Phantom Blade Zero New Cycle (NG+) Explained: Hellwalker & 66 Days

How do I start New Cycle?

After finishing the game, travel from any Bell to the Mountain of Imprisonment and visit Inanis at the Puppet Cell to begin a New Cycle. You can also skip the prologue and tutorials on repeat runs.

What carries over and what resets?

Carries over	Resets
Equipment	Quests
Progression items	Maps
Ability training	Key items
Archives (lore records)	The remaining-days counter

Enemies gain about 25 levels per cycle, and some weapon upgrades, ability nodes, and accessory refinements only fully open in later cycles — certain nodes can be invested up to five levels per cycle, scaling to NG+6.

What are Hellwalker and 66 Days?

These are difficulty modes, and they’re easy to confuse with NG+ itself:

• Pathbreaker is the standard clear.
• Hellwalker is a high-difficulty mode selectable in a New Cycle — harder enemies, stricter play.
• 66 Days unlocks after you beat Pathbreaker or Hellwalker. It runs on Hellwalker rules and gives you exactly 66 deaths for the entire run — each death ticks the counter down, and when it hits zero, that cycle’s save is done. The cruelest reading of Soul’s 66 days, made mechanical.

Neither Hellwalker nor 66 Days adds new story — NG+ as a whole adds no new narrative. The draw is mechanical: rebuilt runs, higher enemy levels, and mastery checks for players who want the combat system pushed to its limits.

Is death punished?

Outside the special modes, lightly. Die to a boss’s second phase and you restart at that second phase, not the fight’s beginning — the game wants you learning patterns, not replaying cutscenes. For the full threat, that’s what 66 Days is for.