiritual Summit” .

Return to the elevator shaft and… well, climb up it. You’ve got a good bit of ground to cover - your goal is the 35th floor, after all - so simply look for various yellow hand holds and climb until you find yourself outside, at which point scan the Audio Datapoint - “Regarding the Rumors” , then make your way east, southeast along a precipitous ledge to find more hand holds. Climb until you reach a ledge you must drop down then continue a through a doorway to the west, northwest to reach another elevator shaft. Leap to the other side, scan the Text Datapoint - Quest “All Hands on Deck” , then continue west, northwest into another elevator shaft which will finally see you to your destination… well, more or less.

Ignore the first ledge you can climb into to the east and instead keep climbing until you can climb no more to reach Ted Faro’s office. Log the Text Datapoint - Quest “Banda Sea Incident” then continue east through the office to find some hand holds, which you can use to climb up above your destination. Turn east to find more hand holds which lead to an even more lofty perch, upon which you’ll find the third Power Cell. You probably don’t want to climb up this tower again, so be sure to grab the Power Cell now.

Once done, rappel down to a lower ledge and make your way down to the west to reach the conference room, where you can scan and examine the FAS Executive Data Storage, which will recover a series of three Hologram Datapoints “Record: 31 Oct 2064” , “Record: Nov 2064” and “Record: Nov 3 2064” . Collectively they explain what happened to the ancients, and mentions the solution - Zero Dawn. Watch the holograms, then turn east to find a newly-opened elevator shaft. Before you can descend, the mysterious voice in your Focus will put a name - and face - to that voice. After rightfully chastising Aloy for her selfish, unimaginative and narrow focus he’ll reveal your next destination - the Grave-Hoard.

Use a combination of rappel points and ziplines to get down from the Faro tower, or just fast travel somewhere. Either way, your next destination - the Grave-Hoard - is northeast of the Banuk Village north of Nora territory. If you did the exploration section “Exploring the Northern Mountains” you should have a Campfire relatively close. If not, it’s a good distance northwest of the Devil’s Grief ruins and the Hollow Fort Bandit Camp.