Players who progress a bit further past the Nier: Automata prologue will realize that 2B, 9S, and most androids are just walking modular computers that rely on Plug-in Chips. In fact, both 2B and 9S can just pick up any old Plug-in Chip and slot it in like a dirty flash drive, and voila! New powers!
Of course, we're not saying to just plug in any questionable chip into 2B or 9S. Technical standards matter too. Those Plug-in Chips do consume storage within these androids. Moreover, some Plug-in Chips are not really that efficient or optimal. Those looking to upgrade 2B or 9S will want to pick these Plug-in Chips in Nier: Automata.
10 Drop Rate Up
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- How to obtain: Small Flyers in the Amusement Park, random drop
- Purpose: Utility
First up, players will need a way to obtain the actual chips they want. Increased chances wouldn't hurt, so it's best to nab a Drop Rate Up chip from the Small Flyers in the Amusement Park area. It increases the item drop rate by a certain percentage.
The highest it can go is up to 90 percent for a +8 variant of the chip. More items dropping per enemy killed can result in more chips and will ultimately lead to a faster complete build for both 2B and 9S. It will reduce the grind needed.
9 Deadly-Heal
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- How to obtain: Small and medium Bipeds in the Forest and Castle areas, random drop
- Purpose: Healing on kill
We would recommend Auto-Heal but that chip promotes a slower playstyle and will require players to stay out of combat, which is clunky. Instead, players can opt to go on the offensive for better chances of healing. The Deadly-Heal chip gives that good balance.
The +8 variant can heal its controller for 100% HP per enemy killed. That's certainly a lot faster than waiting for Auto-Heal to kick in and do its work. One would think that it's useless for boss fights, but there are plenty of boss fights in the game with minions.
8 Overclock
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- How to obtain: Small Flyers in the Factory: Hangar, random drop
- Purpose: Slows time after evasion
Overclock makes its controller perform at its most graceful as it slows down the time for a maximum of 5.5 seconds (+8 version) after they trigger a perfectly timed evade. This allows players to stack up an advantageous counterattack or avoid getting swarmed by enemies.
Characters will still move normally during the time dilation. Granted, players will need to have a decent reaction time in order to maximize this chip. Think of it as good practice for timing dodges. Those are pretty important in boss fights and late-game areas, after all.
7 Anti-Chain Damage
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- How to obtain: Locked Chest in Flooded City (before the second lift)
- Purpose: Brief invincibility after taking damage
Overclock does require a lot of practice and players might want something more foolproof as a defensive chip. If so, then the Anti-Chain Damage chip provides a better window for defense. It makes the characters invulnerable after they take damage.
The maximum duration is six seconds for +8. It's not really that useful for higher difficulty levels since players will mostly die in one hit (Very Hard) but below that, it's a good way to force some breathing room during hectic fights.
6 Taunt Up
- How to obtain: Lord of the Valley quest reward / medium flyers in the desert region, random drop
- Purpose: Buff enemy and player damage
Taunt Up doesn't exactly look appealing for newbies since it will also buff enemies, but if players don't get hit anyway, then it's not so dangerous, after all. Such is the case for high-difficulty playthroughs. Taunt Up lets payers get a hefty 500% attack power buff (+8).
Enemies also get that buff, which is why it's important to not get hit while this buff is active. For this, chips like Overclock will work wonders. Most of the time, the damage stack is so high that the fight usually ends prematurely before the enemies even become major threats.
5 Shock Wave
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- How to obtain: Adam's Boss Pit / Small Bipeds in Desert Housing Complex, random drop
- Purpose: Adds area damage to player attacks
A good pairing for something like Taunt Up would be Shock Wave. Actually, Shock Wave is a good pairing for just about any offensive Plug-in Chip. It adds a shock wave to weapon attacks with up to a 12.5x multiplier to its base 4% shock wave damage.
If the player's attack power is already too high from Taunt Up, then this snowballs into amazing area damage numbers. Players won't even need to aim whenever they're striking enemies. Simple shock waves can kill weaker minions.
4 Auto-Collect Items
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- How to obtain: Twins in the Resistance Camp after receiving the Scanner
- Purpose: Utility
Some utility chips are so necessary that they rank higher than the damage and defense chips. Think of the Auto-Collect Items chip as an investment at little to no cost. It does what it says in the title, and picks up items for players.
For farming chips, this is a rather important chip to have as it will minimize the effort and time wasted manually picking up the chips. Players also don't need to level this up and it also has no cost to slot into 2B or 9S. Don't miss this one.
3 Critical Up
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- How to obtain: Amusement Park Rollercoaster / Small Biped / Medium Biped
- Purpose: Offense
Players will also want to have as much critical rate as possible in Nier: Automata, especially if they're doing arena challenges. The Critical Up chip simply has great synergy with any other offense-related Plug-in Chip.
Players get more damage and their bonus damage can also deal more damage. Thankfully, farming this chip is pretty easy as there are lots of areas that have enemies that drop this one. It's also recommended to upgrade it to +8 as soon as possible to get the juicy +30% critical chance.
2 Offensive Heal
- How to obtain: Amnesia quest reward / Small & Medium Bipeds in the Forest and Castle, random drop
- Purpose: Healing during attacks
Again, this isn't something that will be useful on a difficulty level like Very Hard, but below that, this is the best healing chip players should obtain. It allows players to keep attacking with reckless abandon and focus on the offensive instead of running away and waiting for Auto-Heal to trigger.
At +8, the chip allows players to recover 100% of their damage dealt as HP. That practically turns 2B or 9S into robot vampires, regardless of how much that makes sense. Grinding for this chip is also somewhat easy.
1 Weapon Attack Up
- How to obtain: Robo Dojo--White Belt quest reward / Multi-Leg Medium Model in the Abandoned Factory / Medium Biped
- Purpose: Permanent attack boost
Nothing beats a good offense as the best defense there is, even in Nier: Automata. Can't be threatened by enemies if they're already dead, after all. For that, the Weapon Attack Up chip is priceless as it will serve as the baseline for a lot of other offense chips.
Critical Up, Taunt Up, and even Offensive Heal all rely on the bonuses that Weapon Attack Up will give to the weapons. At +8 it will double the weapon attack amount, making it almost mandatory if players want a sense of progression.
Nier: Automata is available now on PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.