Weapons in NieR: Automata are pieces of offensive equipment that are used by the player mostly in combat to inflict damage against Enemies and Bosses. There are four types of weapons in the game, Small Swords, Large Swords, Spears and Combat Bracers. There are a total of 40 weapons across all categories. The tabs below are divided into categories that lists all weapons you will find within the weapon category in the game, click on the tabs to view the different categories of available weapons in NieR: Automata and you can click here to view all weapons in NieR Automata.
NieR Automata Weapons Overview
Weapon Wielding in NieR Automata
Players can wield 2 sets of weapons at a time. For 2B and A2, each set is made up of 2 weapons. For 9S, each set is 1 weapon, since his Hacking takes the place of his second weapon. Your 2 weapons are bound to 
Square and 
Triangle buttons (X and Y on XBox controllers) respectively. You can assign the weapons in your weapon sets from the Weapons menu tab and in combat, you can press Up on the D-pad to swap your sets.
Weapon Crafting and Upgrades in NieR Automata
Through the game's Crafting system you can use money and acquired Materials to upgrade your weapons at the weapons vendor in the Resistance Camp. Upgrading Weapons further unlocks their Weapon Story, which is a narrative description for every weapon that explores the history and background of the weapon. Weapons can be upgraded to level 4, with the weapons vendors taking them to 3 and Master Swordsmith Masamune handling the upgrade to level 4.
A few key notes to remember:
- All weapons within the same category will have the exact same attacks and combos for a character.
- All weapon types can be assigned to either Fast or Strong slots (or just Fast for 9S).
- For any weapon you have at least five main attack types: Normal (N) where you just press the attack button, Charge (C) where you press and hold the button, and in some cases have to release it to do the attack, Dash Strike (DS) where you tap the Dash button and then immediately an attack button, and then Run Strike (RS) where you have dashed and are at a full run, then use the attack button, and finally Aerial, where you are attacking in mid air. This does mean that there are 20 move sets for 9S and roughly 40 move sets for the other characters to learn.
Weapon Combos in NieR Automata
Given the massive number of move combos there are between the three characters and that most of them are just different flavors of "generically swing weapon at the enemy in combo to damage them" the entire move set will not be listed. The weapon combos of A2 and 2B are also nearly identical, the one exception being A2's Fast Charge attack with any weapon initiates a Taunt. However, the following are much more atypical attacks that are worth noting.
9S SPECIAL COMBOS
- LARGE SWORDS CHARGE: He has the sword orbit him at a small-ish distance while spinning horizontally. Fairly slow to launch and will easily miss very close enemies, but if you can pull it off this can hit a sizeable number of enemies in a group
- LARGE SWORDS RUN STRIKE: He throws the sword forward a moderate distance having it spin horizontally. This can actually do a surprising amount of damage to a couple of bunched targets as it is a fast Multistrike move with the high damage of the Large Swords
- COMBAT BRACER CHARGE: He throws the bracers forward. The range is a bit less than that of the Laser POD
- SPEAR CHARGE: He throws the spear forward. CRITICALLY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER! As long as he doesn't immediately do another attack to teleport it back to him the spear can hit past the max Lock On range and has excellent accuracy. The thrown spear does damage equivalent to roughly 3 normal attacks and pierces through enemies, has an area of effect slightly wider than the spear itself, and against very large enemies with multiple "sections" it may even hit multiple times for full damage each. Furthermore, even though it is a ranged attack it is still considered a weapon strike, AND WILL BREAK SHIELDS/ARMOR SECTIONS OFF OF MACHINES, who are normally immune to ranged fire while their shields are intact. The throw damage is still affected by Weapon Damage + skill chips, not Ranged. Even though the spear isn't as good for general combat against groups given its very narrow area of attack, this long-range throw can be excellent for boss fights when the boss is out of striking range, and can still be useful against smaller groups of normal enemies. Against closer enemies where you can fire it at full rate it can be launched almost as fast as Missile POD salvos, but will vastly out-damage what your PODs can put out.You should definitely consider having a Spear in your secondary weapon set and get used to switching them. It does, however, require Lock On to have any decent accuracy which means this becomes quite crippled at the higher difficulties where Lock On is disabled; manually aiming like what you can do with your POD has no effect on the spear. Note also that some machines will occasionally use a dodge move and avoid it.
- SMALL SWORD CHARGE: He throws the sword forward a small-ish distance and it hovers there spinning horizontally in place for several seconds, or until you attack again teleporting it to his hand. Given the slow launch speed and the tiny area of effect this is only really useful against very slow targets.
- DASH STRIKE: For all weapons, this makes 9S use the Heavy Attack combos.
2B/A2 SPECIAL COMBOS
- STRONG SPEAR RUN STRIKE: They throw the spear. This is much more clumsy and un-aimed than 9S's throw so you aren't likely to find it useful.
In general 2B and A2 are much more suited to close-range combat, while 9S with his spear throws and hacks is vastly superior at range, though he can still be fairly respectable in close range combat with large swords being a particularly good choice.
Weapon Categories in NieR Automata
Small Swords
Fast swinging weapons that are great for chaining combos. They do less damage than their larger counterpart but offer more options for chaining combos together.
Large Swords
Relatively slower but deals more damage than Small Swords. Has the highest damage output but slowest moveset out of all the weapon categories.
Spears
Performs powerful attacks with a long reach and a unique moveset. Slower than Small Swords, but their sweeping attacks provide excellent maneuverability of crowds.
Combat Bracers
Equipped on both hands, it is quite different from the bladed weapons in the game. Fastest weapon type but also has the lowest damage output out of all the weapon categories.
All Weapons in NieR Automata
Small Swords
Large Swords
Spears
Combat Bracers
AnonymousMan, I remember Fextralife being here way back when dark souls was a cult hit. I love that it's still a thing.
- Anonymous
9s also has heavy attacks. Pausing after an strike makes him do the heavy attack and it lasts for the heavy attack number of its. He also has a 2nd form of charge. Hold hack>immediately into hold attack makes him do this attack.
- Anonymous
Just need list or videos on how to find all the rare items/materials needed to fully upgrade the weapon(s). For example, where can I find a lot of machine arms.
None of these weapons even have colors... That's pretty lame. Patterns might be interesting, but it's nothing until it gets color.
- Anonymous
I found the phoenix dagger when using the scanner in the desert when attempting to finish the "find the old world relics" mission that was in the desert.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
the pheonix dagger can be gotten a lot easier than that "find a elavator on the cliff" thing. Just jump down the gorge and float to the bottom. it will take you to the same exact spot.
- Anonymous
Why would they make the FFXV sword an option, but not include Caim's sword? HERESY I SAY!!!
- Anonymous
why is there two different numbers? does the weapons do random damage between these two values each hit or is the first number for light attacks and second for heavy?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Virtuous Dignity (Spear), in the sewers between City Ruins and Amusement Park. Past the ladder that leads to the amusement park there is another ladder which leads to an area that contains the spear.
Does this wiki really not have an option to add page change notes, or am I just missing something? Anyway, went and modified each of the individual weapon category pages, attempting to add clearer information as well as which routes you can find stuff in. I went ahead and reordered all the weapons too, to match what order they're listed in-game in.
Also unified the formatting a little by doing things like removing empty lines between combo length listing (Shift+Enter is your friend!) and totally removing the columns meant to list weapon effects, since no one wrote a single thing in any of them.
The Spears page was a huge mess of lacking information and I dare say I could not save it, though my additions hopefully are enough to make people actually able to find the things.
As for this page, all I did was add the number of weapons that are in the game. ezpz.
- Anonymous
I would like to know... What is exactly that thing... Halo... In 2B's Back??
For some reason, even though I got all the weapons Emil doesn't say anything to me and I can't start the quest
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