If you’ve finally mended the Elden Ring, or perhaps burned the world to a cinder, you’re likely staring at that “Begin Journey 2” prompt with a mix of pride and trepidation.
Personally, I’ve held off for over a year out of fear of losing elements of my hard work. But, it hasn’t actually been that bad at all.
In the world of Elden Ring, New Game Plus (NG+) isn’t just a victory lap; it’s a high-stakes recalibration of everything you thought you knew about the Lands Between.
Whether you’re chasing a different ending or just want to bully Margit with an endgame build, here is how the transition to your next cycle actually works.
Stepping into Journey 2
The transition doesn’t happen by accident.
Once the credits roll, the game gives you a choice: dive straight back in or stay in your current world to finish some business. If you choose to linger, you can trigger the restart whenever you’re ready by visiting the Table of Lost Grace at the Roundtable
Hold. It’s worth noting that once you commit, there is no going back; your world state is wiped clean, and you’re back in the Chapel of Anticipation, ready to face the Grafted Scion once more.
Quick note of pride: I slapped the Grafted Scion about like there’s no tomorrow. Bearing in mind I’d forgotten all of the controls, and barely remembered what my build was supposed to do. Starting the game at Level 143 feels great!
What Stays in Your Pockets
The beauty of Elden Ring’s NG+ is that you retain the vast majority of your power. Your character level, stats, and every piece of armour or weaponry you’ve upgraded stay exactly where they are.
This includes your Sorceries, Incantations, and those precious Flask upgrades. Even your DLC progress from Shadow of the Erdtree is respected, as your Scadutree Blessings and Revered Spirit Ash levels carry over to ensure you aren’t starting from scratch in the Land of Shadow.
You even get to keep Torrent from the jump, saving you a trip to Melina’s first rendezvous.
Seeing everything there from the get go just calmed me down a little. Knowing how much effort I’d put in to the initial run of the game. Seeing it disappear would have been awful. But everything is there, and now it means I can re-discover Elden Ring with a different lense.
The Great Reset
While your strength remains, your world progress does not. To keep the gameplay loop meaningful, FromSoftware strips away your “Keys to the Kingdom.”
This means all Great Runes earned from Shardbearers vanish, requiring you to hunt down Godrick and Radahn all over again to reclaim their power. Most quest-specific items and keys—like the Dectus Medallion or Stonesword Keys—are also removed from your inventory.
While the map remains filled in, your Sites of Grace are deactivated, meaning you’ll have to physically travel to locations again to unlock fast travel.
Fortunately, core Bell Bearings for Smithing Stones now persist across journeys, so you won’t have to farm mining tunnels just to experiment with a new sword.
Truth be told, I’m looking forward to re-discovering the sites of grace and feeling as over-powered as I can for a while.
The Power Creep
Scaling is where things get interesting. In Journey 2, enemies receive a significant bump in both health and damage output.
However, this scaling isn’t uniform. Early-game enemies in Limgrave receive a massive percentage boost to stay relevant against your high-level character, whereas late-game bosses in the Mountaintops of the Giants see a much smaller increase.
I was initially mortified that the Tree Sentinel and even random soldiers were taking a bit more effort than I’d expected. But nothing has been “hard” per se. Just not as much of a cake walk as I’d anticipated.
To compensate for the tougher fights, the Rune rewards are astronomical; basic mobs in the starting area can drop five times as many Runes as they did in your first run. This difficulty continues to climb with every subsequent journey until it hits a ceiling at Journey 8 (NG+7).
The Next Build
Playing through the game again, with gear, stats and knowledge. It’s time to re-spec and play differently. I’m torn between some of the harder-earned gear and just doing more of the same again with my Rivers of Blood build.
I need to re-spec, regardless, as my initial character build was made up on the go, trying to use certain weapons. So I have a lot more potential to get out of things anyway.
Dark Moon Great Sword calls to me, but so does Malekith’s Black Blade, or maybe even just a magic-focused character. It’s amazing to have the choice, though, right? Time to enjoy the fruits of that first run.
One faux pas that I’ve made is that to re-spec you have to do it after defeating Rennala. Which was fine in my original run. But now I need to work back to defeating her, so I can re-spec again. You don’t get the chance to respec at the start of a new run. This is crucial! Next time, I’ll re-spec before the next journey. I can make do with the build I initially finished the game with, though. Plus it gives me more time to think about how I want to play next.
Elden Ring
It’s exciting to be able to have a fresh start. With a handful of achievements to still accomplish (including additional endings), there’s a lot to go at in Elden Ring. Plus, I want to get Shadow of the Erdtree finished, as well.
I love a lot of games and aspire to re-play many of them. But very few stick like Elden Ring has, and I’m already looking-up builds, gear locations and bosses I need to go and beat.
Elden Ring is one of the best games of all time, and re-starting it isn’t daunting, it’s exciting. That’s the mark of a good game. I don’t feel dread when thinking about re-doing areas and bosses. I want to see how it all feels now.
New Game Plus isn’t something I’d normally do, but it feels perfect right now. So let’s see how it goes.
