What is The Witcher 3 NG+ feature?

Question

I installed New Game Plus from the PlayStation Store, though I am not sure what it does. I think it's a feature to get more out a playthrough after you have completed it, but I just don't understand what is the difference between a new save or a previous save with NG+.

1. Do the items, levels and diagrams get kept?
2. Am I able to get new contracts and missions?
3. What will be of my choices?
4. What happens if I just continue playing instead of starting a New Game Plus over it?
5. Does my save get overwritten?

Answer 1

New Game Plus starts the game again from the beginning but you keep your current level and most of your items (as listed in the other answer). All the quests and creatures you find are also leveled up.

You can only start NG+ using a save file in which you have finished the main story line. Just starting NG+ does not overwrite this save.

If you don't start NG+ you can just continue to explore and finish any quests you haven't done yet. Leveling up becomes more difficult because you won't get many points just by killing things, especially if they are lower level than you.

Answer 2

The Witcher subreddit has a thorough FAQ on what exactly is going on:

The following is a collections of facts, and FAQ about NG+ for Witcher 3 as well as some theory borrowed from other games from a more general NG+ perspective.

First, what did CDPR say about NG+? This is from Marcin Momot, community relations guy at CDPR:

Regarding some of the questions that appeared since yesterday, here are the answers:

• Enemies will be stronger, obviously.
• What carries over? Player experience (if you're below level 30 when finishing the vanilla game, you will be bumped to level 30 for the start of NG+), items (excluding: quest items, books & letters, Gwent cards, usable items, trophies), money and alchemy recipes.
• When starting New Game Plus you can select any difficulty level.
• You can obtain the Death Match achievement when playing the NG+ mode.
• What's the starting level of the character when beginning NG+? The same that you had when finishing the game, if above 30, otherwise you start at level 30.
• You also get a free Clearing Potion at the start so you can reset your skills and try a different build.

Admittedly that post was a little vague and left some questions.

1. Will _________ item or item type carry over?

   • Equipment in inventory (weapons, armor including Witcher Gear)? - YES
   • Items in Stash? - Unknown but we assume the more general rules that apply to - inventory also apply to stash.
   • Crafted alchemy items - YES
   • Consumables (food, drink) - YES
   • Alchemy crafting components in inventory - YES
   • Alchemy Recipes you have already found - YES
   • Armor and Weapon Schematics you have already found - NO
   • Book and letters - NO
   • Monster Trophies - NO
   • Quest Items - NO (these are things like Kiera's Lamp)
   • Money - YES
   • Gwent Cards - NO

2. Wait, what do you mean my Gwent cards do not carry over, that's insane It is thought that some of the Gwent cards are from subplot quest rewards and as such would need to be won again by completing the quest again in NG+. I know this is a problem for some people and I share your pain to a degree. I think that the Gwent cards you paid good money for from a vendor should carry over. However they will not. Gwent will be a blank slate on your second playthrough and there are no indications that you will be able to combine the cards earned in the vanilla playthrough with the cards earned in the NG+ playthrough to earn achievements for completing the entire collection. If you did not earn the achievement on your initial playthough it appears you will need to collect all of them again on NG+ to get the achievement/trophy/bleep bloop.

3. It appears the base NG+ level is 30, am I over-leveled if I start at 35 (or something above 30)? Based on 6 hours of initial play it appears that everything effectively gets a 30 level bump in general. If you start at level 35 you will be slightly over-levelled for the playthrough. There is also this interesting bit from /u/Realityishardmode One thing to note, when I looked at some of the XML files, is that when you level up past a certain point you no longer gain stats as quickly as other levels. So level 35+ is only a 5 pt attack power increase and 100 vitality increase for example (I dont remember the exact values, sorry) verus level 1 to 2 which is a 25pt attack power increase and 250 vit increase. So really it should not be such a huge deal.
4. What sort of save will I need for NG+? You will need a post-epilogue vanilla playthrough save in order to play NG+. You will need to load into that game and you will receive an onscreen prompt that NG+ is unlocked. You can then start a New Game from the main menu and during the launch process select the NG+ option which will in turn prompt for a save to load.
5. Will I have to do all of the quests again? Yes - NG+ in a general sense means "keep your stuff (minus your Gwent cards), increase difficulty, play the game again"
6. When will NG+ drop? NG+ will be available on all platforms as of August 18th, 2015
7. Will signposts, waypoints, the map in general reset? Yes
8. Will this _______ very specific combat mechanic be bumped up, changed, altered, fixed, nerfed, affected, by NG+ It appears that no combat mechanics have been altered by NG+
9. Will NG+ also include a patch? Answered: Patch 1.08 dropped on Friday August 7th and laid the code groundwork for NG+. NG+ itself is not a patch per se but a DLC that adds features/modes to the game.
10. Will there be NG+ level gear? Yes, there are "Legendary" version of Witcher gear which will need to be quested for again. There does not appear to be Legendary version of Alchemy items.
11. Will Places of Power be reset? (Will I be able to get the extra skill points again)? There seem to be some conflicting reports on how Places of power are behaving in NG+. OP and others have seen Places of Power give Skill Points while others still only get a buff. Given the volume of people reporting they are getting skillpoints for NG+ PoP we are going to say yes here. Thanks to /u/Magnarof_Thenn
12. Will I be able to complete The Witcher 2 Interview of Choices Again Yes As for PC there is an existing PC import function. Import of witcher 2 save on PC is possible with new game plus, just select it as you usually would when starting a new game. This way you can start with your neck tattoo. thanks to /u/vladimirpoontang
13. When selecting NG+, do I also select a difficulty? Or is NG+ a difficulty itself? You will select an existing difficulty. NG+ itself is not a difficulty setting.
14. Can I play NG+ again from a completed NG+ playthrough?
    The answer to this commonly asked question is no according to Marcin on Twitter. Thanks to /u/skop159 for the catch.