Phantom Blade Zero New Game Plus (New Cycle) Guide: What Carries Over

Phantom Blade Zero's version of New Game Plus is called a New Cycle. After you see an ending, Inanis offers to start another cycle, and you begin the story again with much of your progress intact. The game is built with repeat runs in mind: Phantom Blade Guide reports that director Soulframe Liang said some weapons from late bosses are really meant for New Game Plus. This guide explains what transfers, what resets and how progression scales.

How to start a New Cycle

AllThings.How and the th.gl guide both say that the results screen after an ending offers a New Cycle. games.gg adds that you speak to Inanis to start it and can adjust the difficulty. Note that th.gl says Wayfarer is not available when starting a New Cycle, so you choose Pathbreaker or higher.

The Undying Grudge ending on 66 Days is a special case. Per th.gl, choosing New Cycle there restarts the same cycle from the beginning, still on 66 Days, rather than advancing to the next one.

What carries over

According to th.gl, these come with you:

• Equipment: weapons, Phantom Edges and accessories.
• Progression items.
• Ability Training.
• Archives.

games.gg confirms weapons and Phantom Edges carry over.

What resets

• Quests.
• Maps.
• Key items.
• Remaining days (for 66 Days).

Because quests and key items reset, you will redo tool-gated progress, such as the chain sickle from The Hunt. It also means you can reattempt side content and endings you missed. If you got the Annihilation or Lóng's Roar ending, a new cycle is your chance for the Final Battle; see the true ending guide.

Weapon level caps

th.gl explains that the weapon level cap is 30 in the first cycle. In later cycles, weapons gain a +N suffix, up to +7, which extends their growth. Reaching level 30 once in cycle one is enough for the Overwhelming Force and Skill Over Strength trophies; see our trophy guide.

Ability upgrades per cycle

th.gl lists three abilities that scale with cycles: Keen Edge, Focused Mind and Fortified Body. Each gains five more levels per cycle, up to level 30. The guide gives one example cost: upgrading Keen Edge needs 45,000 Remnant Dust plus The Banyan's Heart. The Banyan's Heart is linked to the Heart of the Banyan quest, which also has a trophy. Read the Soul Tempering guide for how tempering materials work in general.

Remnant Dust in New Cycle

There is no respawning Remnant Dust farm in the first cycle. The PBZ Wiki notes that a new cycle is effectively the only way to collect the one-time pickups again. Plan purchases accordingly; see Remnant Dust farming.

Tips for your second cycle

• Choose your difficulty with care: Wayfarer is gone, but Pathbreaker still gives extra timing slack, per th.gl's numbers in difficulty modes explained.
• Try weapons you skipped. With everything carried over you can experiment freely; browse the Phantom Edges database and the weapon list.
• Pick up anything missable you lost the first time; check the missable items guide.
• Use the extra Remnant Dust from a second sweep to push ability levels.

Exact scaling of enemy stats in later cycles was not documented in the sources we found, so we do not list numbers for it.

Related guides

For more help, use these related pages on this site, each built from published guides:

• Beginner tips: parry colours, Sha-Chi and early priorities.
• Missable items: side quests and drops with a cut-off point.
• True ending guide: the purple quests and Acolytes you need.
• All bosses in order: every main and optional boss by region.
• Phantom Edges database and accessories database: stats and locations in sortable tables.
• Interactive map and collectibles tracker to tick off pickups as you go.