How to get apex Slaughterspines to spawn?

[Millrider]

I had one spawn on the leftmost island to the north but I died to it and now they won't spawn anywhere. I've killed maybe 6 regular ones since then and I go to all the spawn locations at night. I've tried all the tips I could find on the internet, like restarting, reloading, go far away, cycling time etc. Playing on ultra hard. Has anybody found a reliable way to get them to spawn? I can get the other machines to spawn as apex without much trouble but the Slaughterspine seems to have a special behavior or perhaps a bug?

[GlowWorm]

IIRC Apex machines are more likely to spawn at night, so go to a Shelter and advance time to nighttime. Also, save your game sufficiently far away from the machine site, and then load your save and travel to the machine site. In my experience loading a save from near the machine site did not give me an Apex machine, but traveling to the site from far away was more likely to.

[Millrider]

Maybe they have put a timer on it? When I started the game now and went there it was an apex. But I died again... and now I'm back to not having it spawn again. I tried your suggestion several times: travelling far away, go to night time, save, quit and restart. No luck.

[Subset6]

No timer, it just seems to be a numbers game. I just keep killing the normal's until the apex spawns, then its pretty much always apex.

[Millrider]

Originally posted by rionmc:

No timer, it just seems to be a numbers game. I just keep killing the normal's until the apex spawns, then its pretty much always apex.

For machines in general that seems to work but not for the Slaughterspine. I've killed a lot of normal Slaughterspines but apex pretty much never shows.

[Subset6]

Originally posted by Millrider:

Originally posted by rionmc:

No timer, it just seems to be a numbers game. I just keep killing the normal's until the apex spawns, then its pretty much always apex.

For machines in general that seems to work but not for the Slaughterspine. I've killed a lot of normal Slaughterspines but apex pretty much never shows.

Don't know what to tell yah, it has worked for me, including Slaughterspine (SF Island)

[Millrider]

I wish some dev could step in and explain how it actually is supposed to work and if there is some special implementation for the Slaughterspine and/or ultra hard.

[GlowWorm]

Things that might contribute:
-- Time of day. "Some say" Apex spawn is more likely at night.
-- Your level. I think I started to see more Apex as I leveled up.
-- How many of that particular machine type you have previously killed. "Some say" this matters.

[Millrider]

After having the game shut off for 40 min I started it up and there was the apex again.:) Seems like there could be some kind of timer. Finally got the apex heart I needed anyway.

[WALL]

kill a few then go back there at night.

[SpockEndil]

Let the area reset, and then go at night. You can do that by fast traveling to another campsite, save, reload, and then travel back to where you want to find the machine.

There's something in the in-game descriptions of the machines that apex machines are more likely to appear at night, but I don't feel like trying to find it right now. I do know, though, that apex machines appear fairly reliably at night, if you're at a high enough level. If you're at a low level, you aren't likely to see apex versions of the more powerful machines.

Edit: Okay, I did take the time to look it up. In game, go to tutorials -> enemies -> Apex. The last sentence states that they're more likely to appear under cover of darkness.

[EVERYTHING]

How far into the game are you? Apex Slaughterspines are extremely rare until you're basically at the final mission, having slaughtered them on ps5 before then I feel they have maybe a 1% chance to be apex until that final mission when it feels they'll be apex more then normal at times

[goldyloxje]

I have killed 40 slaughterspines by now, most of them by night.
Still have to find and scan an Apex Slaughterspine to get 100% completion......

Those spawn rates are rigged. :(

[GlowWorm]

Originally posted by goldyloxje:

I have killed 40 slaughterspines by now, most of them by night.
Still have to find and scan an Apex Slaughterspine to get 100% completion......

Those spawn rates are rigged. :(

-- Travel to a Shelter far away from the machine site you want an Apex at.
-- Save and reload the game.
-- Advance time to Night.
-- Travel to the machine site.
-- Observe Apex.
-- Profit.