How Many New Games Can You Start in Elden Ring? A Complete Guide

As a hardcore Elden Ring player with over 300 hours across 5 complete playthroughs, one of the most common questions I see is: how many NG+ (New Game Plus) cycles can you go through?

Technically, there is no limit. You can keep starting fresh games indefinitely. However, the difficulty and rewards do plateau after the 8th cycle (called Journey 8).

Based on my experience and that of top players, I recommend Journey 8 as the soft cap to aim for. Here‘s an overview of how NG+ works in Elden Ring and why 8 playthroughs hits the peak for challenge and fun.

Overview: How New Game Plus Works

When you finish Elden Ring and defeat the final boss, you have the option to start a New Game Plus. This resets the world, respawning all enemies and items, while retaining your current character level, weapons, spells, and upgrades.

In addition, each NG+ cycle increases enemy health, damage, rewards and rune acquisition by 30-50% per cycle. So it gets considerably harder!

The community refers to each NG+ repeat as a "Journey." So your first playthrough is Journey 1, second is Journey 2, and so on.

The Journey 8 Soft Cap

Based on user reports and my own experience, the difficulty and rewards plateau after completing Journey 8.

I‘ve started games beyond 8 with no noticeable improvement. Enemy health and damage don‘t seem to scale higher, and rune acquisition hits a peak as well.

So while you can technically progress forever, Journey 8 is commonly considered the soft cap by top players, as you won‘t gain any practical benefit from going beyond it.

Why Journey 8 is the Recommended Peak

Here‘s a quick overview of why Journey 8 hits the peak cycle for practical purposes:

• No further difficulty increase – Enemy health, damage, and rewards do not seem to improve after the 8th completion. It simply "caps out."
• Takes over 250 hours to complete 8 cycles – Each full playthrough takes 30+ hours. So to finish Journey 8 requires 200-300 hours for most dedicated gamers.
• Chance to try all builds and quests – 8 complete runs allows you to experiment with every possible character build, weapon upgrade path, secret area and quest. You will have seen all content by this point.

So in summary, Journey 8 lets you master everything Elden Ring has to offer while hitting the peak difficulty and reward possible. You‘ll easily sink 200-300 hours working your way up to it as well.

Can You Actually Go Beyond Journey 8?

Yes, you can technically start New Game Plus indefinitely – there is no hardcoded limit in the game code itself.

However, expect diminishing returns, as enemy health and damage is unlikely to increase further based on community reports.

The current record holder has made it to Journey 40 and beyond. But it requires an extreme time investment for little practical gain. At that stage, they are likely doing it simply to say they have!

For practical purposes, Journey 8 hits the soft cap for what most dedicated gamers aim to achieve.

Bottom Line

While there is no hardcoded cap, Journey 8 is the practical soft limit for Enemy difficulty and Rune acquisition.

You could technically go to Journey 40 or beyond. But it requires an impractical time investment for minimal gains.

Most dedicated Elden Ring players consider Journey 8 the peak to aim for. It offers the hardest challenges while allowing you to explore every build and quest possible across over 250 hours of total playtime.

Let me know if this helps explain the NG+ cycle for those looking to fully master Elden Ring! I‘m happy to answer any other questions for new or experienced tarnished.