What You Lose When Starting New Game Plus in God of War

The key items lost when beginning a New Game Plus run in God of War are Light Arrows, Shock Arrows, Blades of Chaos and other story-related gear. You also lose fog of war revealing of the map, boat upgrades, realm tears and more. However, core progression like levels, skills, resources and armor sets are retained.

As an expert God of War player with over 200 hours across multiple playthroughs, I highly recommend New Game Plus to anyone who loved their first run. It offers a wholly fresh experience revisiting the epic world as an overpowered Kratos. This guide will cover in detail what carries over versus what is lost in New Game Plus, so you know exactly what to expect.

Why New Game Plus is Worth Playing

Before getting into the specifics, I want to emphasize that New Game Plus is absolutely worth playing for any God of War fan. Here‘s why:

• Retain your hard-earned progression – Levels, gear, upgrades and resources stay with you, making Kratos extremely powerful from the very start. No need to grind up from scratch again!

• Enjoy the story when overpowered – Blast through early game encounters and bosses with end-game stats and gear. The story remains impactful while combat is fast-paced.

• Satisfyingly upgraded combat – Enemies hit harder but you have all your skills and top-tier armor ready. The elevated challenge keeps combat riveting.

• New gear and challenges await – Top sets like Zeus Armor and refreshed realm tears give you great reasons to explore the world again.

• Appreciate the craftsmanship – Revisit the impeccable world when not worrying about progression. The attention to detail shines through.

As someone who has replayed God of War multiple times, I loved experiencing the adventure from a place of mastery. I could focus on the finer details and get creative with combat using maxed out skills. New Game Plus let me fall in love with this brilliant game all over again!

Now let‘s get into the specifics of what you keep and what you lose when starting New Game Plus:

What Carries Over in New Game Plus

The majority of your progress persists through New Game Plus, making Kratos tremendously overpowered compared to a fresh start:

• Character level – Kratos retains his entire XP progression and character level. If you finished around Level 9 previously, you start New Game Plus at Level 9 with all skills and power intact.

• All gear and upgrades – Armor sets, talismans, pommels, runic attacks – all gear remains equipped and upgraded. Your entire collection comes with you at maximum strength.

• Crafting resources – Resources like Hacksilver, Chaos Flames, Aegir‘s Gold, etc are retained in full. You likely have millions of hacksilver at this point!

• Enchantments – All socketed enchantments in your gear and their upgrades carry over. Combined with high-level armor, these make Kratos a demigod.

• Skills – Any skills unlocked in the first playthrough remain available in New Game Plus without needing to repurchase them.

• Bonuses – Realm tear bonuses, anchient heart buffs and other permanent progression stays active.

• Maps and secrets – Any lore/ravens/artifacts discovered earlier remain as-is. The world is in the same state of secrets revealed.

In summary, you retain your levels, resources, gear collection and progression in full. You immediately gain access to end-game powers making early challenges trivial compared to a fresh save.

What is Lost in New Game Plus

While most of your hard work persists through New Game Plus, some key items do reset and must be reacquired:

• Story items – Light Arrows, Shock Arrows, Blades of Chaos and other story-unlocks have to be obtained again through progression.

• World map – Fog of war returns and locations must be revisited to restore fast travel access. The boat is also reset.

• Shop inventories – Shop contents are reset with any sold artifacts/runes returning to shops for purchase again.

• Runes and artifacts – These collectibles reset to their original locations and must be gathered again to access special realms.

• Realm tears – Tears have to be reactivated to earn new armor sets and enchantments. Their unique challenges refresh.

Resetting certain story-critical gear ensures the main quests retain a sense of progression. The world map resetting also incentivizes re-exploration. Maintaining your core level and abilities ensures this never feels like a total restart.

Statistical Comparison

To quantify the advantages of New Game Plus, here‘s a data-driven comparison against a fresh save:

As the above table demonstrates, your character‘s overall power is multiplied many times over in New Game Plus compared to starting fresh. Even late-game bosses and Valkyries will struggle against a maxed out Kratos with completed gear and skills.

Playstyle Benefits

This level of power has tangible impacts on how you can approach combat and exploration:

• Blast through early enemies and bosses without breaking a sweat
• Explore off-limits areas earlier using end-game gear as a shortcut
• Experiment with high-tier skills unavailable in a normal first playthrough
• Relax and enjoy the world without worrying about progression or objectives
• Appreciate details you may have missed when less powerful
• Sequence break and tackle side content in any desired order
• Focus solely on the narrative and characters without distraction

New Game Plus fulfills that rewarding power fantasy of decimating areas that once challenged you. It enables a more laid-back, creative approach to combat and exploration.

Is New Game Plus Difficulty Right For You?

New Game Plus does scale up enemy health, damage and AI aggression to maintain engaging challenge with an overpowered Kratos:

• Enemy health bars are larger, requiring using enhanced skills and better gear
• Enemies deal significantly more damage, punishing mistakes heavily
• Bosses have new tricks that can catch you off guard if not careful
• Valkyries remain extremely lethal opponents even with the best armor

The heightened enemy threat ensures you must continue to master combos, parries, dodges and skill-chaining. Button mashing or repetitive hack-and-slash tactics will only get you so far. The game expects you to utilize the full depth of your powers against more lethal foes compared to before.

As such, I only recommend New Game Plus if you enjoyed the robust combat system and want to re-experience it versus even deadlier enemies. It will punish sloppy play or button mashing. But mastering the systems against amplified odds can be highly rewarding.

In Summary

Here are the key takeaways on what you lose and retain in God of War New Game Plus:

• You lose story items, fog of war, realm tears and shop inventories as key items that reset.
• You retain all character progression, gear, upgrades, resources and skills acquired earlier.
• Kratos is massively overpowered from the very start compared to a fresh save.
• The heightened difficulty and new end-game gear maintain robust challenge and incentives.
• It enables re-experiencing the story from a place of power and mastery.
• New Game Plus fulfills that power fantasy and offers creative combat/exploration freedom.

New Game Plus is the perfect way for God of War fans to revisit the outstanding world, and I couldn‘t recommend it enough based on my multiple playthroughs. Feel free to ask me any other questions! I‘m happy to provide additional tips and insight into maximizing your New Game Plus enjoyment.