The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has a New Game Plus mode that allows you to replay the entire game all over again.
Considering that you can easily sink a hundred or more hours into the base game, restarting your adventure might not appear that compelling.
The New Game Plus mode, however, is there for willing adventurers. You might, for example, want to choose different dialogues to see new outcomes or follow a different path to unlock different endings.
You will not have to start from scratch, though. There are several things that you can carry over in a New Game Plus playthrough. The following guide will get you started.
What to do before The Witcher 3 NG+
Firstly, before you start The Witcher 3 NG+, you need to make sure that you have essentially grabbed everything that you need to take with you. These will include armor, gear, etc.
Starting with the swords you should go and grab the Aerondight Silver Sword whilst going through The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine expansion. The best part about this great silver sword is that it scales with the level you originally got it at, and its damage will increase with each enemy that you end up killing, so overall, it will prove quite useful during the initial phase of your NG+ playthrough.
After that, you can simply visit the Runewright vendor to grab any runes or upgrade and change any gear that you want to as you will lose access to him as soon as you start The Witcher 3 NG+. You also need to craft any items such as gear, including boots, trousers, etc., that you want to take with you, whether that be armor or weapons.
Apart from that, Alchemy doesn’t matter that much as you do end up keeping your alchemy diagrams, and you lose all of your crafting diagrams.
Moreover, Mutagens are another thing that you shouldn’t worry too much about before beginning the Witcher 3 NG+. However, if you have a Mutagenerator in your inventory then you need to immediately use it to create greater mutagens because it won’t carry over to the New Game Plus version.
You can visit the basement section of the Corvo Bianco, and there you will find a brick wall that you can use Aard to knock down. You will find an alchemy station there that you can operate to break down some of the unique mutagens into smaller mutations.
This way, you will have a ton of mutagen to start the Witcher 3 NG+ with, and the best part is that you can probably use them to buy other mutations when you get further into your New Game plus playthrough.
The last thing that you need to do before starting the NG+ in The Witcher 3 would be to get your Level as high as possible since the enemies will be way stronger. In my opinion, you should at least be above Level 50 before starting New Game Plus.
If you haven’t reached this level, then you can visit different points of interest in the vanilla/base version and work on increasing your level to be better prepared for New Game Plus.
How to start New Game Plus in The Witcher 3
You need to beat The Witcher 3 by completing its main story campaign to start a New Game Plus playthrough.
As soon as you finish the final quest of the main storyline, a dialogue box will pop up on your screen to notify you that New Game + is now available to access.
Open the menu and save your game. Exit and start a “New Game” from the main menu. Choose a difficulty and then turn on “New Game Plus” when asked.
You then need to load the save file you just created before. That will carry over your progression and spawn you back at Kaer Morhen with Yennefer to start the game all over again.
A common issue that players face after finishing the Blood and Wine DLC is that the game won’t let them start an NG+ run of TW3. If you are facing this problem, then you need to follow the steps mentioned below to resolve it:
- Check that you have the latest version of Witcher 3 to ensure that you have the NG+ DLC installed.
- Then you need to load the recent save file that you saved up AFTER you completed the Witcher 3 main story.
- Next, you can simply make a new manual save.
- The last step would be to head over to the main menu, start a new game, select your difficulty, and then select the NG+ option.
Following the next-gen update, you no longer have to download any New Game+ DLC. It is part of the base game and will be available automatically. This is especially in the case of PS5 where you will find the NG+ option available from the start in The Witcher 3.
If you are using consoles (PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox series S, X) and aren’t able to find The Witcher 3 NG+ then you will need to check that you have the latest update for TW3 first.
If the problem still persists, then you can access the PlayStation store/ Xbox store and click on the addon section to install the missing DLC and New Game +. After that, you can follow the same save file steps that we mentioned above to start the Witcher 3 New Game + on your PS4.
What changes in New Game Plus
Every quest and enemy is scaled up by 25 levels to increase in difficulty. The level increment is based on your character level when you saved your game to create a New Game Plus file.
For example, if Geralt was level 50 in the vanilla game, carrying over in a New Game Plus run will increase all quests and enemies to level 75.
New Game Plus automatically scales up your gear with a Legendary prefix, so you can now upgrade the armor further to match the New Game Plus enemies.
For example, your Feline armor set will become Legendary Feline armor with higher stats that compare with the aforementioned 25-level increment.
What carries over in New Game Plus
You do not lose everything after the storyline is reset. You will retain all of your gold and abilities, so Geralt not only has more to spend but is also able to unlock any of his remaining abilities.
You will keep all of your character level, mutations as well as any items stored in your stash such as crafting materials, alchemy ingredients, and potions.
Furthermore, starting a New Game Plus will see Roach keep any gear (saddle, blinders, saddlebags) he had before the storyline was reset.
Most importantly, you will retain your armor and swords. If you are playing Blood and Wine, make sure to get and upgrade the Aerondight silver sword before starting a New Game Plus.
This is because Aerondight is the best sword in The Witcher 3 and scales in damage. If you upgrade and enchant it to the max, you will not have to change swords in your entire New Game Plus playthrough.
What will not carry over in New Game Plus are quest items, journal entries, bestiary entries, books, crafting diagrams, monster trophies, and certain alchemy formulas that are required to complete quests.
The map will reset as well, meaning that all signposts and Places of Power need to be discovered again.
Lastly, all of your GWENT Cards will be gone. You will only have the basic Northern Realms deck at the start of New Game Plus.
Can you start a second New Game Plus in The Witcher 3?
The simple answer is no, you cannot start a second New Game plus or an NG++ in The Witcher 3 over an existing save game of an NG+ playthrough. Since you cannot override the previously saved version.
You can only begin afresh or start a New Game Plus on a regular save. In this case, only the state of the normal save will be carried over, and not the things you earned in the NG+ run. You may do this as many times as you would like.
There is a possible way to start a Witcher 3 NG+ using a New Game + save, but for that, you will need to add in a certain mod, and it only works for PC. In short, you can install the New Game Plus Plus mod from the Nexus Mod site. This particular mod can not only allow you to start a new NG+ using an NG+ save but it also increases your level cap, scales enemies, and crafting. Moreover, you can initiate quests and get your hands on newer equipment during your NG+ playthrough in TW3.
