Merciless

[guzcor]

I've seen people saying that when you start a Merciless run nothing is carried out, but that is a lie. In this game the same things are carried out in a NG+, it doesn't matter at all the difficulty. I finished merciless almost a week ago and following things are carried out:

The protagonist Level/ HP/SP
Money
Compendium
Social Stats
Items (Twilight fragments/ Incenses/ Jewels /HP and SP items/ battle items / materials for fusion weapons, etc)
Skill cards
Equipment (weapons, armor, shoes, accesories)
Costumes
Max social link items
Max Linked episode items
Protagonist theurgies

Things that aren't carried out
Party members theurgies, social link ranks, linked episodes ranks, the documents at the end of each tartarus block, monad passage doors (you have to explore them again), elizabeth requests, major arcana in the suffle time, party members characteristics, url secrets (you have to unlock again ambush), party members LV/HP/SP

I don't know if the stats that you increase with incenses in your party members are carried out, as I didn't use them in the party members.

[Soulkey]

NG+ Merciless doesn't carry anything useful over.
You get your playtime and costumes and that's it.

Why would I start NG+ Merciless if I already beat the game on this difficulty and the game does not let me carry over any of my stuffs?
Costumes? Why would I care about this? As I explore the game I will open those Twilight Fragment chests again anyway.
I would rather just start a new run then and have a reset playtime.

And to answer your last point: stats increased with incense are also not carried over.
Inventory is also emptied btw.

[Arifufu]

are you sure picking merciless again in NG+ after you finish your merciless NG?
carry over from Merciless NG to any other difficulties NG+ except merciless again is possible