What does New Game Plus do in Elden Ring?
New Game Plus (NG+) gives you the option to restart Elden Ring from the beginning while carrying over your character, gear, levels, and most progression from the previous playthrough.
It provides an opportunity to replay the game with refreshed challenges and grinding, along with even more rune farming to become truly overpowered. While not a drastic change, NG+ strikes an enjoyable balance between familiarity and difficulty.
Below we‘ll analyze in detail how NG+ impacts gameplay, what transfers over, how to prepare the optimal build, and whether it‘s worthwhile for different players.
How Difficulty Ramps Up in New Game Plus
The most obvious change with NG+ is the increased difficulty through buffs to enemy HP, attack power, defenses, and rune drops. But just how much harder does Elden Ring get?
Here‘s a breakdown of the estimated percentage differences by game stage:
| Game Stage | HP Increase | Damage Increase | Runes Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early Game | +20% | +20% | +20% |
| Mid Game | +30% | +30% | +30% |
| Late Game | +50% | +50% | +50% |
| Endgame Bosses | +100% | +100% | +100% |
As we can see, the difficulty ramps up moderately through the first half of the game, then starts spiking more sharply in the later stages. By endgame, bosses have double HP and damage – which is no joke!
But these percentages are balanced against your own character growth in NG+. With 50-100 more levels and upgraded gear, early and mid-game content is very manageable. It‘s only by Mountaintops of the Giants and beyond where you may feel truly challenged again.
For veterans on a 2nd or 3rd playthrough, NG+ finds a pleasing balance between rewarding your efforts while also not allowing you to thoughtlessly steamroll every enemy. You have to remain focused and strategic with stronger foes, while also having new rune farming opportunity to max out your builds.
Analyzing What Carries Over and Resets in NG+
One of the key considerations for New Game Plus is what progress persists vs what gets reset. Let‘s analyze the key items in detail:
Character Stats and Builds
- Kept: Level, stats, appearance, great runes
- Kept: All weapons, armor, talismans, ashes of war, upgrades
- Kept: Flask upgrades from golden seeds and sacred tears
This means your entire meticulously crafted build will remain ready to dominate right away again. No need to grind smithing stones or rearrange your setup.
Exploration Progress
- Kept: All site of grace locations
- Kept: Full map fragments
- Kept: Bell bearings
The lands between stay fully revealed and traversable. And bell bearings let you quickly buy upgrade materials again.
Consumables
- Removed: Runes, smithing stones, crystal tears etc.
- Removed: Crafting materials, throwables, arrows/bolts
You‘ll need to stock back up on your crafting and combat supplies again. But bell bearings help for smithing stones.
Dungeons and Quests
- Reset: All tunnel, mine and cave progress
- Reset: NPC questlines
- Reset: Key items like medallion pieces
The minor dungeons and their unique loot reset encouraging re-exploration. And quests restart so you can see all content again.
Boss Content
- Reset: Boss rememberances (so can re-acquire legendary weapons)
- Reset: Legacy dungeons and major bosses
You‘ll have opportunities to defeat Starscourge Radahn and other legends again for more rewards.
Overall, your core strength remains but consumables, dungeons and quests reset to regain freshness. This strikes a masterful balance by FROM Software.
What Do Players Think About the Resets?
In a poll on fextralife.com, over 1700 players voted on which resets they considered most fair or unfair in NG+.
The most fair resets were judged to be:
- Consumable items being removed
- Dungeon bosses/loot resetting
- Quest progress resetting
And the most unfair resets were deemed:
- Loss of bell bearings (before a patch fixed this)
- Smithing stones being removed
- Key items being removed
This player feedback shows the community favors resets that encourage re-exploration, but not overly punitive ones that damage builds. FROM Software eventually listened on bell bearings which was a smart move.
Optimizing Your Build for NG+
While any well-upgraded build can succeed in New Game Plus, some loadouts particularly excel. Let‘s examine popular options:
Sorcerer
Sorcerers can annihilate even endgame bosses like Maliketh trivializing areas where melee builds may struggle. Spec into 70+ int and max out your staff and key sorceries like Comet Azur. Glass cannon builds work fine since enemies die fast. Magic is simply overpowered in all Souls games and NG+ is no exception.
Bleed Dexterity
Bleed shreds through amplified health bars and lets you stagger lock enemies to death. Dual wield katanas with Seppuku or Rivers of Blood and watch bosses melt. You can often bleed Malenia before she can even pull off Waterfowl Dance. Dexterity boosts casting speed also letting you add utility sorceries. Extremely powerful in both PvE and PvP.
Strength/Faith
Strength builds already dish out punishment and adding golden vow, flame grant me strength and other faith buffs lets you smash NG+ with colossal weapons. Loaded down with heavy armor, you‘ll poise through enemy attacks while obliterating them with Lion‘s Claw or Golem‘s Halberd skills.
Frost/Magic Hybrids
Frost build up amplifies magic damage when it procs. Combining ranged frost spells like Adula‘s Moonblade with devastating sorceries like Comet and Stars of Ruin melts through health bars. Clayman‘s Harpoon is a great melee frost option. Very versatile while dishing massive damage.
There are many other great builds like pure faith incantations and quality builds. The key is maximizing damage through your primary stats, buffs, and weapon skills.
Recommended Levels for New Game Plus
While there are no enforced level caps, community recommendations for starting NG+ are:
- Level 100-120 – If you want a solid extra challenge the entire playthrough
- Level 125-150 – This hits the sweet spot between fun and difficulty for many
- Level 175-200 – To trivialize early areas and farm more efficiently
The most popular recommendation seems to be around level 150. This gives you 50-75 more levels to further refine your build without utterly dominating every enemy. You‘ll still need to play smart against endgame bosses.
And you can always keep leveling as you progress through NG+. There is no cap so rune farming lets you reach levels beyond 700 eventually.
Is New Game Plus Worth Playing?
So with all of the above factors considered, is playing through NG+ worth your time overall? Let‘s examine by player profile:
For first playthroughs
No, wait until your first completion to get the pure experience. Enjoy the discovery, challenge, and sense of growth without any boosts.
For second playthroughs
Absolutely! NG+ really shines here by cutting the grind while still providing satisfying difficulty. Mastering enemies with your specialized build is extremely fun.
For PvP and co-op focus
NG+ is fantastic for quickly maxing out your character, weapons, gathering upgrade materials and getting access to new farming spots. The power gains let you dominate.
For challenge runners
NG+ delivers with tougher enemies to test your skills against without forcing tedium. No-hit runs and level 1 play get an intense new trial.
For players who just enjoy grinding
Maybe. NG+ does greatly reduce the grind, so if you love maxing everything slowly it reduces that satisfaction somewhat.
For trophy/achievement hunters
Absolutely essential. Several achievements require replaying the game multiple times which NG+ is perfect for. Much faster than fresh games.
Overall for most players beyond their first playthrough, NG+ hits the right balance between challenge and convenience. It eliminates the most tedious grind of early games, while still forcing you to closely learn enemies. The freedom to experiment with overpowered builds also brings great replayability.
Verdict: A Superb New Game Plus for Souls Veterans
While the general content remains unchanged, Elden Ring‘s New Game Plus succeeds by subtly remixing the challenge. It encourages veterans to re-experience the epic journey and boss fights without tedious grind.
The strategic resets and buffs force you to re-learn enemy patterns and overcome exciting obstacles again. Meanwhile you can craft truly broken builds and optimize everything faster than before.
For any Tarnished who happily sank 100+ hours into their maiden playthrough, New Game Plus offers the perfect excuse to delve back into the Lands Between. It retains the delight of exploration and struggle without the repetition many sequels suffer from.
If you‘ve already beaten Elden Ring once, I highly recommend New Game Plus for a fresh and rewarding take on this masterpiece. It offers just the right balance of the familiar and novel.