Dragon's Dogma 2 New Game Plus: Is It Worth It?

After you finish Dragon's Dogma 2 and see the credits, the game unlocks New Game Plus, letting you replay the whole story while keeping your character's progress. This guide explains exactly what NG+ changes, what carries over, whether it is harder, and whether it is worth starting right away.

The details below are checked against the Fextralife Dragon's Dogma 2 wiki and PowerPyx as of October 2026, along with firsthand reports on Reddit's r/DragonsDogma.

How to start New Game Plus

New Game Plus becomes available after you complete the main story and reach the game's true ending. From a specific save point you can choose to begin NG+, which restarts the narrative from the opening while preserving your Arisen. It is worth finishing any lingering sidequests and the endgame content first, because starting NG+ returns the world to its pre-ending state.

If you want to understand the endgame content that comes before NG+, our Unmoored World guide walks through the flooded post-game and its tough fights, which are best cleared before you reset the story.

Before you commit to NG+, it is worth making a checklist. Finish any companion and affinity quests you care about, grab unique gear you have not forged yet, and spend down materials that are easier to gather now than to rebuild later. Because the world resets, anything tied to the current story state will have to be redone, so treat the moment before NG+ as a last chance to tidy up your first run.

What carries over into NG+

New Game Plus is generous with what it keeps. Your level, stats, and all learned vocations and augments transfer, so you stay as powerful as you were. Your gold, Rift Crystals, and inventory of gear and materials carry across as well, meaning you begin the new run fully equipped.

• Character level, stats, and appearance.
• All unlocked vocations and their learned skills and augments.
• Your weapons, armor, rings, and most inventory items.
• Gold, Rift Crystals, and your main pawn's progress.
• Discovered recipes and forgeable-gear knowledge.

Because every vocation and augment stays with you, NG+ is the natural place to finish ranking classes you ignored, since you keep earning Discipline Points while cruising through a now-easy world. Many players treat the second run as a victory lap where they experiment with builds they were too cautious to try the first time, confident that their maxed Arisen can absorb mistakes. Your main pawn also keeps its vocation progress and knowledge, so it remains just as useful to you and to other players who hire it. That continuity is a quiet advantage: a pawn that already knows many quests and monster weaknesses is a better guide on the replay, and because it has been hired and rated over your first run, it tends to keep earning you Rift Crystals and gifts as you go. In practice, NG+ lets you enjoy a mature, well-equipped pawn party from the opening hours rather than rebuilding it from scratch.

What resets in NG+

The story, world state, and quests reset to the beginning, so NPCs, bosses, and encounters all return as if you were starting fresh. Portcrystal placements and some unique world-state changes are undone, and you will need to work back through the narrative beats and progression gates again, even though your character is already strong.

This reset is the catch that surprises people most. Because quests restart, time-sensitive or branching sidequests have to be navigated again if you want their rewards, and any convenient fast-travel network you set up with Portcrystals must be rebuilt. The upside is that monsters and treasure respawn as well, so anything you missed or sold the first time is available again, and you can approach the same quests with full knowledge of how they play out.

Importantly, NG+ does not raise the enemy difficulty or scale foes to your level. This is the biggest point of confusion for new players: because your maxed character faces the same enemies as a first-time run, NG+ feels dramatically easier rather than harder. If you were hoping for a true "hard mode," NG+ alone will not provide it.

If you want the fights to stay interesting on a second run, players often impose their own restrictions, such as switching to a vocation they have never used, intentionally under-equipping, or seeking out the game's toughest optional monsters rather than coasting through the story's set pieces. Pairing a fresh vocation you are inexperienced with against the endgame's elite foes is the closest thing to a genuine challenge replay, since the enemies themselves will not get any stronger in NG+.

Is New Game Plus worth it?

Whether NG+ is worth starting depends on what you want. It is excellent for experiencing the story again with full power, trying vocations and builds you skipped, chasing missed quests and achievements, and collecting gear you did not get the first time. For many players it is the most relaxed way to enjoy the game's world a second time. It is also the practical route to cleaning up a completionist checklist, since quests and collectibles you missed become available again without the early-game struggle.

There is one nuance worth planning around: if you want to see alternate outcomes of branching quests, NG+ lets you make different choices on the replay while already knowing where each path leads. That makes it the natural time to pursue the decisions you avoided the first time, whether for story reasons or for rewards you passed up. If your main goal is simply more combat, though, exploring the endgame or starting a brand-new character can be more satisfying than a low-resistance replay.

The trade-off is that the combat challenge largely disappears. If the fights were your favorite part, you may prefer to keep exploring the endgame or deliberately handicap yourself rather than jump into NG+. A strong first-run character that is ready for NG+ usually means you are near the level cap, which our max level guide covers in detail.

What to finish before you start NG+

Because starting New Game Plus resets the story and world, the hours right before it are your last chance to wrap up anything tied to your current run. Work through the companion and affinity quests you care about, since the bond you build with specific characters is easier to establish with full knowledge of how those quests resolve. Clear any region you rushed past, open the chests you skipped, and finish the endgame content so you carry its rewards forward.

It is also smart to tidy your inventory. Appraise relics so you know what you have, forge or upgrade the gear you intend to keep, and sell off the duplicates and surplus materials for gold that transfers into the new run. Note which Portcrystals you had placed, because that fast-travel network is undone and you will want to rebuild it in the same convenient spots. A short checklist here saves a lot of backtracking later.

Making the most of a second run

New Game Plus is the ideal time to do the things a cautious first playthrough discourages. Switch to a vocation you never touched and learn it against enemies you already understand, so the learning curve is forgiving. Chase the achievements or trophies you missed, pursue the alternate branches of choice-driven quests, and collect any unique gear you passed up, all without the early-game scramble for gold and levels.

Keep your pawn working for you, too. Since its vocation progress and knowledge carry over, it stays valuable to other players, and continuing to send hired pawns home with gifts keeps the goodwill and rewards flowing. If you find the replay too easy, lean into the endgame's toughest optional monsters rather than coasting through story fights, which is the surest way to keep the combat engaging when enemies no longer scale up.

It is also a good run for mastering systems you half-ignored the first time. Try deliberately managing the time-of-day cycle, since nights are far more dangerous and rewarding, or practice the monster-climbing and weak-point attacks that separate a smooth fight from a drawn-out one. With a maxed character the stakes are low, so the cost of experimenting is small and the knowledge you gain carries into any future character or a fresh save.

Skipping straight to a strong NG+ character

The legit path to a powerful NG+ run is to finish the story, clear the endgame, bank your gold and Rift Crystals, and carry everything forward, which naturally gives you a strong Arisen for the replay. That is the intended loop and it rewards the time you put in.

If you would rather skip the first full grind and jump into experimenting with a maxed character, the Level 999 and infinite stats modded save starts you at the cap with every vocation, skill, and resource unlocked while keeping the story at the beginning. It is a save file only and you must own the game; the full lineup is on the Dragon's Dogma 2 page.

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