NieR:Automata Ver1.1a Part 2 Episode 2 Discussion

StateofOhayo said:
@Apratim This is explained early on but it's a long time ago narratively speaking. They have black boxes, when they got swarmed by the machines you see them touching them together, causing a nuclear explosion. They can actually do this on their own, but they chose to do it together which is romantic in a sense. Anyways, their data is uploaded to the base. Communication was cut off but only two way, so it was able to go back to the server which automated their "revival" in new prefab bodies. 9S has actually "died" hundreds of times, mostly at the hands of 2E. It's not that his memory is different, but it is. The bunker for S units has save states stored, so when they are killed by E units they revert to that save state and for them it's like nothing else had happened. Like a factory reset essentially. But this is only if the order is given. Without that order, if 9S or any other unit is killed, as long as their data reaches the bunker they retain their memories in a new prefab body clone.

One more thing just to clarify in case anyone tries to find a loophole: when the Android units defect from YorHa, they are cut off from the bunker completely, and honestly the bunker stopped sending kill orders a long time ago since it wasn't doing any good for the cost. So if they die, that's it. I think the same is true of units that get the virus unless it is of course given the vaccine in time. As for the virus, the novel adaptation "Long story short" I think has better explanations about that. Or was it "short story long"?