Part 29: Episode XXVIII: Revengeance

Episode XXVIII: Revengeance



OK. This sidequest thing has been a rocky road so far. But we’re now caught up with all the sidequest threads offered directly to 2B from various sources. Let’s dip our feet into some freelance work for a little bit before we resume the main quest branch. We’ve got a WHOLE LOT of options at the moment and we’re going to knock out a few today.


Music: Peaceful Sleep



In the Resistance Camp alone there are no less than four different quest available at the moment. Unfortunately, one of them requires venturing to an area we as of yet do not have access to at the moment. And another is gated by well... a gate with some requirements to pass. We’ll get to that in a moment. At present, our best option is the quest given by a female Resistance member hanging out in the medical section of the camp.



I guess we are the newest, now that you mention it. Did you need something?
I bet new models like you can handle pretty much anything, huh? You might even be able to... No, no. I shouldn’t ask. That would be rude. But yet... *siiigh*
<Listen to her problem.> (“Ignore the hint” is the jerk decline option.)
Why don’t you tell us what’s wrong? Maybe we can help out.
Oh! Well, if you insist... It turns out one of my friends has gone missing.
Missing? That doesn’t sound good.
Where was this friend last seen?
At the material storage site where he works.
The storage site, eh? Maybe we could check it out.
Oh, please, would you? Without him, I... I... Please!



So begins the Resistance Disappearance quest. You’d think they would have installed androids with GPS at some point. But here we are... The “materials storage site” is actually still within the Resistance Camp.







There is a whole side-scrolling oriented back area past Anemone. It is mostly filled with old androids hanging out off-duty and blowing off some steam. We haven’t had any reason to come back here since it’s just a few folks going “Oh you’re from YoRHa that’s cool I guess...”





We want to climb to an upper scaffold in the area and follow it along the path to reach the materials storage site. There’s just one teensy little problem... The gate to the area is locked tight. Which makes sense, given this is apparently where the Resistance is storing all its important supplies. Unfortunately, it’s too reasonable to just go ask Anemone to let us poke around for a minute back there while investigating the disappearance of one of her men. Or, you know... just kick open this chain-link fence. Instead, the android sitting next to the gate has a Quest marker floating above their head. And so...



Stop thinking about what?
Gya! What!? Who are you!?
We’re with YoRHa. Anemone told us to make ourselves at home.
Oh... r-right.
So. What can’t you stop thinking about?
Oh, it’s just... One of my friends has a box that makes music when you open it, and I can’t get the damn song out of my head. It’s just so beautiful! I’ve never heard anything like it! And to make it worse, I can only remember the first part of the song... Daaah, it’s driving me nuts! I wish she’d just come back to camp so I could hear the damn thing again!
<Go look for the missing item.> (“Let the weirdo work it out for herself” is the mean decline option.)
Yeah, if we don’t help her, she’ll never get any work done.
A box that plays sound? Odd.
Analysis: The item in question is likely a “music box.” It should be located in an area where music is playing. Proposal: The local amusement park would be a logical area for reconnaissance.
That’s some fuzzy logic there, Pod... But hey, might as well try it. Not like we have any other leads to go on.



So in order to get to the second stage of our first sidequest, we need to go complete this whole other diversion. Thankfully, this one is really short and features zero combat.



We do indeed need to travel back to the Amusement Park for this job. Pod 042’s logic might be... questionable. But perhaps it’s wiser than it lets on.


Music: Amusement Park (Quiet)





So do you remember that hoverbot from Pascal’s village that greeted us after the Simone battle? Do you recall how it immediately led us down a dark back alley with a rotting android corpse sprawled in the corner? So, about that corpse... Guess what it was carrying...



Is this the “music box” she was looking for? Man, this thing is all rusted over...



You think the box belonged to her? Poor girl died a long time ago, by the looks of it.
Let’s bring this back to her friend.



Unfortunately, quest specific key items will not spawn until they’re necessary for the quest at hand. No being a total weirdo that just happens to have a NPC’s decades lost family heirloom in their pocket as they’re passing by... It is worth checking the Key Item tab in the menu when gaining a quest item. They all do have a unique bit of art and occasionally an interesting flavor text blurb.



Anyway, now we just need to use the transporter and teleport back to the Resistance Camp to complete this short request.



THAT’S IT! Where did you find it?
In the amusement park, next to the corpse of an android. Maybe that was its owner?
...Oh.
Was she...
......
Well, it’s awfully rusty, but with a little work I should be able to get it playing again.
Of course.
Thank you for bringing the box to me. Now I can finally concentrate on my work again! Oh, and you two are welcome to enter the back anytime you like from now on.
What a beautiful sound... I could listen to this all day...


New Music: Peaceful Sleep (Music Box) (This only ever plays here the entire game.)



For our efforts, we get a mess of items including a very nice Anti Chain Damage +3 Chip. Anti-Damage chips give 2B a grace period after taking a hit in which she’s briefly invincible to prevent stun locking. Unfortunately, she doesn’t rapidly blink after taking damage. This chip gives 2 seconds of recovery time. It’s a really useful chip if you aren’t terrific at these kinda games. And really just in general. Nobody likes to get stun locked.



In any case, that concludes The Manager’s Request quest. Like Anemone with the vocal version of this area’s music, we can speak to the Manager to switch over to the music box track at any time.





More importantly, we now have access to the materials storage site of the resistance. There’s some rather unremarkable loot back here (Large G Luck + i.e. get more gold for 30 seconds from destroyed enemies, Impact Bracer (S) i.e. take less melee damage for 30 seconds and 200 G.) As well as yet ANOTHER quest. But most importantly, there’s a railing on the scaffold support we can examine...



Three numbers... I wonder if it’s a set of coordinates?
Target point, maybe? Or a hidden location?
No way to tell. I’ll add ‘em to the map regardless.



The coordinates in question lead us back to the buffer zone between the City Ruins and the Desert, just a ways past Jackass’s camp.



We’ll head over there and investigate in a few minutes. While we’re back here, we may as well see what’s wrong with this burly android looking dejected near the warehouse entrance.



Maybe I can help you out.
Say, you’re from the Bunker, right? Well, turns out I have some packages that need transporting, but I can’t get them out of storage. One of my superiors was in charge of it, but now I have to do it—and there’s so much stuff that I can’t possibly move it! She’s gonna have my head for this... I gotta get those packages for transport out of there... Think you can get the goods for me?
<Agree to help.>
Great. Thanks a million!



...Yo, did we just agree to a box pushing puzzle?



Ooof. Better make a path first.



Goddammit! We just agreed to a box pushing puzzle... Thankfully, there aren’t many of these in NieR: Automata. Especially compared to the amount of box shoving in the original NieR. Unfortunately, that means 2B is gravely out of practice in pushing boxes and it takes her for-fucking-EVER to shove a crate. Like to the tune of 10-15 seconds to push it an entire crate length.



Fortunately, we just have to squeeze through to the treasure chest at the top of the screen (and any other loot that just happened to fall off the truck in transit.) So at least there’s that. 9S opted to find a corner and run in circles non-stop the entire time 2B was doing all the literal heavy lifting. That’s him in the bottom left pulling a full Tails. That’s also him delivering that line, like he contributed. 9S, this is going on your performance report...



You really need to organize your storage area. I could barely walk in there! Seriously, you need to clean that place up.
I know, I know. I’ll take it up with my superior. Here’s a little something for your trouble.





At least the reward for our efforts ain’t too bad. That’s the best Evade Range Up chip we’ve encountered in this playthrough thus far. So that’s nice. Anyway, that’s Sorting Trouble Part 1 concluded. Making good quest headway today.


Music: Memories of Dust (Quiet)





Now back to the initial sidequest we began with before all of the diversions. The coordinates we received leads us to a narrow canyon to the southern part of the zone outside the Desert Camp. The Desert Zone itself and the points of interest earlier were mostly to the northern half of the area.



Yeah. We’re pretty much standing right on top of whatever they’re pointing to.



We’re going in the right direction. Unfortunately, that direction is filled with Buzzsaw Stubby machines that are all Level 30+. Which would normally be a touch problematic except... they’re Stubbies. These little dudes only can get so strong, even with 15+ levels on our androids. They all quickly go down without much effort. But these surprisingly beefy boys aren’t why we are here. Instead, if we go to a dead end of the canyon, we find...



9S!
AVENGE... KILL...
KILL ALL... WHO STAND IN... OUR WAY... ANDROIDS... WILL PAY...
ALL OF YOU YOU YOU YOU...
KILL. ALL KILL. ALL OF YOU KILLKILLKILLKILLKILL...
KIIIIIIIIIIIIL!





So remember what I said about wishing this game had a sidequest recommended level indicator? Yeah, this would have been handy to know we’d be facing a Level 35 Small Sword Boy (Blood Covered Edition.) We fought plenty of these guys out in the Desert Zone. They telegraph their attacks like nobody’s business and are very easily to deal with on the whole. The trouble is, this one is 20 Levels ahead of 2B and as such it takes a solid five minutes of non-stop attacking to finally take it down. I really wish the level gap between the player and enemies wasn’t just flat scaling mathematics calculation. It makes it so there’s a very small window where fights are fair and balanced versus a massive spectrum of damage sponges and curb stomps the higher or lower ends of differences.

Five minutes of doing single and double digit damage on an enemy that has several thousand HP later...



Huh? What for?
Call it professional curiosity.
Analysis: This machine lifeform’s comrades were destroyed. Driven by that grudge, it lured a Resistance member to this location. It then proceeded to destroy him.
Are you saying this thing wanted revenge?
Aw, come on, now. That concept is far too complex for a machine!

I dunno, 9S. Prioritizing the elimination of an enemy that killed all your allies doesn’t seem that high functioning a concept. yoFUCKthatguy.EXE is probably fairly common in the machine lifeforms. But enough of that, all the blood covering that machine had to come from somewhere. And investigating the area yields...



Let’s check his memory. Seems this one came here looking for revenge as well.
I guess the weaker one lost.
......







Apparently we less check the corpse’s memories as we did read his journal and deduce his motives. But details... Let’s take these mementos of a pointless cycle of revenge back to that woman who initially gave us the quest...



I’m going to feel terrible telling that woman what happened to her friend.
It’s the truth. She has to know.
No matter what that truth actually is?
......



Hey, the truth can be rough. So, your boyfriend went on a quest for revenge and immediately got ganked by a machine also on a quest for revenge. But then we killed that machine... so... if you think about it, everyone is square. In being dead.



When we return to the female Resistance Member quest giver, we’re given the option of telling her the truth or lying about our findings. Let’s just be honest. She sees through our lie since she already knew the guy stormed off to get revenge and thanks us for trying to be nice. The rest proceeds the same.


New Music: Voice of No Return (Vocal) (It’s a very nice track that only gets used a handful of times.)



I’ve very sorry, but... your friend is dead.
Oh...
He was trying to get revenge against the machine that killed his comrades.
No... Oh no...
But he wasn’t strong enough, and the machine ended up killing him instead.
Damn the machines... I’ll murder them all!
Whoa, easy! It’s okay! We took out the one that killed your friend.
You did?
Yes, we did. Which means there’s no need for anyone else to go seeking revenge.
But... what do I do now? I have no one to love... And no one to kill... I have nothing.
That’s not...
Come on, 9S.
L-Look, we’ll come back, okay? We’ll come back and check on you.
......





This is another one of those instances where 2B and 9S need to exit the area before the sidequest will progress. In the Resistance Camp’s case, just taking a brief jog out to the stream and bullying a few machine lifeforms should be enough to trigger the next part of the quest.



When we return back to the area, we find the woman from earlier has vanished. We need to talk to one of the androids she was hanging out with to get the scoop on where she went.



You looking for the lady who was here? Yeah, she left a while ago. Seemed pretty upset about something, too. And she was armed to the teeth!
Oh no...
Hey, I just remembered she wanted me to give you something. Here...
Whoa, all this?
Yeah, she said she didn’t need it anymore.
......
Hey, don’t ask me. I don’t understand women at all...



We get a nice helping of upgrade materials, a sack full of G and quite a bit of experience for our efforts.



As for that quest? That’s it! That’s the end! No follow-up. We never see that woman again. She probably went off and died pointlessly seeking vengeance. Maybe she produced more vengeful machines in her wake. Who knows? We just sparked another cycle of an endless churning grind of revenge. No moral. Just NieR: Automata.






Video: Episode 28 Highlight Reel





Machine Lifeform Size Comparison Concept Art – My tall sons.