Scarlet Nexus New Game Plus mode: what carries over & clear bonuses
You've probably heard by now that Scarlet Nexus has two different protagonists you can choose from - Yuito or Kasane. While the game is a generally complete experience with only one playthrough, you might want to play through both routes to get the complete picture of what happens over the course of the game.
Luckily, Scarlet Nexus has a New Game Plus feature, meaning you do not have to play your second character playthrough from scratch (unless you want to of course). You are allowed to carry over many options into your second playthrough, which will trivialize the game balance but allow you to experience the other story more readily.
When you beat Scarlet Nexus as one of the characters, you'll be asked to create a Clear Save. You can still play after the Clear Save on that character, and there are even a handful of post-game exclusive quests. However, it is important to note that, for New Game Plus purposes, you MUST load the actual Clear Save file when starting New Game Plus. Post-game save files will not work, it must be the Clear Save. So, this means you should be careful not to delete it, and also if you do any sort of grinding or completing the post-game, you'll want to quickly clear the game again to get a new Clear Save. It's a little tedious, admittedly, that regular post-game saves cannot be used as a Clear Save.
Note the following might contain Minor Spoilers for Scarlet Nexus.
Scarlet Nexus: What Carries Over in New Game Plus?
Here is a list of everything you can keep when you start an Ex New Game by loading a Clear Save file.
- Level
- This may seem obvious but keep in mind that since Kasane and Yuito are different characters, Yuito's level will transfer to Yuito and Kasane's level will transfer to Kasane. If Yuito is level 80 and Kasane is level 75 in your first playthrough, then your Kasane in your second playthrough will start her at level 75.
- BP
- Money
- Play Time
- Equipment (Weapons and Plug-ins)
- Most Items
- Shop Inventory
- Library Characters
- Library Help
- Plug-in Parallelization Program V and Plug-in Parallelization Program H (both in hand and already installed), but not other gifts.
- The gift items that expand plug-in spots are kept, and if you've used any of those items on characters in Playthrough 1, you won't need to use them again. Additionally, all the other gifts that add items to your hideout are mutually exclusive between the two characters, so gifts are unique between the two playthroughs - Kasane doesn't give the same gifts as Yuito, for example.
- However, eventually, you'll be able to see ALL the gifts from both playthroughs in the hideout. See the below Clear Bonus section for details.
- SAS levels
- Only for the same character, of course. A new game plus with the other protagonist will not have SAS levels.
Clear Bonus for finishing both Yuito's and Kasane's Routes
You may also be wondering if there is any sort of bonus for finishing both routes of the story. At least for the moment, there is no additional story content or anything like that. However, once you finish both Yuito and Kasane's story routes, you will be able to swap between the two protagonists at any time.
This is actually very useful for completionist type players because you'll be able to wrap up any of Scarlet Nexus's side quests, gift-giving, SAS bonding, or Brain Map filling as either character at this point.
Even if you started your 2nd route having not finished these in your original playthrough, this protagonist-swapping option will allow you to wrap up any lingering tasks you have, meaning nothing is truly missable in Scarlet Nexus. Pretty cool huh?