You’re wandering through the rusted, metallic carcass of an Old World ruin, dodging Watchers and trying not to get stepped on by a Thunderjaw, when you see it. A purple glimmer. You pick it up, thinking it’s high-tier crafting scrap, but instead, it’s a mug. Just a ceramic mug with a picture of a red face on it. This is the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel, and honestly, it’s one of the best examples of how Horizon Zero Dawn handles environmental storytelling without hitting you over the head with a lore dump.
It’s weirdly haunting.
The game calls it "Ancient Vessel – Devil's Thirst," but if you look at the icon and the description, it’s clearly a piece of corporate memorabilia from a world that ended nearly a thousand years ago. To Aloy, it’s a "vessel" used for some unknown, possibly ritualistic purpose. To us? It’s a coffee cup. Specifically, it's a cup from the "Faraday" set, often associated with the Faro Automated Solutions era. This disconnect between what we see and what the characters perceive is where the magic happens.
Why the Devil's Thirst Ancient Vessel Still Matters
Most players just grab these for the shards. You trade them to Palas in Meridian, he gives you a reward box, and you move on to the next quest. But if you actually stop to look at the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel, you're looking at a physical link to the "Metal World" that isn't a holographic recording or a data point. It’s a tangible object that survived a literal apocalypse.
The location itself, Devil's Thirst, is a ruined skyscraper graveyard. It’s heavily implied to be the remains of Colorado Springs. Finding a fragile ceramic mug in the middle of collapsed steel and concrete is statistically impossible, which makes its presence feel almost intentional. Some fans have speculated that these vessels weren't just random trash but were kept as mementos by the people who entered the bunkers before the biosphere collapsed.
Think about that. Someone held onto this mug while the world was dying.
Breaking Down the Faraday Connection
The "Devil's Thirst" vessel specifically features a stylized red face. Within the game's lore, these vessels are categorized into sets. The Faraday set is particularly interesting because it hints at the mundane corporate culture of the 21st century. It wasn't all high-stakes military drama; people still went to offices. They still had favorite mugs.
They drank coffee while the Faro Plague consumed the earth.
The name "Devil's Thirst" comes from the Nora name for the ruins. The Nora are terrified of these places. They think the "Old Ones" were cursed, and seeing their artifacts only reinforces that fear. When you find the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel tucked away in a corner of a decaying building, you aren't just finding loot. You're finding a piece of the hubris that led to the world's end.
The Reality of Collecting These Things
Let's be real: hunting for these is a pain if you don't buy the map from a merchant. You’re scanning with your Focus, looking for that specific purple indicator. But unlike the Power Cells or the Vantage Points, the vessels feel more personal. They are domestic.
The Devil's Thirst ancient vessel is located in the southern part of the ruins. You usually find it early in the game, right after you've gained the confidence to explore beyond the Sacred Lands. It’s one of the first "Oh, I see what they did there" moments for the player. The realization that the "Ancient Vessels" are just kitchenware is a recurring joke in the game, but it’s a dark one.
The Palas Trade-In
Once you get to Meridian—which is a trek, let's be honest—you find Palas. This guy is obsessed. He thinks the vessels were used by the Old Ones to drink "shimmering liquids" that gave them visions.
He’s half-right. Coffee is a shimmering liquid that gives visions of productivity.
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Palas provides a bit of comic relief, but he also represents the scholarly pursuit of the unknown. He values the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel not for its material, but for the "history" he projects onto it. This mirrors how real-world archaeologists sometimes struggle to interpret artifacts from cultures they don't fully understand. Is it a ritual bowl or just a bowl? Usually, it's just a bowl.
Fact vs. Fiction: What the Game Doesn't Tell You
There’s a lot of head-canon surrounding the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel. Some players think it’s a direct reference to a specific real-world company. While Guerilla Games took inspiration from many real brands, the Faraday logo is a fictional creation designed to look like a generic tech conglomerate from the 2060s.
Wait. Is it a 2064 date? Or 2066?
The timeline is tight. By 2066, the world was essentially gone. The fact that these mugs exist at all suggests they were made of some incredibly durable composite material, or they were stored in pressurized environments that only recently failed.
The geography of Devil's Thirst is also a point of debate. If it is indeed Colorado Springs, the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel might have belonged to a mid-level employee at a company like Sterling-Malkeet or even a subsidiary of Faro. It’s a tiny, insignificant piece of a massive, terrifying puzzle.
How to Find It Without Tearing Your Hair Out
If you're looking for the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel specifically, don't just wander aimlessly. It’s inside a ruined building, usually guarded by a few scrappers.
- Get the Ancient Vessels Map from a merchant in the Embrace or outside Mother's Watch.
- Head to the Devil's Thirst ruins (the ones with the Tallneck).
- Look for the purple loot icon inside the shell of a building.
- Use your Focus. It highlights the "Ancient Debris" pile.
It’s easy to miss because the ruins are vertical. You might be standing right on top of it on a higher floor, or it might be buried under a staircase.
The Philosophical Weight of a Coffee Mug
It sounds pretentious, but the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel is a memento mori. It’s a reminder of death. In Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel, we see even more of these artifacts, but the original set from Zero Dawn feels more grounded. They weren't trying to be "epic" with these items. They were trying to be relatable.
Aloy’s reaction to these items is usually one of mild confusion. She doesn't have the context of "office culture." She doesn't know what a "Monday" is or why someone would need a mug that says "World's Best Boss." To her, the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel is a relic of a sophisticated, albeit doomed, civilization.
This creates a layer of irony that permeates the whole game. We, the players, are the "Old Ones." We are the ones who made the mugs. We are also the ones who, in the game's fiction, made the machines that ate the world. It’s a bit of a gut punch when you think about it too long.
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Nuance in the Design
The textures on these items are surprisingly detailed. If you zoom in on the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel in the inventory menu, you can see the chips in the ceramic. You can see the fading of the red ink. The developers didn't have to put that much effort into a collectible that most people just sell for 100 shards.
But they did.
That attention to detail is why people are still talking about this game years after its release. It’s not just about the robot dinosaurs. It’s about the soul of the world that was lost. The Devil's Thirst ancient vessel is a tiny, fragile piece of that soul.
Actionable Insights for Lore Hunters
If you're diving back into Horizon Zero Dawn or playing it for the first time on PC, don't just treat the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel as a checklist item.
- Read the flavor text. Each vessel has a unique description that reveals how the current tribes interpret 21st-century junk.
- Compare the sets. There are three sets of vessels: Arches, Wayfarers, and Faraday. Each represents a different "vibe" of the Old World.
- Visit Palas early. Trading in a full set gives you much better rewards than selling them individually to a random merchant.
- Look at the surroundings. The building where you find the vessel often tells a story. Was it a café? An office? A home?
The Devil's Thirst ancient vessel is a gateway to the deeper narrative. It’s a bridge between our reality and Aloy’s. It’s a reminder that even the most mundane things—a cup, a watch, a car key—become treasures when the world they belong to is gone.
Honestly, it makes you look at your own coffee mug a little differently.
Final Thoughts on the Search
Finding the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel is a rite of passage for any Horizon player. It's usually the first one you find that makes you realize the game is set in our future, not some alternate fantasy realm. The ruins of Devil's Thirst are haunting, beautiful, and dangerous. Taking a moment to find a 1,000-year-old mug in the middle of all that chaos is exactly what makes the game special.
Go get the map. Find the vessel. Trade it to Palas. But before you do, take a second to look at that little red face and remember the person who probably used it every morning before the "chariot" machines came.
To get the most out of your hunt, ensure you have cleared the nearby Corrupted Zone first. It makes the exploration of Devil's Thirst significantly less stressful, allowing you to actually take in the environment rather than constantly dodging fire arrows and lunging Scrappers. Once the area is clear, the silence of the ruins adds a whole new level of atmosphere to your discovery of the Devil's Thirst ancient vessel.
Check your inventory often. You might be carrying a piece of history without even realizing it. The game doesn't force you to care about these items, but the experience is much richer if you do.
Next Steps for Players:
- Travel to the Devil's Thirst ruins in the eastern part of the Map.
- Purchase the Ancient Vessels Map from the merchant at the Main Quest hub nearby.
- Locate the specific building ruin marked on the map; it’s usually tucked behind a crumbling wall.
- Trade the completed Faraday Set to Palas in Meridian for the "Ancient Vessels Reward Box," which contains valuable modifications and shards.