Charger

The Charger is a machine in North and South America. It is a small Acquisition Class machine. As such, its function is the gathering and recycling of resources. Herds of Chargers are commonly found in various tribal lands. A human equipped with the necessary technology can utilize a Charger as a mounted transport.

Utility

Chargers are always found in herds busily grazing on grass, which they convert into Blaze. Charger herds are usually accompanied by patrolling Watchers or Longlegs and/or Sawtooths, in order to protect them from hunters and maximize efficiency. Chargers are skittish but less so than Striders or Broadheads; should a perceived threat be identified, such as a nearby human, Chargers are more likely to attack rather than run. They can deal devastating damage if the player is at a low level.
On encountering a perceived threat, Chargers are capable of charging at high speed with their heads lowered to ram the enemy. Additionally, they employ a variety of kicks like the rams they resemble. However, if a Charger is overridden and used as a mount, these same kick attacks become weapons that can be employed by the rider against hostile machines or humans.

Complexity

A Charger’s chassis very closely resembles that of a Strider or Broadhead. However, its head resembles that of a bighorn sheep. Two large, forward-curving horns, similar to the horns of a bighorn ram, are located on its head. Both horns are equipped with a tool that resembles a chainsaw. An optical sensor array consisting of a sensor partially surrounded by four smaller sensors is located at the end of the snout. A single Blaze canister is located between the haunches. The chassis is composed mainly of synthetic muscle, with white armor plating partially covering the head, neck, shoulders, hips, forelegs, and hind legs.

Discovery

Chargers were designed by the artificial intelligence GAIA as part of the terraforming process that was the first step in restoring life to the planet after its eradication by the Faro Plague. As such, they were one of the machines first encountered by humans when they settled in their various tribal lands. Their main purpose seems to be the manufacture of Blaze through the conversion of grass, similar to Striders, Grazers, and Broadheads.
Like all other GAIA terraforming machines, Chargers were previously docile toward humans, and would normally spook and run when confronted by hunters. In response, the artificial intelligence HEPHAESTUS, which manufactured them, made them hostile toward humans, in a phenomenon that the tribes call The Derangement.