God of War Ragnarök New Game Plus Update Features Skippable Cinematics, Expanded Niflheim Arena, New Equipment & More

Developer Santa Monica Studio and Sony have announced that their acclaimed action-adventure game, God of War Ragnarök, has been updated to feature New Game Plus.

In this mode, players can look forward to Kratos’ attire from the game’s start, the Armor of the Black Bear, granting a focus on enhanced strength and defense alongside a perk “that rewards your last-second evades with a volley of Bifröst shards.” New Game Plus will start with this gear automatically equipped.

Further, the Spartan Armor, obtainable via spending Hacksilver at Huldra Brothers’ Shop, has no perks or stats and a power level of one, enabling an even greater challenge for those seeking it.

The Ares and Zeus armors from God of War 2018’s New Game Plus have returned, too, with the former, gotten from Huldra Brothers’ Shop, granting a heightened chance of Health Stone drops instilled with rage gain and a grander explosion.

Alternatively, the Zeus armor, “acquired by defeating Gná the Valkyrie Queen and completing certain Remnants of Asgard on a NG+ save,” significantly enhances damage output at the cost of receiving far more. More new equipment is the Spartan Aspis shield from the Huldra Brothers’ Shop, having greater damage output from parrying at the expense of stricter timing.

There are even more new implementations, but amongst the most significant are an expanded Niflheim Arena, tougher endgame bosses, a black-and-white render mode, and skippable cinematics.

For a more in-depth look at the New Game Plus update in God of War Ragnarök, check out the official PlayStation Blog article.

God of War: Ragnarök continues the story of Kratos and Atreus in the lands of Norse mythology. This time, the father and son try to stop Ragnarök as they face the God of Thunder himself, Thor. Atreus is more grown up now, and the duo seeks the Norse god of war, Tyr, for guidance.