The people behind the Nier Automata church hoax have released the mod to the public

Nier Automata's secret church is now real, as the modders behind the elaborate hoax have released their mod for the public to explore.

The Nier Automata Church file was uploaded to Nexus Mods this week with little more than a few installation instructions and the tease that "improvements may come and even bigger changes." One of the mod's creators, DevolasRevenge, put a bit of gameplay footage on Twitter showing 9S waking in a massive cave with a mysterious giant chained to its ceiling.

I haven't yet been able to play with the mod for myself to determine whether there are any further shenanigans or brain-breaking teasers, but given the stir the mod's creators made in the Nier fandom, I'd say there are pretty good odds there's more to the mod than what immediately meets the eye.

Three modders going by DevolasRevenge, Woeful_Wolf, and RaiderB had the Nier Automata community "in shambles" when they posted a quick clip of their mod to Reddit. Using the fictional persona of 'sadfutago,' they spun a story about a hapless kid who'd somehow managed to uncover a previously-undiscovered secret door leading into a mysterious church.

Some players bought the story, while others thought it was likely a marketing stunt staged for the upcoming Switch release. The truth was that it was all an elaborate hoax, though it was one built with an impressive, unprecedented set of modding tools. We interviewed the creators of the mod as the truth was revealed, and you can follow that link for a much larger explanation of how everything went down.

Nier creator Yoko Taro is all for the woman using Tinder to convince people to buy the game.