Once you’ve completed your journeys in the Lands Between and become Elden Lord, what else is there to do? If you’re still hungry for more adventures, then jumping into New Game+ (NG+) will be the best option until the DLC comes out. So what changes in NG+? And what should you do to prepare for it?
It’s not an easy task, but if you’re looking to get into NG+ with the best start, we’ve made a list of what you should do before you pass over into the ‘Plus’ realm.
Wondering bosses stand out the most in Elden Ring? Check our list of the Best Bosses RANKED.
What is New Game+ and What do I keep?
New Game+ will start you at the beginning of the game again. But this time, enemies are stronger and drop more runes.
If you’re wondering what you keep and what you don’t, here’s a quick list:
What Carries Over:
- Weapons
- Armor
- Perfume Bottles, Memory Stones, Talisman Pouches, Pots
- Consumable Items
- Talismans
- Flask Upgrades
- Physick Crystals
- Gestures
- Map fragments and map markers
What Doesn’t Carry Over:
- Greater Runes
- Quest items
- Bell Bearings
- Sites of Grace
Get All The Map Pieces
Sites of Grace don’t carry over, but the map does. Before you start NG+, make sure you’ve finished the map so you can easily navigate around and find all of the Sites of Grace again.
If there are Sites of Grace you want to make sure you’ll find again, then add a marker to the map for where they are because those will carry over into the next game. This way you’ll know exactly where that Site of Grace is in NG+.
Larval Tears And Respec-ing
If you plan on using a new build in NG+, I’d recommend you respec your Tarnished (meaning to redistribute all of your levels and points) in your current playthrough. To do so, just head over to Renala and give her a Larval Tear. You’ll then get the option to reallocate points into whatever stats you want up.
If you start NG+ first before you respec, you’ll have to work your way back to Renala just to play the build you actually want to use.
There are 18 Larval Tears in total in each playthrough, so be sure to collect all of them before you move on to NG+.
Stockpile Smithing Stones
Since Bell Bearings don’t carry over, you’ll have to wait until you acquire the Bearings again to fully upgrade weapons in NG+. As a result, before you start a new game, stock up on each of the Smithing Stones while you still have access to them in the store. That way you can level up new weapons you want to use up to +24.
On the note of Smithing Stones, in each playthrough there are 13 Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones and eight Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones. Try to collect them all before moving on to NG+.
These items are used to upgrade a weapon to its max level. +25 is the max for regular weapons with Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones, and +10 is the max for special weapons through Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones.
Gloveworts
Just like Smithing Stones, if you plan on upgrading summons then now is the time to stockpile all the Grave and Ghost Gloveworts you’ll need.
If you want your summons to reach their max level of +10, then make sure to also get all of the Great Grave and Great Ghost Gloveworts in each run. There are six total in each game.
Paintings
Paintings don’t carry over. Make sure you do these puzzles first before you head into NG+, otherwise you’ll have to find the paintings all over again before you can do their puzzles.
All Gold Seeds and Sacred Tears
Make sure your flasks are maxed out at 14 charges and your Sacred Tears are maxed out at +12. If you aren’t, it’s okay, these items do respawn in NG+ but your playthrough will be infinitely easier if you max out your flask now while you have access to the entire map.
There are 30 Golden Seeds and 12 Sacred Tears in each play through.
Find All Key Items
- 20 Cracked Pots
- 10 Ritual Pots
- 10 Perfume Bottles
- 8 Memory Stones
- 3 Talisman Pouches
Along with the Cookbooks, these are useful to have in NG+ just so you have the option to craft everything you need and equip whatever you want.
Whetblades
There are six Whetblades to collect. These are:
- Whetstone Knife
- Iron Whetblade
- Glintstone Whetblade
- Red-Hot Whetblade
- Sanctified Whetblade
- Black Whetblade
These items will help you customize your weapons by changing their affinity to whatever you want regardless of what Ash of War you equip to them. That way, in your next run, you’ll have more options to figure out exactly what you want to build and what weapon you want to use.
Remembrances And Walking Mausoleums
There are 15 Remembrances and only seven Walking Mausoleums in each game. Five of these Mausoleums have bells and two of them do not have bells. Mausoleums with bells are capable of duplicating any Remembrance once, while Mausoleums without bells can’t duplicate demigod remembrances.
Before you start NG+, make sure you use each of these Mausoleums to duplicate the Remembrances you might use. This is especially useful if you plan on dual-wielding any boss weapons in NG+ since you can only redeem each remembrance for one boss weapon in each game. So to dual-wield those boss weps, you’ll need to duplicate the remembrance in your first run, trade the remembrance for the weapon you want, then start NG+ and trade the duplicated remembrance for that same weapon again.
Varre’s Quest and Invasions
If you haven’t finished Varre’s quest and haven’t killed Mohg, Lord of Blood, then now is the perfect time to do that. Part of that quest is to invade other players. While NG+ won’t inherently affect who you can invade, your level and weapon upgrades will. Elden Ring tries to match you with players who have a similar Rune and Weapon Level.
Players have been reporting that past level 150 is when the pool of players you can invade starts to shrink, and it’s very easy to level past that in NG+. So before you hop into your second run or level past 150, get some invasions in and finish anything that’s reliant on invasions happening.
Want more out of your Elden Ring adventures? Check out our list for the Best Ashes of War and How to Parry like a Pro.
