New Game Plus Guide: Difficulty and What Carries Over

New Game Plus is back in The Last of Us Part II, available upon completing the game. Read on to find out what is different about this mode, New Game Plus Difficulty, and what carries over into New Game+!

Is There a New Game Plus?

New Game Plus is a mode originally introduced in the first Last of Us. New Game Plus was unlocked once you completed the main game for the first time. New Game Plus would allow you to replay the game, except you will be able to retain all upgrades you had gained in your first playthorugh, allowing you to focus on other upgrades in the second playthrough. Using NG+ was crucial for certain trophies which require you to obtain all upgrades.

New Game Plus makes a return in the Last of Us 2, allowing you to replay the game without losing any progress with your upgrades.

What Carries Over Into New Game Plus?

Equipment

During the Jackson chapter, only your pistol and rifle are available. However, all weapons will become available when Ellie reaches Seattle.

Weapons List | Where to Find All Weapons

Weapon Upgrades

The weapon upgrades you obtain throughout the game will be retained in NG+, so you won't lose all that hard work you put into your artillery. An important thing to note though is that you will not start off will all of your weapons, so rather, they will have upgrades ready once they are all picked up after arriving in Seattle.

How to Customize Weapons

Player Upgrades

HP, Listen Mode Distance, Heal Speed, etc. are a few of the “stats” that Last of Us has. These can be upgraded via supplements. If you are looking to boost all of these to max, it will be very hard to do in a single playthrough, but much easier in NG+, since you will retain all of these upgrades as well.

In addition, the training manuals that give you each skill branch do not need to be picked up again.

List of Skill Branches | All Player Upgrades

Collectibles

Collectibles are carried over, so you do not need to pick up ones from the first run again if you are going for 100% completion. Collectibles can be picked up a second time in NG+, although they are already added into your total, so it is not necessary if you have already gotten them once. There is also a setting in Options that will show an icon over previously collected collectibles.

All Collectibles and Locations

New Game Plus Difficulty

The difficulty for the New Game Plus has been changed. Before, you could only play on certain difficulty levels when you finished the main game.

Now, all the difficulties are available to choose from. They also added a Custom difficulty setting where you can customize difficulty for different aspects of the game, such as Players, Enemies, Allies, Stealth, and Resources.

Difficulty Settings and Best Difficulty

Is New Game Plus Worth It?

While Many games will allow you to accomplish everything within one play through, The Last of Us 2 will not have enough resources to upgrade everything in one go, making your upgrade choices in your first play through very important. This will also increase the replayability of the game, as New Game Plus is great for completionists who cannot put the controller down until they've maxed out every upgrade and cleared the hardest difficulty.

Game Length | How Long is The Last of Us Part II?

Our veridict: NG+ is worth if you are a completionist and want to get all upgrades and trophies, or if you want to find a way to clear higher difficulty levels by balancing them with better upgrades.

Trophy Guide | List of Trophies

The Last of Us 2 Tips and Tricks

Tips & Tricks