This guide have updated to reflect the current state of the game and Special K (aka FAR) following the release of the July 15 2021 patch for the game.

For updated information related to Special K (FAR), please see the Special K wiki:
https://wiki.special-k.info/SpecialK/Custom/FAR

More mods can be found over on NieR:Modding[niermodding.com] or Nexus Mods.[www.nexusmods.com] Or join the modding community over on the NieR:Modding Discord server.[discord.gg]


Special K (aka FAR)[wiki.special-k.info] has a few noteworthy features for the latest game version on Steam:

• Enables much faster loading times.
  
• Can improve the frame pacing of the game and eliminate micro stuttering.
  
• Decrease the global illumination below that of the lowest setting of the game for a major performance improvement.
  
• As well as various other minor fixes and features that improves the overall rendering pipeline and latency, such as Nvidia Reflex integration.

See Havoc's forum thread for this mod.

• Fixes LOD pop-in.
  
• Fixes AO shadows appearing through walls.
  
• Improves shadow resolution.

GPUnity's Texture Pack replaces many default low resolution textures with higher resolution versions. See the Special K wiki[wiki.special-k.info] for installation instructions.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1156086818
For now this mod is not compatible with the latest version of the game, but the author is looking into the issue.

• It allows for a dedicated evade button.
  
• Disables double tap evade and pod petting.
  
• Improves mouse sensitivity, among other things.

• Simple save game editor. Includes the ability to share saves.
  
• Link: https://github.com/CensoredUsername/Nier-Automata-editor/releases

• Work in progress inventory editor for NieR:Automata.
  
• Link: https://github.com/Aemony/NieRAutomata_Inventory_Editor

• Allows changing the SteamID64 stored within the save files of the game.
  
• Link: https://github.com/Aemony/NieRAutomata-SteamID64-Editor

Special K[wiki.special-k.info] features NieR: Automata specific tweaks and features (collectively known as FAR) created by Kaldaien with contributions from various individuals. For years these tweaks were essential to fix various issues the Steam version of the game suffered from, and many of these features and fixes made their way into the game officially following an update to the game released by Square Enix on July 15, 2021.

With the current state of the game Special K is no longer as essential though it still features improvements to the latest version of the game that some may find beneficial:

• Enables much faster loading times.
  
• Can improve the frame pacing of the game and eliminate micro stuttering.
  
• Decrease the global illumination below that of the lowest setting of the game for a major performance improvement.
  
• As well as various other minor fixes and features that improves the overall rendering pipeline and latency, such as Nvidia Reflex integration.

https://wiki.special-k.info/SpecialK/Custom/FAR

Global illumination (indirect light bouncing) is a massive performance hog of the game that both the game and Special K allows changing, though in different ways.

It is currently unknown if there is a direct correlation between official in-game quality levels and those of Special K’s override, however as far as can be determined based on visual impact and performance gains, the in-game quality levels seems to stretch themselves from SK’s Ultra level (assumed to be the same as the in-game High level), to SK’s High level (assumed to be approximately the in-game Medium level), and a separate quality level between that of SK’s High and SK’s Medium that would correlate to the in-game Low quality level. For a visual comparison between quality levels, see Visual Impact[wiki.special-k.info] section over on the Special K wiki page.

The game does not seem to expose lower quality levels of global illumination, such as SK’s Medium, Low, or Off, where the main performance gains can be found for lower-end devices.

• In-Game High is basically SK Ultra.
  
• In-Game Medium loosely translates to SK High.
  
• In-Game Low is somewhere between SK High and SK Medium.
  
• SK Medium has no direct answer through the in-game setting.
  
• SK Low has no direct answer through the in-game setting.
  
• SK Off has no direct answer through the in-game setting.

1. The game's own global illumination toggle on the Settings page must be set to High for Special K's override to have an effect.
   
   
2. Press Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + ← Backspace to open the control panel of Special K.
   
   
3. Expand the NieR: Automata > Lighting subsection.
   
   
4. Adjust the Global Illumination Quality for a performance boost.
   
   
   Warning: Off is only recommended for below-minimum builds due to the massive visual impact it can cause in certain dark environments (make objects appear completely red)

The legacy version of FAR (v 0.7.0.23) is not compatible with the new updated Steam version, and the game will fail to launch if left in the game folder. The files related to FAR needs to be removed manually from the game folder, so please remove them from the game folder. This is most easily done by removing any and all files that is not shown in the below image.

• This is how a fully cleaned out folder looks like after the game has been launched once:
  
  
  
  
• If the game has not been launched yet another executable along with some batch files will also exist in the folder.
  
  
• Only GOTY owners have the Wallpaper folder.
  
  
• Validating game files or uninstalling/reinstalling the game through Steam will not remove third-party files, such as FAR, from the game folder.

These are the files and folders related to older versions of FAR:

The relevance of this information in 2021 after the 2021-07-15 patch is unknown. The information has therefor been archived in a separate Steam guide:

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2548001226