NieR Automata Cheatcode Discovered That Lets You Skip The Whole Game

After a whopping three years, a hardworking fan has discovered a NieR Automata cheatcode that lets players skip the entire game, straight to the final decision.

Lance Mcdonald says he discovered the NieR Automata cheatcode via “hundreds of hours of reverse engineering”.

After beating the game’s first boss, he appears to go to some barrels, inputting a code consisting of both direction inputs as well as face buttons. After inputting the sequence, the screen fades to black, taking you to the final decision of the game.

McDonald says he’s uploading a video soon to show in greater detail how the cheatcode works, though the snippet on twitter is proof that it exists.

Yoko Taro had long teased that there was a secret in the game that hadn’t been discovered yet. He’s since come out with a cryptic tweet, quote-retweeting McDonald’s attempt with the caption “3 Years 10 Months”, probably alluding to how long the cheatcode went unnoticed.

It should be stressed that this is a straight-up cheatcode, and not an exploit like many speedrunners are used to doing in games. The difference being that while many exploits are a result of the game resolving anomalies in the code, this is an intended effect of keying in the code, similar to Doom’s IDDQD or Warcraft’s Thereisnospoon codes.

The cheatcode also fits in with NieR: Automata’s quirky mechanics. Reaching the game’s final route allows you to straight up buy achievements with in-game money, letting you get the Platinum Trophy by simply grinding for money.