Witcher 4 New Game Plus Guide 2026: What Carries Over, Best Starting Build & Everything Worth Doing Before NG+

I finished Witcher 4 at level 38, immediately started New Game Plus, and got destroyed by the first pack of Nekkers. NG+ is not victory-lap territory. Enemies scale to your level plus 10-15, meaning those level 40 Nekkers in NG+ are level 52 with NG+ stat multipliers. Here's exactly what you need to know before starting.

What carries over to NG+ (and what the game lies about)

The game tells you "most items carry over." Here's the actual list:

Carries over: All equipped armor and weapons, all inventory items (crafting materials, alchemy ingredients, food, junk), all potions/decoctions/bombs/oils (and their upgrade levels), all abilities and mutagens, all skill points (you keep your build AND get new skill points), all crowns, all Gwent cards, all alchemy recipes and crafting diagrams, your current level.

Does NOT carry over: Quest items (obviously), all Witcher School gear diagrams (you need to find Legendary variants in NG+), all trophies (you keep the items but they appear in a separate "Legacy Trophy" stash), all Gwent quest progress (card collection carries, quest completion doesn't), all story choices (NG+ is a fresh playthrough, no one remembers what you did), the Corvo Bianco-style home base (you need to re-unlock it through the story).

The biggest trap: Witcher School gear diagrams. Your Grandmaster Griffin set on your character still works — it doesn't get deleted. But if you want to upgrade it further in NG+, you need Legendary Griffin diagrams, which are in different locations from the base game diagrams. You cannot upgrade your regular Grandmaster set — it's capped at Grandmaster tier. The Legendary sets start at Legendary Base (level 45-50 requirement) and go up to Legendary Grandmaster (level 80+).

Pre-NG+ checklist: what to farm before you restart

1. All Places of Power. Each gives a skill point. In NG+, Places of Power reset and give ANOTHER skill point. If you collected all 28 in the base game and collect all 28 again in NG+, that's 56 bonus skill points total.

2. Greater Mutagens. You need 4 Greater Red, 4 Greater Blue, and 4 Greater Green for a fully optimized mutagen tree. Farm them now. The best spot is the Whale Graveyard — packs of Drowners respawn there and drop Lesser Blue/Green mutagens at a high rate.

3. All Superior-tier potions, bombs, and oils. You cannot upgrade recipes you haven't found. If you're missing Enhanced Swallow because you skipped a chest somewhere, you can't craft Superior Swallow in NG+ even if you find the diagram.

4. The Runewright (if you have the expansion). Enchantments on your gear carry over AND the Runewright progress resets in NG+. Spend the 30,000 crowns to unlock level 3 Runewright NOW, apply your enchantments, then start NG+. In NG+, you can unlock the Runewright again and stack enchantments.

5. All Witcher School gear sets crafted to at least Superior tier. Even if you don't use them, you can display them or use them for alternative builds after respeccing with a Potion of Clearance.

6. At least 50,000 crowns. NG+ economy is inflated. Crafting Legendary Grandmaster gear costs roughly 60,000 crowns per set.

Legendary Witcher gear locations (they're different!)

Legendary Griffin: beneath Kovir Castle. You need to complete the "Royal Blood" side quest chain to access the dungeon.

Legendary Cat: Pontar Valley's flooded catacombs. The door requires a key from a NG+-exclusive contract.

Legendary Bear: Dragon Mountains summit. The climb requires Cold Resistance potions (Superior level minimum) or you take constant freeze damage.

Legendary Wolf: scattered across multiple locations tied to the main quest.

Death March NG+ build that survives the first 10 hours

The first 10 hours of Death March NG+ are the hardest content in the game. You're wearing Grandmaster armor from the base game, which gives you about the same effective durability as Enhanced-tier armor on base game Death March.

Recommended starting build: Alchemy + Combat hybrid. Ekhidna Decoction (health on stamina use), Water Hag Decoction (50% damage at full health), Archgriffin Decoction (heavy attacks deal 5% enemy health as bonus damage). The Archgriffin decoction handles inflated enemy health pools — a heavy attack adding 5% max HP damage means you kill a 50,000 HP boss in 20 hits regardless of your weapon damage.

Key abilities: Acquired Tolerance (more toxicity for triple decoction), Heightened Tolerance (reduced overdose risk), Whirl (fast attack AoE), Rend (heavy attack AP damage), Fleet Footed (reduced dodge damage).

This build is self-sustaining. Ekhidna heals you whenever you spend stamina (Whirl spam = constant healing). Water Hag buffs your damage at full health. Archgriffin handles the inflated health pools. You can face-tank Death March NG+ content with this build.

What to do in NG+ and what to skip

Do: Main story quests (new dialogue options based on NG+ flag — characters sometimes reference "a Witcher who's already saved the world"), all Witcher gear hunts (Legendary sets are the main reason to play NG+), expansion content (scaled to your NG+ level).

Skip: Notice board contracts you've already done (same monsters, same patterns, just higher numbers — unless you need gold), all Gwent quests (you have all the cards already), non-Witcher gear treasure hunts.

The level 100 cap and what happens when you hit it

Enemies stop scaling at level 100. If you reach level 100, you will start out-leveling NG+ content and the game becomes a power fantasy again. The fastest way to level in NG+ is the Monster Nest farming loop in Pontar Valley: 6 monster nests within a 200-meter radius. Destroy each nest (don't loot — leave one item so the nest respawns), fast travel away and back, and the nests respawn. Each clear gives roughly 1,500 XP. At 6 nests per loop and 3 minutes per loop, that's about 3,000 XP per minute.

Don't do this. It ruins the NG+ experience. The game is balanced around you being perpetually 10-15 levels below the content. The satisfaction of NG+ is mastering the combat system thoroughly. If you out-level them, it's just a walking simulator with occasional sword swinging.