Bristleback

The Bristleback is a herd machine that uses its tusks to dig up resources. If provoked, it can unearth scrap and augment it with elemental material for use in ranged and melee attacks.

Utility

Found in herds of two or four, Bristlebacks will become highly aggressive when threatened.
An idle Bristleback will periodically sniff out buried resources before digging them up with their tusks. This salvage, which is unearthed in round containers, generally carries Metal Shards but occasionally includes Metal Ingots.
As a mount, the Bristleback is bulky but powerful, having over twice the health of a Charger in its normal state. They will utilize their tusks as weapons and charge with great force.[1] They can use their grinder disks to their advantage, grinding up pieces of scrap or earth and putting it in their mouth before covering it with blaze or acid to ram or throw at enemies. When overridden, it is mountable by humans.

Complexity

The Bristleback resembles a large warthog. The head of the machine is boar like, with a binocular array of eight optical sensors, two panels above the back of the head resembling ears, and two metallic protrusions at the front, resembling tusks, ahead of the mouth, which contains two circular saws as the machine’s mouth. The back is lined with armor plating, save for one opening that serves as a place to mount the machine, and on its rear end is two elemental canisters, either with Blaze or Acid, depending on the variant. It appears to have elemental lines running under its belly, connecting to the canisters on its rear.

Discovery

Bristlebacks were originally designed by the terraforming AI called GAIA. During the Derangement, HEPHAESTUS rewrote their programming to become hostile towards humans.