Elden Ring New Game Plus Guide: How NG+ Works And What Carries Over

Elden Ring’s New Game Plus (NG+) system transforms your second playthrough into a distinctly different experience from your initial journey through the Lands Between.

Once you complete your first campaign run, NG+ enables restarting the narrative while preserving nearly all character progression elements. This creates opportunities to approach challenges with accumulated knowledge while facing substantially enhanced opposition that demands refined combat techniques.

Elden Ring: The Shadow of the Erdtree expansion introduces additional challenges that benefit from NG+ preparation. Our comprehensive Complete Guide provides detailed strategies for mastering both base game and DLC content.

From Software’s signature NG+ implementation dates back to Demon’s Souls, establishing a tradition of rewarding mastery with progressively challenging iterations. The system consistently maintains your acquired arsenal while recalibrating enemy statistics to match your enhanced capabilities.

Engaging with NG+ provides crucial advantages for completionists seeking to experience every narrative branch. Multiple mutually exclusive questlines and endings require separate playthroughs to fully explore the game’s rich storytelling possibilities.

The NG+ system extends beyond a single additional playthrough, supporting successive cycles labeled NG++, NG+3, and beyond. Each iteration further amplifies enemy potency while proportionally increasing rune rewards, creating an escalating risk-reward dynamic that tests even veteran players.

Initiating New Game Plus requires specific conditions and follows a deliberate activation process that ensures you’re fully prepared for the increased challenges ahead.

After conquering the final boss and viewing the credits sequence, you’ll return to your existing game world with the option to continue exploring or commence your NG+ run immediately. Many players benefit from completing post-game cleanup before transitioning.

To formally begin Journey 2, travel to Roundtable Hold and interact with any Site of Grace location. The resting interface will display a new “Begin Journey 2” selection that, when chosen, permanently transitions your save file to NG+ mode.

Critical Preparation Tip: Complete all bell bearing purchases and duplicate remembrance boss weapons at Roundtable Hold before starting NG+, as these convenient vendor options will reset and require reacquisition.

Timing your NG+ initiation strategically can dramatically impact your experience. Consider completing all exploration, NPC questlines, and optional boss encounters beforehand, as our Weapons Unlock guide demonstrates similar strategic preparation principles.

Many veterans recommend achieving at least level 150 and acquiring your preferred endgame build components before commencing NG+. This preparation typically requires 15-20 additional hours but significantly smooths the transition to heightened difficulty.

New Game Plus introduces systematic adjustments that fundamentally alter gameplay dynamics, requiring adaptation of strategies that succeeded in your initial playthrough.

Enemy statistics receive substantial boosts across all metrics. Foes possess approximately 50% more health points and deal 30-40% increased damage, necessitating more precise dodging and blocking techniques.

The rune multiplier represents one of the most significant changes, with defeated enemies yielding 550% more currency than in standard gameplay. This accelerated progression enables faster leveling and more experimentation with different builds.

Progressive difficulty scaling continues through multiple NG+ cycles, with each subsequent playthrough (NG++, NG+3, etc.) applying additional enemy stat increases. Based on From Software’s established patterns, difficulty typically plateaus around NG+7, though exact Elden Ring caps remain community-tested.

Advanced Strategy: The increased rune yield makes NG+ ideal for comprehensive build experimentation. You can rapidly accumulate sufficient resources to respecc multiple times and test various weapon combinations.

Common mistakes include underestimating early-game enemies and neglecting to upgrade alternative weapons. Even basic soldiers in Limgrave can pose serious threats to complacent players accustomed to their previous dominance.

Our Class Guide explores similar specialization concepts that apply to Elden Ring’s diverse build possibilities in enhanced difficulty settings.

Elden Ring’s NG+ carryover system thoughtfully preserves the majority of your hard-earned progression while resetting narrative-specific elements to maintain challenge.

Character progression elements that persist include your current level, all attribute points, and every collected rune. This foundation allows immediate access to advanced gameplay without the gradual power accumulation of a fresh start.

Your complete arsenal remains available, including all weapons, armor sets, talismans, spells, and ashes of war. This comprehensive retention enables diverse strategic approaches from the very beginning of your new journey.

Inventory items largely carry forward with notable exceptions for key story progression objects. All crafting materials, consumables, and upgrade materials transfer intact, eliminating the need for tedious recollection.

Optimization Tip: Max out all smithing stone and somber smithing stone bell bearings before NG+ to maintain convenient access to weapon upgrades throughout your subsequent playthrough.

Map exploration and site of grace activation reset completely, requiring renewed traversal of the Lands Between. However, all map fragments you’ve previously collected remain in your inventory, immediately revealing the full world map upon acquisition.

Strategic understanding of NG+ reset mechanics enables efficient preparation and prevents frustrating losses of critical progression elements.

All Great Runes and their associated activations revert to inactive states, requiring renewed boss conquests to restore their powerful effects to your arsenal.

Quest progression universally resets, including all NPC storylines, dialogue trees, and associated rewards. This reset enables experiencing alternative narrative paths and different ending conditions.

Dungeon and area completion status clears entirely, meaning all bosses respawn and must be defeated again to advance. This includes both mandatory story bosses and optional encounters throughout the world.

Common Pitfall: Players frequently forget that all Sites of Grace lose activation, requiring systematic rediscovery. Strategic grace sequencing can save 2-3 hours of travel time in subsequent playthroughs.

Strategic planning should include completing all bell bearing hunter encounters and deathroot collection for Gurranq before transitioning to NG+.

All keys and unique progression items remove from inventory, including Dectus Medallions, Academy Glintstone Keys, and other narrative-critical objects that gate progression.

Venture to New Game Plus to earn more runes from defeating enemies.

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