Cyberforming

The Hub, a galactic-scale feat of cyberforming

Even though Cybertronian life-forms are quite capable of surviving on purely organic worlds, they sometimes resort to cyberforming to feel more at home. Cyberforming is the process of converting a planet into an environment hospitable to mechanical lifeforms, particularly those from Cybertron. It can be performed rapidly through devices capable of converting organic matter to technological matter, such as the Key to Vector Sigma. It can also be performed manually in a much more gradual process, such as that performed by the Cybertronian Empire in the construction of the Hub.

It is also known as eco-structuring, exo-structuring, or mechaforming.

The newcomers looked out upon the lushness and saw only filth. They looked at balance and saw only weakness. They looked at us.... and saw nothing at all. The newcomers were undying creatures built from the unyielding shimmer... and they remade our land in their image.Native Devisen storyteller, "Time Will Rust"

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity family

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel Generation 2 comic

The Cybertronian Empire, believing organic life to be little more than bacteria and viewing mechanical life as the pinnacle, spent untold millennia eco-structuring worlds. They believed this to be construction rather than genocide. The indigenous lifeforms were clinically exterminated, and a metal casing for the planet was manually built. This apparently could be done quite quickly.

When they first reported their findings to Optimus Prime, Grimlock and his Firestormer team had encountered seventeen "little Cybertrons". War Without End!

Regeneration One

Over twelve thousand meta-cycles, the rogue Senator Jhiaxus had mecha-formed countless worlds into the Hub Network. Upon his return to Cybertron, he offered to integrate Cybertron into the network. Rodimus Prime realized that sheer number of planets meant some had to have been mecha-formed preexisting planets and asked how many had supported life to which Jhiaxus responded that it depended on how one classified life. The War to End All Wars, Part 2

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

The energies of the Key to Vector Sigma turn Earth soil into Cybertronian metal.

The Decepticons attempted to manually reconstruct New York City into an environment more akin to Cybertron, imaginatively dubbed New Cybertron, before the Autobots thwarted them and New York was returned to its normal self. City of Steel

After creating the Stunticons, Megatron discovered that the Key to Vector Sigma possessed the ability to turn organic matter into Cybertronian metal and attempted to use this feature to cyberform Earth. Silverbolt would later destroy the Key which undid the cyberforming. The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2

Wings Universe

Wings Universe is based on the Generation 1 cartoon, but deviates from it in cosmetic ways and continuity points.

Setting up a secret base on the unremarkable and barren planetoid Qre as part of his experiments towards restoring the Cybertronian Empire, Jhiaxus transformed at least a portion of Qre's surface into a metal-covered one much like that of Cybertron. A Flash Forward, Part 4

Generations Selects Special Comic

Under the reign of It, the Quintessons developed a cyberforming ray which they tested out on a rocky planet. Their invention proved successful and they dubbed their new outpost "Cybertron". Finale

Beast Machines cartoon

In the time of Megatron's Vehicon-powered rule over Cybertron, the Oracle revealed that even Cybertron itself was not originally technological, but had been an organic world cyberformed. Survivor

After the consciousness of Rhinox was reawakened within Tankor, he extracted the coding for the Key to Vector Sigma intending to use its powers to cyberform the fossil chamber to make Cybertron completely metallic before the energies of the Key overloaded him. The Key Megatron later had the Key program uploaded to all the Tank Drones so that they could use it to purge Cybertron of anything organic or technorganic. The drones fired the Key's energy onto a vine grown from the fossil chamber, the cyberforming energies being carried down deeper into Cybertron only for the Maximals to sever the vine before the cyberforming reached the organic core. The Catalyst

On the cusp of victory, Megatron rematerialized the Key to Vector Sigma and used its energies to cyberform the organic core before he was shoved into the core by Optimus Primal who used his Oracle given powers to reformat the core, and thus Cybertron itself, into a technorganic world. Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

Megatron released a metallic virus that converted everything it touched — land, machines, people — into metal in an effort to remake Earth more like Cybertron. Prime Directive #3

2005 IDW continuity

During Cybertron's first period of interstellar expansion during the reign of the Thirteen, those Transformers who left Cybertron were known to rebuild newly colonized planets to varying degrees. While some Transformer civilizations — such as the beast mode Transformers who founded Eukaris — were happy to coexist with the ecosystems of their worlds, other expeditions, such as those Transformers who colonized Devisiun, aggressively cyberformed their planet and nearly quashed the native biosphere in the process. Time Will Rust

During the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons, the Decepticons reached their zenith when they established the Constellate, a string of conquered and cyberformed worlds. Who's Afraid of the DJD? Megatron handpicked the Phase Sixer Black Shadow to sterilize planets in anticipation of the cyberforming process, Rules of Disengagement which involved specialists such as Deathsaurus sourcing raw material from distant regions of the galaxy, Journey's End and using it to rebuild the sterilized worlds into shiny new "mini-Cybertrons." The Permanent Revolution

One such planet was B'lahr 39, where Fulcrum served as project manager during the conversion. The process was interrupted by an Autobot attack and may not have been completed. Who's Afraid of the DJD?

The plans of the Cybertronian scientist Jhiaxus, under the guidance of Nova Prime culminated in the Gorlamites of Gorlam Prime undergoing a final leap from organic to mechanical life, with the rocky world undergoing a restructuring into a mechanical world not unlike Cybertron. Spotlight: Hardhead

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe

After Megatron had used the Matrix of Leadership to pervert Primus, Pax Megatronus Vector Sigma began reshaping Cybertron into a massive spaceship that would cyberform the entire galaxy. Simply by making physical contact with the moon, Mars, and Saturn, Cybertron was able to infect them with a cyberforming virus. Expelled from the Garden Cobra Commander however was able to bargain with Megatron to halt the cyberforming of Mars in exchange for the killcode to the green bombs enveloping the Decepticon emperor. Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #12

Beast Wars: Uprising

During the space-based phase of the Great War, the Autobots eco-structured several worlds to form the Autobot Commonwealth. Broken Windshields

Of Masters and Mayhem

After contacting Bluestreak, the Teklaans attempted to re-cyberform the war-ravaged Cybertron, using the biodata of the Wreckers to reconstruct the biosphere. As the prodding happened, Fractyl remembered that the Teklaans' last creation had fallen victim to a virus, implanted by the Teklaans themselves, and died off in a few generations. After convincing Bluestreak to aid them, the Wreckers confronted the Teklaans only to learn that the cyberforming had already begun. After incorporating Bluestreak and Impactor into Wreckage, the combiner destroyed the Teklaan ship, the central node of the cyberforming, and sent the aliens running. Upon leaving Cybertron, Impactor assured Bluestreak that his plan had been a good one but until Thunder Mayhem was defeated, it wasn't viable. Lively Pursuit

Cybertron cartoon

The Cyber Planet Keys possessed the power to remake planets.

Live-action film series

Titan movie comic

In a divergent timeline, the Decepticons succeeded at Mission City and conquered the United States. Megatron used the AllSpark to begin a cyberforming effort, gradually turning Earth into a new Cybertron. Twilight's Last Gleaming, Part: 1 The cyberforming was halted when the Autobots blew up the facility that the AllSpark was in, shattering the cube. Twilight's Last Gleaming, Part: 5

Age of Extinction film

Instead of cyberforming entire planets, the Creators used the Seeds to create masses of cybeformed transformium to mine and use later.

The detonation of a seed cyberformed anything caught in its blast radius. Circa 65 million B.C.E., the "Creators" detonated seeds upon thousands of planets to create vast quantities of transformium. On Earth, their cyberforming campaign triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs. In the present day, Transformer bounty hunter Lockdown, having been hired by the Creators, entered into a deal with the human corporation KSI and Harold Attinger's corrupt CIA taskforce Cemetery Wind: capture Optimus Prime in exchange for a seed. After the deal was complete, the revenant Decepticon leader Galvatron tried to steal the seed in order to build a new Decepticon army and destroy humankind, but he was ultimately foiled by the Autobots and their human allies. Optimus Prime then took the seed with him into space so that it could never be used for evil. Age of Extinction

Aligned continuity family

The Covenant of Primus

With the advent of Space Bridge technology, the Cybertronians were able to use a conversion beam to cyberform 200 distant planets into pristine "miniature Cybertrons". The Covenant of Primus

Prime cartoon

Cybermatter fired from the Omega Lock creates Darkmount on Earth.

Megatron planned on cyberforming the Earth using the Omega Lock into another metallic planet so that he could rule both Cybertron and Earth. The first energy pulse to be fired from the Omega Lock created the fortress Darkmount in Jasper, Nevada. However, Megatron's plan was thereafter foiled by Optimus Prime, who destroyed the Lock to protect Earth. Darkest Hour

When an attempt to clone an army of Predacons went awry, Evolution Shockwave discovered that their remains mixed with synthetic Energon created an imperfect form of cyber-matter. Megatron subsequently revived his old plan of using the Omega Lock to cyberform Earth, Minus One and with Ratchet's help in perfecting the synthetic Energon, Persuasion Synthesis he nearly succeeded until he was killed in a final battle for both Cybertron and Earth. Deadlock

Go! cartoon

After reawakening and acquiring the Legendiscs, the Predacon Emperor Dragotron began using their power to start turning Earth into a metal planet. However, Isami Tatewaki and Tobio Fūma had copied the power of the Legendiscs into their own hearts and enabled the Swordbots to eventually defeat Dragotron, with a little help from Optimus Exprime. The cyberforming disappeared, and the Autobots then sealed Dragotron away once more. Final Battle! Link-Up Triple Combination DaiKenzan! Final Battle! Link-Up Triple Combination DaiGekisou!

Games

Transformers: Devastation

Signals emitted from large towers direct the Insecticons to channel plasma energy into a planet's environment, converting it to metal.

During Cybertron's Golden Age, Nova Prime and his crew set out aboard the Proudstar to seek out uninhabited planets and use plasma energy combined with the Insecticons to cyberform them, making them capable of supporting robotic life in a bid to create further Cybertronian colonies. However, exposure to a dark force corrupted most of the crew, and they began cyberforming worlds already supporting indigenous life forms as well. The project was ultimately stopped when Kranix forced the ship to crash into the Earth. In the present day, Megatron discovered the Proudstar and attempted to use it to Cyberform Earth, with much of New York City being encased in metal until the procedure was stopped by Optimus Prime destroying the Ferrotaxis. Transformers: Devastation

Notes

• This process was initially referred to as "eco-structuring" in the 1993 Marvel Generation 2 comic series before being prominently called "cyberforming" in the 2010 Prime animated series and 2014 Age of Extinction film.