Can You Continue Elden Ring After Beating The Game

Can You Continue Elden Ring After Beating the Game?

So, you’ve conquered the Lands Between, stood before the Elden Throne, and watched the credits roll. A great feeling, right? But now a big question pops up: “Can I keep playing Elden Ring after beating the final boss?” The short answer is a resounding YES! You absolutely can continue your adventure, explore further, and tie up any loose ends. Let’s dive deep into what that means and what awaits you after becoming Elden Lord (or choosing a different ending!).

The Choice is Yours: Starting a New Journey or Continuing Your Current One

When you finish the main story of Elden Ring, the game doesn’t immediately thrust you into New Game Plus. Instead, after watching the final cutscene and seeing the credits, you are presented with a crucial choice. A message will pop up on screen asking if you want to begin Journey 2 which is the game’s version of New Game Plus, or if you would rather remain in your current world. This allows you to revisit areas, find any missed items, complete NPC quests, and experience anything you may have overlooked your first playthrough. The freedom to pick gives you total control over your Elden Ring experience.

What Happens If You Choose to Continue?

If you decide to stay in your current playthrough after defeating the final boss, the world essentially returns to how it was just before that final encounter, but with some key differences. Here’s what you can expect:

• You are returned to the Roundtable Hold: You are not immediately placed at a random spot. The game puts you at a familiar and safe location, making it easy to travel elsewhere.
• All Areas are Accessible: Every single area you visited prior to beating the final boss is still available to you. No fast travel points are gone, nothing is locked off, all locations are just as you left them before becoming Elden Lord.
• Bosses are defeated: However, important to note, that main story bosses, and most side dungeon bosses you defeated, remain defeated. You can’t battle them again unless you choose to do a New Game + playthrough.
• NPCs are still there (mostly): Most NPCs will remain where they were before you beat the game. Their questlines will stay as you left them, unless you’ve completed them. This gives a great chance to do any questlines you still wanted to finish.
• Your Character’s Progress is Saved: All your items, levels, equipment, spells and inventory remain the same as they were when you beat the final boss. This allows you to further strengthen your character before starting New Game +.
• No Story Progression: The main story is complete. Continuing in your current world won’t change the narrative. Any dialogue regarding the story will be in the state where the final boss is defeated. This is the end of your first play through, but not the end of the Lands Between

Why Stay in Your Current Playthrough?

So, why would you choose to remain in your current world instead of immediately going to New Game Plus? Here are some compelling reasons:

• Missed Content: Elden Ring is massive, with tons of hidden areas, bosses, items, and quests to see. Remaining in your current world gives you a chance to explore any places you might have skipped on your initial run.
• Side Quests: Many NPC questlines in Elden Ring are long and intricate. If you didn’t manage to complete them all, you can take your time and see them to the end. Some of these have great story rewards and items.
• Collectibles: There are tons of collectibles, weapons, armors and talismans. Continuing in your current game allows you to seek out any you might have not found, or upgrade those you want to be at their maximum potential.
• Experimentation: You might want to try out different character builds, spells, and weapons before you start NG+. Continuing your current game, allows you to play around and try new strategies before jumping back in to a more difficult playthrough.
• Co-op and PvP: Want to keep helping others in co-op, or engaging in player versus player combat? Remaining in your game allows you to continue doing this, as the game is still accessible to online play until you start NG+.

Things To Do After Beating Elden Ring (Before New Game Plus)

With so many options, it might be helpful to have a checklist of what you could do after beating the final boss.

• Complete all NPC questlines: Check your map and see where your favorite NPCs are. Try to complete any quest you have open and get the unique rewards!
• Explore any remaining caves, catacombs, and hero’s graves: Use a map to look at any areas you haven’t been to yet. It might be surprising how many are hidden in the world.
• Defeat any optional bosses: There are many bosses in areas, and dungeons that aren’t required to beat the story. Look for these locations and get extra rewards.
• Gather all the legendary weapons, ashes, and talismans: These powerful items will make your next playthrough easier, and also just feel good to collect.
• Experiment with different weapons and builds: Try new weapon arts, spells and combinations. It’s a great way to find new favorite items to start your next playthrough.
• Upgrade your favorite weapons: Use your upgrade materials to fully improve the best items you found in your first play through.
• Clear out any locations on the map you didn’t explore: Check over your map to make sure you have gone to every location you possibly can.
• Engage in Co-op with friends, and help defeat bosses: Enjoy the multiplayer aspect of the game before continuing to a new game plus.

What is New Game Plus (Journey 2)?

When you feel like you’ve seen everything you want to in your current playthrough, or if you are just looking for a new challenge, it’s time to consider New Game Plus, or as the game calls it, “Journey 2”.

Starting New Game Plus will essentially restart the game, but with key advantages. Here’s what it includes:

• All your levels, equipment, spells, and inventory are carried over: You begin the game with all the items you had when you beat the final boss, meaning you don’t need to regain everything you spent so long collecting!
• The difficulty is increased: Enemies in the Lands Between will become stronger, and more resilient, making the challenge increase from your first play through.
• You will get more runes from defeated enemies: This is to help you level up easier and faster, even with the increased difficulty.
• You can still go to all locations you could in the first playthrough, without being locked out of areas: You won’t lose access to areas you could go to before.
• You can collect ancient dragon smithing stones each play through: You will have the ability to gather more dragon smithing stones to upgrade your unique equipment further.
• There are new items to collect: Certain items are only available in NG+ or higher.

Why Play New Game Plus?

New Game Plus is a popular option for many players, and a great way to continue playing. Here are reasons why you might decide to start Journey 2:

• Increased challenge: The first playthrough, you learned the ins and outs, now it’s time to put those skills to the test with a higher difficulty.
• To complete all the endings: There are several endings to Elden Ring and you must play the game multiple times to see them all.
• Experiment with even stronger builds: You can build your character even stronger in NG+ since you can level up further, and your items are more powerful.
• Collect all the new items: There are items you can only collect in New Game Plus, meaning you must do it multiple times to get them all!
• Just enjoy the game again: The game is fun to play. You can always enjoy the adventure of exploring the Lands Between again.

New Game Plus and Beyond

After beating New Game Plus, you’ll be given the option to go into New Game Plus 2, and so on. Each time you do, the difficulty will increase, and you can gather all the new items as you wish. You can keep playing the game over and over until you feel you have done everything there is to do! The amount of content in Elden Ring is truly huge, so there is plenty of replayability. It is not uncommon for people to play through several times to find out everything the game has to offer!

In conclusion, Elden Ring provides you with the wonderful option to continue your journey after defeating the final boss. Whether you want to explore every nook and cranny of the Lands Between, finish every side quest, gather all the collectibles, or test your skills in a more difficult playthrough, the choice is yours. This flexibility allows you to control your experience, and gives you so many options on how to play. You can either stay in your current game or venture onto the challenge of New Game Plus. Both options offer their own advantages and allow you to enjoy the world that FromSoftware has created. There is no right or wrong way to play, just play how you enjoy it the most!