Replaced: How Long to Beat, All 9 Chapters, and NG+ Tips

Replaced is one of those rare games that respects your time without feeling thin. The 2.5D action game from Sad Cat Studios clocks in at roughly 10 hours for the main story, but that number shifts considerably based on how you play. Easy-mode speedrunners can finish in under 6 hours. Hard-mode completionists pushing for every scannable and side quest should budget closer to 15. Here is exactly what to expect across all 9 chapters, and how to manage your run so you are not grinding the same corridor twice.

How long is Replaced?

Main story: 5-10 hours

The straight-line story run sits between 5 and 10 hours, and the gap between those two numbers is almost entirely explained by difficulty. According to Game Rant's coverage, playing on Easy lets you shave off a couple of hours because enemies go down faster and you will spend less time recovering from mistakes. Hard difficulty flips that entirely. Bosses punish every error, and the hard mode restriction of only one stim to heal per combat encounter (noted by Power Up Gaming) means some fights will eat your clock if you are not prepared.

Upgrades are the second time variable. On Easy, you can skip most R.E.A.C.H. empowerment entirely and still finish comfortably. On Normal and Hard, hunting down health upgrades and Med-Stims becomes a practical necessity, and since many of those items are either buried in side quests or hidden well off the main path, that hunting adds real time.

100% completion: 10-15 hours

Replaced is a linear game with no open world, but the chapter structure packs in scannable objects, gear upgrades for both R.E.A.C.H. and Warren, and several side quests spread across all 9 chapters. According to Game Rant, full completion lands most players in the 10-15 hour range. Power Up Gaming notes the total can push past 15 hours for achievement hunters, since certain trophies require specific weapon kill thresholds that may force you back into areas you already cleared.

The good news: you do not need to do all of this in one pass. After the credits roll, Replaced opens a chapter selector that lets you return to any section and collect what you missed. Progress on collectibles and leveling carries over; only the story flags within the selected chapter reset to that chapter's start. This is the intended design, not a workaround.

How many chapters are in Replaced?

Replaced has 9 chapters. The game does not display official title cards, so you track your position through trophy and achievement notifications when a chapter ends. The chapter names below are descriptive summaries, not official titles. Both Game Rant and VPEsports confirm the developers provided no canonical chapter names.

All 9 Replaced chapters

• Chapter 1: Prologue, escape from the laboratory in Phoenix City
• Chapter 2: Introduction to life outside the walls
• Chapter 3: Prospero and Uncle Ben
• Chapter 4: Return to the city
• Chapter 5: Street fights and the Commissioner
• Chapter 6: R.E.A.C.H. vs. R.E.A.C.H.
• Chapter 7: Back to the city blocks and the central hub area
• Chapter 8: The road to the Commissioner again
• Chapter 9: The final reveal and credits

What is the secret density for each chapter?

Not every chapter rewards exploration equally. The prologue and finale are essentially linear corridors with minimal collectibles. Chapters 3 and 7 are the real hubs, packed with NPCs, side quests, and branching paths. Spending extra time in low-density chapters while rushing through Chapters 3 and 7 is the most common mistake for players chasing platinum.

When should you move on from a chapter?

There are no hard locks forcing you forward, but there are clear signals that continuing to dig is wasting your time. According to VPEsports, these are the practical triggers to watch for:

• The collectible counter has not moved after two full sweeps of the area. The remaining items are almost certainly locked behind a story trigger you have not hit yet.
• You have failed the same boss fight on Hard three times in a row. The answer is almost never more attempts at the same level of gear. Go back, farm a couple of health upgrades, and return.
• A side quest is asking for an item the story has not given you yet. Mark it for chapter select and keep moving. Forty minutes of searching for something you will receive automatically two chapters later is exactly that.

How does New Game Plus work in Replaced?

After finishing the story, the chapter selector opens and functions as the game's version of NG+. Overall progress on collecting and leveling carries over when you return to a chapter, but the story flags inside that chapter reset to its beginning. This means you can re-enter Chapter 3 at full strength with your existing upgrades and clean up every side quest and scannable you missed on the first pass.

The practical split that VPEsports recommends: run the main story in 7-8 hours, then spend 3-5 hours post-credits finishing everything through chapter select. The result is the same 10-15 hour total as a methodical first-run cleanup, but without the pacing drag that comes from stopping to comb every corner of Chapter 4 while the story is still building momentum.

Replaced is developed by Sad Cat Studios and published by Coatsink and Thunderful Development, and released on April 14, 2026 for PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. For more guides on games worth your time, browse more guides at GAMES.GG.