New Game Plus is called New Cycle. After seeing any ending, go to the Puppet Cell bell (Mountain of Imprisonment), go through the blue portal to Inanis and choose it. You keep weapons, Phantom Edges, accessories, medicines, materials and skills (with some exceptions players report); you lose quests, maps and keys.
What happens in New Cycle
What you keep versus what resets
Carries over
- Weapons and Phantom Edges with upgrades
- Accessories and medicines
- Materials and Remnant Dust
- Skills and collectibles
Resets
- Quests and maps
- Bells
- Keys and access items
- Acolyte masks
How to start it
- Finish the storyWith any ending. After Annihilation, the post-credits menu offers you New Cycle directly.
- Go to the Puppet CellA bell on the Mountain of Imprisonment.
- Talk to InanisGo through the blue portal and choose “New Cycle”. You can skip the prologue and choose the 66 Days difficulty.
| Carries over | Lost |
|---|---|
| Weapons, Phantom Edges, accessories and medicines with their upgrades and tempers, books, flowers, amber, Blackstone, materials, Remnant Dust and skills (with the exceptions below) | Map, quest and bell progress, keys, acolyte masks and items that open areas |
What goes wrong when you carry your gear into New Game Plus?
Keeping your gear doesn’t mean the game always recognizes it. According to player reports on the Steam forum (not official data):
- “The Sword and the Way” can’t be completed if you already tempered the Tianxuan Bronze Sword. The tale shows up again and asks you to temper it again, but the weapon is already tempered from your first playthrough. A player on his fourth cycle confirms it can’t be repeated. Support replied that it passed the report on; for now there’s no fix.
- Chests and areas that ask for a weapon or Phantom Edge you already have. There’s a chest early in the cycle that requires a specific weapon, and the game doesn’t recognize the one you bring: you have to get it again. The same happens with the areas opened by traversal Phantom Edges.
Why do I have to get a weapon again in New Game Plus?
Because the cycle resets the chests, areas and tales tied to each weapon. Besides the chest from the Steam forum, on Reddit there are players complaining about having to recover weapons to keep leveling them up in the new cycle; we haven’t been able to verify it. If you’re missing a petal or fragment from your first playthrough, on the other hand, it does count: several players say they picked it up in New Cycle and it completed the flower or the piece.
Upgrade caps, accessories and the Edges you lose
GamerSky’s Chinese guide (author 極56, 5 November 2026) gives the missing numbers. In the first New Cycle you can raise weapons and Edges to level 35; the cap goes up each cycle and the maximum is 60. Accessories gain 3% per cycle, up to 18%, but only if you obtain them again. And the game takes back the 7 Edges that break scenery: you have to get them back. Work out the Dust for each step with the upgrade calculator.
| What | First playthrough | New Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon and Edge cap | Level 30 | 35 in the first cycle; rises each cycle up to 60 |
| Accessories | Normal value | +3% per cycle if you obtain it again (18% max) |
| Shops | Limited stock | Everything can be bought without limit |
| Skills | — | Kept; new ones need Banyan’s Hearts |
| Books | Collected | Kept; the ones you already had turn into Remnant Dust |
| Sha-Chi Amber, Blackstone and flowers | Raise stats | Still count |
Source: GamerSky (5 Nov 2026). It only gives 35 for the first cycle and 60 as the final cap; the calculator covers the steps in between and notes that sources do not fully agree.
The 7 Edges taken away at the start
They are the exploration Edges, which is why paths and chests are closed at the start of the cycle even though you already had them:
- Feather Bow: items hanging up high.
- Hunter’s Chain Sickle: grappling to high anchors.
- Bashpole: breaking planks that seal the floor.
- Illusory Pipa: areas covered in fog.
- Tiger Cannon: blowing up stone walls.
- Flaming Mane: burning brambles.
- You Loong’s Deluge: putting out burning barriers.
The same guide says the game takes them “all” back at the start; it does not say whether they keep their upgrades when you get them back.
What’s new in New Cycle
- A new skill tier paid for with Banyan’s Hearts.
- Unlimited materials in shops.
- Upgrades above the maximum.
- Tougher enemies, according to some guides, although sources disagree on how much and on whether it stacks with each cycle, and S-GAME hasn’t given figures. On the Steam forum, several players say New Cycle felt easier to them because they arrive with all their gear.
There are no New Cycle trophies of its own. Get the true ending in your first playthrough: what you miss can’t be recovered.
Frequently asked questions
Do traversal Phantom Edges carry over?
Yes, like the sickle, but you have to recover them on the map to be able to use them for getting around.
Why can’t I complete “The Sword and the Way” in New Game Plus?
According to player reports on the Steam forum, the tale asks you to temper the Tianxuan Bronze Sword and, if you already tempered it in your first playthrough, it can’t be done again. It’s a bug with no fix for now.
Is New Game Plus harder?
There are no official figures. Some guides talk about tougher enemies, but many players find it easier because they start with all their gear.
Kaarosu Damu Kira is a soulslike player with 13 platinum trophies, from Dark Souls and Bloodborne to Elden Ring and Black Myth: Wukong, and the author of PBZ Guide. Kaarosu earned the Phantom Blade Zero platinum on 14 Nov 2026 in a single playthrough and turns every fight into clear, fact-checked guides.
