Onimusha: Way of the Sword Post-Game Guide: NG+ and Carnage

Carnage is the New Game Plus. There is no separate NG+ option: after you clear the campaign once, loading that finished save lets you start a second run with Carnage selected, and that second run is what carries your progress forward.

How to start New Game Plus and unlock Carnage

1. Finish the campaign once. Both starting difficulties count; Carnage stays unavailable until the credits have rolled.
2. Load the completed save. Carnage appears as the difficulty for the new run.
3. Choose it and start. You cannot change your mind later — PC Gamer and the community write-ups both note that Carnage is locked in for the whole run, so you cannot drop back to a lower difficulty mid-playthrough.

Before you commit, spend what you have. Materials and Red Souls do not survive into the second run, so turn leftover currency into something that does.

What carries over, and what does not

The split rewards planning: charms and Hozuki Pouches are kept, so leftovers spent there are not wasted, while anything you pour into sword or gauntlet levels is.

What Carnage actually changes

• Enemies hit far harder, to the point where a clean hit can end a fight.
• Some bosses gain new moves. IGN’s post-game guide gives one concrete example: the boss they call Gonryu now has an Issen of its own to counter your attacks with, so a pattern you memorised on a lower difficulty is no longer safe.
• Regular enemies parry and counter more often, which pushes deflect timing into ordinary fights rather than only boss fights.

If you have not drilled Issen and deflect timing yet, do that first: the combat guide covers the order to learn them in.

What finishing Carnage unlocks

Carnage has its own reward tier rather than only a difficulty trophy. Completing the run unlocks a new sword skin, an additional haori, and another outfit. The remaining costume has a second route as well: clear every boss in boss replay while Carnage is active.

The first playthrough also hands out cosmetics when the credits roll, including the panda costume and the Wataru raccoon costume, so the panda and bamboo scabbard are not Carnage rewards.

Before you start the second run

• Reload the save from just before the final boss and finish anything you left half-done: side quests, collectible hunting, boss replay. That save is still valid until you begin Carnage.
• Convert leftover currency. Red Souls and materials reset, so burn them on charm and pouch upgrades, which do not.
• Read the boss pages you struggled with. The bosses hub collects what each encounter expects, and the new Issen counter changes at least one fight.

The one detail sources disagree on

IGN’s video guide calls the boss that gains the new counter Gonryu, but IGN’s own written achievement list spells the same encounter Sasaki Ganryu. The audio in the video is where the other spelling comes from, so the written form is the one to match against the in-game bestiary. The fact that matters — one specific boss gains a counterattack in Carnage — is identical in every source.

Sources

• IGN — Post Game Guide: New Game+, Hard Mode, and More (video, first-hand post-game footage)
• IGN Wiki — Post-Game Guide
• timesaver.gg — New Game Plus: what carries over and how to unlock Carnage (2026-09-28, cites IGN, PC Gamer and GameRant)
• r/Onimusha — what does and does not carry over to NG+ (player thread)