Do You Keep Bell Bearings In New Game Plus

Do You Keep Bell Bearings in New Game Plus?

So, you’ve conquered the Lands Between, defeated powerful bosses, and maybe even become the Elden Lord (or a different ending, you rebel!). Now, you’re staring down the option of starting a New Game Plus (NG+). Exciting, right? But, a common question pops up in every adventurer’s mind: “What about my Bell Bearings? Do they carry over?” Let’s dive deep into this crucial topic and clear up any confusion.

The Mystery of Bell Bearings

First, let’s talk about what Bell Bearings actually are. Think of them as special keys. You find these little treasures by defeating certain bosses or exploring specific areas. Each Bell Bearing corresponds to a particular merchant or shop. When you give a Bell Bearing to the Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold, you give them access to sell a new variety of items. This means you can buy smithing stones, upgrade materials, and other goodies that are essential for your journey. These items are very helpful because it means you don’t have to hunt around the world as much to find essential items.

Bell Bearings are very beneficial during your first run-through of the game. This is because they make it convenient and much easier to collect useful items. Because of the convenience they provide, it makes you curious about whether or not you get to keep them in new game plus.

The Short Answer: No, They Don’t Carry Over

Alright, here’s the truth you need. In Elden Ring, your Bell Bearings do not transfer to New Game Plus. That’s right – they’re reset. This means the Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold will revert to their original inventory when you start NG+. All the merchants that were selling items using bell bearing will no longer have them.

Don’t worry, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s actually part of how New Game Plus is designed to give you a fresh start and a renewed sense of progression.

Why Bell Bearings Reset

The reset of Bell Bearings serves a few key purposes in the game’s design:

• Re-exploration: It encourages you to explore the world again, finding the same bosses or areas where you originally found those Bell Bearings. This isn’t just a boring repetition; it’s an opportunity to engage with the game’s world in new ways, perhaps finding things you missed the first time around.
• Progression: It maintains a sense of progression. If you kept all your Bell Bearings right away, you’d have instant access to all the late-game materials, taking some of the challenge out of NG+. This way, you progressively work to access the best upgrade materials throughout the NG+ playthrough.
• Balanced gameplay: Resetting the Bell Bearings helps maintain game balance in NG+. You’re already more powerful with your leveled-up character and upgraded equipment, so having access to every item immediately might make things too easy.

What Resets in New Game Plus (And What Doesn’t)

It’s also important to know what you do and do not keep when starting NG+, let’s take a look at the main categories.

What Carries Over:

• Character Level and Stats: All those runes you spent to level up your character? They stay with you. You get to keep all your levels and stats, making you significantly stronger than your first playthrough.
• Equipment: All your weapons, armor, talismans, and spells stick around. You can still use all the items you collected. If you had a favorite sword, or an armor that you like the most, you get to keep those.
• Key Items: Most of your key items that are important for story progression or opening doors, don’t carry over, but important ones like Flasks (Crimson and Cerulean Tears), and other items that permanently upgrade you, like Sacred Tears, Golden Seeds do carry over
• Map Progress: The entire map you revealed during your first run through, will still be revealed, but you will not have the grace points active.

What Resets:

• Bell Bearings: As we’ve established, these are reset.
• Sites of Grace: While you keep the map, you’ll need to re-activate all the Sites of Grace to use fast travel, and level up your character.
• Key Items related to Quest progression: All key items that have to do with progress in a quest, don’t carry over. This includes items like the medallion halves, or any other items related to NPC quest progression.
• Great Runes: Any great rune, or remeberances, that you defeated a boss for, gets reset. Meaning you will have to defeat the same bosses to obtain the great runes.

Strategies for Bell Bearings in NG+

Now that you know you will have to re-collect the bell bearings again, here are some strategies to help with this:

• Plan Your Route: In NG+, you already know the location of each bell bearing, which can be very helpful. You might want to focus on a specific set of merchants, first. If you know you need a lot of smithing stones or Somber smithing stones, you can prioritize obtaining the bell bearings that unlock those items first.
• Early Bosses First: Focus on obtaining the bell bearings for the early game bosses. For example, the bell bearing for the Smithing-Stone Miner Bell Bearing [1] that comes from the Crystal Tunnel. Getting these early will help you upgrade your weapons, giving you a smoother progression.
• Explore Thoroughly: Don’t just run through the areas like you may have done during your first playthrough. Take the time to explore every area and find the bell bearings you might have missed previously.
• Use Your Knowledge: You can use the knowledge that you gained from your first playthrough, to your advantage. This time around you can collect bell bearings more efficiently.

The Benefits of Re-Collecting Bell Bearings

While it might seem like a chore to gather the Bell Bearings again, it’s also an opportunity.

• New Weapon Upgrades: You might be experimenting with new weapons in NG+. Re-collecting bell bearings gives you easy access to smithing stones to upgrade all the new gear.
• Item Restocking: You can easily restock on essential consumables that you may have used up in your first playthrough, like arrows and other throwable weapons.
• Faster Access to Consumables : With the bell bearings, you will quickly access essential items, like the rune enhancing items.

Specific Bell Bearing Locations

Knowing where to find these helpful items is crucial. While the game does encourage you to explore, here’s a quick reminder of a few important ones (but this list is not exhaustive):

Smithing-Stone Miner’s Bell Bearings

• [1]: Found by defeating the Crystalian boss in the Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel.
• [2]: Found in the Sealed Tunnel, on the Altus Plateau.
• [3]: Found in the Zamor Ruins, in the Mountaintops of the Giants.
• [4]: Found in the Crumbling Farum Azula after defeating the Godskin Duo boss.

Somberstone Miner’s Bell Bearings

• [1]: Found by defeating the Fallingstar Beast in Sellia Crystal Tunnel in Caelid.
• [2]: Found in the Hermit Merchant’s Shack in the Altus Plateau.
• [3]: Found in the First Church of Marika in Mountaintops of the Giants.
• [4]: Located in the Dragon Temple in Crumbling Farum Azula.
• [5]: Found at the end of the Great Bridge in Crumbling Farum Azula.

Glovewort Picker’s Bell Bearings

• [1]: Located inside the Sainted Hero’s Grave near the Altus Plateau.
• [2]: Found in the Leyndell Catacombs in the Capital.
• [3]: Located in the First Church of Marika in the Mountaintops of the Giants

Ghost-Glovewort Picker’s Bell Bearings

• [1]: Located in the Wyndham Catacombs on the Altus Plateau.
• [2]: Found in the catacombs at the bottom of the Crystalline Woods in Liurnia of the Lakes.
• [3]: Found in the Giant-Conquering Hero’s Grave in Mountaintops of the Giants.

Meat Peddler’s Bell Bearing

• Found by defeating the Putrid Tree Spirit in the Fringefolk Hero’s Grave.

Keep in mind that there are also many other Bell Bearings that allow you to purchase an array of other useful items, including the ones that unlock the ability to buy various crafting materials. This is just to give you an example of some of the more important ones. It’s a good idea to consult a guide if you want to find all the Bell Bearings in the game and what items they unlock for you to purchase. This will help make sure that you collect all the items that you may need.

Understanding how Bell Bearings work in NG+ helps you better prepare for your next adventure in the Lands Between. While it may seem daunting to re-collect them all again, they are essential for progressing in Elden Ring. This gives you the chance to re-experience the game and try different things that you may not have tried the first time around. Enjoy your journey in NG+!