NieR:Automata: Complete Guide

Everything you need to get through NieR:Automata on PC: how the route structure and endings work, combat and Pod fundamentals, plug-in chip builds, weapons, missables, and fixes for the Steam version.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the July 2021 official PC update (the last major Steam patch). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

Ending A is not the end. The credits after your first playthrough are Ending A. Load that clear save and keep going: Route B (as 9S) and then Route C/D are where most of the story lives. Plan on at least three "playthroughs".
Save often, and at Access Points. There is no autosave safety net in many places. Access Points also let you fast travel once you unlock it early in the story.
Never remove your OS Chip. It sits in your plug-in chip list. Taking it out kills your android and triggers a joke ending. Save first if you are curious.
Install Auto-Heal and Offensive Heal early. Healing chips turn a punishing game into a manageable one.
Perfect evade is the core defensive skill. Dodge right as an attack lands and you get a counter window; with the Overclock chip, time slows.
Your Pod shoots continuously. Hold the Pod fire input while fighting; it is free damage and handles flying enemies.
Buy chip storage. The chip capacity limit, not the chips themselves, is the usual bottleneck. Buy upgrades from the chip shop in the Resistance Camp.
Side quests are worth doing for chips, weapons, and some of the best writing in the game, but a handful are missable (see below).
Easy mode offers auto-chips that fight and dodge for you if you only want the story. Normal is the intended experience; Hard removes lock-on and makes enemies hit much harder.

How the Story Is Structured

NieR:Automata is one story told across several routes. The game uses a single save that continues after each ending.

Route	Character	What changes	Ending
Route A	2B (with 9S)	The main campaign introduction	Ending A: flowers for m[A]chines
Route B	9S	Same period of events from 9S's perspective, new scenes, hacking replaces heavy attacks	Ending B: or not to [B]e
Route C/D	A2 and 9S alternate	A new second half of the story, not a replay	Ending C: meaningless [C]ode, or Ending D: chil[D]hood's end, chosen at the end
Ending E	—	Unlocked after seeing both C and D	Ending E: the [E]nd of yorha

Route B feels like a replay at first. Stick with it; it adds context, new side content, and a reason for the hacking minigame. Many players rush Route B via the main quest markers and do side content later.

Ending C vs D: at the end of Route C/D you choose who to play as. Choosing A2 gives Ending C; choosing 9S gives Ending D. You can reload the chapter select to see the other one, and seeing both enables Ending E.

Ending E plays out during the credits as a shoot-'em-up sequence. It is very hard solo. If you fail enough, the game offers help from other players' data. Accepting is fine, but the game will ask whether you want to sacrifice your own save to help others. Only say yes if you are truly done with that save: it permanently deletes your save data.

Joke endings (F through Z)

There are 26 endings in total. Most letters are silly "game over" endings. A few examples:

Ending	How to trigger
K: aji wo [K]utta	Eat a Mackerel from your items
L: [L]one wolf	In chapter 10, abandon the mission to defend the Resistance Camp or Pascal's Village
T: fa[T]al error	Remove your OS Chip
W: broken [W]ings	Let the giant laser kill you in the prologue
Y: head[Y] battle	Let Emil self-destruct during the "Emil's Determination" side quest
Z: over[Z]ealous	Kill Pascal after saving him in chapter 14

Joke endings do not break your save. Reload from your last save and continue.

Combat Fundamentals

Core actions

Action	What it does
Light attack	Fast strikes with the light-slot weapon
Heavy attack	Slower, stronger strikes with the heavy-slot weapon (9S hacks instead)
Evade	Dash/dodge; a well-timed one is a perfect evade
Jump	Double jump available, and your Pod lets you glide to slow a fall
Pod fire	Continuous ranged fire while held
Pod program	Fires your equipped Pod special on cooldown
Lock-on	Locks the camera and Pod to one target
Weapon set swap	Toggles between your two weapon sets

Keyboard/mouse bindings are awkward for some players. Rebinding in the Options menu is normal, and many PC players prefer a controller.

The loop

Weapon sets: 2B and A2 carry two weapon sets, each with a light-attack and heavy-attack weapon. Swap sets mid-combo for longer strings.
Evade and perfect evade: Evade right before a hit for a counter window. Evading from lock-on also opens a quick dash-attack.
Pod fire: Constant chip damage while you dodge, and the easiest way to deal with flying enemies.
Pod programs: Heavy skills on cooldown, such as R010: Laser, A140: Gravity (pulls enemies together), A060: P Shield / R070: M Shield (block melee or projectiles), and A120: Repair (healing field). There are 17 in total; collect them from side quests, chests, and shops, and swap them at the Pod menu.
Pod types: Pod A is a Gatling (your starter), Pod B fires a piercing laser (fished up in the Flooded City), and Pod C fires homing missiles (found in the Desert). Each Pod's own charged attack changes as it is upgraded.
Hacking (9S): 9S's heavy input starts a hacking minigame instead. Winning deals huge damage or lets you take control of the enemy. Mastering hacking makes Route B much easier.
Taunt: A2 and 2B can taunt, which increases damage dealt and taken; chips like Taunt Up amplify it.

Levels and healing

Enemies drop EXP; levels raise HP and attack. You do not need to grind for the main story on Normal. Carry Recovery items (Small/Medium/Large Recovery) and assign one to the quick-item slot. With the Auto-Use Item chip, the game drinks them for you when HP drops.

Plug-in Chip Builds

Plug-in chips are the character build system. Each chip has a type (for example Offensive Heal) and a rank (+0 to +8), plus a storage cost. You have limited storage, and upgrading storage at the Resistance Camp chip shop is one of the best purchases in the game.

Fusion: two chips of the same type and rank fuse into one chip one rank higher. The storage cost of the result depends on the two inputs, so fuse low-cost chips to get efficient high-rank chips.

Recommended chips

Chip	Why it is good
Auto-Heal	Regenerates HP after a few seconds without taking damage
Offensive Heal	Heals a percentage of the damage you deal; strongest sustain in the game at high rank
Deadly Heal	Restores HP when you kill an enemy; great for mob fights
Overclock	Slows time after a perfect evade
Evade Range Up	Longer dodges; makes boss patterns much easier to escape
Shock Wave	Adds a ranged wave to melee strikes
Taunt Up	Raises both your and enemy damage after taunting; high-risk damage build
Critical Up	More crits; pairs with any damage build
Auto-Use Item	Uses recovery items automatically at low HP
Auto-Collect Item	Pulls drops to you; quality of life
Max HP Up	A flat buffer; good on Hard

Sample loadouts

Beginner / Normal: Auto-Heal, Offensive Heal, Deadly Heal, Evade Range Up, Auto-Use Item, plus any attack-up chips that fit.
Boss killer: Overclock, Offensive Heal, Critical Up, Shock Wave, and damage-up chips.
Hard mode: Max HP Up, Offensive Heal, Overclock, Evade Range Up. On Hard, you cannot lock on and enemies hit very hard; healing-on-hit carries you.

You can save several chip presets and swap them from the menu. Keep one with Auto-Collect and movement chips for exploring.

Weapons

Four weapon types, each with a different moveset in light versus heavy slots:

Type	Style
Small Swords	Fast combos, flexible
Large Swords	Slow, heavy damage, great heavy-slot pick
Spears	Long reach, strong charge attacks
Combat Bracers	Fastest, lowest damage per hit

Standout weapons: 2B's starting Virtuous Contract (Small Sword) and Virtuous Treaty (Large Sword) are solid all game. Later favorites include Iron Will, Beastlord, Engine Blade, Cypress Stick (a meme weapon that's actually decent early), Phoenix Lance, Dragoon Lance, and the Type-40 set. Bracers like Demon's Cry suit fast playstyles.

Upgrading: weapon shops in the Resistance Camp upgrade weapons with money and materials, up to level 4. Each upgrade unlocks part of the weapon's written story, which is a completionist favorite. Material farming is the main grind in the late game; check what a weapon needs before spending money on the step below.

Areas and Progression Outline

You will return to the same regions across routes, so learn them once:

City Ruins — the hub. The Resistance Camp lives here (shops, maintenance, quests).
Desert — sandstorm area with desert-themed machines and a big boss.
Amusement Park — story set piece and the source of many memorable side quests.
Forest Zone and Forest Castle — machine kingdom quests.
Pascal's Village — peaceful machines; lots of side quests and a shop.
Flooded City and Factory — later-story areas.
Copied City and the Tower — late routes.

Fast travel: Unlocked through a story event early on. After that, Access Points connect.

Fishing: Pods can fish at water. It is a real (if light) side activity with its own collectibles.

Missables and Completion Tips

Side quests close as the story advances, especially near the end of Route A and after key events in Route C. Do side quests when they appear, and keep a save before big main quest steps.
Chapter Select unlocks once you finish Route C/D. It lets you jump back to any chapter to finish missed side quests without replaying everything. This is the biggest completion tool in the game.
Weapon stories need all weapons fully upgraded.
Unit Data and Archives fill in as you play; many unlock naturally, the rest come from side quests and scanning enemies.
Emil side quests tie into Ending Y and also give memorable content; follow Emil's shop around the map.
DLC (3C3C1D119440927): adds costumes, accessories, and three colosseum-style arena areas including a fight against company presidents. Completing its "Mysterious Invitation" quest also unlocks a bonus DLC ending. Play it after Route A; the arenas are tough early.

PC Setup and Fixes

July 2021 update: Square Enix replaced the old Steam build with an updated version that fixed many long-standing PC issues (resolution options, display modes, frame pacing and more). If you last played before then, old advice about mandatory fan fixes is largely outdated.
Community mods such as the fan-made fix FAR were essential for the pre-2021 build; the updated build changed the executable, so older mods may not work. Check a mod's page for compatibility.
Frame rate: The game is designed around 60 FPS. Unlocking higher frame rates via mods can cause physics and animation issues.
Controllers: Full controller support on Steam; many players find it easier than keyboard/mouse for dodge timing.
Steam Deck: generally runs well on the updated build; check the store page's Deck compatibility rating for current status.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Quitting after Ending A. You have seen perhaps a third of the story.
Removing the OS Chip without a save.
Ignoring chip storage upgrades, then wondering why your build is weak.
Not using Pod fire. It is free, constant damage.
Skipping the hacking tutorial. 9S is much weaker without it.
Sacrificing your save in Ending E when you still wanted to go for 100%.
Fusing expensive chips. Fuse low-cost duplicates for efficient results.
Doing everything on Route B when Chapter Select will later make it easier.

Advanced Tips

Perfect-evade counters: after a perfect evade, press light attack for a counter-slash or heavy attack for a launcher. With Overclock you get a free slow-mo window.
Weapon set juggling: light-attack chains can be extended by switching sets mid-combo; experiment with Large Sword heavy plus Small Sword light.
Pod program choice: long-range lasers for bosses, gravity and shield programs for crowds.
Taunt build: high risk, very high reward. Combine Taunt Up with Offensive Heal so the extra damage you deal refills HP.
Hard/Very Hard: Very Hard means one-hit kills. It is a speedrunner and challenge setting, not a "true" way to play.
Farm money with high-level enemies in later areas once the Auto-Collect chip is on, or sell spare materials you do not need for upgrades.

FAQ

How many endings does NieR:Automata have? 26: five main endings (A to E) and 21 joke endings (F to Z). You need A through E for the full story.

Do I have to start a new game for Route B? No. After Ending A, load your clear data and the game continues with Route B automatically.

Is Route B just a replay? Partly. It covers the same events from 9S's point of view with new scenes, hacking combat, and new information. Route C/D is entirely new.

What happens if I remove the OS Chip? Your android dies and you get a joke ending. Reload your save to continue.

Will I lose my save for Ending E? Only if you choose to sacrifice your data to help other players after the credits. Declining keeps everything.

Is the PC version still broken? The July 2021 official update fixed the major issues. Play the current Steam build.

What is the best chip for beginners? Offensive Heal plus Auto-Heal. Together they make most fights forgiving.

Should I buy the DLC? If you enjoy the combat, yes. It adds costumes and arena challenges, including joke boss fights against company executives.