After almost 4 years of its release, a player has found a NieR Automata cheat that allows you to skip to the last ending immediately after killing the first boss. It’s not a hack or a glitch, but a cheat that was hardcoded into the game engine by the developers. Skipping to the end also unlocks bonus modes right away.
NieR Automata was released in early 2017 for PS4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. The game was a critical success and sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Set during a proxy war between alien-created machines and human-crafted androids, the story follows the trials of a combat android named 2B, her companion, and a fugitive prototype.
The secret was uncovered by Lance McDonald on Twitter, who is better known for being able to patch Bloodborne to run at 60FPS on the PS4. Yoko Taro, the director of NieR Automata, had stated in an interview that was there was still one last secret nobody had so far discovered, and after all these years, the secret has finally been uncovered.
In a summary of the interview with Famitsu (thanks, Siliconera) the Nier: Automata staff said something along the lines of how “Due to various circumstances,” some kind of secret made its way into the game. However, they also mention that “going into any further detail might cause some problems,” which is why they won’t talk any more about it. It should be considered Nier: Automata’s “last secret.”
Now that the secret is out, Yoko Taro officially aknowlegded that this NieR Automata cheat was the final secret of the game.
Due congratulations from NieR Series official Twitter account also followed Lance’s Tweet.
Finally, we can say with confidence that NieR Automata is an open book. Lance McDonald said he would post a complete video on the cheat soon, which is the right move since the exact steps to activate the cheat are a bit fuzzy in the 54-second video. If you want to catch that video, then check out his Youtube channel.