New Game+

1. What carries over

The short version: progress carries, items do not. The reviews barely touch NG+: GamesRadar+ says a second playthrough reframes "things you didn't really register before" with what you know by then, and GamingTrend lists "NG+ with multiple endings" among its pros.

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  Start it from the main menu

  After the credits of a first playthrough, any ending, the main menu offers New Game Plus. Finishing that playthrough on any difficulty is the Reliving A Nightmare trophy (silver). Difficulty never matters for trophies: everything can be done on Story Mode with Hinted puzzles.

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  What resets: your inventory

  NG+ "does not retain anything gameplay wise" from the previous run, and every weapon has to be found again. The two things NG+ adds are the two extra endings and the two extra weapons of the next section.

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  What carries: collectible progress and cumulative trophies

  Progress toward every collectible trophy is kept between playthroughs, so the 85 Documents, 13 Phone Numbers, 18 CRTV Signals and 7 Resource Containers only ever need finding once each, with two catches: the game shows no in-game record of which ones an earlier run already found, and the Strange Postcards do not reappear once you start NG+. Cumulative trophies count across runs too, which is the only way to reach Missing The Point Entirely (30 Widows: PowerPyx counts fewer than that in one playthrough; GameRant, KosGames and a reader, more) and the 10 and 20 of Static Distractions and Lured Off Track, which count over all playthroughs.

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  What does not carry: the Discoveries that decide the ending

  The endings compare Discoveries (Documents and Clues) with Kills over the playthrough you are on, so on NG+ the Documents and Clues have to be collected again, while the other collectibles do not matter for the ending. Around 20 kills are unavoidable, the corpse enemies that charge you from Clara Woods on. The thresholds depend on the source: PowerPyx says roughly 80 Discoveries allow upwards of 50 Kills and still give the best ending, and that the exact Forever margin is not known; GameRant gives margins, at least 20 more Discoveries than Kills for Justice, about 5 more for Forever, and never more than 60 Kills.

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  The one ordinary collectible tied to NG+: Phone Number #6

  496 0842, listed as Unknown, is Phone Number #6 of 13, in Chapter 3: A Connection. After returning to the Town Square, call 946 from the phone booth and you are told 496 0842; call it during that chapter, because calling earlier gets you the number without a proper connection. It sits with NG+ because 946 is a number you only learn later in the game (it is Phone Number #11, the W H O Dial Back Service, in Chapter 10), PowerPyx and GameRant say it can be done on a first playthrough if you know it; Eurogamer.es says it only works in New Game+, and EliteGuias lists it under New Game+.

2. The Axe and the Pistol-3000

Two weapons exist only after the credits. The Axe is on every NG+ run; the Pistol-3000 only on a run started after the Sci-fi ending, sometimes labelled NG++. Each is a bronze trophy on first pickup, both marked missable, and each has two locations because two characters can carry it.

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  The Axe as Simon: Chapter 1, behind the gate by the For Sale houses. Trophy: Here's Simon!

  From the start of the game follow the path toward St. Amelia until the row of houses with For Sale signs along the railing. Straight ahead is the white gate into the storage area, which could not be opened on the first run and now can. Inside, the Axe is on a table in the second-last unit on the right. Here's Simon! ("Obtain the Axe") pops on pickup.

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  The Axe as Zoe: Chapter 5, the shed before Mr. Stewart's house

  Just before entering Mr. Stewart's house, the Axe is leaning against the door of the shed in the adjacent backyard, the first yard you walk through. Once picked up, Zoe keeps it through both of her sections. The reason to want it: with the Axe she can kill every enemy in one hit in both of her chapters or guard against damage, which makes Save It For The Patients (no healing items in Rounds and The Patient) far easier than on a first run. The same advice holds for the whole NG+ run: take the Axe so you have a weapon to block damage.

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  The Pistol-3000 as Simon: the same storage area, after the Sci-fi ending. Trophy: Future Hardware

  Only on a playthrough started after you have seen the Sci-fi ending once. Same walk: the For Sale houses, the gate, the storage area. The Pistol-3000 is on a table in the second unit on the right (the Axe was in the second-last). Future Hardware ("Obtain the Pistol-3000") pops on pickup.

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  The Pistol-3000 as Richard: the Boardroom table

  In Part 5, the Pistol-3000 sits on the Boardroom table on the 5th floor of CEG HQ, right beside the Access Card – Level 3/4 you have to pick up anyway. What it is for: against the final boss it does damage fast enough that you can ignore the other enemies in the room.

3. Dog ending setup

Three coins, three dog banks, in order through the game. The coins exist only in NG+ and need nothing else to appear; with all three placed, the Dog ending replaces whichever main ending your counts would have given, and it plays after the final boss. The trophy is Let's Talk This Out (silver). What the ending shows is not here.

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  Chapter 1: Cold Open. The Bronze Coin, and the first bank

  Walk all the way down the road to the Video Star store; the Bronze Coin is on a shelf in its small back room. Then go back to Main Street: just before the Pharmacy there is a Guide Dogs for the Blind bank, and the coin goes into it.

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  Chapter 9: Begin Again. The Silver Coin

  Entering Clara Woods, go up the street to the intersection and turn right, toward the backyard where a Strange Postcard was on the first playthrough; the Silver Coin is on the shelf in that backyard.

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  Chapter 10: Missing Parts. The second bank, in the laundromat

  Once you have the boltcutters, go through the door behind the post service building to the laundromat building (another first-run postcard spot). The dog inside takes the Silver Coin.

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  Chapter 15: Trying Again. The Gold Coin behind door 793

  At the control-room panel in SWDP – Different, when you unlock the door to the valve (592, on the Part 6 page), also unlock 793 with the same padlock-and-door combination. That room is in the lower area, and the Gold Coin is on its console.

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  Chapter 15: the third bank, at the end of the red-lit hallway

  After the clamp release and the container drop, follow the path into the next area. At the four-way split with the red lights ahead of you, go all the way to the end of the hallway: the last dog bank is there, and the Gold Coin goes in. That is the whole setup; the ending itself comes after the Weight.

4. Sci-fi ending setup

A door puzzle for a card, three books to inspect, and a keypad at the end of Chapter 15. The Strange Postcards hint at these steps but are not required, and this ending fires "immediately after the next cutscene", skipping the final boss and the normal ending section; the trophy is Sci-fi-lent Hill (silver). Nothing about the ending is described.

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  Chapter 3: A Connection. Strange Book 1, in Zoe's bedroom

  Inside Zoe's House go into the bedroom; to the left of the bed, a book on the floor under the bedside table can be inspected: "History of Space Flight, 1952 – 1992". Inspecting is all it takes.

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  Chapter 6: Journey To Medical. The hotel door and the Strange Access Card

  After interacting with the box to accept Richard's gift, go into the hotel and upstairs to a door covered in buttons that match the Strange Postcard symbols. Press, in this order: Bird, Tree, Planet, Bird, Triangle (the three-legged triangle), Satellite, Satellite, Fish, Rocket, Planet, Dog, Pillar. A wrong press resets every button and you start the sequence again. Numbering the buttons left to right, top to bottom, that is: 21, 17, 9, 21, 12, 24, 24, 5, 3, 9, 1, 14. With the door open, the Strange Access Card is in that room: PowerPyx puts it in the corner by the elephant statue, EliteGuias on the bedside table. The hotel is in Shorefront South (Different).

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  Chapter 10: Missing Parts. Strange Book 2, in the Atlas Square store

  After the phone call with Richard, enter the store on the south-west corner of Atlas Square; in the left corner as you come in, a book on the shelf can be inspected: "Freeze Me / Wake Me – Elias Fisher". PowerPyx and Eurogamer.es put the book on that left-hand shelf; GameRant, on the bookshelf behind the register of what it calls the Hospice Store.

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  Chapter 15: Trying Again. Strange Book 3, behind door 621

  At the same panel step where you unlock the valve door, also unlock 621. In that room, on the table beside Resource Container #7, the book to inspect is "A Map of Nowhere Else – The Future of Interstellar Travel".

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  Chapter 15: the keypad before the last door

  Through the red hallways, right before the doorway that triggers the scene where Simon pulls out his IV, there is a keypad on the left of the door. Use the Strange Access Card on it. The Sci-fi ending then triggers as you go through the next door, after that scene, and the final boss never happens. If you also placed the three coins, this fires first, which is why the plan below does Sci-fi and then reloads for Dog.

5. The saves that farm the endings

The plan needs two full playthroughs and three partial ones, all steered by manual saves (the game has one autosave slot and twenty manual ones, and a manual save is a phone call to 100). The first playthrough collects everything and kills everything, which guarantees the Abandoned ending; the NG+ run does the rest. The sequence below is PowerPyx's; GameRant's has the same shape but puts its two saves on arriving at Clara Woods Estate in Part 4 and before the final sequence.

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  Play NG+ for Justice while doing the Dog and Sci-fi steps

  Avoid kills wherever possible, pick up every Document and Clue again, do the coin and book steps above as you pass them, and move fast enough to come in under four hours for Fleeting Visit. Ways of not killing: run through areas quickly and enemies lose track of you; if one follows you indoors, go into a bathroom or any room with a lock and lock the door, and it usually gives up; in the final section, a flare shot stuns the large unkillable enemy so you can run past, and the flare distracts the rest.

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  Save 1: Chapter 10, right after the Constructed Mechanical Device

  In Part 4, complete the progression of Missing Parts up to the point where you build the Constructed Mechanical Device that opens the gate to CEG Tower, and make a manual save there, before using it. Everything from here to the end is where the kill count can still be swung.

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  Save 2: Chapter 15, before the red crank

  Keep avoiding kills and collecting Documents through Parts 5 and 6. In Trying Again, stop at the point where you have to turn the red crank to release the container, and make a second manual save. Then finish the game normally: Justice.

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  Reload Save 2 twice: Sci-fi, then Dog

  Reload the crank save and play on to the keypad with the Strange Access Card for the Sci-fi ending; reload it again and play through the boss with the three coins placed for the Dog ending. The order matters because the keypad fires before the boss.

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  Reload Save 1 for Forever: kill ten, ignore the documents, save at the crank again

  Reload the Chapter 10 save, kill ten enemies around Clara Woods, then play the rest of the game ignoring Documents where you can and killing everything you meet as Richard and as Simon. Make another manual save at the crank "just in case", and finish the game killing the enemies in the boss room. If that gives Abandoned again, reload the crank save, pick up a couple of Documents in the final area and avoid killing during the boss: with slightly more Discoveries than Kills the result is Forever. GameRant puts that margin at about five more Discoveries than Kills; PowerPyx says it is not known exactly and to keep the two numbers as close as you can without kills overtaking.

6. The fast run and the no-save run

Fleeting Visit (silver, missable) is a playthrough finished in under four hours; Reject The Help (gold, missable) is a playthrough with no manual save after the first prompt. The plan does the first on NG+ and keeps the second for the first playthrough, or combines both in a third, optional run of about two hours that only does the mandatory puzzles and kills whatever is in the way. Fleeting Visit is the hardest trophy on the list and still very lenient.

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  The timer: Game Options, Show Time Played

  Turn on the on-screen timer under Game Options and Show Time Played; it is the same clock your save files display. It stops only in the pause menu, so pausing to read a walkthrough is free, but it keeps running in every other menu and through cutscenes, so skip them all.

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  How fast is fast: under two hours with nothing optional, under three with every Document

  A run that only follows main objectives finishes in under two hours; one that also collects all the Documents in under three; a first playthrough with every collectible around eight. One warning is worth knowing before you plan skips: every puzzle and the Clue that goes with it is mandatory, and the game generally will not let you enter a solution before you have picked up the puzzle's own collectible, even if you know the code.

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  Reject The Help: call 100 once, back out, never again

  Manual saving is a phone call to 100 from any phone (a desktop phone or a phone booth). The game prompts you to do it once at the start, which is the "meeting Richard" of the trophy text; make that call, back out of the save menu, and do not call 100 again for the rest of the playthrough. Autosaves continue and are frequent at objectives; the one caveat is that they do not happen while you are wandering the town areas looking for things, and the one adjustment is to leave Long-Range Masonry, Pinpoint Inaccuracy and Pull! for a run where you can save before attempting them.

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  The optional third run: both at once

  If neither was done on the first two playthroughs, the last step is a final run that does the required puzzles only and kills everything in the way, under two hours, well under the four-hour limit, without a single manual save. Killing everything also makes that run's ending Abandoned, the fallback if you somehow missed it.

7. New Game+ Completion

✅ Before Leaving New Game+...