Some games just keep on giving, and Nier: Automata is one of those games, or at least, was. The ominous final secret in the RPG game has been discovered, an exploit that allows you to skip the entire story, and get a special ending.
Nier: Automata spoilers to follow – you have been warned.
As part of the open-world game‘s ‘E’ ending, you’re asked if you’d like to help other players who are struggling to complete everything. If you respond yes, your save data is erased to create an AI companion that will help another random player when they reach the final sequence. The cheat that’s just been found allows you to jump right to that question, bypassing hours and hours and hours of playtime in the process.
Lance McDonald, an expert in hacking games and finding strange mechanics, shared a clip on Twitter of him performing the trick. He says he’ll do a full video explaining exactly what happens, but the gist is that after the first boss, if you move to the back of the play area, and do a specific combination of attacking, walking, and jumping between some barrells, you’ll be brought to the ending screen as described above.
Here’s Lance’s clip:
I found a cheat code in NieR Automata that allows you to skip to the last ending immediately after killing the first boss and unlock the bonus modes. I’ll do a full video soon. It’s not a glitch, it’s an actual cheat code hard-coded into the engine. @yokotaro pic.twitter.com/FtuNPovq6F
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) January 3, 2021
The director of NieR: Automata, Yoko Taro, gave his blessing with a retweet:
( NieR:Automata Spoilers )
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3 years 10 months.
（◎血◎）RT: @manfightdragon
I found a cheat code in NieR Automata (snip) https://t.co/2LeNlBguLi— yokotaro (@yokotaro) January 3, 2021
Taro mentioning three years and ten months, the length of time since Nier: Automata’s release, confirms this is the fabled last, undiscovered secret the community’s been pondering, as announced by the official Twitter account. Nier: Automata crossed the five million copies sold mark as of last Christmas.