this guide may contain some small spoilers by mentioning locations and such, but it's probably not a problem

ok so before anything, yes i have barely played v1.22 at all because i realized a little late that everyone was exaggerating and the combat is still very similar, just looks better and feels better. i also saw the drops and the upgrades were pretty much the same, and that the weapons weren't changed either. basically i lost a bit of interest after realizing it's far more similar than i expected (which is a good thing actually for everyone else), i'll probably 100% later it but right now i don't feel like spending so much time on that knowing i did it once already

i was going to force a friend to play gestalt on my ps3 but saw this thing was coming out and waited for it, so now i'm watching them play through the whole thing using my library and 100% it just like i did and that's why i'm writing this guide, because i wanted to help with drops and stuff and the only things i could trust were gamefaqs and some guides for platinum

why did i make this thing?
there aren't many guides here that offer details or visuals. they usually just offer simple, kind of bad descriptions and sometimes don't even have everything or discourage you from looking into the ps3 guides

i wanted to make something that offers you just enough for you to be sure about what you are doing, to show you what to look for or where to look for it so you don't have to get nervous about drops and think you are farming the wrong enemy, that feels awful and it's not hard to believe with how rare some drops can be

i also didn't want to make a boring list with nothing but text and to write 1 line descriptions for everything, doing even less than the wiki.
i know most things in the game are the same as the original, so i have good faith in what's here.

so yeah, sorry if i mess up but i'm hoping that won't be the case.

also i will not cover the automata dlc weapons since my friend can't play with it for some reason and i kind of don't care about those, but i can tell you they don't require anything that shocking, just go check a different guide and you'll easily find them there

fully upgrading weapons is going to take time and effort, it's grindy and long, thankfully there are a few things that can make it easier:

• Increasing the difficulty to hard can increase the chance of rare (orange) drops
  
• Lowering it can be useful too, if you are not willing to increase it then lowering it can at least make it faster and easier
  
• Grinding quest enemies has better chances for rare drops, but it can ruin it the moment and pacing of the story...
  
• Really consider leaving this for later, rather than doing it straight away like I did... I didn't get ending B for a long time because i was too focused on getting the items and stuff
  
• Equip drop rate words on your spells and weapons, you can also replace your dodge and block with spells with drop rate (though i do remember someone mentioning it only affects the drop rate if you kill the enemy with that specific thing, so equipping more probably doesn't do anything)
  
• When I mention the DLC, I'm referring to the Fifteen Nightmares doors that are in the diary inside your house after finishing ending A (i wasn't wrong about this apparently)

if you don't want to list it out yourself, you can use this tool to calculate it for you but
keep in mind the Drakengard weapons (Fool's) are not considered for it as they were optional DLC in the original all of them use damascus steel and only require 1 for each upgrade, so it's not that big of a deal
https://videochums.com/extras/nier-weapon-upgrade-materials-calculator


Large Gear
not very rare, but in my experience, it's something you kind of have to look for.
dropped by standard robots, the one with silver bodies and yellow lights.

Memory Alloy
rarely dropped by the tall robots in junk heap's basement 2 during the second act

Broken Earring
Forlorn Necklace
(adult shades that can fire bullets, found during cloudy weather in the northern plains and also on top of the lost shrine before the boss room)

Twisted Ring (dropped by adult armored shades, found in the lost shrine or the aerie during the story quest)


Metal Piercing
Subdued Bracelet
dropped by the flying shades in the desert and maybe the ones in the shrine, but those are awful to farm

Complex Machine
Elaborate Machine
Simple Machine
mini-boss shades, the really large ones found both in the lost shrine and the laboratory
if you do some farming in the prologue, you'll probably get a few of these which is nice too, so i recommend starting with that

Broken Wristwatch
dropped by shades with maces found commonly in the southern plains and also in the prologue area

Rusty Kitchen Knife
small shades with funny looking round hats, pretty common and you'll probably get what you need while doing everything else. found occasionally both in the southern and nothern plains, and easy to farm in the prologue area

Broken Saw
Dented Metal Bat
Stopped Clock
this may be a little confusing, but both the broken saws and the metal bats drop from small shades, while the stopped clock drops from adult shades with swords, the reason i'm putting all of them together is because all of them can be farmed in the laboratory
small shade drops can also be farmed in the prologue area after completing the magical stone quest

Black Pearl
found in shine spots in seafront, not sure if the ones in the small beach can have it, but i recommend ignoring that one anyway as it's faster to only check the large one it seems like the wrecked ship interferes with the drops, so i would recommend finishing that part first

Giant Egg
seems to be only found in the village shine spots

Amber
Fluorite
Damascus Steel
found in the junk heap basement 2, the zigzag corridor with deathpits that has a lot of boxes. the boxes in the third door of the DLC also seem to be able to drop all three of those

Meteorite
Crystal
Fluorite
Pyrite
all of these can be obtained from shining spots in the desert temple, which is tedious. and the DLC, which is also tedious but can be more fun

Eagle Egg
rarely found in the aerie and also (ideally do this one instead) the "DLC" (the doors found in the diary in your house (only available after ending A??? i think??), the third door has a lot of boxes in the lab part, you can easily find it there

Broken Pottery
not that rare but still rare enough to look for and to keep it for upgrades. found in shining spots that normally contain ore, easy to farm near the aerie but you could always just get it by picking up all shining spots you see.

Scorpion Claw
obtained by carving scorpions in the desert, look for enemies in the minimap, scorpions are hidden in the sand, to kill them you need to get in front of them so they come out to attack you

Rusted Clump
easily found in the DLC, my friend finished the game with almost 80 of them, so it's not rare unless you refuse to use the DLC for farming, if so, then you can find it by fishing

Rusty Bucket
not very rare but i sold mine and then had to fish again, unlike the rusted clump, it CAN'T be found in the DLC, only by fishing, you'll randomly find one of these instead of a fish and it's recommended you go fish somewhere with small populations of fish (northern plains or the desert)

a lot of other stuff, including purchasable materials and more common items that are also needed

bold text are items used for upgrading

village shop

• pumpkin - 400 g
  
• beans - 288 g
  
• tomato - 240 g
  
• eggplant - 320 g
  
• wheat - 400 g

• tomato seed - 30 g
  
• pumpkin seed - 50 g
  
• eggplant seed - 40 g
  
• wheat seedling - 50 g
  
• bell pepper seed - 50 g
  
• dahlia bulb - 40 g

• berries - 200 g
  
• log - 500 g
  
• ivy - 300 g
  
• sap - 600 g
  
• wool - 800 g

seafront shops

• shell - 100 g
  
• gastropod - 500 g
  
• bivalve - 300 g
  
• pearl - 3000 g
  
• moldavite - 5000 g
  
• natural rubber - 700 g

• melon - 1200 g
  
• gourd - 600 g
  
• beans - 360 g
  
• rice - 600 g
  
• royal fern - 150 g
  
• mushroom - 800 g
  
• bean seed - 35 g
  
• rice seed - 60 g
  
• dahlia bulb - 40 g
  
• tulip bulb - 50 g
  
• freesia bulb - 80 g
  
• red moonflower seed - 120 g
  
• golden moonflower seed - 120 g
  
• blue moonflower seed - 120 g

junk heap

• silver ore - 1500 g
  
• copper ore - 480 g
  
• iron ore - 1000 g
  
• dented metal board - 750 g
  
• stripped bolt - 900 g
  
• broken lens - 1100 g

facade shops

• watermelon - 800 g
  
• melon - 1200 g
  
• gourd - 600 g
  
• berries - 200 g
  
• pumpkin - 500 g

• watermelon seed - 80 g
  
• melon seed - 120 g
  
• gourd seed - 60 g
  
• rice seedling - 60 g
  
• freesia bulb - 80 g

• crystal - 2400 g
  
• clay - 800 g
  
• amber - 6000 g
  
• wool - 800 g
  
• wolf hide - 5000 g

Broken Antenna
Broken Arm
Broken Lens
dropped by standard robots (the ones with yellow lights and silver bodies)

Broken Battery
Broken Motor
Mysterious Switch
Machine Oil
dropped by flying robots, the ones that... fly (and don't even think about farming them in the long corridor with the bottomless pit)

Titanium Alloy
Stripped Bolt
yellow robots with red lights, also i think they can drop some of the other robot parts, but i'm probably misremembering. Titanium Alloy can also be dropped by the tall beepy robots.

https://videochums.com/extras/nier-weapon-upgrade-materials-calculator
not the most useful, but very nice to have at hand and to get a rough idea of what you need to focus on

https://psnprofiles.com/guide/7393-nier-trophy-guide
this one is basically the thing i'm trying to make right now, but on a different platform and far more useful than mine, i've used it a lot myself

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/topic/43086-nier-trophy-guide-and-road-map/
one of the sources the one above cites, it has a lot of information but isn't as well presented, it's still really useful and convenient. it has a moonflower guide and some different descriptions and details, maybe you can give it some use

https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/NIER_Wiki
the wiki has been updated since i last checked, as far as i can tell all weapon pages[nier.fandom.com] have a picture of their location along with upgrade requirements, which is quite nice. i recommend checking the wiki if you want to know specific upgrades (or if you feel suicidal and want to list out what you need completely by hand rather than using the calculator thing)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOqn-nV-7BwA5SdRlzhuXEw
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGVWWnOdUkaZxuUWjyEqLUg
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOL-mjyvHDKXP4Aj0owxeLQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzINLUdZ7fb1oe02XJjVHag
i picked channels for the previews based on how well presented and brief they were. and also how many views they had, because if i'm going to direct people somewhere, i want it to be someone who probably isn't getting much attention, rather than someone with thousands of views

i started writing this guide about a week ago but took far longer than i should have to finish it, i really just wanted to put out something simple, decent, descriptive and visual so people don't have to be doubtful while farming. like i was when i did it, like my friend was while i told them where to go after checking many different guides with somewhat bad descriptions.

before i got to finish it today, someone else put out a guide that was pretty much what i wanted to make... so why post this one? i'm not really sure, i really wanted to at least finish it, to feel like i didn't just waste my time even though it's scrappy and i tend to talk a lot, so it's very verbose for no reason. but there's stuff here i would say is really really useful for anyone, like the calculator.

though it will probably seem like i'm doing it to steal from the other guide, or to get even more useless steam points. maybe i shouldn't bother posting this, i don't know

in any case, if you need something, just ask
i haven't made any progress in 1.22 but i have my gestalt save sitting there, so i can check anything there if you are curious, or just ask my friend to check for me

and here's some nier music you could enjoy, music is always nice
nier tribute album, has some nice remixes