God of War: Ragnarok has received a New Game Plus mode. In the long-awaited update, Sony introduced new gear, new abilities, and even a black and white visual mode.
At the end of December, a little over a month after the release of God of War: Ragnarok, Santa Monica Studio announced that the game, like its predecessor, would receive a New Game Plus mode. This was to take place in the spring of 2023. Since the start of said season about ten days ago, today the developer released an update with the highly anticipated gameplay.
God of War: Ragnarok – New Game Plus
As usual, the mode allows players to play through the game from the start while retaining their previously unlocked gear and abilities. However, there is a catch: the special arrows still need to be unlocked as the story progresses in order to use them. The spear, on the other hand, will be available from the start, but can only be used in combat (and not in exploration).
additional armor
At the request of the players devs added (early NG+) black bear armor – the one in which we saw Kratos in the trailer (available below) presented during the PlayStation Showcase 2021. However, that’s not all – the armors of Ares and Zeus also returnwhich was available in God of War’s New Game Plus mode from 2018.
Additionally, Santa Monica Studio unveiled thirteen armor color variants that were previously available in God of War: Ragnarok. The icing on the cake, however, is the Spartan armor. In this one, Kratos looks like himself from the first episodes of the series. This set is primarily intended to make the game more challenging. This is because it cannot be upgraded and does not provide additional benefits.
Luckily, this set also comes with transmog options (you can change how a given item looks while keeping its stats, etc.). Moreover, it can be supplemented by a new Spartan shield.
More trim levels
All items upgraded to level 9 can be converted to a “plus” version with a higher stat boost. Additionally, some of the abilities assigned to armor by default can be acquired as separate bonuses, which we will place on charms. This greatly increases the number of character builds available. In addition, for defeating the berserkers in New Game Plus mode, we will have new improvements.
Santa Monica Studio hasn’t forgotten about gamers looking for the biggest challenges, either. with them in mind Items have been added that place various debuffs on Kratos, making the fight even harder.
New arena features, more powerful bosses, platinum level jobs
The options available in the Niflheim Arena have also been expanded. In NG+ we will face enemy types that were not available before. Not only that, we can choose a partner to help us (from eight characters).
The extra training will come in handy, especially before boss fights, which now have new moves. On the other hand, secondary tasks (like killing a certain number of enemies of a certain type) and Ratatoskr-ordered tasks have been expanded with a fourth level, Platinum.
To add variety to the enjoyment of God of War: Ragnarok, the new game mode plus can be displayed in a black and white color scheme. Akira Kurosawa would be proud. If you have completed the game at least once, this option can also be selected when starting the standard game (i.e. not NG+).