NieR: Automata's Permadeath Mechanics: Understanding and Recovering from Death
NieR: Automata, despite its appearance, incorporates unforgiving rogue-like elements. Death carries significant consequences, potentially resulting in the permanent loss of valuable items and significant setbacks, especially in the late game. However, there's a window of opportunity to mitigate these losses. This guide explains the death penalty and how to recover your lost items and experience.
Understanding the Death Penalty
Dying in NieR: Automata means losing all experience points (XP) earned since your last save. More critically, you lose all currently equipped Plug-In Chips. While you can always acquire more chips and recreate your loadout, some are rare and upgrading them requires significant investment. Respawning leaves your equipped chip slots empty, requiring you to re-equip or select a preset.
Crucially, these lost Plug-In Chips aren't permanently gone. You have one chance to retrieve them. Failure to recover your body before dying again results in the permanent loss of those chips.
Recovering Your Body
After death, your immediate priority is retrieving your body. A blue body icon appears on the map, indicating its location. Interacting with it restores your Plug-In Chips. You then face a crucial choice:
Repair: This option doesn't restore lost XP, but transforms your previous body into an AI companion that will assist you until it's destroyed.
Retrieve: This option restores the lost XP earned since your last save.
Regardless of your choice, your previously equipped Plug-In Chips are restored to their exact previous configuration, overriding your current setup. Alternatively, you can choose to simply add the recovered chips to your inventory.
