For those that have either just finished The Witcher 3 or are thinking about returning for another journey across The Continent, New Game Plus offers the opportunity to experience the game again with all the gear you accumulated the first time through — though setting up the mode isn’t all that clear. Here’s how to start New Game Plus in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt if you’re struggling.
How to Start New Game Plus in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt
It goes without saying that the mode will only work if you’ve completed the game once already. It doesn’t matter which difficulty you played through or if you’ve played the expansions, but you certainly will need to have beaten the main campaign once.
You will also need to make sure you’ve downloaded the free New Game Plus DLC if you never did when it launched back in 2015 (the Game of the Year edition has it included as standard).
From there, the only other must-do is to make sure you have saved your game post-credits. Now you can quit your old game and return to the main menu.
To do so, hit “New Game” and then choose your Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings save simulation as usual. Once you have done so a new option will then appear asking whether you would like to play “New Game +,” which you obviously want to select as “ON.”
Let’s recap with a step-by-step so there’s no confusion:
Time needed: 1 minute
To sum up how to start new game plus in The Witcher 3.
- Finish The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on any difficulty.
- If you don’t have the Game of the Year version and never downloaded the free New Game + DLC, go to your storefront (PS Store, Xbox Live, Steam, etc) and download it.
- Once you have rolled credits on your first playthrough, make a save file. You can now exit the game and return to the main menu.
- Start a new game, choose your difficulty and Witcher 2 simulation save, then select “ON” when prompted as to whether you want to run “New Game +”
What’s Different in New Game Plus & What Do You Keep?
New Game Plus will give you the following perks:
- Keep Geralt’s level as it was at the end of your first playthrough
- All Geralt’s unlocked skills available
- All non-quest items, such as consumables, ingredients, and materials
- All Geralt’s weapons & gear from the previous playthrough
In terms of what it changes, suggested difficulty levels for all quests and the levels of monsters are increased by at least 25 levels. To help balance this out, all levels of dropped equipment and items are increased, too. All of the various ‘School’ gear also gets turned into ‘Legendary’ variants to reflect their levels have been ramped up.
That is everything you need to know about New Game Plus in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.
If you’re interested in more content on the franchise, you may be interested to know that The Witcher 3 has seen a big resurgence in players since the launch of Netflix’s adaptation. And if you’re enjoying that series then here are 6 characters from The Witcher 3 we think are likely to show up in season 2.
