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How To Start The Treasure Hunt At The Castle Side Quest
First Machine Part Location
Second Machine Part Location
Third Machine Part Location
How To Open The Locked Door
Nier: Automata puts you in the shoes of androids on a journey to reclaim the land, which was once the home of humans but is now in control of deadly machines. The game tells a compelling story about the androids, with deeply driven story quests.
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Other than the story campaign of the game, you will get to meet many side characters with their own stories to tell. There will be many sub-quests that you will get to experience in the game. One such side quest is called Treasure Hunt at the Castle, which you will find a walkthrough of in this guide.
Updated April 1, 2023, by Sean Murray: Nier Automata's treasure hunt at the castle is the same as it ever was, but we've given this guide a few formatting tweaks to make it a little easier on the eyes.
How To Start The Treasure Hunt At The Castle Side Quest
Treasure Hunt at the Castle is a side quest you will unlock in Chapter 7 of the campaign after defeating A2 in the Forest Castle in the Report on A2 main quest. The machines will open the gates that connect the Machine Village and Forest Castle after the main quest.
At the entrance of the gate that joins the two locations, you will find a robot by the name of Weird-talking Machine.
The robot will tell you about a hidden treasure that is locked somewhere in the Forest Castle. The treasure belongs to the deceased Forest King and is under the guard of a Forest Knight. The robot wants you to find the treasure and bring it back to him so that he can take a look at it.
The goodies are behind a door for which you will have to find a key first. You need to collect three machine parts that will combine to form the key to the gate. The machine parts are inside chests unavailable on the first run of the fort but will now appear once you go back for the side quest.
The quest marker will appear on the map near the gate.
Head To The Forest Castle
There are two ways you can enter the Forest Castle. You can go straight in from the main entrance of the Forest Castle or head towards the Access Point to the right side of the main entrance and fast travel to the Royal Chamber inside the Forest Castle.
The guide will cover the walkthrough from the main entrance for a more straightforward path.
First Machine Part Location
As you enter the Forest Castle, you will face a machine with a shield on the stairs. Kill the machine and go forward. More enemies will come charging toward you. Take care of the enemies and keep going forward.
In the next room, head to the upper floor by jumping on the destroyed platform. Move towards the next room until you are in a room with some enemies and a shielded knight on the upper floor. There will be a tree in the room blocking the path. Go to the previous room and jump down.
From there, you can climb to the upper floor using the trunk of the tree. You will find yourself on a platform with the first chest. Interact with the chest to collect the first part of the key.
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Second Machine Part Location
Glide down from the platform and head towards the next part of the Forest Castle to find the last two keys.
Go through the rooms while fighting the rushing enemies and jump on the first floor using the rubble. Enter the next room, where you will see knight statues and two enemies disguised among them. They will jump on you as you get close. Kill them and keep going further towards the stairs.
As you go up the stairs, you will get attacked by a machine that looks like a giant worm. The machine will consist of beads joined together, where one of the beads will be golden. The golden bead is the weak spot of the machine worm.
Try to aim your attacks at the golden part of the machine to deal critical damage and kill it within seconds.
Continue on the path and go towards the next floor using the stairs. There will be a platform with a chest that you can see from the top of the stairs. Double jump and glide towards the platform to reach it and loot the chest. You will receive three Titanium Alloy.
Back on track, head towards the next room filled with big pots. An enemy will jump out from the back of the pots and attack you. Kill the enemy and go further to the main hall of the Forest Castle.
Go around the floor and climb the ladder to the top. Head towards the left and jump towards the platform. On the other side of the platform, there will be a chest. Double jump to the corner platform and interact with the chest to the second machine part.
Third Machine Part Location
Jump back to the previous platform and go through the door towards the next room. Go up the slope and keep going straight till you reach the room where you first faced the machine worm.
A second machine worm will appear to attack and stop you from getting further. Use the same strategy as before and aim at the golden part to kill the machine quickly.
Go outside and jump on the platform below. Jump towards the right platform and go inside to find the chest with the last machine part of the key.
Once you have collected all three parts of the key, your Pod will process the three parts and turn them into a key.
How To Open The Locked Door
Go back to the room where you fought the two machine worms and glide down. Go from the stairs and head towards the main hall where you got the second machine part.
This time instead of going up the ladder, use the second ladder that goes down. Go down again from the ladder and head straight towards the next room.
There will be a giant locked door that leads towards the library where the grave of the Forest King and the treasure is. Interact with the door to unlock it and head inside.
As you enter the library, you will see a shielded knight protecting the Forest King's grave. The knight has an indestructible shield and deals massive damage with its electric charge attacks. The only way to defeat the mini-boss is by attacking it from its back when exposed or using ranged attacks.
Make sure you don't hack the knight before it sees you, as it bugs the encounter and does not allow you to progress to the next objective. The knight will disappear after you kill it, and the only way to respawn it is by loading the previous save or interacting with the door.
After defeating the knight, go towards the Forest King's tomb and interact with it. You will receive an archive note named Letter to the Forrest King. Take the letter back to the Weird-talking Machine at the gates and give the letter to it.
It will complete the side quest, and you will get the following rewards from the machine:
- 10,000 G
- 1,280 XP
- 1x Large Recovery
- 2x Moldavite
- 3x Giant Egg
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