If you’ve just rolled credits on Metaphor Refantazio’s epic main story, your first question is probably what Metaphor Refantazio new game plus carry over will keep for your second playthrough. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending hours grinding rare materials or maxing out a powerful character build only to find it disappears when you start NG+. I’ve put in over 120 hours across two full playthroughs of the game, so I’ve tested every detail of what stays and what goes when you restart. This guide breaks down every detail, so you don’t waste time on tasks that won’t benefit you long term.
Core Items That Metaphor Refantazio New Game Plus Carry Over Retains
The good news is most of your hard-earned progress will transfer to your new playthrough, so you won’t have to start completely from scratch. The carry over system is designed to reward players for their first run effort while still keeping the second playthrough challenging and fun. You’ll get to skip most of the early game grind that slows down your first run, letting you jump straight to testing out powerful builds or tackling higher difficulty levels.
The most valuable retained items include:
- All character levels and unspent skill points for every party member you recruited before the final boss fight, including unique passive skills you unlocked through side quests
- Full Arcana compendium entries for every creature you collected, fused, or upgraded, even if you didn’t keep them in your active party
- Non-story exclusive cosmetics and accessories, including character skins, weapon camos, and charm items that boost stat gains
- 90% of your total gold, minus a small scaling tax that caps at 10% no matter how much money you have saved up
You’ll also keep all your unlocked difficulty settings, so if you want to jump straight to the hardest mode for your second run, you won’t have to beat the game on medium first. That’s a huge win for players who want to test their best builds against the toughest challenges the game has to offer.
Things You Won’t Keep When Starting New Game Plus
Not everything transfers over, and that’s intentional to keep the NG+ experience balanced. I made the mistake of spending 3 hours grinding for a temporary dungeon key right before beating the final boss on my first run, only to find it was gone when I started my second playthrough. Don’t make that same mistake.
The biggest items that don’t carry over are story-specific key items and temporary dungeon unlocks. These are items that only exist to progress a specific quest line or unlock a one-time dungeon area, so they’re removed from your inventory when you restart the story. You’ll have to earn these again as you progress through the narrative a second time.
You also won’t keep side character bond progress. All your relationship levels with party members and NPCs reset to zero, so you’ll have to rebuild those connections to unlock their unique side quests and special abilities. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. If you missed a character’s full story arc on your first run, NG+ gives you a perfect chance to go back and experience it without making a separate save file.
Story-specific cutscene unlocks and dungeon progress also reset, as you’d expect. You’ll start the game right after the opening tutorial, just like you did on your first run, so you can experience the full story again if you want, or skip cutscenes to jump straight to gameplay.
Tips To Maximize Your NG+ Carry Over Before Starting
A little prep work before you beat the final boss can make your NG+ run way smoother, and it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete. The first thing you should do is register every Arcana you own to the compendium, even the ones you don’t use often. You’ll be able to repurchase any registered Arcana for a tiny fraction of the cost it took to fuse them originally, so you can rebuild your perfect party in minutes instead of hours when you start over.
Next, spend all excess unspent skill points before beating the final boss. Unspent points do carry over, but you get a permanent 5% stat boost to your main character if you have all their base skills unlocked before starting NG+. That stat boost stacks with other buffs, so it’s a huge advantage for harder difficulty runs.
Sell any unused low-value consumables and junk items before you fight the final boss, too. Since you only keep 90% of your gold, you might as well turn unused items into extra cash that counts towards that retained amount. You don’t need to sell rare materials that you use for high-level fusions, though, those all carry over and will save you a ton of grinding later.
If you’re planning to play on the highest difficulty level, consider fusing a few high-level Arcanas with defensive and healing abilities before you start NG+. Enemy stats scale up by 40% on the hardest mode, so having a few strong pre-built Arcanas in your inventory will help you get past the first few tough fights without dying repeatedly.
Common NG+ Carry Over Mistakes To Avoid
Even players who have beaten the game once make simple mistakes that ruin their NG+ experience before it even starts. The most common mistake I see is people forgetting to claim all DLC and pre-order rewards from your in-game mailbox before beating the final boss. DLC items only carry over if you’ve already claimed them on your first run save, so if you leave them in the mailbox, they’ll be gone when you restart.
Another common mistake is grinding for temporary side quest rewards right before the final boss. If a reward is only usable for a specific quest, it won’t carry over, so there’s no point in wasting time on those tasks if you’re ready to beat the game. Save those side quests for your NG+ run, when you can complete them faster with your higher level character.
Don’t assume that all your fusion upgrades will carry over automatically, either. If you fuse a super powerful Arcana but delete it to make space in your inventory before registering it to the compendium, you won’t have access to it in NG+ unless you fuse it again. Always register new Arcanas immediately after you create them, even if you don’t plan to use them right away.
The last mistake to watch out for is skipping the final save prompt after you beat the game. You have to make a separate clear save file to access NG+, so don’t overwrite your main pre-final-boss save if you want to go back and collect anything you missed later. I always keep two save files: one right before the final boss, and one clear save for NG+.
At the end of the day, taking 10 minutes to prep your save before starting NG+ will make your second run far more enjoyable than jumping in blind. Understanding what Metaphor Refantazio new game plus carry over includes lets you skip the early game grind, focus on content you missed the first time, and test out broken builds you didn’t have time for on your first playthrough. You don’t have to 100% every side quest or collect every item before beating the final boss, but sticking to the tips we outlined will set you up for success no matter what difficulty you pick for your next run.