One clear of the campaign is all it takes. New Game Plus shows up in the menu the next time you boot the game, and it behaves less like a fresh save slot than like a remixed continuation: your progression travels with you, the world does not.
Official screenshot from the game's Steam store page (source: S-GAME / Steam).
Yes — but replaying the story is not the point
The question "is there a New Game Plus?" is settled the moment you finish the story. The question that actually matters is what a second run is for. The game answers that with a clear split: your character keeps essentially everything that took hours to build, while the world resets and has to be reopened. So the second playthrough is not about getting strong again — it is about what you can finally do with the strength you already own.
What carries over into New Game Plus
| What | At the start of New Game Plus |
|---|---|
| Phantom Edges | Everything already in your inventory stays |
| Bottles | Kept; the stock is not wiped |
| Trinkets | Kept, and a trinket you missed in the first run adds its upgrade count the first time you pick it up in NG+ |
| Books, memories, skill points | Kept, including skill points you never spent |
| Weapon upgrade cap | Raised from 30 to 35 |
| Starting weapons | A +1 Infernal Rouge and a wooden sword are placed in your inventory |
| Shops | Every upgrade material except the Banyan Heart becomes unlimited; trinkets are sold at their upgraded values, and duplicate copies of the same trinket do not stack |
The last row is the one worth pausing on. The shops open up so wide in a second run that upgrade materials stop being a decision: the only thing still rationed is the Banyan Heart, and that is what the next section is about.
What resets
- Map exploration. Wiped — bells have to be relit and routes re-opened.
- Quest completion. Side quests and story choices start over; anything you skipped in run one is not carried over as finished.
- Key items. Re-earned along the campaign.
- Remaining days. Back to the story's starting count.
In one sentence: the character is yours, the world is new.
The real constraint is Banyan Hearts, not difficulty
Growth in a second run runs on peak points, and each tier of that track costs one Banyan Heart. There are exactly two sources:
- Five face-carved banyan trees — one each in Blood Forest, Pangzhen, Mandate Encampment, Meigu Lake and Mountain of Imprisonment. Their locations are already pinned in our missables guide, down to the nearest bell.
- A specific merchant who sells them for 100,000 Consciousness Dust, in limited quantity.
Which produces the one piece of planning advice this page exists for: pick the five trees up on your first run while you are passing them anyway. In New Game Plus the same hearts cost dust, and the merchant's stock does not stretch far enough to buy your way out.
Sixty-Six Days is waiting in the second run
The hardest difficulty setting does not appear in a first playthrough at all. From run two onward it is selectable, and it keeps its own save: no manual saving, an autosave whenever you reach a bell, and a permanent end — the "die with regrets" ending — when your life or your days run out. It is the pure challenge mode, and it never touches the Platinum or achievements. The full rules, plus the other three difficulties, are in our difficulty guide.
Four things to do before you start New Game Plus
- Sweep trinkets before the final stretch. A trinket you missed adds an upgrade count the first time you find it in NG+, so an incomplete collection is a permanent small loss.
- Do not leave side quests for later. NG+ resets quest state; whatever is unfinished stays unfinished.
- Stop spending rare materials at level 30. The cap moves to 35, and materials become unlimited in the next cycle, so the last stretch of run one is the worst time to burn them.
- Collect the five Banyan Hearts. They are cheap in run one and expensive to replace later.
Where these numbers come from
The mechanics on this page come from post-launch player testing summarised by Chinese outlets (GameSky's write-up, relayed by 17173, 9game and ZOL). S-GAME has not published a standalone New Game Plus explanation, so treat the figures as measured player experience rather than an official specification, and check them again after major patches. The five banyan locations match what this site verified independently for its missables guide.
FAQ
- Does Phantom Blade Zero have New Game Plus? Yes. Clearing the campaign once unlocks it, and a second playthrough becomes selectable from the new-game menu.
- What carries over into New Game Plus? Phantom Edges, bottles, trinkets, books, memories and unspent skill points all carry over. Weapon upgrades cap at 35 instead of 30, and the shops unlock unlimited upgrade materials — everything except the Banyan Heart.
- Does New Game Plus reset maps and side quests? Yes. Map exploration, quest completion, key items and the remaining-days counter all reset, so the world has to be opened up a second time.
- Can you only pick Sixty-Six Days in New Game Plus? Yes. Sixty-Six Days keeps its own save, saves only at bells, cannot be saved manually, and ends the run permanently when the days run out — but it has no effect on the Platinum or any achievement.