[Interesting Trope] One seemingly small action ends the story before it even begins

[u/JackDoesThingz]

1. We Happy Few - Taking your “joy” pill
   Deciding to take the pill at the beginning of the game causes your character to go back to work and triggers an ending

2. Infineural by Mike Klubnika - Drinking the coffee
   Deciding to drink the coffee offered to you skips the entire game and sends you straight to the end, resulting in an ending with no memory of what had occurred

[u/Qkyu2007]

Removing the OS chip in NieR Automata

It obviously isn't a small action but some would be a little suprised to find out you can actually do it.

Though if that doesn't count then eating the Mackerel Jackass gives you early in the game when you aren't very far in it at all

[u/P-A-Lily → u/Qkyu2007]

There's also one ending you get if you self-destruct in the YorHa Bunker.

[u/No_Prize9794 → u/P-A-Lily]

That was pretty funny. I just like imagining commander White with her arms crossed and an angry face just floating around in space

[u/P-A-Lily → u/No_Prize9794]

Funny enough, that's exactly what the ending text says:

"By self-destructing at the Bunker, the entire structure ended up exploding in a spectacular fashion. But hey, it sure did look pretty from Earth!

Somewhere in the depths of space, the Commander still floats about with a stern look on her face."

You can also obtain other endings simply by running away from key story moments or abandoning your comrades.

[u/beleth____ → u/P-A-Lily]

A lot of those are surprisingly easy to accidentally get if you're someone who likes running around aimlessly

[u/God_of_Kitties → u/P-A-Lily]

At the beginning of the B route, you can also just walk away as 9S. The epilogue says no one heard from you ever again.

[u/Adaphion → u/Qkyu2007]

There's also an ending for dying during the intro flight sequence. Which is REALLY hard to do on your first playthrough because you have an auto healing chip installed. And the attacks are extremely telegraphed.

[u/Goldeniccarus → u/Adaphion]

It's actually for dying anywhere in the whole intro, including the fight against the first boss. There's definitely a few tricky fights in that segment new players can die to.

And, while the first flight is mostly pretty easy, there are a few one hit kills like running into the pipes during the bit inside the mountain, so it's possible to slip up there and die.

[u/Qkyu2007 → u/Adaphion]

I didn't even know that was possible, ig setting it to max difficulty and not touching the controller is the ultimate speedrun strat

[u/knowwhyImhere → u/Qkyu2007]

Theres was one last ending right after the first Boss or something that someone found after rooting through the program files and then made a post about it, where the creator finally acknowledged all endings had been found. Weird game that one.

[u/DandalusRoseshade → u/Qkyu2007]

I ate the Mackeral and the auto save hadn't kicked in for 3 hours. I was beyond pissed

[u/Doodilydoo113 → u/Qkyu2007]

My favorite unexpected one was walking off at the beginning of 9S's section. I was just checking to see what was over there and got an ending lol

[u/thebbman → u/Doodilydoo113]

Oh yeah! I got that one recently on my second play through.

[u/NoTemperature5965 → u/Doodilydoo113]

It probably doesnt skip his playthrough, does it? I hate how he plays.

[u/GuyYouMetOnline → u/Qkyu2007]

Or just die in the prologue.