Starfield New Game Plus explained

Starfield New Game Plus is unique way to start your game over without losing everything, but it's so different that you might want to double check what it actually does before you go into it.

Having completed Starfield and launched its NG+ mode myself, I can explain everything you need to know, including how to start New Game Plus, exactly which items and how progress carries over, and what the story implications are. If it seems like a lot, there is a decent benefit to starting again - you get a really cool spaceship and spacesuit. If you want them, here's everything you need to know about Starfield NG+.

How Starfield New Game Plus works

The Starfield New Game Plus option has some strong narrative implications, so I'll cover the spoilers further below. The non-spoiler version is that, once you've completed the main story, you'll be given the choice to build something on your ship. Once you do, the next Grav Jump you make triggers the Starfield ending - and a choice about NG+.

If you choose to accept, you can go to the Lodge and speak with Sarah at the start of your new game, and you'll be given the choice of resetting the main campaign or not. Either way, all other progress in the world is reset. Basically, you can choose whether you want to start from scratch and explore the world and its side quests only, or replay the entire story - perhaps to experience new outcomes.

What carries over in Starfield New Game Plus?

Here's everything that carries over in Starfield NG+, and everything that doesn't: 

• Does carry over in Starfield NG+:
  • Powers
  • Skills and skill challenge progression
  • Achievements
  • Main campaign progress (if you choose to)
• Doesn't carry over to Starfield NG+:
  • Equipment, items and weapons
  • Money/credits
  • Spaceships
  • Side mission, Faction mission and Activity progression
  • Outposts and homes
  • Main campaign progress (if you choose not to)

Effectively, the only thing that carries over 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. Although that doesn't mean you're starting NG+ with nothing…

Starfield new Game Plus ship and spacesuit

New Game Plus starts players off with three physical possessions: the starting Frontier ship you get 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 - especially as, stripped of all your possessions, it'll likely be a while before you make the Starfield money to build anything that could rival it.

The Starfield new game plus Starborn spacesuit, on the other hand, has a real claim to being the best suit in the game. It provides incredibly high defense and fantastic buffs you can see 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).

What NG+ means for the story

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. We're about to talk about the Starfield ending and beyond.

In context, Starfield New Game Plus it isn't really a new campaign, it's actually a continuation of the existing one. The story of Starfield revolves around discovering that the "Unity" is an alien construct, one that all the Artifacts in the game lead to. Once you've used them to build a completed Starfield Armillary it can be used to warp to the Unity… which is where things get complicated.

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). So Starfield's New Game Plus simply means travelling to another universe and starting over.

At the same time, elements of your character's behaviour and personality get left behind according to what you did and the choices you made. This subtly influences the reality you leave behind, leaving a lasting legacy that might represent freedom,  exploration, justice and so on.

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.

Once you've completed New Game Plus, you can then begin the cycle all over again, and each later playthrough results in a different outcome. We won't spoil all the details, but certain characters and story events will play out differently, and 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.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission