New Game Plus in Onimusha: Way of the Sword is not a victory lap. It unlocks once you finish the story for the first time, and it hands back your character’s knowledge while stripping out most of your gear power. That split matters, because the Platinum requires a second run on Carnage difficulty, and Carnage only becomes selectable after that first clear.
Quick answer: Skills, Awakened Oni abilities, charms, Hozuki Pouches, items, Genma Notes and Lion Dogs follow you into NG+. Red Souls, sword and gauntlet enhancements, clothing, Spirit Mirror progress and all mission progress reset — so spend every Red Soul before you start the final mission.
What carries over into New Game Plus, and what resets
The rule of thumb is simple. Anything Musashi learned or was given stays with him. Anything you built into a weapon or a piece of clothing goes away.
| Progress or item | New Game Plus |
|---|---|
| Awakened Oni Abilities (Eye, Arm, Leg) | Carries over |
| Enhanced basic and special Skills, including Oni Vision | Carries over |
| Hozuki Pouches and Pouch Enhancements | Carries over |
| Charms and Charm Enhancements | Carries over |
| Oni Armaments | Carries over |
| Items and offerings | Carries over |
| Genma Notes | Carries over |
| Lion Dogs | Carries over |
| Red Souls | Resets to zero |
| Sword and Gauntlet Enhancements | Resets |
| Equipment upgrade materials (Fine Silk Cloth, Tamahagane) | Must be collected again |
| Clothing | Resets |
| Oni bow | Resets |
| Mysteries of Kyoto | Resets |
| Chance Encounters | Resets |
| Spirit Mirror unlock progress | Resets |
| Story and side mission progress | Resets |
Because your enhanced skills survive the transition, combat feels close to endgame from the opening fight even though your raw weapon damage is back at base. You keep the parry and Issen tools you spent 20 hours learning, and you keep the charms that boost Musashi’s abilities. What you lose is the numbers stacked on the katana and gauntlet.
One point where accounts disagree is outfits. Some carry-over lists count clothing among the things you keep, while the equipment side of the game treats clothing as gear that resets alongside enhancements. Treat cosmetic clothing as unconfirmed and plan around the enhancements, which definitely go.
Spend your Red Souls before you finish the story
Red Souls are the permanent upgrade currency, and the counter is wiped clean when NG+ begins. Any soul you are still sitting on when the credits roll is gone. Since charm enhancements and pouch enhancements do carry over, that is where your banked currency should end up.
How to start New Game Plus on Carnage difficulty
Beating the game once unlocks Carnage, the third difficulty above Story and Action. You can then either begin a completely fresh run or carry your finished save into New Game Plus. Only the NG+ route brings your skills and charms with you.
Carnage is a genuine step up — a single hit can kill you — and it locks in. Once you select Carnage you cannot move down from it later, so make the choice deliberately. On Story and Action, difficulty lives in two places: a red option that appears on the death screen after several consecutive failures, which drops you to Story, and the “Change Difficulty Level” entry in the Spirit Mirror menu, which is the only place you can raise it back up.
Note: Clearing the game on Carnage rewards a weapon that makes the Boss Rematch arena considerably more manageable, which is the last piece of the completion list.
You will know the transfer worked as soon as you open the menus in the new run. Your enhanced basic and special skills are still listed, your charms and Hozuki Pouches sit at their upgraded values, and Genma Notes remain filled in. Meanwhile the Red Soul counter reads zero and the sword and gauntlet show no enhancements.
Collectibles you have to find again in NG+
There are 274 collectible locations across the game and nothing in the list is missable. After the credits, selecting Continue from the main menu puts you back before the final mission, so a first-run cleanup is always possible. But because two playthroughs are required regardless, gathering collectibles during the Carnage run is a legitimate alternative.
Your retained skills make the second sweep faster. Oni Vision: Treasures, Oni Vision: Treasures 2 and Oni Vision: Search Range all carry over, so from the first area of NG+ you can hold L2/LT and tap R2/RT to surface chests and materials that were invisible early in your first run.
The categories that reset are the ones to plan around. Mysteries of Kyoto and Chance Encounters are wiped and have to be completed again, and mission progress starts from zero, meaning the whole quest chain replays. Equipment upgrade materials — Fine Silk Cloth and Tamahagane, 25 of each — need re-collecting to rebuild sword and gauntlet enhancements, whereas Power Stones and Oni Stones feed skills you already own.
Approached the right way, New Game Plus is less a repeat and more a rebalance. You walk in with the full skill tree and the charms you invested in, and you walk in without the damage numbers that carried you through the back half of the first run. On Carnage, with one hit capable of ending you, that trade is the whole point.
