10 Video Game Sections You Didn't Know You Could Skip

In early 2021, almost four years after Nier Automata's release, reputed modder Lance McDonald discovered the game's "final secret," a secret code which allows you to bypass almost the entire game.

After defeating Automata's prologue boss Marx, you have to place yourself between a series of barrels in the now-empty boss arena, and then, on the PS4 version of the game, hold R2 and press up, down, up, right, left, square, circle, triangle, and cross.

This code will cause the game to skip immediately to the last of its many endings, as well as unlocking a chapter select menu, in-game trophy store, and even a debug menu.

McDonald emphasised that this wasn't a glitch or an exploit but a cheat code hard-coded into the game's engine, and director Yoko Taro subsequently took to Twitter to confirm that this was indeed the game's final secret he'd encouraged players to seek out.

While there's certainly a lot of pleasure in beating Automata and experiencing its endings the hard way, it's an intriguing find all the same.