Starfield New Game Plus explained

Starfield New Game Plus is unique way to start your game over without losing everything, But because it's so different it is confusing and you might want to double check what it actually does. Having completed Starfield and launched into its NG+ mode myself, I can explain everything you need to know - including how to start New Game Plus, what progress and items carry over, and what its implications are for the story. There is also a cool spaceship and spacesuit in it for you too if you take the plunge. 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 some strong narrative implications so I'll cover the spoilers further below. The non-spoilerversion is that once you've completed the main story you'll have the choice to build something on your ship that, when you make the next Grav Jump, will trigger the 'ending' and a choice about New Game Plus.

When your new game plus begins you can go to the Lodge and speak with Sarah, where you'll get a choice about whether to restart/reset the main campaign or not. However, all other progress in the world is reset.

What carries over in Starfield New Game Plus?

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

• Carries 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 only 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).

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 and what Starfield new game plus actually means

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 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 start over. 

At the same time, elements of your character's behaviour and personality gets 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.

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