Soulslike gamesare all about learning and advancing as a player, more than advancing as a character. Success relies on honing reflexes and learning to anticipate boss attacks. By playing through a game likeDark SoulsorElden Ring, players build up a unique skill set to help them take down the title’s massive challenges.
After conquering the odds and beating the final boss, mostplayers will want a new opportunityto put their hard-earned skills to the test. That’s why many soulslike games offer a New Game+ mode, letting fans go through the game with all their weapons and skills and face even greater challenges than ever before. Of course, that doesn’t mean the second playthrough is a walk in the park. Here are the hardest New Game+ offerings in the soulslike genre.
Dark Souls 3is a perfect ending to the iconic trilogy, beautifully illustrating the Age of Fire’s tragic end. The game has an air of finality about it, but it’s also engaging enough that fans will want to play through multiple times. This way, players can seek different endings andexperiment with new weapons.
New Game+ mode is an excellent way to do this, but it comes with a fair share of risks. Enemies' health and damage increase in each subsequent New Game+ adventure. From NG+2 onward, enemies also take reduced poise damage, making them harder to stagger. To even out the difficulty, players in New Game+ earn increased souls from defeated enemies, and can find more powerful rings as well.
Bloodbornehas one of the most dedicated fanbases in the gaming industry. Almost a decade after it came out, fans are stillclamoring for a remaster or rerelease. Since Sony and FromSoftware have remained silent on the topic, fans have had to content themselves with New Game+ instead.
Enemies inBloodborne’s New Game+ mode have increased health and damage output, but not everyone is buffed equally. Enemies in earlier sections of the game get more buffs than later foes, making for a more even experience. Players also get to keep workshop tools, letting them upgrade and modify their weapons and runes right off the bat.
Lords of the Fallentakes a lot of inspiration fromDark Souls, and that holds true in New Game+ as well. Like inDark Souls,Lords of the Fallen’s New Game+ increases the damage dealt by enemies and the health they have. Players get to keep most of their gear, but boss remembrances do not carry over, forcing players to kill those foes again in order to unlock the benefits.
Of course, some players may find the added challenge too intense and seek an alternative way to replay the game. Luckily,Lords of the Fallendoes offer a more traditional New Game+ experience. Players can keep their powerful weapons and abilities and fight through the game at its default difficulty, and perhaps work their way up to the higher levels from there.
Lies of P’s unconventional setting belies a wildly successful soulslike, which garnered a lot of praise when it launched in 2023. While DLC for the game is in the works, many fans are likely already eager to dive back into the twisted streets of Krat. For those fans, there’s New Game+.
The New Game+ mode inLies of Plets players go through the entire game again, re-fighting old bosses and acquiring new collectibles. Since players have already chosen their starting class in the initial playthrough, they canmodify their gear much earlierin a New Game+ run. This lets them experiment with new weapons against the deadlier foes awaiting them.
Though it’s not quite as renowned as theDark Soulstrilogy that followed it,Demon’s Soulsand its 2020 remake still have a lot to offer. The title’s brutal New Game+ mode showcases these distinct features while providing an intense challenge for dedicatedDemon’s Soulsfans.
As with any good soulslike New Game+ mode,Demon’s Soulsfeatures increased damage and health for its monstrous foes, to compensate for the player keeping their endgame gear and level. However, the game throws an additional wrinkle into the mix with the World Tendency mechanic. Depending on the player’s actions, enemies in any given region of the game could have more or less health, while the player’s own HP is inversely affected. These changes persist in New Game+. So, if a player brings darkness and ruin to a particularly challenging level, they’ll have to deal with the consequences while struggling against buffed enemies.
The firstDark Soulsset the standard for most elements of the genre, and this includes the brutal difficulty scaling of New Game+. Enemies in the new playthrough usually have twice as much health as they used to, makingbosses in particular a grueling challengefor returning warriors.
Luckily, there are some benefits. In addition to the usual gear, players retain covenant membership and rank, which is especially valuable for opening certain shortcuts in the game. Players will also maintain their Estus Flask upgrade level, so those who want to take it on should max out their flasks before they face the final boss.
Nioh 2combines the epic combat ofDark Soulsand its ilk with Japanese mythology and folklore. The result is a unique game that remains an intense challenge even for veteran soulslike players. For players who do manage to beat the game, the title’s punishing New Game+ mode will push their skills to the limit.
This game’s New Game+ goes beyond simply giving enemies more health and damage. Ranged foes in certain areas have increased fire rates, which makes for more fraught encounters. Some bosses have new attacks, and late-game enemies start appearing in place of standard ones. As far as New Game+ modes go,Nioh 2is not for the faint of heart.
The open-world design philosophy ofElden Ringbrought a significant increase in enemy and boss variety, and a truly staggering difficulty level, especially in the late game. Players who persevered in their journey through the Lands Between found that things did not get easier after they ascended the throne of the Elden Lord.
Elden Ring’sNew Game+ can be freely startedat any point after the Tarnished defeats the final boss. It increases health and damage for every enemy, but it goes beyond that. New Game+ foes have higher defense to complement their increased health, and greater resistance to status ailments like bleed and scarlet rot. They also have higher poise and more stagger resistance, making it a massive challenge to interrupt their attacks.
With its emphasis on pure action over RPG mechanics,Sekiro: Shadows Die Twiceis already a uniquely challenging soulslike. Its New Game+ mode takes this to a whole other level, though. As always,enemies deal vastly more damage.Sekiroalso adds new enemies to certain regions to up the stakes in otherwise familiar fights.
Even though players get to keep their gear and upgrades, as in most soulslikes, there is a significant difference between the protagonist’s abilities in the base game and New Game+. Sekiro’s posture has been dramatically reduced, making it much harder to effectively parry and block. This changes the flow of combat significantly.
Scholar of the First Sinalready feels like a New Game+ version ofDark Souls 2. This title remixes every area in the game with new enemies and more challenges. It also includes an item called the Bonfire Ascetic, which allows players to raise a certain area to New Game+ difficulty prematurely.
The game’s actual New Game+ mode will still decimate unprepared players, however. Those who attempt it will face not only powered up foes, but significantly more of them in the form of dangerous Dark Phantoms. Several boss fights are changed too, with new enemies. The menacing Duke’s Dear Freya, a monstrous spider, will even attack the player before they even reach her arena. Furthermore, any areas which were previously leveled up with a Bonfire Ascetic will be leveled up again. This brings them to a level higher than the current New Game+ mode, sealing the doom of unwise players who used them too early.
