Heartwarming / Ready Player One

• Despite that she was overworked and a drug addict, Wade had some good memories of his mother while she was alive. Namely of her joining him in the OASIS for kid activities, and one time when he fixed her music player for Christmas.
• Ms. Gilmore, Wade's elderly neighbor. She's essentially like a second mother to Wade, she sometimes makes him pancakes, and occasionally lets him sleep on her couch. When she's killed by the explosives Sorrento and IOI planted, it's her that Wade mourns deeply rather than his abusive Aunt.
• After he essentially becomes a celebrity for finding the first key, Wade is tickled pink that his name (Wade Watts) has become a secret identity like something out of a super hero comic, because his late father named their son for that exact purpose.
• Before deliberately getting himself sent to indentured servitude for IOI, Wade sends Aech a message apologizing for their argument. It's essentially what starts to patch up their friendship again.
• Any scene with both Parzival and Art3mis except their breakup. Wade and Samantha, when they meet in person.
  • While in IOI as an indentured servant, Wade gets a look at Art3mis' true identity. He learns that her real self has a port-wine stain birthmark on the left side of her face. But Wade is not repulsed by it. In fact, he's drawn to it simply because it's her real face.
• Wade giving the Beta Capsule to Daito, since, even though the quest to get it was his idea, Ultraman was a Japanese icon, and should be in Japanese hands.
• Wade avenging Daito's death for Shoto by knocking out Sorrento. Also a Moment of Awesome, since Sorrento's Mechagodzilla was Nigh-Invulnerable until then.
• Wade meeting with Shoto in the OASIS on his asteroid stronghold of Falco. Shoto is in mourning for the murder of his 'brother' Daito and Wade listens to his grief and offers to help avenge Daito's death, as well as giving Shoto a Masamune sword as a gift.
• Wade meeting Aech in real life. After initially feeling shocked and betrayed to learn Aech is "a fat black chick" due to their shared "adolescent intimacies," these feelings evaporate when he sees Aech trembling with obvious anxiety. He starts laughing, breaking the tension and leans in to give Aech a hug and resumes treating Aech the same as always.
  • To be precise, his real issue with it was the suspicion of how much of what he know of Aech was a lie. In the end, even after revealing who she truly was, she was still the best friend he'd come to know. Even the smile and voice (her avatar's was basically her own voice made a bit deeper using a program) was more or less the one he was familiar with. Heck, even their appreciation for the female sex was more or less the same considering Aech is a lesbian.
• When Wade passes the Secret Test of Character and refuses to sign the contract, telling Anorak he won't make the same mistakes Halliday did. Anorak is silent for a moment, then smiles proudly and looks close to tears.
  Anorak: Oh, good. I just... needed to be sure.
• Wade's conversation with Halliday once he found the Egg.
  "Goodbye, Parzival. Thanks. Thanks for playing my game."
• Wade geeking out and telling Ogden Morrow about how he grew up learning to "read, write, do math, solve puzzles" thanks to the educational games Morrow and his wife created. Early in the book, he calls the OASIS his "virtual babysitter," so it's clear his affinity for these childhood games runs deep. Og's response?
  "That's wonderful to hear," he said, seeming genuinely pleased. "My wife and I were very proud of those games. I'm so glad you have fond memories of them."