2B's Eight Year Journey to Becoming the Goddess of Collaboration Events
As the industry celebrates NieR: Automata's 7th anniversary in 2024 and the recent news of the action RPG selling over 8 million units, I began forming a dangerous idea. Fans of NieR: Automata weren't the only ones who fell in love with 2B; the entire gaming industry eventually began to notice that NieR: Automata was a juggernaut as sales continued to rise and a sizable loyal fanbase formed around it.
2B today has earned somewhat of an infamous reputation when it comes to how proliferate she has become in other titles. For awhile, it seemed like almost every game, especially mobile titles, announced that it was going to hold a collaboration event with NieR: Automata. Most recently, 2B entered her second fighting game as a DLC character in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.
I decided to chronologically list every single collaboration event that 2B appeared in. Now, it wouldn't be the first time RPG Site has criticized NieR: Automata for its crossover craze, but I wanted to provide a thorough chronicle of 2B's collaboration saga over the years.
Before our long journey begins in this feature, I want to lay some ground rules so it doesn't get too out of control.
- This list will incorporate only the initial NieR: Automata collaboration event.
- It will not account for any re-runs (a repeat of the collaboration event that was held at a later date).
- If the collaboration event was introduced in the western release of a mobile game at a later date than its Japanese release, it will only chronicle the date where it was first initially introduced in the Japanese release.
- 2B or 2B's likeness must be represented in some way, shape, or form - whether that includes including the character herself or a skin that includes 2B's features (clothes, hairstyle, etc.).
If you're interested in a specific year where 2B appeared, you can click one of the years below to immediately jump to them on the list.
With all that out of the way, let's take a deep dive into the 2B Universe. Keep in mind that the initial release date of NieR: Automata was February 23, 2017 so that's our starting point.
2017
March 10 - Phantasy Star Online 2
It was none other than Sega than got first dibs on getting 2B into their game. Less than a month after NieR: Automata's release in Japan, Phantasy Star Online 2 players playing on the Japanese server got the chance to earn costumes of 2B, 9S, and A2 along with several weapon skins and more goodies as part of the collaboration event.
March 27 - Valkyrie Anatomia: The Origin
The mobile game based on the Valkyrie Profile series would be the first of many, many Square Enix-published mobile titles to receive 2B. While 2B fighting alongside Lenneth was quite a sight with Valkyrie Profile's battle system, NieR: Automata coming to Valkyrie Anatomia wasn't as bizarre of a collaboration compared to others that Valkyrie Anatomia received, such as Fullmetal Alchemist and Goblin Slayer. Valkyrie Anatomia ended service on April 2021 in Japan.
April 19 - Monster Hunter Frontier Z
Capcom shortly received 2B after Sega a month later in Monster Hunter Frontier Z. The collaboration event allowed players to obtain 2B and 9S's equipment to dress their Hunter up as them. Several NieR: Automata-themed collaboration monsters could be fought against too. All Monster Hunter Frontier services would eventually be shut down on December 2019.
April 21 - Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
A month after her venture in Valkyrie Anatomia that was published by Square Enix, 2B hopped on over to Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. 9S and A2 joined the fray, but other uncommonly seen NieR: Automata characters were part of the collaboration event as well, including Eve and 21O. The NieR: Automata x FFBE collaboration wouldn't hit its global version until August 2017. As of the time of writing, Brave Exvius is still in operation both in Japan and global regions.
May 4 - Gravity Rush 2
It wasn't until May 2017 that the west got their first taste of a game collaborating with NieR: Automata, so it was pretty novel and exciting at the time. Even better, it was free DLC that allowed players to dress up protagonist Kat as 2B with or without her visor. Hopefully, there'll be more Gravity Rush in some way, shape, or form in the future.
August 24 - SINoALICE
SINoALICE was known for having NieR series director Yoko Taro in charge of the mobile game project and had several NieR: Automata staff, such as composers Keiichi Okabe, Keigo Hoashi, and Shotaro Seo, involved. The nature of the collaboration event requires a bit of SINoALICE knowledge to understand; the basic gist is the game revolves around different Jobs with specializations of DPS, buffing, debuffing, healing, and such.
Due to various development delays, 2B with the Breaker Job was given for free to everyone that logged into the game during the event. Other participating characters included A2 (Breaker), 9S (Paladin), Emil (Cleric), and 2B with a different Job - the Crusher; these could be obtained if a player successfully rolled their associated weapon. There were several other collabration event weapons, enemies, and armor along with an event story. The global launch of SINoALICE three years later would launch with this limited-time collaboration event.
August 24 - Spelunker World
Spelunker World was a free-to-play game that released for the PlayStation 4 and Vita that was published by Square Enix. It was a platformer that had players travel through stages on a limited energy system that could be replenished at certain checkpoints. Collaboration events oten had special stages that awarded a currency for event items; players could dress up as 2B, 9S, A2, or even just put on an Emil's head. The title ended service in 2020.
2018
February 12 - Bravely Default: Fairy's Effect
Almost one year later since the release of NieR: Automata and we're already four Square Enix-published games in. The next one on the list is Bravely Default: Fairy's Effect, a mobile game based on the Bravely Default series that only released in Japan. Everyone who logged in during the limited-time collaboration event received the Emil headgear. People can roll to receive equipment belonging to 2B and 9S. The game ended service in August 2020.
February 28 - Servant of Thrones
Servant of Thrones was a free-to-play strategical card game for mobile devices that only released in Japan. It launched on January 24, 2018 so it received its collaboration event with NieR: Automata fairly early in its life. Players could earn Pascal Points throughout the event to earn rewards. The title was fairly short-lived and ended service the following year in April.
February 28 - Star Ocean: Anamnesis
Before the Star Ocean series returned to home consoles with Star Ocean: The Divine Force and Star Ocean: The Second Story R, the series lived on in a mobile game called Star Ocean Anamnesis. It launched in December 2016 over in Japan, while the global release would later come on July 2018. During its collaboration event with NieR: Automata, 2B, 9S, and A2 participated. Players could try them out in limited-time event missions by having them join you as NPC allies and taking direct control of them in battle before deciding if they should spend their in-game currency to roll for them. Star Ocean: Anamnesis's global release closed down after a year on November 2019, while the Japanese server lived on until it finally closed on June 2021.
December 18 - Soulcalibur VI
2B made her fighting game debut in Soulcalibur VI as a DLC guest character. She joined Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher as the second guest character in the title. Haohmaru from Samurai Shodown would eventually come to the game, as well. Buying 2B for Soulcalibur VI came with other goodies too, including a secondary costume that has the NieR: Automata protagonist dress as Kainé from the first NieR entry, weapon skins, BGM tracks from NieR: Automata, and even a brand-new stage.
2019
February 1 - Toji no Miko: Kizamishi Issen no Tomoshibi
Toji no Miko: Kizamishi Issen no Tomoshibi is a turn-based RPG for mobile devices that released in Japan on March 2018. Unlike previous collaboration events in other games, the character 2B herself wasn't directly added as a playable character. Instead, specific characters in the game received new versions of them that dressed like 2B, 9S, and A2.
2B and 9S did receive secondary Support Member cards that interfaced with other gameplay systems the mobile title offered. Plus, Devola and the Commander were also part of this collaboration event with their own Support Member cards. Toji no Miko: Kizamishi Issen no Tomoshibi ended service on October 2021.
October 29 - Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
One of the biggest collaboration events that NieR: Automata ever received was its integration into Square Enix's hit MMO, Final Fantasy XIV. The collaboration content was implemented in Patch 5.1 of Shadowbringers, the third major expansion of FFXIV. It introduced a new 24-playerAlliance raid called YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse that featured The Copied Factory. There was even an entire new quest storyline that unfolded gradually in later patches. 9S was involved but most amusingly, it included 2P whose origins stemmed as an alternate color-scheme for 2B in Soulcalibur VI in the event that both players chose her to face off against one another. The "2P" color-scheme became so popular that she would appear as her own character in other collaboration events.
November 19 - Gothic wa Mahou Otome
2B entered the vertical shmup genre in free-to-play mobile game developed by Cave. Players could use in-game currency to roll for a playable 2B character during the collaboration event. There was a new limited-time event story supervised by Yoko Taro that involved 2B, 9S, A2, Devola, Popola, and Emil. As of the time of writing, Gothic wa Mahou Otome is still running in Japan.
2020
May 20 - Shadowverse
Cygames and Square Enix worked together to bring 2B into a game developed by Cygames several years ago. 2B and 9S entered Shadowverse for a limited time and could be bought as Leaders through the in-game Shop. Buying them would also give players special Emblems, Flairs, and themed card Sleeves for them. Shadowverse is still running at the time of writing.
December 23 - War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
A new entry in the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius series launched in Japan on November 2019 with War of the Visions. It was a grid-based strategy RPG for mobile devices; 2B and 9S made their way over a year into the game's life as fully playable characters that players can roll to obtain with in-game currency. A special promotion for the collaboration was a one-time free 10-summon that guaranteed one copy of 9S. For context, rolling duplicates of the same character in War of the Visions would further enhance them. Later re-runs of the collaboration event would add A2 and 2P as playable characters into the mobile game. War of the Visions is still running at the time of writing.
2021
February 18 - NieR Re[in]carnation
Well, this one is a bit of a freebie obviously. The next installment in the NieR series following NieR: Automata took the franchise to mobile devices with NieR Reincarnation. It featured a brand-new story with an all-new cast that revolves a mysterious place called The Cage. To help kickstart its launch in Japan (and global four months later), it launched with a collaboration event with NieR: Automata that added 2B, 9S, and A2. Pulling the character's associated weapon from the gacha pool would also bring the associated character to players. There was an event story set the NieR: Automata world as part of the collaboration event. NieR Reincarnation is set to end service worldwide simultaneously on April 29, 2024.
May 1 - Toaru Majutsu no Index: Imaginary Fest
Toaru Majutsu no Index: Imaginary Fest is a turn-based mobile card game for mobile devices that released in Japan on July 2019. Much like the NieR: Automata collaboration event that was held in Toji no Miko: Kizamishi Issen no Tomoshibi, the collaboration content in this title has in-game characters dress up and adopt the likeness of NieR: Automata characters. Mikoto Misaka and Oriana Thomson from the IP dress up as 2B and A2 respectively. There was also an event story inspired by the world of NieR during the limited time collaboration. Toaru Majutsu no Index: Imaginary Fest is still running at the time of writing.
June 18 - Fall Guys
One of the more unexpected stops in 2B's collaboration quest ended up in developer Mediatonic's Fall Guys. It became a worldwide phenomenon several years ago as it ushered in an era of round-based party activities that thinned out a large body of initial participants to eventually crown a single winner. Much of its charm was in the character designs of the humanoid blobs that players took control of. Naturally, other third parties wanted to represent their IP in a game that garnered so much international attention and Square Enix couldn't help but join in on the fun with their beloved character.
August 26 - Last Cloudia
Last Cloudia is a real-time action RPG that initially released in Japan on April 2019 for mobile devices. It later received a western release and even released on PC via Steam some time later, as well. People controlled a party of 2D pixel characters on a 2.5D plane during battle. 2B, 9S, and A2 joined the limited-time collaboration event as playable characters that players could roll for with in-game currency. Equippable items called Arks further enhanced a character's capabilities and often had special artwork; these Arks could be leveled to unlock new skills, as well. In this case, NieR: Automata-themed Arks featured the boss Beauvoir and Emil's Shop. Last Cloudia is still running at the time of writing.
November 26 - Punishing: Gray Raven
Punishing: Gray Raven is a free-to-play 3D action RPG developed by Kuro Game. It initially released in China on December 2019 for mobile devices. The game would eventually release worldwide on July 2021. Recently, Punishing: Gray Raven received a PC version on May 2023. The NieR: Automata collaboration with Punishing: Gray Raven hit the western release on July 2022.
2B, 9S, and A2 were all available as playable characters as part of the collaboration event. 9S was earnable for free as a daily login reward; A2 was also earnable free as an event reward via farming for event currency. 2B was the only one who could only be obtained by successfully rolling for her in the gacha. Each of the NieR: Automata characters also had special associated weapons that players had to obtain separately to further enhance the capabilities of the characters. Punishing: Gray Raven is still running at the time of writing.
2022
March 1 - Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent
Before the release of Octopath Traveler II, the Octopath Traveler series received a mobile game entry with Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. It initially released in Japan on October 2020 and a western release didn't arrive until July 2022. The new game introduced a lot of new mechanics to the series, including having eight characters participate at once in battle and overhauling the narrative structure to fit into three main villain paths, instead of the eight main character perspective from the original game.
Like with previous collaboration events in other Square Enix-published titles, 2B, 9S, and A2 were part of this NieR: Automata collabration with Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. Players could spend in-game currency to roll for them in the gacha. A special promotion allowed players to do a free 10-roll summon once to obtain a guaranteed 9S. Several new limited-time quests themed around NieR: Automata; the game also had a feature to create a custom diorama with a unique in-game background and a player's characters to screenshot. During the collaboration event period, a NieR: Automata-themed background was available to use in this diorama mode. Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent is still running at the time of writing.
March 29 - Babylon's Fall
The short-lived action RPG that was developed with the games-as-a-service model received a NieR: Automata collaboration event in its first month of release. Of course, the lineage was tangential since developer PlatinumGames worked on both titles. The NieR: Automata collaboration event in Babylon's Fall was fairly robust giving the home base headquarters a temporary visual change, several new Campaign Quests, new Duels, several Event Weapons, and costumes to dress up your character as 2B, 9S, and A2. Six months after the release of Babylon's Fall, Square Enix publicly stated they would stop supporting the title and put it out of its misery the following year in February.
April 1 - PUBG: Battlegrounds
This is when the NieR: Automata collaboration craze started entering bizarre territory; the one with Fall Guys was cute and weird, but this is the one that started really shocking me. People could buy 2B and 9S clothes to dress up their character as the famous soldiers of YoRHa. The NieR series collaboration didn't end there in this instance though.
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139..., the remake of NieR Replicant that released in April 2021, started tagging along in some of 2B's collaboration ventures. Kainé and Nier from that updated release also had their clothes up for sale in the battle royale title. PUBG: Battlegrounds is still running at the time of writing.
April 29 - New State Mobile
Although New State Mobile is developed by PUBG Studios, it is an entirely different game from PUBG: Battlegrounds and its mobile version. PUBG Studios would implement NieR: Automata's 2B and 9S, as well as NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...'s Kainé and Nier skins into this battle royale game as well. New State Mobile is still running at the time of writing.
June 27 - #Compass
#Compass is a free-to-play 3D action game that has actual players take on each other in a 3vs3 battle in real-time online multiplayer. They combat one another to take control of five portal keys around the map and whoever has the most when a match ends is declared the winner. 2B entered #Compass as a playable character people could roll the gacha with in-game currency for a limited time. There were other NieR: Automata-themed items included in the event, including cards that affected gameplay and collaboration costumes for other existing #Compass characters that had certain characters dress up as 9S, A2, Pascal, Popola, Devola, and Adam.
The mobile game has had an extremely large amount of collaborations over the years including titles such as Steins;Gate, Guilty Gear, Attack on Titan, Final Fantasy XV, Atelier Ryza 2, and Persona 5. #Compass is still running at the time of writing.
September 22 - D4DJ Groovy Mix
D4DJ Groovy Mix is a free-to-play rhythm game that initially launched in Japan on October 2020. The collaboration event added new special unit cards that paired 2B, 9S, A2, and Devola/Popola with another in-game character that also dressed up like them. The collaboration event also contained event scenes where some NieR: Automata characters interacted with the cast. Being a rhythm game first and foremost, this collaboration added new medley arrangements of several NieR: Automata tracks especially made for the D4DJ Groovy Mix collaboration event. D4DJ Groovy Mix is still running at the time of writing.
November 21 - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Another collaboration so bizarre that even Head of RPG Site Alex Donaldson felt compelled to write about it. 2B from NieR: Automata and Nier from NieR Replicant were part of this collaboration as cosmetic skins that Operators Iana and Maverick could adorn themselves with. Even five years later since the release of NieR: Automata, different games from completely different genres continue to answer the NieR: Automata collaboration call. Who could have possibly seen this coming? Rainbow Six Siege is still running at the time of writing with a loyal playerbase.
2023
January 8 - NieR:Automata Ver1.1a
This is admittedly not quite a collaboration unless you view it as Square Enix working with Aniplex and A-1 Pictures to bring 2B and NieR: Automata to life by adapting the action RPG into a TV anime series. Due to constant delays in production because of various reasons, new episodes of the show would constantly get pushed back weekly. As of the time of writing, its first part consisting of 12 episodes is done, but a second part that continues the adaptation is due to air sometime in 2024.
July 1 - Dragon Quest Keshi Keshi
Dragon Quest Keshi Keshi is a free-to-play puzzle game that released in Japan on December 2021. It initially released on mobile devices, but received a PC version later on that ran on DeNA's AndApp. The game was essentially a Dragon Quest-themed match-three game similar to Candy Crush Saga, Bejeweled, and many others. 2B, 9S, and A2 appeared in the collaboration as erasers and their heads were employed as block skins on the puzzle field. Special NieR: Automata-themed event quests were implemented; Adam and Eve made an appearance as challenge bosses, as well. Dragon Quest Keshi Keshi is still running at the time of writing.
August 9 - Naraka: Bladepoint
The NieR series dips its toes into another battle royale with Naraka: Bladepoint as its next destination. It is a third-person action battle royale that has players participate in melee combat with a variety of weapons as people take control of unique characters. Once again, both NieR: Automata and NieR Replicant join the fray as players could purchase limited-time NieR skins for specific playable in-game characters. There were also weapon skins up for grabs that altered the appearance of several weapons to look like ones from the NieR games.
There were a few temporary game features added for this collaboration event too, including Pods and an Emil Sculpture that players could interact with during gameplay. Naraka: Bladepoint is still running at the time of writing.
September 1 - Goddess of Victory: Nikke
Many people that have laid eyes on Nikke clamored for a NieR: Automata collaboration as a match made in heaven. The South Korean developers at Shift Up answered their pleas. Nikke is a free-to-play action RPG that plays much like a cover-based third-person shooter as players deploy a squad to conquer stages. It is notorious for its character designs and their intricate character animations.
2B and A2 were available as limited-time playable characters that people could for with in-game currency. Amusingly enough, Pascal was also available for free as they were given out as a login reward. Both 2B and A2 had their normal standard outfits along with a less-clothed version that referenced their damaged state from the original game. They both received brand-new outfits too that were custom made for the Nikke collaboration event. Goddess of Victory: Nikke is still running at the time of writing.
2024
February 20 - Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
At the time of this article's release, the most recent NieR: Automata collaboration was with another fighting game, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. This would mark it as 2B's second debut as a fully playable character in a fighting game preceded by her inclusion in Soulcalibur VI as a DLC guest character in December 2018.
Purchasing 2B for GBVS Rising also gave players a 2B avatar they can set when roaming around online multiplayer lobbies and the 2B character model for the Figure Studio feature in the game. Players of the original Granblue Fantasy browser game could use a code that added a YoRHa Uniform outfit for the protagonist to wear in battle.
In 2B's surprise announcement trailer for GBVS Rising, it debuted a new GBVS arrangement for the original game's theme song, Weight of the World. 2B is still currently available to purchase as an additional playable character for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising at the time of writing.