How to Start New Game Plus in God of War & What It Changes
One of PS4’s best-selling exclusives, God of War, just received a long-anticipated New Game Plus mode in the form of a patch, and it’s one of the game’s biggest updates to date. If you’ve been itching to jump back into the world of Midgard, now is the time. Not only does New Game Plus allow you to relive the first adventure of Kratos and Atreus, but it adds some new things to differentiate itself from the first time you played. Here’s how to start New Game Plus and what it changes.
This might seem obvious, but you can’t start New Game Plus until you’ve completed the game from start to credits at least once. On top of that, you must have a save file that shows you’ve beaten the game. If you’ve done that, you should see the option to start New Game Plus on the main menu screen — on the same screen that New Game and Continue are on. Simply click New Game Plus and you’re in for round two.
This mode brings with it all the standards of any new game plus mode. You’ll still have all of the armor, talismans, abilities, stats and more from your original run through and you’ll have them right at the start of the game. To compensate for that, though, right out of the gate, the enemies you encounter will be tougher and will only continue to grow in strength as you continue on. And, much like many new game plus modes, in God of War’s, players are free to skip past any and every cinematic they wish to.
There are some new things for players looking for something different in this playthrough. The first thing you’ll likely notice is the introduction of a new resource for Kratos to collect. Dubbed Skap Slag, this new resource can be brought to Brok or Sindri where, after you’ve collected enough, they’ll build you new pieces of gear with the new rarity-level of Perfect. Some of these gear pieces come with abilities not seen in the game before, such as a chest piece that causes a massive AOE explosion whenever Kratos uses a Health or Rage stone. On top of this new gear, you can convert certain talismans and armor sets into enchantments, creating combinations that you couldn’t before.
Beyond armor, enemies received some changes as well. Everyone’s favorite enemies, the Valkyries, have some new moves for you to learn, which is great because they totally weren’t nearly impossible to defeat already (okay okay, it was possible but man, it was hard). Realm Tears, like the Valkyries, present a new level of difficulty in that now there are timed Realm Tears, meaning not only do you have to defeat every enemy that comes forth, but you must do it in a set amount of time.
And finally, and possibly one of the coolest additions is the new shield skin players unlock when starting New Game Plus. Even cooler, if those capable of beating the game on “Give Me God of War+” difficulty do so, they’ll earn an exclusive shield skin that lets the entire world know they did the (nearly) impossible.
That’s all you need to know about how to start new game plus in God of War. For more on the game, be sure to search for Twinfinite.
