The machines vary in size from slightly larger than humans to as tall as ten stories.

This article contains heavy spoilers, and may reveal plot or quest information.

These machines typically bear strikingly similar designs to various forms of fauna that have existed in the course of Earths history, such as avians, ungulates, and even dinosaurs.

The two known examples of botanical machines are the Metal Flowers spread throughout the world of Horizon Zero Dawn, and the tree-like Control Tower found only to date in The Cut.

However, Faro soon began developing machines built for combat, two of which were the Scarab and Khopesh, heavily-armed robots that could supplant entire armies, convert biomass into fuel, and replicate themselves allowing them to operate indefinitely.

Additionally, the Scarabs hijacking ability allowed it to slave other combat machines to its network.

The entire Faro line used polyphasic entangled waveforms, rendering them virtually unhackable.

The machines replicated faster than they could be destroyed, and began operating as an independent entity.

Soon, a full-fledged war between humanity and robots began, costing billions of lives and immense destruction.

Despite humanitys best efforts, the swarm could not be contained and they devoured biomass wherever they went, eliminating entire cities and ecosystems.

Ted Faro, the CEO of Faro Industries, met with a former employee named Elisabet Sobeck in hopes of containing the swarm, but Elisabet found that there was no way of stopping the machines from destroying all life on Earth.

However, she proposed a project named Zero Dawn to Ted, stating that it was the only way of ensuring that life on Earth could continue after the machines killed everything.

GAIA was aided by nine subroutines, one of which was HADES, a subroutine designed to take control of the terraforming process and start it over again if it was unsatisfactory.

She then created many different machines modeled off of former animal life to purify the Earths toxic atmosphere and biosphere.

Hundreds of years later, humans were released from the Cradles they were created in and began forming primitive tribal societies, not knowing of the old ones who came before them.

The machines they encountered were docile and generally harmless for many generations: if they saw a human, they would usually flee.

Machines, especially machine hunting, would have a large role in the culture of these new tribes.

HADES attempted to take control of GAIA completely, but GAIA self-destructed before he could do so.

Because of this, HEPHAESTUS changed the machines default behavior as hostile towards mankind, as well as creating a new generation of machines designed to cull the human population.

This event that came to be known as the Derangement by the humans.

They can usually be found in large groups, although some operate in smaller packs.

Machines will either run away from or attack humans (mostly the latter) that they come across, and will completely ignore wildlife.

The typical machine design features a chassis composed of darker alloys, synthetic skins, and fiber-optic cables, with lighter alloys serving as armor plating for vital components and synthetic muscles.

The logo for the machines respective Cauldron will be located in multiple places along the body, and armor plating is sometimes lacquered (the Fireclaws armor plating is dark red).

Due to their respective purposes, not all machines have jaws, and the ones that do generally have split mandibles.

Zero Day Rock