Efficiently Acquiring Machine Arms in NieR: Automata

NieR: Automata presents players with a lengthy list of crafting materials for weapon and pod upgrades. While many become readily available later, acquiring them early significantly boosts character strength. Machine Arms are a particularly rare material. This guide details the best strategies for obtaining them.

Farming Machine Arms

Machine Arms have a random drop chance from defeated small machines. The drop rate improves with enemy level, making early-game acquisition challenging. To maximize your chances early on, focus on quickly eliminating large numbers of machines.

Post-Chapter 4, a highly effective farming location opens up. After your first encounter with Adam, the arena where the fight takes place continuously respawns enemies, including numerous small machines. Access this area via the Desert: Housing Complex fast travel point and proceed deeper into the ruins.

While the machines here aren't high-level, resulting in a low Machine Arm drop rate, the rapid respawn makes it the most efficient early-game farming method. This location is also excellent for Titanium Alloy farming. A Drop Rate Plug-In Chip can slightly improve your yield.

Spoiler Warning: The following section contains minor spoilers for the final playthrough.

Purchasing Machine Arms

During the final playthrough, while playing as A2, you can choose to erase Pascal's memories after the village robots are destroyed. This transforms Pascal into a merchant, accessible until the game's conclusion. He sells Machine Arms, along with other components:

• Machine Heads - 15,000 G
• Machine Arm - 1,125 G
• Machine Leg - 1,125 G
• Machine Torso - 1,125 G
• Machine Head - 1,125 G
• Children's Cores - 30,000 G