Embarking on a New Game+ (NG+) in Bastion offers a fresh perspective on the game's mechanics, allowing you to carry over your progress and face familiar challenges with a new level of mastery. This mode introduces increased difficulty and often new opportunities for strategic play, especially when combined with the Shrine Idols.
Leveraging Your Existing Arsenal
In NG+, you retain all your unlocked weapons, their upgrades, and any collected Spirits. This means you can immediately equip your most powerful loadouts. Consider the following:
- Weapon Synergy: Experiment with weapon combinations that complement each other. For instance, pairing a long-range weapon like the Repeater with a close-range powerhouse like the Hammer can cover most combat scenarios.
- Spirit Optimization: Re-evaluate your Spirit choices. With higher enemy damage and health, Spirits that offer defensive buffs (like increased health or damage resistance) or powerful crowd control (like the Spirit that slows enemies) become even more valuable.
- Focus on Core Upgrades: Prioritize upgrading the core stats of your favorite weapons and Spirits. Increased damage, faster reload times, and enhanced defensive capabilities will be crucial for surviving the tougher encounters.
Shrine Idols: The Ultimate Challenge Multiplier
The Shrine Idols are your primary tool for increasing the difficulty and rewards in NG+. Activating these modifiers sificantly ramps up the challenge, but also provides a substantial boost to experience and Fragments gained, which is beneficial for further perfecting your builds.
- Strategic Idol Selection: Don't activate all Idols at once unless you're seeking the absolute maximum challenge. Start with one or two that you feel comfortable managing. For example, the Idol that makes enemies more aggressive is often a good starting point.
- Enemy Behavior Modifiers: Pay close attention to which Idols alter enemy behavior. Some might make enemies spawn in larger numbers, while others might give them new attack patterns. Understanding these changes is key to adapting your tactics.
- Fragment Farming: For players looking to max out their gear or collect every item, activating multiple Idols in NG+ is an excellent way to rapidly accumulate Fragments. Focus on levels where you can efficiently clear enemies and survive the increased threat.
Combat Adaptations for NG+
Enemies in NG+ hit harder and have more health. This necessitates a more calculated approach to combat:
- Prioritize Targets: Identify the most dangerous enemies in a group and focus on eliminating them first. This might include ranged attackers or enemies with debilitating status effects.
- Utilize the Environment: Use cover effectively, lure enemies into choke points, and exploit any environmental hazards present in the levels.
- Master Your Defensive Options: Perfecting the timing of your blocks and parries with the Shield is no longer optional; it's essential for survival.
- Learn Enemy Patterns: Even with increased stats, enemies retain their core attack patterns. Learning these patterns intimately will allow you to dodge, block, and counter effectively.
New Game+ in Bastion is not just about replaying the story; it's about mastering its systems and pushing your skills to the limit. By strategically combining your retained power with the challenges presented by the Shrine Idols, you can experience Bastion in a deeply rewarding and challenging new way.