Starting an RPG like Soul Hackers 2 can be somewhat stressful. It’s long, there are a lot of potentially missable things, and confident choices could have a drastic impact on your playthroughs or mistakes can and more importantly, will happen. With this in mind, we wanted to give people an idea of what to expect, along with some insight into what a play-through might look like. Especially since there will be some trophy/achievement hunters that will want to maximize their time.
Soul Hackers 2 New Game+ Guide
Is it possible to get every Trophy/Achievement in one play through?
Before discussing the changes and details, I wanted to touch briefly on this question. Full disclosure, even after beating Soul Hackers 2, I don’t know. However, I can tell you I am 99 percent sure it is not possible and 100 percent sure it’s not worth it if there is a perfect way to do it.
The biggest reason is something mentioned in our review of Soul Hackers 2, Soul Levels. These levels represent Ringo’s relationship with Arrow, Milady, and Saizo. While some of them are awarded by default, most will come from drinking with allies, finding specific items (that unlock a drink with allies event), or responding to the narrative a certain way (typically, two or three options will be present that award points for a specific user).
Going into this, I was told 120 was the magic number, so I tried to invest significantly in Saizo to ensure I hit it. However, that is not the magic number.
The magic number is 200. Getting that will unlock the final gate in the Soul Matrix, and winning that fight will give Soul Matrix Transcension. Now, this goes back to what I said about it not being worth it and feeds into the point of this guide. While I don’t doubt it’s possible to hit 200 on a single play-through, practically every choice has to be a specific character. To note, my run, which I believe included every optional task possible on this run, gave 76, 97, and 162, respectively.
Where things get dicey beyond this are the trophy/achievements Legendary Summoner, Paradise Lost and Compendium Completionist. With my current Soul Levels, I am at the absolute minimum to award Legendary Summoner. I don’t think if anyone went to 200 it would be possible to do that, and you’d be in the same spot. Something that sucks because doing missions on a new cycle does not add to the listing, either 85 on that run or progress far enough to unlock new ones (either or it’s a sizable investment). The ending seems to be a bit more involved than something at the very end, along with some demons being linked to content that requires another run, so I just wouldn’t fixate on getting it and instead have fun on your first cycle.
What Happens in New Game+?
New Game+ happens immediately after the final boss is defeated. You’re told it will create a particular save a file, advised to use another slot, and directly bring you into a new run that you can customize.
The images above show everything mentioned as soon as you load that save. Shops, cosmetics, accessories, and data on demons and food are unlocked by default. Any other form of progression is basically at your discretion. Beyond this, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
- Automapping does not retain fast travel points.
- You start with low-level demons and gain the ability to obtain powerful ones when Roppo Realm is unlocked.
- Even with the Roppo Realm, your ability to obtain cash will be significantly impacted. Given a level 53 or higher demon costs 300,000 or more, I would farm for money if that is how you want to spend your new cycle.
- Soul Levels are reset, but they give more points.
As for questions you’ve answered, you can see the checkmark indicates an explored path, with an uncheck marked answer being new. You don’t need to follow these, especially if you’re just trying to complete the remaining tasks, but it is nice to see optional choices highlighted in an obvious way.
Another essential thing to remember is that risky enemies continue to scale to you. The image above shows the first brutal enemy in the game, which I would’ve had to beat with a Poltergeist, Pixie, Hare of Inaba, and Onmoraki. Unless you rebuild your powerful team, avoid these encounters at all costs.
Beyond that, it’s worth giving New Game+ a bit more effort since it has unique content and experience from the original run.
