How do the online features work exactly?

[nullsignal]

I know you can find other players’ bodies where they died around the place. How does this work exactly?

- How many bodies do you usually find around the level? Does it depend on the player count?

- Is there a maximum number of players you can connect to? In other words, how many different players’ bodies can you find in a single level?

- Does the body disappear for everyone that can see it when the player the body belongs to retrieves it in “his world”?

- Does the body disappear when the player it belongs to quits the game?

- If a player finds a body belonging to another player, does it disappear for everyone else when he retrieves it?

I am aware that multiplayer features also have an effect on a certain ending, but I’m not interested in that. Please keep this thread completely spoiler free.

[Skeeka]

I'm not sure about the limits and what exactly controls who you connect to, but it's all asynchronous, online corpses stay, even if you retrieve them in your game and it doesn't matter if the player is in-game or not.

[Lynfinity]

Originally posted by Old Player:

Originally posted by Skeeka:

it's all asynchronous

Not all though, since you get healed the moment your corpse is prayed at?

You get healed as you pick up someone else's body.

[Skeeka]

I honestly don't think Praying actually does anything. Maybe that's the game's message, I dunno.

Either way, before long you'll be ignoring the corpses anyway, because in a game where you overlevel very fast and get more than one overpowered way to heal yourself, temporary buffs that make you even more overpowered aren't really worth much.

[TheSeek]

Originally posted by Old Player:

Originally posted by Skeeka:

it's all asynchronous

Not all though, since you get healed the moment your corpse is prayed at?

No you don't, there's no such mechanic in the game.

To answer your questions, there is never a direct connection to anyone, but i'll explain in detail after i answer each of your points in order:

- the amount of bodies found around an area is more or less a figurative representation of how many players usually die around that area, but is never a direct representation: if you find just 2 or 3 bodies in an area it means not many players usually die there, but if you find 5 or more, then that's an area in whih a considerable amount of players usually die in. Amount of corpses =/= actual amount of players died there.

- you never actually connect to any player at all, and the amount of corpses found in a given area is explained in the previous point, but can also change depending on which point in the story you are: a given area might be easy at a certain point, but much harder and easy to die in later in the story, so the amount of bodies might change accordingly, but still in line with what i said in the previous point.

- no, because again, there is never an actuall connection between any player

- no, because their body(or rather, their name) is not tied to them playing the game at the moment or not, because again, there is never an actual connection to other players.

- no, because again, there is no actual connection between any player, and like the other user said, there is no synchronization

Now, to explain why it works as I said and not as you thought it did:
When you start the game it asks to input a name. When the game connects to the network, your name will be added to a pool of other players names. When you die in your game, that information is sent to the network, but the only information that is sent is the fact that you died, not the exact position where you died or anything else. What this does is take your name from the pool I previously mentioned and put it in another pool of players who died at least once in the game. That is ALL the information that is ever sent through the network, you're never actually connected to anyone.
Now, to explain how it works for when it's you finding a corpse:
You find a corpse, you press the button to retrieve it or "revive" it as companion, the game connects to the network, and picks a RANDOM name from the pool of players names who died at least once.
So, to sum it up, when you retrieve/revive a body named XYZ, it never means that player XYZ died exactly there and thet they are currently connected, it's just a random body placed in a relatively random spot(following the rules i explained in the point above) named with one random names from the pool of names of players who died.

Ideally, the amount of corpses is just a figurative representation of how hard a specific area t that specific time is, not an actual representation of actual players who died in those exact spots.

And this is also very clear when you can find a corpse in some areas that are completely void of enemies at any given time, but are close to areas that might have, at some point in the game, some enemies. As example, the area after the bridge in the city ruins right before the abandoned factory, each time you visit you can always find 1 or 2 bodies there, but that's an area where there is never a single enemy at all throughout the entire game. So there's no way that an actual player ever died there. Or, there are some specific ways that would make it possible, but those 2 bodies in that area are always in the same spots, and they respawn almost each time you go there, so...it's not really possible that all the players that died in that one specific ways that would make it possible to die in that area ALL did it in the exact same 2 spots.

Without spoilers, the same logic, more or less, is applied to what you mentioned for the ending, it's not actual players, it's just their names.

[TheSeek]

Originally posted by Old Player:

Originally posted by MC Von Neetinator:

You get healed as you pick up someone else's body.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/168677-nier-automata/75081263
“Their corpse has a usually pointless message and you can choose to pray at that corpse to heal the player”

I was referring to this, is this post inaccurate?

That message is accurate, but "the player" is you, not them.

[Lynfinity]

Originally posted by Old Player:

Originally posted by MC Von Neetinator:

You get healed as you pick up someone else's body.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/168677-nier-automata/75081263
“Their corpse has a usually pointless message and you can choose to pray at that corpse to heal the player”

I was referring to this, is this post inaccurate?

Um, I would assume so. How would that work, anyway? You're playing the game like usual and suddenly out of nowhere you get some of our HP back because someone discovered your body? Not only it sounds weird af, but also I never had that happen once, especially considering I wasted about 100 hours playing it on PS4.

So yeah, this lad doesn't know what he's talking about, most likely.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

You cannot actually pray in the pc version.

On the PS4 version in theory it recovers that players health. Considering most people would either offline or at full health, rather unsurprisingly it is completely useless.

Repairing so that they fight alongside you is more interesting