2B and A2 have entered The Fog. Behaviour Interactive launched a NieR:Automata collaboration in Dead by Daylight on Tuesday, bringing the game’s androids into the asymmetrical horror title as cosmetic outfits.
The studio had teased the crossover on Saturday with a short message — “The fight for humanity continues in The Fog” — before posting a promotional video that confirmed the partnership.
What is included
The collaboration’s “Legendary Outfits” give the Survivor side two recognizable looks: a 2B costume for Feng Min and an A2 costume for Yui Kimura. Killer players are not left out either, receiving a Very Rare Outfit inspired by Emil for The Legion.
The Emil outfit is the more interesting detail of the three. Unlike 2B and A2, who are heroes in their own story, Emil is a tragic figure from the NieR games, which makes him a natural fit for a killer slot in a game built around horror imagery.
Why Dead by Daylight keeps doing this
The collaboration continues a pattern for Behaviour Interactive, which has built crossovers with anime and manga into a recurring feature of the game. Dead by Daylight partnered with Attack on Titan for a set of player cosmetics in July 2022, then returned to anime-adjacent properties in early 2025 with a Junji Ito collaboration in January and a Tokyo Ghoul crossover in March.
For Behaviour, these tie-ins bring in new players from outside the horror audience. For the anime side, they are a low-cost way to keep a franchise visible years after its last major release.
NieR:Automata’s long tail
NieR:Automata shipped for PlayStation 4 in Japan in February 2017, followed by North America and Europe in March 2017. It came to PC via Steam in March 2017, to Xbox One in June 2018, and to Nintendo Switch in October 2022.
The game inspired the television anime NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a, which premiered in January 2023, with a second cours arriving in July 2024. Crunchyroll streams the anime — as it does many of the other properties that have crossed over into Dead by Daylight.
Nine years after launch, the property is still generating merchandise and crossover events, which is unusual even for a well-regarded action RPG.
Why it matters
Crossovers like this sit at the intersection of two audiences that already overlap heavily: anime viewers and horror-game players. A 2B or A2 outfit is not new story content, but it keeps the characters in front of people who may never have played the original game — and it has become one of the more reliable ways the series stays part of the conversation between anime seasons.
It is the same playbook we saw with Black Clover joining Fortnite’s Fortnitemares with Asta, Yuno and Noelle skins. If you enjoy these crossover events, it is worth watching whether the NieR outfits run as a limited-time store rotation or stay permanently available.
Source: Anime News Network (via Behaviour Interactive press release).
Featured image: NieR:Automata collaboration banners for Dead by Daylight, via Behaviour Interactive / Anime News Network.
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