Starfield New Game Plus is unique take on the common mechanic that allows players to start their game over without losing everything, though it's a bit confusing and might throw some players for a loop. Having completed Starfield and launched into its NG+ mode, I'll explain everything you need to know about the concept, including how to start New Game Plus, what progress and items do and don't carry over into the next playthrough, and what its implications for the story are - be aware that there's a cool spaceship and spacesuit in it for you too. Here's everything you need to know about Starfield New Game Plus.
How Starfield New Game Plus works
The Starfield New Game Plus option has its own narrative implications, so I'll explain the spoilery stuff much further below. In short, once you've completed the main story of Starfield, you'll have the choice to build something (clearly marked out and explained) within your ship - and when that's done, using the Grav Jump will lock you into the final scene and the choice about New Game Plus.
After the credits and new game plus begins, you can go to the Lodge and speak with Sarah, where you'll get a choice about whether you want to restart/reset the main campaign or not (this will also be clearly marked). All other progress in the world is reset.
What carries over in New Game Plus in Starfield?
Starfield NG+ carries over a few elements, but not as many as you might hope. Here's everything that carries over - and everything that doesn't.
- Carries over to NG+
- Powers
- Skills and skill challenge progression
- Achievements
- Main campaign progress (if you choose as above)
- Doesn't carry over to NG+
- All equipment, items and weapons
- Money/credits
- Spaceships
- Side mission, Faction mission and Activity progression
- Main campaign progress (if you choose not to)
- Outposts and homes
Effectively, the only thing that makes the transition to New Game Plus in Starfield is you and everything inherent to your physical being - your Starfield powers and the various Starfield skills you've earned along your previous journey. Anything not hardwired into your body or brain doesn't carry over - though that doesn't mean you're starting NG+ with nothing…
New Game Plus ship and spacesuit
New Game Plus starts players off with only three physical possessions: the starting Frontier ship you get from Barrett at the beginning of Starfield, as well as two new items that can only be obtained by starting NG+:
- Starborn Guardian spaceship
- Starborn Spacesuit Astra (and built in Boostpack)
The Starborn spaceship is the same sort of ship you've seen across the campaign so far, shown in the image above. It's very good, though maybe not the best ship in the game, and cannot be modified in any way through Starfield ship customization. It's got a very unique look and is a great starting ship for a new campaign - it'll likely be a while before you make the Starfield money to build anything that can come close to rivalling it - but it's probably not the best craft you can see in the sky.
The Starborn spacesuit, on the other hand, has a real claim to being the best spacesuit in the game. It provides incredibly high defense and fantastic buffs as seen above, as well as having a built-in Balanced Boostpack for aerial traversal (though it does prevent you from wearing a different pack while you have this suit equipped).
We're now going to discuss the plot implications and ideas behind NG+ in Starfield, so this is the big spoiler warning from which there is no going back, as we'll be talking about the ending of Starfield - and beyond.
Later playthroughs
Once you complete new game plus, you can begin the cycle again, and later playthroughs result in different variations. We won't spoil all the details, but certain characters and story events will play out differently, players will get different Starborn weapons and armor when they begin certain cycles, all to help keep things fresh and remind you that this is a different reality from the one before. More dramatic variations seem to trigger in later playthroughs, so keep leaping through universes to find some more notable distinctions.
New Game Plus in Starfield explained
New Game Plus in Starfield is a very strange thing, because in context it isn't really a new campaign - it's just the continuation of the existing one. Throughout the story of Starfield, your character discovers that the "Unity" is an alien construct, one that all the Artifacts in the game are leading to. Once you've used them to build a completed Starfield Armillary, that can be used to warp to the Unity… which is where things get complicated.
To explain, the Unity itself is a device by which people can access other universes in the Multiverse. Every time somebody finds the Unity, they become "Starborn" and get catapulted to the next universe. Now in a fresh reality, they then get the chance to repeat this process and seek the Unity again (if they so wish). That's what New Game Plus is - your character simply travelling to another universe and getting the chance to re-experience their existence in a new way.
At the same time, some element of your character's nature and personality gets left behind, that subtly influences the reality even as you leave it, a lasting legacy that might represent freedom or exploration or justice.
Hence the choice about the resetting the story campaign: if you want to, you can tell Sarah and the other members of Constellation the truth about who you are, explaining your origins as a newly-formed Starborn and multiversal explorer, which effectively skips over the campaign of Starfield - after all, they don't need to go finding answers when you're able to immediately provide them all. Alternatively, you can feign ignorance and pretend to be just an average schmoe like you were last time, and relive the campaign all over again.
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