Starfield’s New Game Plus isn’t just a simple replay-it’s a bold leap into alternate universes where your skills and powers carry over, but everything else resets, offering fresh story twists, new dialogue, and even unique main missions. After completing the main story, you become a Starborn, cycling through realities with new choices and surprises each time you start over, making every playthrough a distinct adventure in the vast cosmos.
Starfield’s adventure doesn’t have to end with the end of the main story. At the end of the final mission, you’ll have the choice to stick around and explore further, or reset the universe and start your game (mostly) fresh. Starfield doesn’t technically call this mode “New Game Plus” but Starfield also calls a jetpack a “boost pack” and a lockpick a “digipick.” Even if the game doesn’t, for clarity on this matter, we’re calling it what it is: New Game Plus.
We’ll try to explain everything in a spoiler-free way as much as we can, but bear in mind the final section of this guide will contain minor spoilers.
Our Starfield New Game Plus guide will explain when you’ll have to make the choice, and what New Game Plus (and a second New Game Plus) looks like in the Settled Systems.
How to get to New Game in Starfield
To start New Game Plus in Starfield, you must first complete the main story mission “One Giant Leap.” At the end of this mission, you are given a choice: walk toward the Unity (a large glowing orb) to begin New Game Plus as a Starborn in an alternate universe, or walk away to continue your current playthrough. Choosing to enter New Game Plus will restart the main mission line while retaining your character’s level, skills, powers, and experience, but you will lose all items, equipment, credits, and side mission progress. After starting New Game Plus, you will wake up on a new ship with new armor and have access to new story permutations and dialogue options, allowing for a fresh experience while keeping your character’s abilities intact.
Starfield’s final mission, “One Giant Leap,” will ask you to make a decision: hold off on ending the game so you can explore more or complete the main story and start a New Game Plus. If you decide to delay the ending, you’ll have the option to return to it at any point. Meanwhile, you’ll be free to just continue along like you have been.
The decision is actually baked right into “One Giant Leap” because of [SPOILERS]. For similar [SPOILERS] reasons, it’s not actually called “new game plus.” You just continue along at the same XP and level, and with the same skills and Powers. You will, however, lose all of your ships, cargo, money, weapons, and inventory, though.
In new game plus, you’ll have the option to skip the main story missions, but everything else is reset. You’ll have a fresh start with all of the factions, and every side quest will be available again. Your relationships with all of the members of Constellation will be reset as well, including any romance. You can even rush through collecting the artifacts and head straight to the ending again.
From what we can tell, the enemies are not scaled up in the new game.
You’ll get a new spacesuit and ship for your trouble, though. We’ll talk about that below the spoiler warning.
What you get with New Game in Starfield
Starfield’s New Game Plus allows you to start a new playthrough while carrying over key aspects of your character, including all your unlocked skills, powers, and traits, as well as your level and experience. However, you lose all equipment, items, credits, ships, side mission progress, and relationships, effectively resetting your inventory and world state. In addition to the standard starting ship, you receive a unique Starborn Guardian spaceship and the powerful Starborn Spacesuit Astra, which offers high defense and special buffs. New Game Plus also introduces new dialogue options, story permutations, and at least one new main mission, encouraging fresh exploration and different approaches to quests. Each subsequent New Game Plus cycle offers further upgrades to your powers and gear, as well as evolving story variations, making each playthrough distinct and rewarding.
For story reasons, you’ll start the new game in a new version of the universe with a Starborn Spacesuit Astra and a Starborn Guardian ship.
The Starborn Spacesuit Astra is probably the best suit in the game with maxed out damage resistances and environmental protections. Even better, it’s a helmet, suit, and pack all in one, so it’ll save some weight. It also comes with three perks:
- Bolstering that grants extra resistance as your health decreases
- Resource hauler to let you carry more stuff
- Sentinel, which reduces damage while you’re standing still
The Starborn Guardian is a respectable ship. It’s got 1,045 kg of cargo, a 30 light year jump distance, and lots of fuel. It’s got room for 5 crew and a beefy set of weapons. It’s not, however, customizable and it’s not, frankly, the best ship you can buy or build. Looks cool, though.
Starfield New Game Powers
In Starfield’s New Game Plus (NG+), players retain their powers, which are a key feature of the mode. There are 24 unique powers available, each allowing the manipulation of cosmic forces in different ways. These powers can be upgraded multiple times through revisiting temples found during the “powers from beyond” quest, enhancing their effectiveness by increasing duration or reducing costs. As you progress through successive NG+ runs, your powers become significantly stronger, contributing to a “god-like” character build. This upgrade system, combined with the retention of skills, is a major incentive for players to engage with New Game Plus, allowing for a fresh yet empowered gameplay experience with each playthrough.
Aside from getting a fresh start on all of the side missions and resetting your relationships with the factions and your companions, the main benefit to Starfield’s New Game Plus is that you get to keep collecting artifacts and Powers.
There’s only a set number of artifacts, their associated temples, and the Powers you gain there that you can pick up during the main mission on your first playthrough. When you reset the universe, though, you’ll have a new set to discover (in new locations).
There are a total of 24 Powers you can collect, and they seem to be distributed randomly. When you come across a Power you already have, you’ll get an upgraded version of that power – like Personal Atmosphere II in the image above.
Having a new set of artifacts and temples to find increases the likelihood that you’ll pick up a better version of the Power – or, at least, help you fill in the Powers you don’t have yet.
What happens when you start a second New Game in New Game ?
When you start a second New Game in Starfield’s New Game Plus mode, you essentially begin a fresh playthrough in a new universe while retaining your character’s level, experience, powers, and skill progression. However, you lose all items, money, quests, bases, relationships, and exploration progress from your previous run. This reset encourages you to explore the game world anew, with new story permutations, dialogue options, and even unique encounters that only appear in subsequent New Game Plus cycles. You also receive exclusive new equipment like a special spacesuit and spaceship. Each New Game Plus iteration can introduce different variations in story events and character interactions, making each playthrough distinct and rewarding for players who want to experience all facets of Starfield’s universe.
According to Twitter, the world of Starfield changes with each new iteration you play. This makes sense since entering the Unity at the end of “One Giant Leap” effectively resets the universe (technically, it sends you to a different universe in the multiverse).
How does Starfield’s New Game Plus change my exploration experience
Starfield’s New Game Plus transforms your exploration by resetting your world progress while preserving your character’s level, skills, and powers, encouraging you to rediscover planets, loot, and storylines with fresh eyes. You lose all items, ships, money, side missions, and relationships, which means you start anew in each universe iteration, but with the advantage of your enhanced abilities, allowing for new approaches to exploration and interactions. This cycle also introduces new story permutations, dialogue options, and even unique main missions, making each exploration feel distinct and rewarding as you traverse different realities and uncover alternate narratives.
How will my exploration change with new ships and suits in NG+
In Starfield’s New Game Plus, your exploration experience is enhanced by receiving a unique new ship, the Starborn Guardian, and a powerful Starborn Spacesuit, both of which improve with each subsequent NG+ playthrough. The ship starts off as a solid, visually distinct vessel that cannot be customized but grows stronger with each completion, reaching its peak at the sixth NG+ cycle. Meanwhile, the Starborn Spacesuit begins with high defense and built-in boost capabilities, and upgrades through ten increasingly powerful versions as you progress through multiple NG+ runs, offering significant protection and buffs that change how you traverse and survive in the game’s universe. These new ships and suits provide a fresh strategic layer to exploration, balancing the reset of your inventory and world progress with enhanced survivability and mobility, making each new journey through the stars feel both familiar and excitingly different.
