Elden Ring New Game Plus explained (original) (raw)

Here's everything that carries over, all new items and how to start New Game+ for Elden Ring.

Image credit: Eurogamer/FromSoftware

New Game Plus (NG+) refers to a new Elden Ruing run following the completion of the main story. Maybe you are on your first NG+ run, or grinding in prep for the Erdtree DLC, either way, here's everything you need to know about Elden Ring's New Game Plus.

A New Game Plus playthrough is associated with various changes in the game, allowing you to take certain items and progress with you, while losing other things and having to find them again. This is no different for Elden Ring. You don't start from scratch as most of your equipment will carry over.

Follow our guide to New Game Plus in Elden Ring to find out how to start it, what changes there are, what you can and can't keep plus other details.

On this page:

• Elden Ring New Game Plus explained
• What you should do before starting New Game Plus
• What changes for New Game Plus?
• What carries over to New Game Plus?
• What is lost for New Game Plus?

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Elden Ring New Game Plus explained

This feature is similar to previous Souls games. After you have defeated the final boss and selected an ending, a message appears asking whether you want to switch directly to New Game Plus or not.

• If so, you will start the game from the beginning with most of your equipment (see below). This decision cannot be reversed.
• If not, the game will return to a state before the final boss and you can start the new run at the Roundtable Hold at any time.

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What you should do before starting New Game Plus in Elden Ring

Of course, everyone has their own personal list of goals and rituals, especially if you've played Dark Souls, Bloodborne and the like. Elden Ring is no different in that respect. Nevertheless, here is a small list of things that are advisable to do before starting New Game Plus:

• Collect as many upgrade materials as you need or as the game allows, and use them to upgrade your weapons and spirit ashes as much as possible. This includes, among other things:
  • Smithing Stones
  • Somber Smithing Stones
  • Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones
  • Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones
  • Sacred Tears
  • Golden Seeds
  • Grave and Ghost Gloveworts
• Farm runes and level up your character as far as you want, as the most rewarding farming points from earlier on in the game are inaccessible for the time being after starting a New Game Plus.
• If you wish, buy everything you can from the merchants.
• If you have any leftover Bell Bearings, hand them in to the Twin Maiden Husks merchant to expand their shop with new items, as you will lose these when starting a New Game Plus.
• Find all prayerbooks and scrolls for spells and collect all the Dragon Hearts to buy the powerful dragon-based incantations.
• Collect all Larval Tears available for later rebirths.
• Collect all Deathroots and hand them in at the Bestial Sanctum to receive all of Gurranq's rewards.

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• Collect all Stonesword Keys and open the imp statue seals to find special items.
• If you like, you can kill all the NPCs that are no longer needed and loot their equipment (in NG+ they're back to their best anyway).
• If you want to dual-wield the same boss weapon in your left and right hands, then exchange all your Remembrances with Enia, as you can only obtain one copy of each boss weapon per playthrough.
• Find the seven Walking Mausoleums and bring them to a halt in order to duplicate your current number of Remembrances.
• Find all the paintings and the rewards in the places they represent.
• Obtain all Crystal Tears to obtain as many Flasks of Wondrous Physick as possible.
• Collect all Memory Stones (8), Perfume Bottles (10), Talisman Pouches (3), Cracked Pots (20) and Ritual Pots (10).
• Get more useful equipment by collecting all Talismans, Crafting Kits, Spirit Ashes, Ashes of War, Whetblades and whatever else comes to mind.
• If you plan to play a character with different stats in NG+, you should first perform a rebirth with Rennala beforehand, as you'll need to defeat her again in your new game.

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What changes for New Game Plus in Elden Ring?

Here's everything that changes for New Game Plus in Elden Ring:

• Enemies and bosses drop more runes and deal more damage. Early bosses provide us with significantly more runes (up to 5x as many), while later bosses can still provide around x2 as many.
• The enemies and bosses have more HP and are correspondingly much tougher when you fight them in NG+.
• There are no new enemies or items (such as in Dark Souls 2). All +1 and +2 Talismans are still available, though equipping the same Talisman twice won't work.

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What carries over to New Game Plus in Elden Ring?

Here's everything that carries over to New Game Plus in Elden Ring:

• Your character level and runes.
• All weapons, their upgrades, all armour, upgrade materials and non-quest items.
• All magic spells and incantations, as well as the necessary Staffs and Sacred Seals.
• All crafting manuals, together with the Crafting Kit from Kalé and all Crafting Materials.
• All Talismans and Talisman Pouches. The Talismans reappear in NG+, but cannot be equipped twice.
• Your horse, Torrent, can be used right from the start.
• The world map remains visible, but you must find all Map Fragments again, and reactivate Sites of Grace before they're available for fast travel.
• Invasions by other players that are within the level range.

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• Boss Remembrances carry over, but they can only be duplicated once you've defeated the corresponding boss again.
• Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears remain in your inventory and reappear in the game world.
• You also keep the Flasks of Wondrous Physick and Crystal Tears. Tears that have already been collected will not reappear in the world.
• Stonesword keys remain in the inventory and reappear in the world.
• Memory Stones to increase your number of spell slots are retained, but don't reappear in the world.
• All Whetblades, Cracked Pots, Ritual Pots and Perfume Bottles remain intact and do not reappear (not even at merchants who have sold them).
• You keep all Dragon Hearts, Rune Arcs, Starlight Shards, Larval Tears, Spirit Ashes, Ashes of War, Celestial Dew (all of these items will also appear in the world)
• Items that are not related to progress in the world are retained: e.g. Margit's Shackle, Telescope, Spirit Calling Bell, Blasphemous Claw and others.
• You keep the notes from the merchants and the Gestures you find.

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What is lost for New Game Plus in Elden Ring?

You keep the majority of your inventory, but some items will not be transferred (usually those related to your progress in sidequests). Here's the full list of what doesn't carry over in New Game Plus in Elden Ring:

• All Site of Grace are deactivated and must be rediscovered in order to be able to use fast travel again.
• All Bell Bearings are lost and must be found again before you can hand them in to the Twin Maiden Husks to buy their corresponding items.
• All Great Runes dropped by demigods Godrick, Rennala, Radahn, Rykard, Morgott, Mohg and Malenia. These must be found again, and it also applies to the two Great Runes required to reach and enter Leyndell, the Royal Capital.
• Quest-related items, such as the Academy Glintstone Key, the Dectus Medallion Halves, Miquella's Needle, the Pureblood Knight's Medal, and all keys used for unlocking passages.
• All Mending Runes, which unlock alternative endings.
• All NPC quests and the progress made in them are reset and must be completed again.

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That's everything you need to know! We hope you enjoy delving back into Elden Ring through New Game Plus.

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