NieR: Automata Wiki

NieR: Automata

NieR: Automata is an action RPG developed by PlatinumGames and published by Square Enix, directed by Yoko Taro and scored by Keiichi Okabe. It follows 2B, a YoRHa android soldier, and her scanner partner 9S as they fight a proxy war against machine lifeforms on an abandoned Earth that humanity fled centuries earlier. The campaign is told in routes: a first run as 2B, a second as 9S that reframes the same events, and a third that unlocks the android A2 and a branching finale. Combat mixes light and heavy attacks across four weapon classes with a Pod support unit, while progression runs through plug-in chips slotted into a limited memory pool. Its soundtrack and its use of the medium to argue about meaning and sacrifice are what the game is remembered for.

• Route Structure: the story is played three times from different perspectives. Route A follows 2B, route B replays the same war as 9S with hacking and new scenes, and route C opens A2 and splits into the C and D endings before route E closes the game.
• Weapon Sets: each character equips two weapon sets of a light and a heavy slot, drawn from small swords, large swords, spears and combat bracers, and swaps sets mid-combo for launchers and extended strings.
• Plug-in Chips: every passive in the game is a chip installed into a fixed memory pool. Stronger chips cost more space, chips can be fused to raise their rank, and dying drops your equipped chips on your corpse for a one-time recovery run.
• Pod Support: Pod 042 and Pod 153 fire a constant ranged stream and carry equippable programs such as the laser, missile barrage, hammer, blade and shield, each on its own cooldown.
• Hacking: 9S fights by intruding into machines, which opens a bullet-hell style minigame where destroying the core finishes the target instantly, and later lets him seize control of enemies.
• Death and Recovery: losing a body leaves your chips and experience at the death site as a recoverable corpse, and other players' corpses appear in your world as revival or repair options.
• Flight Unit Sections: the campaign periodically switches to a shooter-style flight sequence, from the opening engagement to the orbital battles around the Bunker.
• Side Content: the Resistance Camp, Pascal's Village and a long list of optional quests carry most of the game's commentary on machine society, at the cost of some quests being missable once a route advances.
• Difficulty and Assist Chips: Easy mode can slot auto-attack, auto-evade and auto-shoot chips, which turns the combat into a story-focused experience without removing the systems.