| “ | Your energy modules will help to put an end to this story and wipe out the sky people from the face of the planet. | „ |
| ~ An unnamed scavenger to Blaze Rush, foreshadowing the appearance of the Machine of War. |
| “ | Blaze Rush: And this is their ingenious creation? Their solution to tackle the problem of universal conflict? A big fighting robot? Ash: Captain, how would you solve the problem of galactic imperialism, colonialism, and the reliance on adopting capitalism as the only distinguishing form of growth? Blaze Rush: Ash, I have a great answer to your question, but let's postpone the conversation. It's attacking! |
„ |
| ~ Blaze Rush encountering the Machine of War. |
The Machine of War is a major antagonist and final boss in the remake of the side-scrolling shooter game Zombotron.
It is a cyclopic giant-sized robot built by the Scavengers using the power cells stolen from Blaze Rush's ship with the purpose of exterminating the humans on the planet Zombotron. Eventually, the mercenary tracked the Draydes down until eventually facing the Machine of War.
Biography[]
Zombotron[]
The Machine of War was first foreshadowed by a Scavenger who was talking with Blaze Rush while holding a power cell stolen from the mercenary's ship. The Scavenger vowed to wipe out the human colonists, who he refers to as the "sky people," from the planet Zombotron, adding that Blaze's energy cell will help with that goal, before fleeing with the power cell.
After Blaze Rush traveled through the Scavengers' base and killed lots of them (also surviving an ambush from them), he arrived in an area where he encountered the Machine of War, probably recently built. At the sight of the metallic giant, Blaze delivered a short tirade about the fact that building a big fighting robot was the Scavengers' solution to "tackle the problem of universal conflict." Ash basically asked the mercenary how he would solve the problem if he were in the Scavengers' place. Blaze replied that he got a great answer to the robotic companion's question, but prefers not to tell now since the Machine of War started attacking.
The Machine slowly pursued the mercenary and tried to shoot at him with its energy cannon, occasionally putting the cannon on the floor to fire multiple energy shots from the ground, all while destroying every obstacle in its path. Blaze Rush, seeing bullets are not really useful against it, instead activated the turrets in the area while killing the Scavengers that tried to destroy them. The turrets shot at the Machine relentlessly, damaging it, causing the robot to instead aim its cannon at the weapons instead of the mercenary. In the end, Blaze Rush managed to defeat the Machine of War, who exploded, thus preventing it from killing (presumably) countless human colonists in the planet Zombotron.
Boss fight and tips[]
Like every other boss before it, the Machine of War will start walking toward you slowly yet menacingly. If you're very close to it, it'll do an arm swing that deals very high damage. If you keep distance between you and the robot, it will frequently stop to charge its cannon before shooting an energy shot at your current position. If you are further away from the Machine, it will occasionally place its cannon on the ground and fire at the ground, which will cause energy shots to be fired upward from the ground in quick succession one by one. Crosshairs will indicate where the energy shots will come from.
Before entering the boss fight level, you'll run across a shop where the items you can buy are healing stuff (either First Aid kits or bandages), a rocket launcher and ammo for rocket launchers. Buy all the items, you'll be needing them. Bullets won't do much effect, for the Machine of War will tank most of them without receiving damage, unless you bring a lot of ammo, which in this case a few lucky bullets will damage the robot, albeit minorly.
The absolute priority in this boss fight are the turrets at your right. With a little bit of chance, not only will they keep the Machine of War busy for you, but they will also remove a significant part of its health. First thing to do is to activate every turret in the level one by one. While doing so, you'll encounter Scavengers that will try to destroy the turrets. You must kill them before activating the turret(s) they were attacking. The good thing is that no Scavenger will spawn even if you kill all of them during the boss fight. The other thing you have to worry about is the Machine of War using its energy shot columns attack since you'll be very far from it. Whenever the crosshairs appear try to stay between two of them and jump since the energy shots will do a small area damage before fired upward. After you activate them all, just wait until either the Machine of War gets destroyed by the turrets.
If ever the Machine of War manages to keep itself alive and has destroyed all the turrets (which can happen in most cases), use the rocket launcher you buyed from the shop area before the boss fight. It'll do great damage to it and you'll be able to finish the robot off. Whenever the Machine will shoot at you with its cannon, jump at the same time the bullet is shot, because the Machine will only consider your position before firing the energy bullet. As for the energy shot columns, stay between two crosshairs and jump before the shots are fired from the ground.
If ever you forgot to buy the rocket launcher (or you just don't want to use it) and the Machine is still alive with all the turrets destroyed, do not worry, there is a strategy to that:
You need to find a very high platform in the level where you are right above the Machine and where it cannot reach you with its arm swing. Whenever it shall try to shoot you with its cannon, you must walk in the opposite direction where the Machine is facing, because it must remain still to charge its cannon. Since the Machine will consider your position before firing the energy bullet and your position before the bullet is fired is the opposite of the one where the Machine is facing, then the bullet will hit the Machine due to it being an obstacle in the bullet's trajectory toward you. The bullet will deal either moderate or big damage to the Machine. Repeat that until the robot is dead.
Appearance[]
The Machine of War is overall a tall metallic robot. Its head is cylindrical and yellow with little antenna on top of it and a bug red visor in the front middle of the head which is its eye. Below this visor is a tiny red dot which presumably symbolizes the mouth of the Machine. Its shoulders are medium brown-colored. It has a gray-colored torso with yellow metal pectorals and a red dot between them and over the pectorals are medium brown metal pieces and join to the two shoulders, forming something like a medium brown metal collar. Its right arm (left when the Machine faces the left side) has wires and mechanics exposed with a cannon that has holes in the barrel. Its left arm (right when the Machine faces the right side) instead has a medium brown-colored cylindrical metal piece on the elbow that covers most of the mechanics and also has a three fingered hand. Its legs are slightly small for its size with triple-spiked yellow knees and its feet being circular with four spikes.
Personality[]
As with most bosses, the Machine of War doesn't have a clear personality, but it shows some intelligence. It can speak words, yet most of them are intelligible.
Whenever the Machine of War is facing both Blaze Rush and a turret, it will always prioritize its energy shots on the turret. It greatly implies that the Machine knows how dangerous the turrets can be to it since it also knows normal bullets coming from the mercenary won't hurt it much.
Powers and abilities[]
- Superhuman strength: The Machine of War is very strong, as one arm swing can strip a significant amount of health from Blaze Rush.
- Superhuman durability: Additionally, the Machine is very tough if it's being shot at with bullets, as it can tank several of them and receive little damage.
- Energy cannon: The Machine of War has a energy cannon instead of one of its hands. It can shoot damaging energy shots that can destroy a turret in almost one shot and can greatly damage Blaze Rush. Additionally, if the Machine of War fires the cannon when the barrel is touching the ground, then the shots will fire upward from different parts of the ground.
Weaknesses[]
- Turrets: While only one turret won't be much of a threat to the Machine of War, many activated turrets can damage it greatly while it is busy destroying them one by one.
- Rocket launchers: The Machine of War is very vulnerable to rocket launchers. A Rocket launcher of Epic quality (like the Big Daddy) can deal significant damage to it.
Quotes mentioning the Machine of War[]
| “ | It's a big fighting robot. Just have to find the off button... | „ |
| ~ The description of the "Machine of War" Steam Trading Card. |
| “ | BIG FIGHTY ROBOT! | „ |
| ~ The description of the "Machine of War " profile background on Steam. |
Gallery[]
Images[]
Zombotron[]
Steam[]
Video[]
Trivia[]
- Unlike the other bosses, the Machine of War is the only one who does not have a backstory (except the Feral Zombie) and is built within the events of the game, albeit off-screen.
- Additionally, It is the first boss enemy in the Zombotron game series who speaks full words although most of them are nearly intelligible. Some of those words include "Destruction" and "Crusher."
- Unlike the other bosses, who fall dead after collapsing, the Machine of War straight up explodes with its mechanical parts scattered.
- The Machine of War is obviously based on the Robomachine from Zombotron 2 and Zombotron 2: Time Machine.
- Despite being a giant robot, the Machine of War isn't affiliated with the game's robots. It does, however, resemble a gold robot.
The Machine of War and a gold robot.
- It is the fifth and final boss enemy in the Zombotron remake, with the Feral Zombie being the first, the Giant Spider being the second, the Infator being the third, and the Stone Golem being the fourth.
- Defeating the Machine of War for the first time unlocks the Steam Achievement "Peacemaker."
