Starfield New Game Plus Guide 2026: The Quantum Entanglement Device, Power Upgrades, and How to Plan Your Cycles

New Game Plus in Starfield at launch was a bold idea executed with a brutal trade-off. Step through the Unity after completing the main story and you wake up in a new universe with your level, your skills, and your Starborn powers intact. Everything else? Gone. Your weapons, armor, ship, outposts, credits, your entire inventory, all of it wiped clean. You start over with nothing, but your character build and whatever powers you’ve unlocked.

Todd Howard called it “a weird, deep question” that the game was asking the player, and he’s probably right that the philosophical weight of that choice got lost on a lot of people. Most players saw it as losing fifty hours of progress for the privilege of doing the same quests again with slightly better powers. A lot of people never went through the Unity at all because the cost felt too high.

The Free Lanes update fundamentally changes the New Game Plus equation. The Quantum Entanglement Device lets you carry gear through the Unity. Quantum Essence now upgrades your Starborn powers directly without needing to grind temples again. And the combination of these two systems means New Game Plus is no longer a brutal reset. It’s a strategic decision with tools to control what you keep.

Here’s how all of it works and how to plan your cycles so you’re getting stronger every time instead of starting from nothing.

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What Carries Over (and What Doesn’t)

This hasn’t changed from the original version. When you step through the Unity into a new cycle, these things carry over automatically: your character level and all accumulated XP, all unlocked skills and their ranks, all unlocked Starborn powers, and as of Free Lanes, all Quantum Essence you’ve accumulated.

Everything else resets. Your inventory is emptied. Your credits go to zero. Your ship reverts to the Frontier. Your outposts are gone. Your faction progress, quest completion, companion relationships, and story choices all reset. You’re in a new universe, and nobody knows you.

The Starborn Guardian ship (the unique ship you can only get through New Game Plus) upgrades each time you go through the Unity, gaining better stats with each cycle. For players chasing the best possible Starborn Guardian, multiple cycles are necessary.

The Quantum Entanglement Device: How to Build It

The Quantum Entanglement Device is a craftable item that lets you store gear and carry it through the Unity into your next cycle. It’s the single most important addition to New Game Plus, and building it should be your first priority before stepping through.

You can’t build it at the start of the game. The recipe unlocks late in the main story, after you’ve collected all the artifacts and built the Armillary at The Lodge. At that point, a datapad appears in your room at The Lodge with the schematic. The timing is deliberate. The device becomes available right when you’re preparing to step through the Unity for the first time.

The crafting recipe requires four components: 10 Quantum Essence (dropped by Starborn enemies and Starborn ships), 1 Adaptive Frame (a common manufactured component, available at Jemison Mercantile near the spaceport), 1 Isocentered Magnet (found at electronics vendors like Apex Electronics in The Well), and 1 Tau Grade Rheostat (also found at electronics vendors in The Well).

The Adaptive Frame, Isocentered Magnet, and Tau Grade Rheostat are cheap and easy to find. Quantum Essence is the gating component. You get it from killing Starborn enemies on the ground and, as of Free Lanes, from destroying Starborn ships in space combat. If you’ve been playing through the main story and encountering Starborn along the way, you probably have some already. Check your Powers Menu, not your regular inventory, to see your current stock.

Build the device at any workbench in The Lodge. Once crafted, it appears as an interactable object where you can store items.

What to Store and the Capacity System

The base Quantum Entanglement Device holds 50 mass worth of items. Mass, not number of items. A lightweight pistol takes up much less capacity than a heavy sniper rifle or a full set of armor. This means you need to think carefully about what’s worth carrying over.

My priority list for what to store, in order:

Your best weapon. Whatever gun you’ve spent X-Tech upgrading with the perfect legendary effect, that goes in first. This is the single highest-value item because legendary weapons with good rolls take hours of grinding to create, and X-Tech re-rolling is resource-intensive.

Your best spacesuit and helmet. A legendary suit with an optimized effect is your second most important carry-over. Armor matters more than people think, especially on harder difficulties.

Rare crafting resources or X-Tech. If you’ve stockpiled X-Tech that you haven’t used, carrying some through saves you grinding in the early hours of your next cycle when you find new gear worth upgrading.

Don’t waste capacity on common weapons, ammunition (it’s everywhere in the new universe), common resources, or gear you can easily find again within the first few hours of a new playthrough. Every mass unit of capacity is precious. Fill it with things that are genuinely hard to replace.

Here’s the part that makes this system truly powerful: you can spend Quantum Essence to upgrade the device’s capacity. The base limit is 50 mass, but by investing Essence at The Lodge, you can push it all the way up to 200 mass. At 200, you can carry a full loadout of weapons, armor, resources, and then some. If you’re planning multiple New Game Plus cycles, upgrading the device’s capacity before your first trip through the Unity is one of the best investments you can make.

Quantum Essence: Farming and Spending

Quantum Essence used to be a niche consumable that temporarily boosted Starborn power regeneration. Nobody farmed it seriously because it wasn’t worth the effort. Free Lanes turned it into the core currency for the entire New Game Plus progression system.

Quantum Essence now has four uses: crafting the Quantum Entanglement Device (10 Essence), upgrading the device’s capacity (variable amounts, up to 200 mass max), upgrading Starborn powers directly (the amount varies per power and per rank), and the original use as a temporary power regeneration boost (which is now the least efficient way to spend it).

The big change is that you can upgrade Starborn powers without going through the Unity. Before Free Lanes, the only way to rank up powers was to visit temples in each new cycle. If you wanted maximum-rank powers, you had to grind through multiple cycles and revisit every temple each time. That’s gone now. Farm Quantum Essence, spend it at The Lodge, and rank up powers directly.

For farming, the most efficient method is space combat against Starborn ships. Equip the Armillary on your ship with the Artifacts and use Cruise Mode to fly between planets. Starborn ships will periodically attack you, and destroying them drops Quantum Essence. This is repeatable and doesn’t require starting new cycles. If your ship and combat build are strong enough to handle Starborn encounters reliably, you can grind Essence without ever touching the main quest.

Ground-based Starborn encounters also drop Essence, and completing temples guarantees a Starborn attack afterward, giving you one Essence per temple. Over the course of a full playthrough, these add up naturally.

Quantum Essence carries through the Unity automatically. You don’t need to store it in the Quantum Entanglement Device. Whatever you have when you step through is waiting for you on the other side. This means there’s no reason not to farm it even if you’re not planning to go through the Unity immediately. It’ll be there whenever you’re ready.

How to Plan Your New Game Plus Cycles

The old approach to New Game Plus was either “rush through the main quest to get the Starborn Guardian upgrade” or “don’t bother because losing everything sucks.” Free Lanes gives you a middle path that makes each cycle feel like a meaningful upgrade rather than a reset.

Before your first Unity trip, here’s what I’d do. Finish the main quest up through collecting all artifacts, but don’t step through yet. Build the Quantum Entanglement Device. Farm Quantum Essence until you can upgrade the device to at least 100 mass capacity (more if you’re patient). Spend Essence to upgrade your most-used Starborn powers so you start the next cycle strong. Fill the device with your best gear. Then step through.

On the other side, you arrive at The Lodge with your stored items waiting. You’re level whatever you were when you left, with all your skills, upgraded powers, and your best gear. The Frontier is back as your ship, so you’ll need to upgrade again, but your character build is intact and you’re not starting combat from nothing.

Each subsequent cycle follows the same pattern. Play the story (or skip it and rush the main quest if you just want the Starborn Guardian upgrade), farm Essence, refill the device with your latest best gear, and step through again. Each cycle, your powers are stronger, your carried gear is better, and your knowledge of the game makes you faster. That’s the loop Bethesda wanted. Free Lanes just finally gave you the tools to make it feel rewarding instead of punishing.

For PS5 Players Who Haven’t Finished the Main Story Yet

If you’re still in your first playthrough and haven’t reached the Unity, none of this is urgent. Enjoy the game. Do the side quests. Join factions. Build outposts. Explore. The Quantum Entanglement Device and the Essence farming system will be there when you’re ready.

The one thing I’d suggest is to start accumulating Quantum Essence now even if you’re nowhere near New Game Plus. Kill Starborn when they show up. Destroy Starborn ships when they attack you. The Essence carries through the Unity automatically, so every drop you get now is useful later. There’s no downside to collecting it early.

When you do eventually reach the decision point at the Unity, you’ll have a stockpile of Essence and the knowledge of how to use it. That puts you in a much better position than players who rushed through at launch with nothing prepared.

The Takeaway

New Game Plus in Starfield used to be a philosophical exercise that most people avoided because the cost outweighed the benefit. With the Quantum Entanglement Device, direct power upgrades, and Essence farming, it’s now a proper progression system with real rewards and real control.

Build the device. Upgrade its capacity. Farm Essence. Carry your best gear through. Upgrade your powers without temple grinding. Each cycle makes you stronger, and you’re never starting from true zero again.

Todd Howard wanted the Unity to be a meaningful question about what you’re willing to leave behind. The Free Lanes update lets you answer that question without giving up everything you’ve worked for.

Agree, disagree, or think I got it completely wrong? Say so in the comments or over at our Vortex Effect forums.