Resident Evil 4 Remake New Game Plus: What Carries Over

New Game Plus in Resident Evil 4 Remake unlocks as soon as you finish the main story on any difficulty: load the save marked New Playthrough, pick any difficulty including Professional, and restart with your weapons, upgrades, pesetas, Spinels and health upgrades intact. Key items, files, treasure maps and collection status reset. The Merchant also turns up in Chapter 1 instead of Chapter 2 and sells the Infinite Rocket Launcher, which never appears on a first run. The one big limitation is that an S+ rank is impossible in New Game Plus.

We checked the carry over rules and New Game Plus differences against Game8's New Game Plus and difficulty guides, Push Square's New Game+ walkthrough and PowerPyx's trophy roadmap and challenges list in November 2026.

How to Start New Game Plus

There is no separate menu option to look for. Push Square describes the steps: after the credits, return to the main menu, choose Main Story, then Load Game, and select the save shown in green with the words New Playthrough. You then pick a difficulty and the game begins from Chapter 1.

The difficulty choice is the main reason New Game Plus matters. Game8 points out that a new playthrough is one of only two moments when you can change difficulty at all; the other is dropping from Standard to Assisted at a Game Over screen, which cannot be reversed. So if your first run was on Standard and you want Hardcore or Professional with your gear, New Game Plus is the way in. Professional itself also unlocks with your first clear, so it is available here immediately.

Protect your cleared save. PowerPyx notes the Remake offers 20 manual save slots plus an autosave, so it costs nothing to keep a copy of your end of game file in a spare slot before experimenting, especially if you plan to repeat New Game Plus several times to build money.

What Carries Over and What Resets

Game8's list is the most detailed we found, and Push Square's matches it. Here is what comes with you:

• All weapons and your weapon collection progress, with every upgrade you bought
• Items in your case, crafting recipes and tokens
• Treasures in your inventory and charms
• The Merchant's stock as it stood at the end of your run
• Pesetas and Spinels
• Clockwork Castellans you already destroyed
• Health increases from Yellow Herbs
• Request completion progress (for the related trophy), your save count and your total play time

And here is what starts over:

• The difficulty setting, which you choose fresh
• Files and key items (Push Square notes that some key items do carry)
• Request status, so blue notes can be completed again for more Spinels
• Treasure maps, which must be bought again
• Treasure collection status, so world treasures respawn
• Progress on challenge runs like Frugalist, Minimalist and Silent Stranger

Because each weapon can only be collected once, Game8 notes that weapons will not appear in their original spots on a second run. The repeatable requests are the hidden gift here: they let you earn Spinels a second time, which feeds straight into Exclusive Upgrade Tickets. Our ticket guide covers how Game8 says two tickets are offered right away on later playthroughs.

What Is Different the Second Time

Two changes stand out, and both involve the Merchant.

He appears in Chapter 1. On a first run you meet the Merchant at the start of Chapter 2. In New Game Plus, Game8 says he appears right after you escape the first house in Chapter 1, with everything he was selling at the end of your previous run. PowerPyx adds that you can find him by turning around after leaving that house, just before the first typewriter. That means you can upgrade, sell and trade before the first big village fight.

He sells the Infinite Rocket Launcher. This is the only way to get it. It costs 2,000,000 pesetas, or 1,600,000 if you equip the Leon w/ Rocket Launcher charm from the shooting range token machine. PowerPyx notes most players cannot afford it from a single run's earnings, so plan on selling unneeded weapons from your first run or doing a second New Game Plus before you buy it.

Your ranking also behaves differently. Game8 confirms an S+ rank cannot be earned on a New Game Plus file, but A ranks can, and so can the difficulty completion rewards. That makes New Game Plus the natural place to clear Professional for the first time.

Picking a Difficulty for the Second Run

What you should pick depends on your goal:

• Just replaying the story? Hardcore is a good fit. Game8's difficulty breakdown lists faster, tougher enemies and higher Merchant prices, and your carried over arsenal offsets much of that extra pressure.
• Want the Chicago Sweeper? Choose Professional and finish in under 7 hours for an A rank. Your upgraded weapons and Yellow Herb health make it far easier than a fresh attempt.
• Farming money? Assisted makes some Merchant items cheaper and its enemies weaker, which speeds up treasure runs.

Professional removes autosaves and limits you to perfect parries, so even with gear it rewards careful play. Game8's Professional page lists the challenge rewards: 2,000 CP for any Professional clear, which PowerPyx confirms can be done in New Game Plus, and 2,500 CP for an A rank. The bonus weapons and accessories those runs unlock are listed in our unlockables guide.

Runs That Belong in New Game Plus, and Ones That Do Not

PowerPyx's roadmap is built around putting each challenge in the right kind of save. Since challenge run progress resets in New Game Plus, a second run is the cleanest place for the restriction challenges:

• Minimalist (knives and handguns only) and Silent Stranger (never talk to the Merchant) are easier when you start with a fully upgraded pistol and an indestructible Primal Knife you prepared on the previous run.
• Frugalist (no recovery items) is easier with the Infinite Rocket Launcher and the Chicken Hat, which PowerPyx recommends wearing.
• Professional with an A rank is the standard New Game Plus target, as covered above.

The runs that cannot go here are the S+ ranks on any difficulty and the Professional Agent challenge (Professional without bonus weapons), which PowerPyx notes must be a New Game. Our infinite ammo guide explains how bonus weapons from the Extra Content Shop bridge that gap by working on fresh saves too.

Planning Money for the Infinite Rocket Launcher

Two million pesetas is the biggest single purchase in the game, so it helps to plan it from the end of your first run:

1. Inlay gems before you sell. PowerPyx's core money tip. A five gem Elegant Crown alone can reach 100,000 pesetas.
2. Keep only the guns you will use. In New Game Plus you can sell weapons you no longer need at the first Merchant, which PowerPyx suggests for funding the launcher.
3. Equip the Leon w/ Rocket Launcher charm before you buy, saving 400,000 pesetas.
4. Collect treasures again. Collection status resets, so every chest and censer pays out a second time. Buy the treasure maps again with Spinels if you need the markers.

If you cannot afford it at the Chapter 1 Merchant, there is no need to panic: Game8 lists it simply as a Merchant item in a New Game Plus file, so keep selling treasures and check his stock at each visit.

If you are picking the game up on the newer Switch 2 version, our Switch 2 guide covers what that edition includes and how it compares.

New Game Plus in Separate Ways

Ada's campaign follows the same pattern on a smaller scale. Once you finish Separate Ways, you can replay it with your upgraded gear, and PowerPyx's Separate Ways roadmap leans on that: its second step is a New Game Plus run on Professional finished in under 4 hours, which earns an A rank and unlocks the Chicago Sweeper for Ada. Game8 adds that completing all seven of Ada's Merchant requests awards the Elite Knife, an indestructible blade that replaces her Tactical Knife on later playthroughs.

The same S+ rule applies too. PowerPyx says Ada's Professional S+ needs a fresh New Game finished in under 2 hours 30 minutes with no more than 10 saves, and Separate Ways only offers 10 manual save slots in the first place. So the plan mirrors the main game: use New Game Plus to unlock the tools, then take them into a fresh file for the top rank. Our Separate Ways guide covers the rest of Ada's chapters and unlocks.

Starting the Second Run Already Loaded

New Game Plus is mostly about carrying wealth forward, and building that wealth takes time. If you would rather start a run with resources in hand, the store's Resident Evil 4 Remake modded save provides Standard and Hardcore slots at the first typewriter and a Professional slot at Chapter 2, with 999,999,999 Ptas and Spinel and 10,000,000 Completion Points, plus unlimited pistol ammo on the first two slots and an unlimited Rocket Launcher on Professional.

It is for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 only and works only with the Remake. Active PlayStation Plus on the same account is required, and the game is not included. Everything else for the game is on the Resident Evil 4 Remake hub.

Frequently Asked Questions