Nearly four years after the launch of Yoko Taro‘s game, its final secret has been found. Better late than never.

NieR: Automata first launched in Japan for PlayStation 4 on February 23, 2017. The North American PS4 release followed on March 7 and on March 10 in Europe, respectively. The PC version came out on March 17 (with Square Enix adding Denuvo to it). The Xbox One version followed on June 26, 2018. The „Game of the YoRHa Edition” launched for PlayStation 4 and PC worldwide in February 2019, and for a good reason: the game has sold more than five million copies since its launch, which is why NieR: Replicant will get an expanded edition shortly (it will launch in a few months).

Back in March 2018, Taro, the director of NieR: Automata, said in Weekly Famitsu issue 1527 that there was one last secret that the players haven’t found yet. Three years and ten months later, it has been discovered: Lance McDonald, a popular game modder, shared a video on Twitter with the following comment: „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.” He found the code with hundreds of hours of reverse engineering. We included the full video as well below.

Taro confirmed this to be the last secret with a tweet that says „(NieR: Automata Spoilers)…….. 3 years 10 months. (◎血◎).” The official Japanese Twitter account of NieR added: „NieR: Automata‘s last secret has been discovered. It contains spoilers, so if you haven’t played yet, please be careful on social media.”

The timing is clever: Yoko Taro can keep NieR a common topic in conversations, which never hurts – NieR: Automata sold surprisingly well, which is why fans (both veteran and new) might get something new in the future.

Source: Gematsu

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