Part 13: Episode XII: 11B

Episode XII: 11B


Music: Rays of Light (Vocal)



I know the first thing I said about sidequests was to skip all of them until fast travel unlocks. But, well... the first optional couple are an exception, since fast travel only shaves off about three minutes of commute. It’s the ones after this point where it’s a 20 minute addition of travel time just running from Point A to Point B that are the issue mitigated by being able to teleport to areas.

Anyway, we did get an e-mail about a new weapon and a sidequest, both involving a return trip to the Abandoned Factory from the Prologue chapter. See that building over there? That’s where we touched down the beginning of this chapter.



Now let’s just pan over about 90 degrees, just past the next building over from where we started. See that collapsed overpass? That’s the Factory peeking out just past it.





It’s just a matter of scampering over an incredible rusted but surprisingly sturdy wrecked truck and dashing down the mostly intact overpass. Fun fact: 2B is supposed to be around 330 lbs. Living tissue over a metal endoskeleton ain’t light. Also Terminators were totally androids, not cyborgs. James Cameron, you idiot.





There’s a bit of the factory we didn’t encounter, including a small parking lot/cargo shipping area leading to a stairway and a Save Terminal. This is the only save point available in the Factory at the moment. The map, annoyingly, displays a couple more in the general region really early on. Yeah... those aren’t accessible until about 85% of the way through the playthrough. Don’t bother searching for like 20 minutes to get to ‘em. Not that I did that or anything...

Music: Ends





Climbing to the top of the stairs, we find ourselves... right back at the end of the Factory section. Up there is where we ran over Engels to reach the bridge where quite a bit transpired.

So... I don’t know... maybe that opening mission would have been more successful if they took a land route over the city, landed around where 2B and 9S did early, and just... walked to the Factory? I don’t think Engels could have zeroed in on everyone as well as it did when they were flying in with zero cover over open water. Just a thought.



And there’s the bridge itself, which is not in the best of shape after Engels flying head-butt it a few times. Oh and the whole android black box detonations. That couldn’t have helped matters. We never do see that supposed facility on the other side of the bridge.





Traveling toward the new edge of the bridge, we find 2B’s old sword sticking out of the ground, having been conveniently blown just far enough away from the blast to avoid sinking into the ocean.



Much like Virtuous Contract, Virtuous Treaty is a fairly viable option throughout the majority of the game. It’s a wee bit faster than Beastlord, even if it doesn’t have quite the range. At Level 2 it gains a boost to attack speed and at max level, it also gains Holy Blessing (more damage at max HP.)

But who cares about that? That’s ages from now. It’s time for another Weapon History!




OK, then... 2B, these are your default weapons. Have you been in for your quarterly psych evaluation lately...? Just curious...



We’re not quite done on this bridge. Just ahead of Virtuous Treaty is another android corpse. This android corpse is special. As it turns out, it’s 2B’s dead body from the Prologue.





Collecting the body will restore all the materials and the mess of healing items/buffs we had during Chapter 1, as well as the Auto-Item Chip that 2B had installed during the opening. Auto-Item will, as the name suggests, automatically use a Small Heal item if 2B’s health falls to critical range. It does have a momentary lag between 2B falling to critical health (which briefly slows down time) and the item’s use, in which 2B can still get ganked if an enemy follows up quickly. And it doesn’t work if she gets one-shot (i.e. it’s all but useless on Hard/Very Hard.)

But hey, for early game this isn’t a bad security blanket if this ain't your kind of genre normally. This is one of the few Auto-Chips that work on difficulties above Easy.



That’s enough about 2B’s corpse run. Let’s tackle the factory. We did have a sidequest to recover something belonging to 11B, who if you’ll remember was the second android to fall at the very beginning of the opening mission. According to the map, something of hers managed to make its way into the Factory zone, despite the fact she died in a fiery wreck about twenty miles from land.


New Music: Wretched Machinery (Quiet)



We’re given a very broad range of where this sidequest’s objective could be. Spoilers: It’s literally back at the start of the region, where we fought the first Marx.





Right at the start of the Factory was a dead android named Ken(yes) I decided to revive. It seems to be quite stoked to be revived as a ghoulish thrall. Revived Androids come packing the Slot 1 weapon the player was carrying when they died. In Ken(yes)’s case... bare fists. Great...





In practice, revived androids act like a dumber 9S that are always set to be Aggressive behavior. They’re a useful distraction but not that much of a boon. Especially in an area with weak enemies like this. This is just a matter of going through the same exact encounters from the Prologue, but in reverse.



Thankfully, we did open up those shortcuts early, so that shaves off a good five minutes of not particularly interesting encounters. Ken(yes)’s short life came to a close just as we reached the first shortcut hidden by the camera. Revived AIs only last for about two minutes before exploding violently. Said explosion will damage any nearby enemies. So that could help... if there were any. 2B’s self-destruct is also transferred to revived androids, if we want to manually explode the fallen comrade.







With the lowered bridge and cranes from early, we’ve got a fairly straight shot back to the initial battleground for 2B. Ah the memories. If we approach right back to where 2B landed with dramatic flair, we find...



11B’s corpse made its way here. Somehow... I’d like to think it got blown out of its Flight Unit and skipped across the ocean like a stone at high speeds before slamming through the wall here. But let’s investigate.



So this is where you landed... Pod, can you access her black box?
Negative. Unit 11B’s black box has been irreparably damaged.
Hmm.
Proposal: Unit 2B should recover any usable weapons. Fragmented data detected in memory region.



This might be relevant in the future, but despite 11B having her black box be trashed without back-up and thus she is super dead, YoRHa weapons can hold memory data as well. It’s more of an actual plane’s black box recorder. And accessing 11B’s gets us this:



So unlike the rest of the non-2B YoRHa assault crew, 11B just faked her death to go AWOL. And then immediately completely fucked up her escape plan and died within an hour later. I don’t know if that’s better or worse than having just outright gotten blown out of the sky from a stationary laser beam.



Violation of regulations detected. However, due to the death of the unit in question, corrective punishment is impossible.
......
I’ll bring this weapon back to 16D in the Bunker.



That is our first of sixty Resident Evil-esque text file Archives. There is... there’s a LOT of lore junk in this game. Honestly, not a lot early on. And then a metric ton by the late stages of the game. So look forward to that.





In any case, we’ve fulfilled our request for the android on the Bunker. Unfortunately, even with shortcuts, we’ve still got to backtrack through the entire Factory zone. Only this time with no enemies because they don’t respawn until we leave the area or reload a save.





But really, only the run back to the Resistance Camp is the time that would have been saved with Fast Travel. And that’s only a two minute job since 2B absolutely hauls ass once she gets going.


Music: Fortress of Lies





I found 11B’s body, along with this weapon. *hands over 11B’s belongings*
The battle log is still intact on this... She must have fought right up to the end. I always knew she was the bravest of us all... Thank you, 2B. But I think you should keep it. You’re a combat model, after all, whereas I’m a defense unit. I’m sure 11B would be happy knowing it was being put to good use.
All right.



OK. Nice, we’ve got a free weapon out of the deal. Not a particularly great one. But... We’ll look at that in a moment. First...



We are given a choice at the end of this quest. 16D didn’t look at that battle log we read. We can reveal the truth of 11B’s dereliction of duties before her death or keep it ourselves. The latter choice is just a line of 16D admitting she and 11B were lovers and she's deciding to switch jobs to a Combat model. But, if we choose to reveal the truth... Well...


New Music: Broken Heart (Vocal) (A lot of side quests conclude with some rarely played music this go around.)



Let me see... Wait. She was planning to abandon her post?
......
Heh... Pffft...aaah ha ha ha ha!
What’s so funny?
It’s just that... she was always such a hard ass, you know? To think she wanted to run away just... Ha ha! And what a miserable way to die. Serves her right for the way she used to heap abuse on me... She always looked down on me because I wasn’t a combat model, and now... Thank you, 2B. Thank you for showing me this. Now I can dedicate myself to my job with a clear mind.
......
Oh, and here. You should take this. I don’t have a reason to protect myself anymore...



Yeah well... The reward is the same either way. Just not the part where 16D takes a heel turn with her relationship. Ok... So about that weapon?



It’s the bog standard all non-main character YoRHa soldiers have equipped. Its first upgrade gives a 30% discount in stores run by YoRHa or the Resistance while it’s equipped. At maximum level, it gains Pod Charge, which reduces the cooldown on Pod Programs. But let’s do the important part.


Yeah... Hey 9S, what do you say we head back to Earth? People are weird in space.



That takes care of the last of early business in Chapter 2 of NieR: Automata. All that’s left available to do now is to head for this Desert region and investigate the Machine Surge coming from the area. Getting to the desert isn’t much of an issue. Remember the overpass to the Factory?





We’re just going to run right past that, continue down the, surprisingly intact for 10,000 years of poor maintenance, road to its end. And there is the entrance to the desert region just past those collapsed buildings.

Tune in next time to Chapter 3 of NieR: Automata. In which things get REAL fucking weird really fast...






Video: Episode 12 Highlight Reel





Factory Concept Art – They really downgraded the bridge to this joint, huh?