Games that contextualize gameplay decisions within the world's lore always impress me, so I couldn’t resist diving into Black Myth Wukong’s New Game Plus.
READ: Black Myth Wukong: Best Stance
The cyclical nature of Sun Wukong’s journeys to the West naturally fits into the the equally cyclical blueprint of a classic NG+, which makes its addition obvious. It also comes with quite a few surprises.
Here’s everything you get when you start a New Cycle in Black Myth Wukong.
Starting New Game Plus brings you a second Strand Spell, the Life-Saving Strand. As the name implies, this is a second life.
Like all other spells in the game, this comes with a brand new skill tree, allowing you to considerably empower it.
When maxed out, the Life-Saving Strand spell will recharge four gourd uses, will give you some mana back, and it will have a chance to revive you without consuming the spell’s charge, which has a pretty lengthy cooldown.
You might’ve gotten your hands onto a Soul Remigration Pill during your first play through. If you did, that was the only one available in the entire game.
In New Game Plus, though, you can craft as many as you want. Just unlock Xu Dog during Chapter Two again, and he’ll sell you the formula.
With it, you’re able to craft this Mythical medicine with the following:
The Soul Remigration Pill gives you an extra life, “before triggering Life Saving Strand”. This means that, in NG+, if you equip Life Saving Strand and use one of these pills, you get three lives.
Shen Monkey, our fellow primate who’s always trying to turn us into alcoholics, sells two new items in New Game Plus.
Qing Tian, a Legendary Gourd, comes with a single use, but slowly recovers charges. You’ll get a charge every 20 to 30 seconds, so this is the best choice for drawn out fights, especially if you pair it with the aforementioned Life Saving Strand.
You won’t be able to buy this from Shen Monkey unless you’ve unlocked all portraits in the game. Once you do, he’ll sell it for 66 Will.
What he’ll have available in NG+ regardless of how many portraits you have, is the Guanyin’s Willow Leaf, a Mythical soak. Brewing this into your drink will recharge all your gourd uses upon resurrection, which also synergizes perfectly with both Life-Saving Strand, and the Soul Remigration Pill. No boss will outlast you now.
Although the game starts you off with two curio slots, you can expand that to three during your first playthrough by interacting with the Yin Tiger.
If you repeat this process in New Game Plus, you’ll be able to equip a fourth curio. This can be repeated again in NG++ for a fifth slot, which is the maximum the game will allow you to achieve.
New Game Plus comes with three exclusive weapons, and they’re all more powerful than the mythical Jingubang that you get at the end of your first playthrough. When built around correctly, they are the three best weapons in the game.
The first weapon you’ll be able to craft in New Game Plus is the Adept Spine-Shooting Fuban Staff. As you might’ve guessed, you can craft it after taking down Fuban again during Chapter Two.
Once you do, you’ll get your fourth Sky-Piercing Horn material, if you took down Fuban and Scorpionlord during your first playthrough. Fuban’s Staff is the final upgrade of the Chitin Staff tree, and is the best weapon in the game for a Critical Strike build.
On top of having 120 Attack and 25% Critical Hit Chance, the weapon will heal you based on how many focus points you consume, and will attack nearby enemies with spines that shoot from the staff.
Crafting Requirements:
If you took down all Loongs during your first playthrough, you’ll have started New Game Plus with five Loong Pearls. Repeat the same process, and once you take down Cyan Loong in Chapter Three, you’ll have nine Pearls.
That’s exactly what you need to craft the Stormflash Loong Staff, which makes it our second NG+ weapon. At 140, it is the weapon with the highest Attack in the entire game, and it also comes with 9% Critical Hit Chance.
Additionally, this is a Thunder Damage weapon. While charging a heavy attack, you’ll be inflicting Thunder Bane on yourself, putting you into Shocked State without dealing any damage.
When in Shocked State, you will inflict Thunder Damage with all attacks. The Stormflash Loong Staff is the final upgrade of the Willow Wood Staff, the first weapon you use in Black Myth Wukong.
Crafting Requirements:
You can technically craft this weapon before either of the two mentioned previously. But, you shouldn’t craft it or use it unless you have the Bull King Armor Set, so I saved it for last, and so should you.
To be able to craft this weapon after having all the Set crafted, you’ll have to take down the Bishui Golden-Eyed Beast in NG+, and loot the chest before the Spirit fight on the way to the boss’s arena.
The Dark Iron Staff comes with apparently underwhelming stats, with only 110 Attack, and 5 Chill and Burn Resistance, but once you have the Bull King Armor set, it becomes the most overpowered weapon in the game.
Its unique effect is that it “considerably increases Attack Based on Defense”. For reference, the Stormflash Loong Staff, with 140 Attack, takes me to a maximum of 182, with Non-Able Spirit equipped giving an extra bonus.
The Dark Iron Staff with the Bull King Armor Set equipped nets me 236 overall Attack, without even equipping a Defense Spirit. With the Wandering Wight equipped, it goes up to 240, nearly 60 more.
Crafting Requirements:
Every time you finish a chapter in Black Myth Wukong, you earn a Relic. This is still the case in Chapter Six, but with a crucial caveat. Finishing this chapter essentially ends your playthrough, so you won’t really make use of this relic until you reach NG+.
Furthermore, you only get the Free Mind Relic if you break the cycle, which requires killing the secret boss. If you have no idea what that is, don’t worry, we already covered that here.
Once you’ve taken down the secret boss, you can equip your sixth relic perk before taking down the final boss again, and those perks are incredibly powerful:
On top of everything else mentioned in this article, progressing through New Game Plus will get you an extra bonus per relic. Every time you complete a chapter in NG+, you’ll be able to activate a second bonus.
This means that, for example, once you finish chapter one, you can equip both Opportune Watcher and Keen Insight in the Craving Eyes relic. If you finish the game in NG+ with the Secret Ending, you’ll head into NG++ with 12 Relic Perks active.
This process can be repeated again during your third playthrough, allowing you to activate all Relic Perks simultaneously, once you kill the secret boss thrice.
Doing so brings us to our final secret, a permanent unlock of the secret stance that is only available during the final fight of the game.
Once you have all the Relics maxed out, equip the Monkey King Armor Set with the Jingubang, and using a four-focus attack will activate the hidden stance for around a minute, making you as overpowered as you were during the final fight.
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