u/RobynBetween

...JUST Magus?

I know, I know... you can't have just one party member during these battles, at least not without modding the game. But Magus is very capable on his own (he "doesn't play well with others," as I like to say), and of course he even >!takes on Lavos alone in his own ending. 😬 (Good luck, buddy...)!<

Heck, he gets to override the boss theme against his own mom. I don't think this can happen with the final battle, but ya gotta admit it's satisfying to see him succeed against Lavos alone.

Although you can't remove the other characters from the party, you can bring them in at 1HP so they'll die immediately in the first phase. You'll have to just let them stand there in subsequent phases, though. You can wait for them to get knocked out, or just have Magus attack while he uses them as meat shields. 🥩

What do you get for this? NOTHING! Except maybe satisfaction that you did it. ❤️ This will probably require at least a couple of NG+ restarts.

Extra credit:

Use only Magus from the moment you get him. Have the other characters stand inactive in battle. Don't finish the Death Peak quest (or if you do, use Magus/Robo/Ayla -- all three are low dialog priority in the last scene, so you may get some dialog you haven't seen before).

*(Spoiler Note: I've played Zero Dawn, Frozen Wilds, and Forbidden West, but NOT Burning Shores or Call of the Mountain. I've marked HZD spoilers in the flair, so everyone should expect those, but marking spoilers from other games in your posts is appreciated.)*

I searched for past discussions on this topic in this sub, and didn't find much. There was a brief question about how metalburn causes corruption (status effect), which was answered briefly with "nanomachines," attributed to an official AMA.

Cool cool. It's nice there's some explanation (I don't think this counts as "canon," though it is official). But there are some problems with it.

First of all, it's well-established that Corruptors/Scarabs are capable of "slaving" non-Chariot-line robots. Since the Corruption is associated with Hades, and since Chariot line robots (like Corruptors and Deathbringers) are hostile to humans despite NOT leaking glowing red corrosive fluids, this is what I take from it (from here on is my opinion):

Hades created a computer virus that would infect machines designed by Project Zero Dawn or Gaia. The virus not only turns the machines hostile (or *more* hostile), it also "overclocks" them to strengthen them, causing them to produce metalburn as a byproduct. (In theory this shortens their "life expectancy," but if so this isn't reflected in the gameplay.)

I think the virus does not affect Corruptors (it doesn't have to), but the Corruptors were repurposed by Hades so that as they are slaving (a.k.a. overriding) units, they infect them with the Corruption virus.

This, however, leaves a few burning (heh heh) questions that I haven't been able to answer with canon or with theory:

1. Is overriding basically just hacking using a superior A.I.?

2. If so, why does Aloy's salvaged override unit make machines friendly to her rather than hostile, even before she has learned anything about coding? (This one might just be suspension of disbelief for gameplay purposes)

3. If Corruptors are capable of spreading the Corruption virus via overriding/hacking, why would the Corruption virus need something quite as direct as nanomachines? Is that the only way it can transfer from machine to machine without a Corruptor as the conduit?

4. The Corruption status effect uses metalburn (said to contain nanomachines) to cause uncorrupted machines to briefly change sides. How the heck could nanomachines be used in this way without advanced skills and equipment?

5. Why and how does the Corruption status effect work on humans? If nanomachines, it seems like the effect should be more permanent and severe.

Okay, that's enough of me picking this apart. I enjoy Horizon immensely... Overthinking these things is just how I enjoy them when I'm not actually playing the games. :)

I guess keeping this in would have extended an already long ending. But still.

If you look at the nine principles, most of them seen understandable as qualities that a plurality of people would find to be virtuous. Heck, some of them seem practically synonymous with virtue, like "Probity," which basically equates to "integrity."

But then you get to "Wiles"... which basically means "deception" or "dishonesty." It's almost the exact opposite of probity.

Now, I'm not particularly trying to say that "gasp!! Lumon may actually be an evil CULT!!!" ...Because yeah, obviously. Lumon encourages its members practice cognitive dissonance in order to prepare them to believe and do contradictory things for the company.

I'm just saying... including both integrity and deception in their core principles is a bit too obviously contradictory.

Do you think this is too obvious? Or does it line up with the sort of stuff people are expected to believe in actual cultlike groups?...