Machine

Machines, also known as machine lifeforms and bio-machines, are a race of sentient robots that serve as the main antagonistic force in NieR:Automata.

Created by the aliens thousands of years ago when they invaded Earth, the final goal of the androids and YoRHa is to destroy all machines and retake Earth for humanity.

History[]

The machines were initially created on earth during the 1st Machine War by the aliens, and ever since have proven to be effective and efficient foot soldiers in the never ending war against the androids. According to 9S, the machines have a natural ability to develop better ways to wage wars, producing new machine variants or evolving the way they are able to utilize their weapons.

During the events of The Flame of Prometheus, P-33, a machine originally from Earth, teaches the machines about his friendship with Kalil. Because of this encounter, the machines began to revere P-33 as a deity they referred to as "Prometheus," and eventually turned on the aliens and killed them as a result.

By the 14th Machine War, the machines had begun to grow less hostile, due in part by the Red Girls intervention. If they had been allowed to easily wipe out the remaining androids, it would halt their evolution and take away the only remaining purpose the machines had: their final order from their alien masters ordering them to destroy the enemy.

Characteristics[]

Machines have been known to consume androids in order to assimilate them and further their own evolution. Inside the spherical heads of most machine lifeforms are a set of large teeth with which they can consume matter; in the original game, these teeth were stated in concept art to be pipes designed to resemble teeth by coincidence, but this appears to have been retconned in the anime series. Some machines have even shown the ability to use their heads as storage containers to hold similarly shaped objects for unclear reasons.

Despite the machine lifeforms' plain, rusted, and primitive appearances, the machines are incredibly complex and advanced beings. This is shown by their creation of Adam and Eve by fusing multiple machine lifeforms into a temporary factory, and using drastically different materials to make them look human even if they have the cores of machine lifeforms. NieR:Automata Ver1.1a has also shown that machine lifeforms are able to produce a gelatinous synthetic, flesh-like substance used to construct Adam and Eve's bodies, with one dead machine "melting" into a pinkish-grey puddle with large humanoid eyes, fingers, and hair.

Behaviorally, it is suggested by dialogue from 9S that machines were previously non-sentient or semi-sentient at best, as behavior such as speech or organized activities were considered unusual and out of character. An email from the Council of Humanity also suggests that the machine activity seen in game is considered irregular. All machines have the capacity to learn, grow and evolve, though it is more obvious in machines like Adam as being a "blank slate" allows him to evolve rapidly.^[1] The machine's in Pascal's Village are also shown to have developed enough to disconnect from the machine network, live peacefully, and even collaborate with the Resistance Camp, which is a surprise to 2B, 9S, and A2.

Machines come in several basic models that adapt depending on their location, for example knight's armor while in the Forest Kingdom and circus style clothing while in the Amusement Park.

Because of the machine network and their cores, machines have achieved a type of networked immortality similar to that of YoRHa androids. So long as a machine remains connected to the network, they are effectively immortal. Examples of this concept include Adam and Eve, who were otherwise undefeatable until they were disconnected from the network.

Interestingly, machine cores are stated to be similar in composition to a plant cell.

Fish Machines[]

It is not clear when these machines were first manufactured or their purpose, as unlike land-based machines, these aquatic machines did little in the way of exterminating or out-competing the animals they were meant to mimic, and in some cases benefited the ecosystem.

Interestingly, by the time of Automata, manufacturing of these machines has completely halted, meaning that the number of these machines are slowly but gradually decreasing. These machines are also not connected to the network, and as such their intelligence and evolution remains stagnant.