Starfield Player Completes New Game Plus an Incredible 33 Times, Makes Cool Discovery

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Starfield is a game designed to be replayed via its New Game Plus system, but 33 times seems a bit excessive. Not for one player, who in the process of replaying Bethesda’s sci-fi space game over and over again has encountered a surprisingly cool interaction they hadn’t seen before.

Starfield spoilers ahead!

First, some background. As IGN’s guide to Starfield’s New Game Plus explains, the game lets you loop over and over again via multiverse shenanigans. Once you beat the main story, you can start a new game that puts you back near the start of Starfield with new story permutations, new dialogue options, and even at least one new main mission to complete. As IGN’s Simon Cardy wrote around Starfield’s September launch, New Game Plus is one of the game’s most intriguing concepts, if you get lucky.

And get lucky is exactly what happened to X/Twitter user and Starfield superfan @NikoMueller, who after travelling through 34 multiverses (33 New Game Plus runs) finally decided to “settle down”. But… surprise! Awaiting the silent protagonist at Constellation HQ was a fully voiced version of the player character herself.

After traveling through 34 multiverses (NG+33) I finally decided to settle down.

Why?

I met myself from the 1st universe handing over the artifact to constellation. 😱

And you won’t believe it but I convinced ME to join my crew. 🤩#Starfield is the greatest game ever made! pic.twitter.com/gEBDo8DeRC

— Niko (@NikoMueller) November 28, 2023

If you encounter this New Game Plus variation you’ll get to see some fun interactions between the player character and their multiverse self, as well as other main characters in the game. According to NikoMueller, the alternate version of their character has the same stats as they did from their first playthrough, and has plenty of questions herself. Well you would if another version of you just walked through the door, wouldn’t you? (No, it does not appear to be possible to romance yourself.)

So, what’s going on here? As you arrive at the The Lodge in this variation you find a version of you already exists in this universe. You’ll be able to talk to yourself and explain that you’re Starborn and what you know about the Artifacts. While the you that’s currently in this universe doesn’t really want to help out, you can convince them to team up with you and recruit yourself.

This is a known New Game Plus variation (players discovered it soon after Starfield came out in September), but it seems a rare one, and given the greeting you get from Constellation when you return to The Lodge appears to be random, it’s impossible to guarantee this particular interaction will be your next one.

It had been thought that all Starfield’s New Game Plus variants had been discovered, but some players are still soldering through the game on the hunt for new twists, however unlikely they are to be hidden somewhere.

Starfield enjoyed a record-breaking release, becoming Bethesda’s biggest ever launch with more than 10 million players. Bethesda has updated Starfield a number of times since. The latest patch, 1.8.86, added DLSS Support and the ability to eat food on sight. The studio already has a Starfield post-launch story expansion pack in the works, called Shattered Space, and development chief Todd Howard told IGN in an interview ahead of the Starfield Direct that Bethesda plans to release “a lot” of add-on content for the space exploration game.

However, Starfield is currently Bethesda’s lowest-rated game on Steam, where staff are responding to negative reviews.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.