I think that the Skinnarbol was the main development bunker for Reaper, evidenced by the nearby terminal with it’s blueprint. And during the development or assembly of Reaper’s armament, something went wrong and the whole assembly area went sky high.
It is impossible to tell what exactly triggered the explosion but it could’ve very well been that one of the assembly ticks had malfunction and pointed it’s laser to wrong spot, thus triggering the explosion.
The following shockwave was enough to blow out from the bunker complex, forming the Skinnarbol Crater in the process. Though, the bunker complex was sturdy enough and/or explosion wasn’t powerful enough for the shockwave to travel much further from Skinnarbol.
This explains why the devastation is contained in the small area. However, shockwave alone isn’t enough to set trees on fire. For that, i have another idea.
After the initial explosion, the highly flammable gas, that machines use, leaked into the crater, filling it. And it found the ignition source, thus creating 2nd explosion and sending wall of fire all around the Skinnarbol Crater area, burning houses and trees.
I also think that after that “setback”, FNIX learned from it’s mistakes and assembled the Reaper at some place else (best candidate being FOA2). And FNIX continues to make Reapers in another facility. Latter explains why new Reapers are able to spawn, once player takes out the active one.
As of why only one active Reaper can be on the map at any given time and not several, my guess is that FNIX doesn’t have enough computing power to control more than one Reaper at a time.
Well, your theory about “double explosion” started up me another though train that has no brakes.
A bit off-topic, but I still drop it here.
What if “thermobarric explosion” that used by Reaper isn’t cause, but consequence of “crater incident”?
Like FNIX been gathering pieces of the aftermath and concluded at “I want that to be a weapon!”
We don’t know for sure if there canonically a single Reaper or FNIX somehow got enough advanced resources and facilities to to regularly rebuild it. Unless I see two side-by-side my headcannon will register it as single unique entity.
Back to topic: most things I’ve covered by other words, but may be not that eloquent.
The part about “double explosions and fireball outside”: points about “weak concreete”, “soft farmlands soil”, shallow building are about deliberate design choices for that munition/chemical factory/storage.
Thing is that any cause that will lead to explosion will need countermasures. Concentrated explosion against bedrock especially underground, like other bunkers/FOA facilities, would inevitably cause shockwave that would be equal to earthquake, so hipothetical “ammo storage boom” certainly will set off and destroy the rest of workshop. “Weak concrete roof” and shallow dig for factory will cause least resistance upwards, “soft soil” damp a bit shockwave. The placement under one of “plainest” areas around (or rather with very wide “bowl” shape) with least possible settlements to be not suspicious will secure least collateral damage. “Weak roof” point is about that within single blast all the fuel didn’t burned and a lot of it was spreaded around. Think of boiling pot - overpressured steam will cause the lid to jump. Same here - “roof” itself was sturdy enough to preserve it’s “shape” for the most parts, but collumns and other support wasn’t, so this “lid” for a moment long enough under very high pressure horizontally spreaded most of fuel along wide open area due to “shockwave”.
About the “double explosion” - I’ve had an itch that I’m still missing something.
It still could work out:
puddles with ticking noices (that is what does that ticking noices?) hinting that there were “dirty” bombs/rockets. These are highly unstable munitions and caused initial destruction. Shockwave from it caused damage for what appears to be tanks with highly volative “fart” that started to fill up all the holes. Some flashbulb shorted and ignited it, causing even more destructions and paint a new wasteland over farmlands.
there was “few” consecutive thermobarric blasts. “Inner” was powerful enough to crack through roof and a cistern of it under big pressure set fly upwards and break somewhere outside or at least burried very shallow. Some debris damaged it, gas rapidly spreaded in and out of crater and then something still burning/sparking ignited “outer” blast that made “wasteland” area.
Other cause would be (mis)handling unstable chemicals.
However advanced were FNIX and computing power in it’s possession, it still wasn’t enough to perform scientific calculations and control machines. So it resorted to method of “poking with sticks” (sci. for “empyrric research method”). And then extreeme exothermic reaction dug us a grey sandpit.
Or probably during “FNIX Rising” events teenagers destroyed/hacked “just right” servers that supervised these researches and sudden server failure led to momentary mishandling of chemicals, long enough for turd reach fan.
They mention this in some of the audio tapes or someone talked about it. I believe the machines were collecting bodies to experiment on them but later stopped. I guess they learned enough about us. As the bunkers were strategic points they would have been hit early on by the machines and therefor those bodies would have been some of the first taken.
The crater was created by the reaper tank. It popped up when the reaper was added and the reaper blueprint can be found there. It was in the underground bunker we see ruins of and was able to blow itself out.
Yes, but it’s unclear what exactly happened. I mean what kind of explosion. How was it triggered, etc. There is no info on this, only visual evidence And the fact the Reaper was introduced, which sparked a lot of ideas, and conjecture.
Yes probably the thermobaric blast in combination with explosives/fuel in the underground bunker. Still there are also nuclear theories. Also the why is untold, was it deliberate or accidental?
Well, we know the reaper is one of FNIXs own creations, as seen in the blueprints description. He took over a prototype of a new tank shortly before the invasion and made it his own. With that in mind, I’m guessing it’s deliberate.
Ok I know I asked what it is but I think I have a theory the Reaper didn’t do it at all but it was manufactured there or had some relationship with the place. I understand you’ll all say “It was the Reaper what are you talking about” just hear this. The crater was just a test by FNIX for something far worse something like all the tank classes merged into one really big really deadly and really hard to get to spawn. If you did make it spawn you would most likely need something like ever type of tank in one region all max level, including the Reaper and the ln you’ll face FNIX’s prized champion (it would most likely appear away from you) and I have a feeling if any of this is true then Avalanche could intend that this is a kind of final boss that might be spawned and downright controlled by FNIX and is spawned someway else than rival relation. If you liked this theory just hit the little heart
This isn’t a theory it is a correction you see I meant not all of the types of tanks yet I meant all of the classes there are combined as if FNIX tore apart each and reassembled them into one big demonic horrifying tank.
Sorry for this I just needed to make sure you all knew what I meant or I needed to make sure those who didn’t understand, understand
BYE BYE
What FNIX did, was adding weaponry (from other machines), shield generators and thermoboaric explosion, thus completing the Reaper. FNIX even kept the original code name: “Grim Reaper”.
Reaper stats:
Base body
military tank
Weapons
shockwave stop (all tanks come with it as built-in)
stinger/FNIX tick deployment (in use for apocalypse and FNIX class machines)
incendiary machine gun (from apocalypse tank)
radiated missiles (from apocalypse harvester)
biochemical gas (from apocalypse harvester)
anti-weapons shield
thermoboaric explosion
With that, only Reaper weaponry is a mash-up from different machines. While the rest (and most) of it is normal.
While it’s unknown, but it is very likely that FNIX developed the thermoboaric explosion feature for Reaper and that thermoboaric explosion was the reason why Skinnarbol Crater was created. Triggered by the manufacturing error, as i theorized.
