NieR: Automata – Farming and Purchasing Machine Arms: A Comprehensive Guide
NieR: Automata features a vast array of crafting materials needed to upgrade weapons and pods. While many become readily available later, acquiring them early can significantly boost your character's strength. Machine Arms are a particularly rare material, posing a challenge early in the game. This guide details the best strategies for obtaining them.
Farming Machine Arms
Machine Arms have a low drop rate from defeated small machines. The drop rate improves with enemy level, making early acquisition difficult. To maximize your chances early on, focus on quickly eliminating large numbers of machines.
After completing Chapter 4, a highly effective farming location unlocks. This is the pit where you first encounter Adam. This area continuously respawns enemies, including numerous small machines. Access it via fast travel to the Desert: Housing Complex access point and proceed deeper into the ruins.
While the machines here aren't high-level, resulting in a low Machine Arm drop rate, the constant respawn makes it the most efficient early-game farming method. This location is also ideal for farming Titanium Alloy. Using a Drop Rate Plug-In Chip can slightly improve your yield.
Spoiler Warning: The following section contains minor spoilers for the final playthrough of the game.
Purchasing Machine Arms
During the final playthrough, while playing as A2, you can choose to erase Pascal's memories after the village robots are defeated. This allows Pascal to return to the village as a merchant, offering various items for sale, including Machine Arms. Pascal's inventory includes:
- Machine Heads - 15,000 G
- Machine Arm - 1,125 G
- Machine Leg - 1,125 G
- Machine Torso - 1,125 G
- Machine Head - 1,125 G
- Children's Cores - 30,000 G
This provides a reliable late-game source for Machine Arms, eliminating the need for extensive farming.
