New Game + (stylized as NEW GAME +) is an unlockable game mode for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It is one of 16 free DLCs available for the game, released on August 17, 2015 [1]. It allows players to restart the game and retain all their gold and most of their gear, including items stored in your Stash. However, you will LOSE all of the following (regardless of where they're stored):
- Quest items, except for some rather minor ones that you might as well sell when you get the chance.
- books, both physical copies and their entries in your journal
- Gwent cards, except for the basic starting Northern Realms deck
- crafting diagrams, including all witcher school gear diagrams
- A number of alchemy formulas, however quite a few will remain for potions, bombs and ingredients.
- Trophies, both ones worn on Roach for status effects and any you may have won and displayed in your house in the Blood and Wine expansion at Corvo Bianco.
- All map exploration, points of interest, etc.
- Bestiary entries
- Character entries
Any retained items will not be available during the tutorial sections.
Suggested difficulty levels for quests are scaled up by at least 25 levels, as are the levels of the monsters encountered. It is in fact a live-scaling; whatever level you were at when you completed the game and created a save file to start New Game +, the monster and quest levels will be scaled accordingly. For example, with a first time playthrough where both the Hearts of Stone expansion and Blood and Wine expansions were played, the character was at level 53 at the game's end, which caused the lowest level monsters in New Game + to be level 50. The levels of dropped equipment and items made through crafting are also shifted upwards. With witcher school gear, this is reflected by a name change to "Legendary". For example, "Feline armor" now becomes "Legendary Feline armor" with correspondingly higher stats. This also means that even if you managed to unlock the Grandmaster witcher sets in your first playthrough, they will soon be overwhelmed by the level of enemies that you'll face in New Game +, so you'll have to start forging new armor.
There is only one known self-leveling item in the game and it only comes with Blood and Wine: Aerondight. Make sure you have added upgrade slots and enchanted it as you see fit before you start New Game + as the Runewright will be, at minimum, 30 levels higher and therefore impossible to help right away.
Official statement
- Hungry for more action? Start a new game with all the skills and items from your previous playthrough, get better loot, slay even more ferocious beasts and relive the epic fantasy adventure that is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt!
Journal entry
- You can start NEW GAME + from the Main Menu after finishing the main storyline. If you finished the main storyline before installing this content, you need to load a save made after completing the game and resave it for it to be eligible for use with NEW GAME +.