Yes, New Game Plus in Elden Ring is worth it for players who want a stronger character, access to more upgrade materials, and the challenge of facing familiar foes with increased difficulty.
You’ve conquered the Lands Between, tasted the sweet victory of becoming Elden Lord, and now a question lingers: is new game plus worth it elden ring? It’s a query many seasoned Tarnished face after their initial playthrough. It basically boils down to whether you fancy another go around the world with your established character, keeping all your powerful gear.
It gives you an option to replay with boosted difficulty. You’ll find more upgrade materials, allowing you to level up all those favourite weapons fully. The chance to dominate earlier areas with your advanced build is quite enticing. Ultimately, it comes down to personal choice.
Is New Game Plus Worth It in Elden Ring?
So, you’ve conquered the Lands Between, felled the Elden Beast, and maybe even become the Elden Lord (or a different ending entirely!). You’re feeling pretty powerful, right? But then a question pops into your head: Should I start New Game Plus (NG+)? It’s a common question for any Elden Ring player finishing their first playthrough, and for good reason. It’s a big decision! This article dives deep into what makes New Game Plus in Elden Ring special, helping you decide if it’s the right next step for your Tarnished journey.
What Carries Over to New Game Plus?
Before jumping into the excitement (or perhaps apprehension) of NG+, it’s crucial to know exactly what you’re bringing with you. Think of it like packing for a big trip – you want to be prepared! Here’s a breakdown of what stays and what gets left behind:
What You Keep
- Your Character Level and Stats: All that hard work you put into leveling up? It’s not going anywhere! Your strength, dexterity, faith, arcane, intelligence – everything stays exactly as you left it.
- Your Equipment: That awesome sword you spent hours upgrading, the armor that makes you look like a walking tank, and all those talismans that boost your abilities are all yours to keep. This is a massive advantage right from the start of NG+.
- Your Inventory Items: Consumables like flasks, crafting materials, and cookbooks – all these are transferred over. This means you can start crafting and healing from the very beginning, which is very helpful in those tough early areas.
- Key Items: You’ll retain most of the key items needed to progress through the game, allowing you to skip some of the earlier game puzzles. Things like the Flask of Wondrous Physick and all of your Stonesword keys stay with you.
- Site of Grace Map Unlocks: All the Sites of Grace that you discovered during your previous playthrough will be unlocked, which makes traversal much easier at the start of New Game Plus.
- Great Runes (But Not the Activated Power): You’ll keep the Great Runes you’ve obtained, but you’ll need to reactivate their powers at the Divine Towers like before.
- Bell Bearings (Shop Upgrades): The bell bearings you’ve gathered to expand the merchants’ shops are saved. This is incredibly useful for purchasing smithing stones and other important items.
What You Lose
- Story Progression: You begin back at the beginning of the game’s main quest. You’ll have to go through all the areas and bosses all over again.
- Key Story Items: Items that progress the main story like the Rold Medallion or the Academy Glintstone key are reset to their original location.
The Difficulty Spike in New Game Plus
One of the most significant reasons to consider starting New Game Plus is that the enemies get much tougher. This isn’t a small increase, either. Enemies will have increased health and damage output. This renewed challenge offers seasoned players a chance to truly test their skills, even with their optimized builds from the first playthrough.
It’s important to note that the difficulty increase isn’t linear. The first few areas of NG+ might feel relatively manageable because of your accumulated gear and levels. However, the difficulty will quickly ramp up, and even familiar enemies will feel like bigger threats. Some bosses will have altered attack patterns and become more aggressive. This change in difficulty can make the game feel fresh and new, even if you’ve explored every corner of the Lands Between before.
Why You Should Play New Game Plus
Now that you know the details, let’s talk about why you might want to dive into NG+. There are a bunch of reasons, and what draws one player may not be the same thing that excites another. But there are a lot of good reasons!
Replaying with Your Favorite Build
Think about all the armor and weapons you collected during your first playthrough! Playing through NG+ lets you use the build you love right from the very start. You don’t have to wait to get your favorite tools! This makes the beginning of the game a lot more fun. You can immediately go through familiar areas with all the gear you like and really enjoy the combat.
The Challenge of Increased Difficulty
After you’ve conquered the game once, the main challenge is gone. New Game Plus offers that back. The tougher enemies mean you can test your strategies, try out new builds, and see how far you can push your character. This can be a great way to improve your skills in the game, and it is perfect for players who feel like they got too powerful in the last playthrough.
Gathering Missing Items
It is hard to find every single thing in your first playthrough! There are weapons, talismans, and spells that are easy to miss! New Game Plus gives you another shot at finding them all. This is great for completionist players who want to get 100% of the items or achievements of Elden Ring.
Experiencing Different Endings
Elden Ring has a lot of endings, and it is impossible to see all of them in one run. Each one requires certain side quests and choices to be made during the game. Playing in New Game Plus lets you explore these different endings. It lets you see the entire scope of the game’s story and how your choices affect the world.
Trying Different Play Styles
Maybe you played as a melee character the first time through, but always wanted to try a magic build. New Game Plus gives you that freedom! You can start over with all your collected stats and items, but this time respec your stats and try a new playstyle. You can experiment and find what you enjoy most with the foundation of your previous playthrough.
When New Game Plus Might Not Be the Best Option
While New Game Plus is a great option for many players, it isn’t for everyone. Let’s talk about some of the reasons you might want to start a brand new game instead of starting a New Game Plus journey.
Wanting the Sense of Progression
One of the core appeals of FromSoftware games is that sense of building your character from the ground up. You go from being weak and scared of everything to becoming a powerful hero. If you’re in the mood to experience the beginning again, but at a low level with no cool gear, then starting a brand new game is the way to go.
Fresh Start Without Overpowered Character
Sometimes, you want to start from scratch! If you start a new game, you’ll have no items, no gear and need to start over. This can be enjoyable for a player who wants to take on a fresh challenge. New Game Plus makes you stronger but it does not reset all of your progress.
Forcing Yourself to Explore Different Areas
When you have map unlocked in New Game Plus, you can easily take shortcuts and avoid areas that gave you problems before. However, if you start a new game, you will need to fully explore every single zone of the game. It will force you to revisit the game in its entirety again.
If You Are Tired of the Game
Let’s be honest. Some players might be completely done after finishing Elden Ring once. You may feel content with the experience you had, and you don’t want to play it again. And that’s totally fine! It is a long game, and if you feel you have had enough then go ahead and play another game, there is nothing wrong with that. In this case, New Game Plus is not for you.
How to Start New Game Plus
Starting New Game Plus is actually quite simple. After you beat the final boss of Elden Ring and watch the ending cutscene, the option to start New Game Plus will pop up. The game doesn’t automatically throw you into it! You have the option of choosing to start New Game Plus from the main menu whenever you’re ready to go.
Once you start NG+, you’ll wake up in the Stranded Graveyard, just like when you started the game for the first time. You will notice that you have all your levels, gear, items, and unlocked Sites of Grace, ready for another big adventure.
NG+ Cycles: How Many Times Can You Do It?
Elden Ring’s New Game Plus system is built to be replayable. You can continue to cycle through New Game Plus over and over, going up to NG+7. The difficulty increases each time you start a new NG+ cycle, up until NG+7, at which point the difficulty caps. This allows you to continue playing with your character and test your strategies against an always challenging level of difficulty.
Going through multiple NG+ cycles lets you truly optimize your character and find the absolute limits of what you can do in the game. You can also try to get all the items in the game, or all of the endings, by playing through NG+ many times. This gives players a ton of replayability in Elden Ring.
So, is New Game Plus worth it in Elden Ring? The answer is really up to you and your goals as a player. If you enjoy the combat, you love your character build, you’re looking for a new challenge, and you’re eager to see new endings or get every item, then New Game Plus is absolutely worth it! If you feel like the sense of progression is important for you, or you are burned out, then starting a new game is the better option. No matter what you choose, there is a lot of fun to be had in Elden Ring, and the choice is entirely yours!
Elden Ring Is New Game Plus Worth It?
Final Thoughts
New Game Plus in Elden Ring offers a good way to experience the game again. You keep your levels, equipment and items which make the early game much easier. The increased difficulty in later areas provides a fresh challenge.
For those seeking further challenge, it’s an ideal option. ‘is new game plus worth it elden ring’ depends on if you desire a replay with your overpowered build. Ultimately, if you crave more, then it is definitely a worthy experience.
