Elden Ring is fast shaping up to be one of the early contenders for the Game of the Year title, and many players will have already beaten the game and be wondering just what carries over into the next New Game Plus cycle. Players familiar with FromSoftware games know that its titles often feature New Game Plus cycles designed to encourage players to carry on playing once they've finished with the game. They also often feature multiple endings to further encourage this replaying, and Elden Ring is no exception to this. Although it may not be a worry just yet for many players, given how long Elden Ring takes to complete, given the diversity of playstyles and classes, Elden Ring will likely be attractive to many players seeking to journey The Lands Between once more.
Elden Ring is the latest installment from developer FromSoftware in what is commonly referred to as the Soulsborne series, a collection of franchises by FromSoftware with several core mechanics and features in common. Elden Ring features the familiar mechanics of gaining a currency, this time called Runes, from defeating enemies and bosses which can then be spent in shops or used to level up the player character, allowing access to new weapons and abilities. However, Elden Ring is the first FromSoftware title to feature an open world and map pieces to collect, meaning it will be a little while before players get to see just how big Elden Ring's map is.
Thankfully, all map pieces and locations discovered will carry over to the NG+ cycle, although any graces will have to be reactivated to be available for fast travel. The player will also retain any weapons, armor, and talismans they had collected, incantations and sorceries learned, as well as the various crafting cookbooks and most of the items in the player's inventory. The exceptions to this rule are any story-related items, such as keys for dungeons or anything else that could be used to advance the story such as Great Runes or Medallion pieces. This means players can't bypass dungeons to ride the Grand Lift of Dectus early in Elden Ring or enter Raya Lucaria without collecting the Glintstone Key again.
This news will likely be a relief to many players who would be put off by the thought of having to collect their gear over again for another run through the game. As with previous FromSoft titles such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne, Elden Ring's New Game Plus mode will also scale up the enemies' stats, although this does mean that in turn, the player can expect to receive more runes from defeating enemies in New Game Plus. Although this likely won't make much difference to one player, who defeated a hacker in Elden Ring and earned millions of runes in the game's PvP combat.
With the notorious difficulty of Elden Ring, many players would be forgiven for not wanting to put themselves through another cycle against even stronger versions of the bosses they have already faced, but for those who want to test themselves further, they will be happy to know that the game makes this easier to do. It's unknown yet if there are any rewards locked behind New Game Plus cycles, as there were hidden in some of the Dark Souls titles. Players are already speculating around the game's future, with one modder discovering an out-of-bounds coliseum that could be Elden Ring DLC.
