Machine

Machines, also known as Machine lifeforms and Bio-machines, are a race of sentient robots and are the main antagonists and enemies of NieR:Automata. They were created by the Aliens thousands of years ago when they invaded Earth. It is the Androids' main purpose to destroy all Machines and retake Earth for humanity.

Description[]

The Machines were initially created on earth during the 1st Machine War by the Aliens and ever since then they have proven to be extremely 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 Fire of Prometheus", P-33, a machine originally from earth, teaches the machines about his friendship with Kalil and how humans are amazing. 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.

As of the 14th Machine War, the Machines grew less hostile over time due to the fact that if they had allowed to remain in a bloodlust state they would have easily wiped out the remaining androids, something the Red Girls knew 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.

Machines have been known to consume Androids in order to assimilate them and further their own evolution. Despite the Machine Lifeforms' plain, rusted and primitive appearance, the Machines are in fact incredibly complex and advanced beings, as 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 core of machine lifeforms. 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]

Machines come in several basic models that are able to adapt to a specific location such as wearing knight's armor while in the forest kingdom or circus style clothing while in the amusement park.

Behaviorally, it is suggested by dialogue made by 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, and an email from the "Council of Humanity" suggests that the machine activity seen in game is considered irregular.

By the events of the game however the machines intelligence has notably increased, as group activities, speech and even organized communities and faction begin cropping up among their ranks and machines like Adam and Eve as well as the Red Girls and Pascal have intelligence superior to their android counterparts seeing as they have access to the Machine Network.

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 than 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 quite clear when these machines were first manufactured or their purpose, as unlike their land based brethren, 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, whats more is unlike most machines, these machines are not connected to the network and as such their intelligence and evolution remains stagnant.

Machine Variants[]

Small Stubby
Medium Biped
Small Flyer
Medium Flyer
Multi-Tier
Small Biped
Small Exploder
Goliath Biped
Reverse-Jointed Goliath
Enhanced Leg Power Goliath Biped
Medium Exploder
Linked Sphere Type
Medium Quadruped
Small Sphere
Multi-leg Medium Machine
Rampaging Small Stubby
Rampaging Medium Biped
Rampaging Small Biped

Each of these comes with their environment specific models as well as the enhanced models, black and red machines with higher base stats than the normal versions.