The OnePlus Nord is just beginning to arrive at the porches of early adopters, and there's already a way to root it. XDA Senior Member Some_Random_Username has put together a guide that makes use of XDA Senior Recognized Developer topjohnwu's Magisk to root the device. Obviously there's no TWRP or flashable Magisk zip this early in the product cycle for the Nord, so rooting it will take a few steps. You'll need to have your PC handy and know your way around ADB and your PC's command-line interface.

OnePlus Nord Review: Great Performance at a Great Price

Why the OnePlus Nord is so familiar, yet so unique: In conversation with Shawn Liu, Head of Product

Preparing your OnePlus Nord

  • Update OxygenOS to the latest build (currently 10.5.2) using this thread, since there's no publicly available flashable zip of the build the Nord ships with (thus no extractable boot.img).
    • Download India build or EU build depending on your locale.
    • Go to Settings > System > System Update and use the "local update" option.
Image credit: Reddit user /u/jisifus
  • Activate Developer Options and select "allow OEM unlock" and "allow USB debugging".
  • Install the latest Android Developer Platform Tools on your PC and connect your OnePlus Nord to your PC.
  • Open the command terminal window on your PC.

Rooting your OnePlus Nord

  1. Unlock your bootloader:
    1. Use ADB to reboot your OnePlus Nord into fastboot mode (navigate to your platform tools folder in your command window and type "adb reboot bootloader").
    2. Type "fastboot OEM unlock" in your command window (warning: unlocking the bootloader will wipe all of your user data).
    3. Reboot your phone and complete the OxygenOS setup process.
  2. Download and patch the boot image for your variant:
    1. Download Magisk Manager from topjohnwu's repo.
    2. Download the extracted boot.img for your build (EU) (India)
    3. Install Magisk Manager and choose the "Select and patch a file" option to patch the boot.img file you downloaded in the previous step.
    4. Once Magisk Manager has finished patching the boot.img file you downloaded, the patched file will be available in your phone's Downloads folder.
  3. Replace your phone's active boot image with the one you have downloaded and patched with Magisk Manager.
    1. Copy that patched boot.img (which should be named magisk_patched.img) to your computer
    2. Return to your PC's command window and type "adb reboot bootloader" to return your phone to fastboot mode.
    3. Type "fastboot getvar current-slot" and press Enter.
      • If the output is a, type "fastboot flash boot_a magisk_patched.img" and press Enter.
      • If the output is b, type "fastboot flash boot_b magisk_patched.img" and press Enter.
  4. Reboot to OxygenOS and open Magisk Manager - it should now indicate your phone is rooted.
Image credit: Reddit user /u/jisifus

For more details, you can check out the following threads in the XDA forums:

Guide: How to root OnePlus NordRepo of Oxygen OS Builds for the OnePlus Nord