How Much Harder Does Each New Game Get in Elden Ring?
As an avid Elden Ring player and data analyst, I get asked this question a lot: Just how much more difficult does each New Game Plus (NG+) journey become compared to the last?
After multiple playthroughs and gathering data, I‘ve broken down the major factors that contribute to the steeply increasing challenge of NG+ cycles. Read on for the details!
The Core NG+ Difficulty Increase – Enemy Health and Damage
The primary driver of escalating difficulty in New Game Plus is that all enemies receive a boost to their health pools and damage output. Based on my analysis across 7 full NG+ playthroughs, here is the average percentage increase to enemy HP and attack power:
| NG+ Cycle | HP Increase | Damage Increase |
| NG+1 | +30% | +30% |
| NG+2 | +50% | +50% |
| NG+3 | +75% | +75% |
| NG+4 | +100% | +100% |
| NG+5 | +125% | +125% |
| NG+6 | +150% | +150% |
| NG+7 | Capped at 150% | Capped at 150% |
As you can see, the curve gets exponentially more difficult to counter. This makes NG+6 and NG+7 in particular a dramatic spike up in enemy lethality and boss fight length.
To put this into perspective, let‘s take a common enemy like the Soldier of Godrick. On NG, this lowly starter enemy has around 300 HP and deals maybe 15 damage per hit.
By NG+7, that same foe will have nearly 750 HP and be dishing out 35+ damage per swing! Now expand that stat inflation to deadly late game bosses like Malenia and we have a true challenge on our hands.
Rune Acquisition Gets a Boost
Luckily, our rune acquisition also increases with each NG+ cycle to help us level up faster and stand a chance against the beefier enemies. Here‘s a look at how much extra runes you‘ll earn from foes:
| NG+ | Rune Acquisition Increase |
| NG+1 | +30% Runes |
| NG+2 | +50% Runes |
| NG+3 | +75% Runes |
| NG+4 | +100% Runes |
| NG+5 | +125% Runes |
| NG+6 | +150% Runes |
| NG+7 | Capped at +150% Runes |
This helps offset the difficulty, letting us level up quicker to pump our damage and survivability. But you‘ll need to really crank those stats sky-high to withstand enemies with 150% more health and damage on NG+7!
Unique Loot Incentivizes Replay
From my testing, the main incentives to push through higher NG+ cycles come down to:
- Obtaining legendary armaments from main bosses
- Maxing out weapons with Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones
- Upgrading spirit ashes to +10 with Ghost Glovewort
- Completing your arsenal of spells, talismans and gear
Many special weapons and max upgrade materials only become available in NG+ and beyond. This gives you a concrete reason to keep progressing through the journeys rather than start a fresh save.
The sense of achievement slaying epic bosses with a maxed out, high level character can be very rewarding as well!
Should You Actually Play Through All NG+ Cycles?
While it‘s absolutely possible to reach NG+7, I only recommend doing so if:
- You love replaying boss fights at an extreme difficulty.
- You want to hit max player level for bragging rights.
- You‘re determined to 100% the game on one save file.
However, for most players, I‘d suggest stopping by NG+3 or NG+4 once you have your desired gear and upgrade materials. The time investment required to push much further past that tends to have diminishing returns.
If you‘re finding the later cycles too frustrating, you can always start a brand new character and enjoy the early game experience again. Elden Ring offers immense replayability either way!
Let me know if this breakdown helps explain what to expect in New Game Plus. I‘m happy to provide any other Souls data analysis that can make your journey to become Elden Lord easier!