After beating Elden Ring, a player only has two real options: carry an old character into New Game Plus, or create an entirely new character and start from scratch. Making a new character allows players to explore new classes without the difficulty increase found in Elden Ring's New Game Plus mode. If a player does opt for New Game Plus, however, they will get to continue using their old character and keep most of their items. Elden Ring NG+ players also get more runes from killing enemies and bosses, but enemies also have more health and deal more damage.
The most important factors for any player contemplating this decision are usually items and levels. Elden Ring's NG+ allows players to directly build on the time they initially spent beating the game, and for most non-speedrunning players, this can easily mean dozens of hours. Any player who spent ample time collecting spells or gear in Elden Ring will likely want to consider NG+ for the same reason, as NG+ allows players to keep armor, weapons, spells, upgrade materials, ashes, cookbooks, craftable items, maps, and non-quest specific collectibles like larval tears and rune arcs.
In Elden Ring's New Game Plus mode, story-related key items such as secret medallion pieces, quest-specific items, keys, and great runes must be found again, and all sites of grace must also be re-activated!
The ideal option for a second playthrough thus depends solely on the desired experience. Anybody who wants to conserve earnings but desires a new play style can respec their character using a larval tear before starting NG+ in Elden Ring, and to a certain extent, the character can adopt any starting class an Elden Ring player may want. However, a larval tear just resets a character to their base stats, and the player's actual starting class can not be changed. Any player who wants their vagabond character, which initially has melee-oriented stats, to specialize in magic, will be at a permanent disadvantage.
Elden Ring NG+ Changes & Benefits
The limits of a pre-New Game Plus respec in Elden Ring should be taken into consideration, but are evened out by the convenience of carrying over equipment. Collecting decent equipment early on in Elden Ring is difficult, and though seasoned players will already know where to look, starting a playthrough with endgame gear does simplify the game quite a bit. The afforded simplicity could be a negative to some as it means much less incentive to explore the map for optional dungeons, but the actual exploration itself is made a bit easier by the fact that player speed will no longer be affected by difficult terrain. Since Elden Ring contains the most varied amount of swamps in any FromSoftware game yet, this is a welcome bonus.
Elden Ring's New Game Plus does not add any extra items, enemies, or quests!
The sense of power that comes from smashing through early-game bosses in Elden Ring's NG+ mode simply cannot be understated. Check out the video below from GameRanx on YouTube to get a feel for just how different a NG+ run in Elden Ring is:
Starting Elden Ring Over Completely
Starting the game from scratch means a fresher, more unique journey, and there is a certain irreplaceable charm to surviving as a lower-level character, when Elden Ring is so difficult it basically functions as a survival horror experience. Though NG+ is the more productive option, many who replay the game are looking for a fresh start. As noted, there are no new enemies or items in Elden Ring's New Game Plus, so these players will not be missing anything.
Any player who primarily wants to ramp up the difficulty, or who just wants more to grow even more powerful, should go with Elden Ring's NG+. Also, there is something to be said for the sense of progression one gets from carrying their old character over to a more difficult playthrough. There is no real end to the NG+ cycle, as players can carry their lowly Tarnished over infinite times to try and hit Elden Ring's level cap, but the illusion of progress is important when restarting a game that's so vast and complex.
-
Elden Ring
- Released:
- 2022-02-25
- Developer:
- FromSoftware
- Genre:
- Action, RPG
- Platform:
- PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
- Publisher:
- Bandai Namco Entertainment
- ESRB:
- M
- Expansion Packs :
- The Colosseum
- How Long To Beat:
- 56 Hours
