Topic: Breath of the Wild Question

Okay, I know I'm behind, but I am finally playing through Breath of the Wild. The game is massive and beautiful. We all know that, but for me, it is a little intimidating.

I have no idea where to start, and I'm over twenty hours in. Should I open as many towers as I can? Should I do as many shrines as I can first? I'm a little overwhelmed, and I would like to know what some of the people on the forum did.

Thanks in advance.

You won't find one correct answer about what to do in this game because everyone had different experiences. In my case I went in the direction the old man told me after leaving the great plateau. I went to the tower to activate it but allowed myself to get distracted with everything I saw on the way: enemy camps, shrines, korok seeds, people passing by, etc.

They'll always tell you where to go in the game so I generally went in the direction I had to go, explored a lot and activated the towers that would appear on my way there and got distracted with everything that caught my attention.

@fortius54 If you're not in any hurry and want to get the most out of the experience, just follow your nose.

I'd almost encourage not unlocking the towers, because traversing the kingdom without using a map at all is wondrous.

I kept the Shrine alert system off for the first 100 hours because the noise was doing my head in and I didn't really have much clue how to use it. But once I'd been around the kingdom and found a lot of the shrines incidentally, I had a better feel for where they might be, and the noise didn't occur nearly so often, so now I leave it on to help sniff out the more hidden shrines.

Personally I prefer having the map so I headed for the towers as soon as I was near each one, and if you're finding it overwhelming it's probably better to have the map to keep track of where you're going, but it's up to you. Shrines are good because they give you spirit orbs which let you upgrade your health and stamina, and they always contain a treasure chest as well which will give you another useful item, so if you're near a shrine you should give it a go. Otherwise just keep heading towards your main objective but if you see something you want to check out (which I'm sure you will), then go ahead and explore off the beaten track.

I would just look off into the distance, and look for something shiny and head in that direction, walking from spot to spot on the map felt like I was constantly stumbling onto things rather than having an objective. There's always great things like a shrine randomly popping up or turning a corner and seeing an enemy camp. I loved the overwhelming nature of the start because the world doesn't feel like it cares if you're in it or not.

Basically the more you do the easier the game becomes. The more towers you unlock the more you can use fast travel, the more shrines you complete the more hearts or stamina you can have, the more you explore the more you have chances to stumble upon useful items/weapons/collectibles. It all depends on how much you want to be prepared for the last boss fight. Some people even got immediately to the last boss and completed the game skipping almost everything. Of course it is much harder that way.

Any way to play the game is a valid path. However, the first time I played through it I mostly followed the main quests and did anything else that I ran into on my way. After having beaten it I got any shrines I had missed and put on the korok mask to find all the seeds, as well as started up a second save file for Master Mode which is the one I'm currently goofing around in. I... should probably do the Middle and Final Trials in Normal Mode as well. XD Haven't bothered yet.

I really enjoyed all the shrines that weren't motion control - which is most of them - so anytime I saw one I went to it without actively searching for them. First play through I focused on stamina first and filled it up completely before starting on hearts, so it took me a while to get the Master Sword, which was annoying. Might be worth to keep in mind if you're like me and just want to get on with it.

I also agree with @gcunit to keep the sheikah sensor off. To me it was annoying, distracting and unnecessary. I put it on to look for treasure chests in the Divine Beasts and Master Trials, but otherwise I don't think I've ever used it.

If you feel overwhelmed I think that following the main quests is a good path. You will organically run into shrines and towers and side quests on the way - do allow yourself to get sidetracked if anything catches your attention. Whatever you've missed after beating Ganon, you can just do postgame.

You indirectly need shrines to open towers. I got to several towers early and you can't climb to the top of them before having enough stamina. I guess you could use food and potions with stamina boost though.

I remember that I was just doing quite a bit of aimless wondering when I found myself bumping into a Zora and starting the Zora's Domain Quest which in turn led me to my first Divine Beast. It's as good as any place to really start getting into the nuts and bolts of the game - but there's no right or wrong. If I remember correctly the Zora pops up in the massive open swamps not far north from Kakariko village. You can hear him calling to you.

Thanks for the advice. I’m just getting killed a lot. I feel like I’m just aimlessly wondering. I think I’ll stick to the quests and open what shrines I can. I am having a lot of fun with this.

Yea, just do whatever you want. I know lots of people do the whole "finish everything ELSE" thing before they even touch the main storyline, but that gets tedious for me. I sprinkled in the main dungeons as I did lots of the side stuff to the point where I struck a happy balance. Ended up "finishing" by about 100 hours.

I'm just playing, too. I finished my first Divine Beast last night (the Zora one). I'm doing basically what I see others are saying, mostly following the main quest path but if I see something interesting I'll go see what it is. Sometimes it gets me killed and I give up on it, but it's a good lesson. I'm having fun with it.

Wow, At the moment, I don’t feel like I’ll ever be strong enough to take out a Devine beast.

I'd head to Rito village and do the Divine beast for Revali's gale. Makes getting to those hard to reach places, that much easier. Then pretty much explore how you see fit. Having the maps from the towers, makes it easier, but that's the beauty of BOTW, you can go straight to ganon with a wooden branch and have some fun, or simply get lost exploring every nook and cranny.

@fortius54 I am pretty sure the Boss fights scale.....there is basically no combat outside of maybe a couple of weak guardians (like the ones on the great plateau shrines) and the final boss. I took out my first Divine beast with maybe 5 or six hearts and not much weapons. Even in Master Mode I didn't have too much trouble with Divine beast fights. There is no correct order to do them in because they scale.

@blaisedinsd Thanks. This inspires me. I’m going after all of the memories, and I’ve learned that taking out a divine beast is needed.

I feel the exact same with the game, I don't feel like I have any sense of progression in the game with it being so massive. It is a remarkable game though, I find myself getting lost in the landscapes and beauty of it, but there's so much to do which is so overwhelming lol.

I don't think I realized until I started playing that open-world games, just don't cut it for me, I don't have the time to invest and my patience-span is so thin, I'd much prefer to play a 'stream-lined' game.

I don't intend on giving up on the game yet, I'm probably a little over 10 hours in at the moment and have gotten no where with it as of yet. I'm just using it to bide the time now until Monster Hunter releases next week and then I probably drop it and just use it when I'm on commutes instead of investing as much time as I can into it as I have been doing.

Never the less, it is a stunning, beautiful game, I can see why it was game of the year, I just don't think the open-world genre is for me, unfortunately.

There are several Zora around the map that tell you the same thing. It's obviously Nintendo trying to push you towards that one first.

I've played through this twice, and the more you do, the easier your life will be. I felt like I actually knew what I was doing the second time lol. I like having the map. So whenever I was near a tower, I'd make a point to activate them. And any Shrines I saw, I would go and do them too, and I just did the memories as I went along. Basically, if something catches your eye, it'll usually be beneficial to take a look at it.

Even though the game tries to indirectly guide you to do the Zora stuff first, I'd say do the Rito quests first, because the skill is invaluable for exploration and covering ground. It's also the easiest Divine Beast, IMO.

Everyone here plays it wrong, that's because they're selfish... You should head straight for Ganon, Zelda has been waiting for over 100 years already and you want to do a road trip through Hyrule? You're no ''Hero of Time''' you are the hero of ultimate delay!