New Game Plus: What Carries Over and What Resets

What New Game Plus is for

The main reason to start another cycle is to revisit the story with an established Arisen. It gives you another opportunity to approach quests differently, complete content you missed and try a different party setup. Those opportunities come from replaying the campaign, rather than from preserving the current campaign's completed quest checklist.

Think of the character and the story as separate parts of the save. Your earned development can continue into the next cycle, while the world returns to the beginning of its narrative progression. This distinction explains why keeping your level does not also keep Brant's investigations completed or every destination ready to use.

Character progression that carries over

The research supports carrying over your level and vocation development. Gold and Rift Crystals also belong to the retained progression described by the carry-over guides. You therefore do not need to rebuild every aspect of the character as though you had chosen a completely fresh start.

Retained development is useful when you want to experiment with another approach to the same story. It does not remove the need to perform quest prerequisites in the new cycle. A capable Arisen can still encounter an unavailable conversation because the story event that unlocks it has not happened yet in this playthrough.

Inventory and quest-item exceptions

Most non-quest inventory carries over, but quest-specific items are exceptions. Avoid planning a quest shortcut around an item merely because you possessed it before the restart. The important distinction is whether the item belongs to your general equipment and resources or to a particular story objective.

Before confirming the next cycle, review any unfinished quest that depends on an item you currently hold. Complete the objective if you want its outcome in the present run. Carry-over is not a guarantee that a partially completed investigation or its required evidence will remain ready for immediate submission after the story resets.

Where to look for retained equipment

After the opening sequence, check inn storage for retained equipment. An Arisen appearing without familiar gear during the opening is not enough to conclude that the inventory was deleted. The historical carry-over walkthroughs explicitly distinguish that early presentation from retrieving equipment once the appropriate services become available.

Use storage as the first practical check before assuming that New Game Plus has lost your build. Review the retained items and equip pieces compatible with the vocation you are using. If something still seems missing, separate an ordinary item from a quest item before comparing it with the carry-over rules.

What happens to story and side quests?

Story progression resets, and the new cycle gives you a new sequence of quest opportunities. This includes repeating the relevant prerequisites for investigations, optional chains and other objectives. A quest completed in the previous cycle is part of that previous story outcome, rather than an automatically completed entry in the new one.

Unfinished objectives are the most important consideration before restarting. If you are midway through a rescue or evidence search, choosing another cycle abandons that current state. Decide whether you want to finish the present objective or deliberately revisit it later, instead of expecting a restart to pause the quest and resume it unchanged.

Portable Portcrystals must be placed again

Portable Portcrystal deployment needs to be rebuilt for the new story cycle. A travel plan based on the positions you created in the previous run should therefore be reviewed after restarting. Retaining character progression does not mean that every player-created world object remains in its former location.

Keep a note of useful destinations if you want to recreate your earlier travel network. That is a planning aid, not a claim that all fixed or portable destinations are automatically available from the opening. Check the current world state and the crystals you actually have before relying on a remembered shortcut.

New Game, New Game Plus and carry-over restart

New Game is the fresh-start choice, while completed-game New Game Plus retains developed progression for another story cycle. The newer carry-over restart option is another action with its own confirmation and story-reset consequences. Similar wording on a title screen should not be treated as permission to select any of them interchangeably.

Read the exact message presented by the action you choose. If the goal is to keep your developed character, confirm that the selected option explicitly supports that intention. If the goal is to finish a current quest first, do that before choosing a reset; retained levels do not protect unfinished story objectives.

Does New Game Plus automatically mean Hard Mode?

Hard Mode is a separate free mode introduced after the launch-era carry-over guides were written. The presence of New Game Plus alone is not a reason to describe the next cycle as Hard. Decide on story replay and difficulty as separate questions, using the current settings and confirmation screens.

Likewise, the available material does not establish automatic enemy scaling for every new cycle. A guide that predates current updates cannot settle all current difficulty behavior. Use New Game Plus for its supported carry-over and story-reset functions rather than assuming an unverified scaling formula or a universal difficulty increase.

A practical decision before starting the next cycle

Review the current quest journal, retrieve the information you want to keep and identify the travel placements you would like to recreate. Then decide whether a retained-character replay serves your goal better than continuing the present campaign. These checks are especially useful when the attraction of another cycle is one specific missed quest.

Once the restart is confirmed, expect to re-establish the story context rather than resume at your last investigation. Check inn storage when available, rebuild portable travel placements and follow the opening until your intended content becomes accessible. That sequence uses what carries over while respecting what resets, which is the central distinction behind New Game Plus.

Common questions

Is my developed character retained? Level, vocation development, gold, Rift Crystals and most non-quest inventory carry into the researched replay cycle. That retained development is separate from the story and quest progression that reset. Check the selected title-screen option before accepting it, especially when your intention differs from a completely fresh start.

Why is my familiar equipment not equipped at the opening? Check inn storage after the opening sequence before assuming the retained equipment has disappeared. The early presentation and the later retrieval are different stages in the carry-over walkthroughs. Equip the retrieved items for the vocation you actually select rather than treating inventory retention as automatic loadout readiness.

Can I keep all my old travel placements? Portable Portcrystals need to be positioned again in the new story cycle. Keep notes of useful former placements if you want to rebuild a similar network. Retaining the character does not establish that every destination or player-created travel point is already available from the new opening.