After you beat the final boss at the end of Chapter 16 you immediately get the option of playing New Game +, which means you cannot access the rest of the world after beating the final boss, without starting a new game. So if that is the goal, beat the two first bosses and do not beat the third if you want to complete other things beforehand.
New Game + allows you to either start the game again with the same difficulty and keeping everything that you acquired, or increase the level of difficulty on the new game you are starting and only keeping certain items. The difficulties are progressive and unlock one after another in succession, after each game completion, requiring a total of 9 completions of the game to unlock the Zenith difficulty.
New Game + (Same Difficulty)[]
Items retained[]
- Levels and Skills.
- bezels.
- Hunter Points and Rubies.
- Tools, White and Black Energy Hexes.
- Weapons, Custom Parts and Accessories.
- Apparel including special outfits.
- Other items including valuable items.
- Bestiary entries.
- Arena victories.
New Game + (Higher Difficulty)[]
Items retained[]
- Black Energy Hexes.
- The Hi-Pod accessory.
- All Apparel items.
- All Bestiary entries.
Difficulty Levels[]
- Normal
- Hard
- Advanced
- Professional
- Masochist
- Extreme
- Beyond
- Legendary
- Ultimate
- Zenith
Enemy HP Scaling[]
As you progress in difficulties, the HP of enemies and the damage dealt by them will increase by a certain multiplier depending on the current difficulty, below you can see a table which shows what those multipliers will be.
| Difficulty Level | HP & Damage (Multiplier) | HP & Damage (Percent) |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | 1.0x | 100% |
| Hard | 1.2x | 120% |
| Advanced | 1.4x | 140% |
| Professional | 1.6x | 160% |
| Masochist | 1.8x | 180% |
| Extreme | 2.1x | 210% |
| Beyond | 2.4x | 240% |
| Legendary | 2.7x | 270% |
| Ultimate | 3.0x | 300% |
| Zenith | 5.0x | 500% |