Control Resonant’s New Game Plus isn’t a simple checkbox. It respects your investment without letting you steamroll everything. If you’re wondering what transfers, here’s the exact breakdown.
Upgrades That Follow You
Your Aberrant strength, unlocked weapon forms (primary, secondary, combo finishers), and all their upgrade nodes carry over. So do every talent point you’ve spent and every artifact you’ve crafted. That includes the health and power upgrade pickups — you keep the permanent increases, not the crates themselves.
But here’s the problem: zone XP is the only renewable source of talent points.
Combat abilities you chose after each resonant boss also transfer. Since each boss forces you to pick one of two or three options, NG+ is how you grab the ones you skipped. The source material confirms: “you cannot unlock every abilities in one play-through” because of those forced choices. NG+ lets you pick a different ability from the same boss, then play through again and take the last one. You’ll need to defeat that boss again to unlock the choice, but your old ability remains equipped unless you respec.
What Gets Reset
Story progression, side quest states, and world level all reset. Zone XP returns to zero — you’ll need to re-level each zone to earn talent points and unlock zone bonuses (like marking large resource crates or improved vendor stock). Enemy placements and world feats respawn at their base difficulty for your new playthrough.
Fast travel doors you previously unlocked stay closed until you activate them again. Vendors also reset their inventory, though their tier level depends on your zone progress.
Why This Design Works
Carrying over character power while resetting world state strikes the right balance. You don’t lose your build — you can jump into fights with your fully upgraded hammer and dual blades. But the world doesn’t become trivial because base enemy levels are calibrated for a fresh start. The difficulty ramp comes from zone resets and your own pacing.
The biggest practical benefit: you can now gather the combat abilities you missed. On a first run, you might have chosen Barrage over Shield. In NG+, you pick Shield. Over multiple cycles, you can collect every single combat ability in the game. That’s the primary long-term reward — not a stat bonus, but genuine build variety.
The Strongest Counterargument (And Why It Falls Short)
Some players argue that resetting zone XP punishes thorough exploration. They spent hours maxing every zone to level 15 and now have to do it again. Fair point — zone grinding can feel tedious, especially for those who want to reach the full zone bonuses (like seeing all large resource crates on the map).
But here’s the problem: zone XP is the only renewable source of talent points. If your zone levels carried over, you’d run out of ways to earn new points after the first playthrough. You’d be stuck picking talents you already have, with no progression left. Resetting zones keeps the talent tree meaningful across multiple runs. And since world feats respawn with each resonant cycle (even within a single playthrough), you’re never locked out of earning zone XP — you just have to do the activities again. That’s the loop: defeat a resonant, reset the zone, level it back up, unlock another talent point. NG+ simply resets that process from the start, giving you the full curve again.
One Final Edge Case
If you’re chasing a specific NG+ reward like a cosmetic or an artifact tied to finishing the game on a higher difficulty, check the in-game challenge tracker. Some achievements require completing the story on a new file, not NG+ — because NG+ carries your power and may not qualify for those “fresh start” criteria. The source material mentions “new game plus is great if you want to unlock more abilities,” but doesn’t confirm special exclusive rewards beyond ability selection. Prioritize ability completion over arbitrary difficulty goals.
- What carries over in Control Resonant NG+?Your Aberrant strength, unlocked weapon forms, upgrade nodes, talent points, crafted artifacts, health and power upgrades, and combat abilities from resonant bosses all transfer to NG+.
- What resets in Control Resonant NG+?Story progression, side quests, world level, zone XP, enemy placements, fast travel doors, and vendor inventory reset at the start of NG+.
- Why does zone XP reset in Control Resonant NG+?Zone XP is the only renewable source of talent points; resetting it keeps the talent tree meaningful across multiple playthroughs.
- How can you unlock all combat abilities in Control Resonant?NG+ allows you to pick different abilities from the same boss each playthrough, eventually collecting every combat ability over multiple cycles.
