Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

@Lazz yeah the BOTW motion controlled shrines were pretty tedious, especially on the Wii U. I’ve played that game on both systems and the controls are so much better on the Switch, though I ended up cheesing the motion puzzles the same way across both systems.

If you saw my Hero’s Path map in BOTW compared to TOTK it would be pretty shocking, and a reflection of how the new abilities have ruined our ability to properly explore the game world. TOTK has much more lines with big patches of empty unexplored space, while BOTW was more even. Part of it is down to the familiarity of the world but it’s also because of the sky mechanics nerfing the potency of the surface.

It'll all even out in the long run. Once you've built yourself a hoverbike and have the battery power to run it, getting to anywhere on the map becomes a breeze regardless of where the fast travel points are.

That's something best left until after you've beaten Ganondorf though. It's a lot harder than BotW to become so overpowered that the final boss loses all its sting, but it's still possible.

@jedgamesguy my Heros path on BOTW will be interesting, I let my kids play on my save files when they were young and relatively new gamers...allowing them to beat the game before gaining the skills necessary to play through it on their own. I haven't taken a look at that in years...I'll have to do that . As for TOTK, there will be many straight lines as I was on a mission to find the lightroots and shrines towards the end...very little exploration took place.

Are you farming zonite for autobuilding hoverbikes or using a duplication glitch for zonite? It's so hard to keep a hoverbike that I'm constantly blowing 9 zonite with every autobuild of my hoverbike. Even though I use a duplication glitch for zonite, it's still a pain in the butt because the duplication glitch is quite tedious and repetitive for hand muscles.

@WoomyNNYes Neither. I usually just build hoverbikes out of fans and steering sticks where they're lying around, at least until I've got more Zonaite than I know what to do with. That's best used for armor upgrades and condensed charges until you've maxed those out. There is a heck of a lot of it in the depths though, so farming it shouldn't be a problem.

You really shouldn't be having to rebuild your hoverbike too much either, as one is good for about an hour before it disintegrates. Just don't wander too far away from it, enter shrines or use fast travel.

Like I said though, they're best kept as a late-game convenience, for when there's nothing left in the game other than otherwise tedious collectathons. The game wasn't really designed with them in mind, as it only gives you the short-lived wings and some battery-guzzling hovercraft that are intentionally very short-ranged. Over-use them early on and you could cut out a lot of the challenge.

It's been a while since I played, but I never really had issues getting materials or ore to build a hoverbike with.

I did spend a lot of time exploring the depths though, so I usually had a lot of ore and capsules.

I forget, can we upgrade a Sage more than once? I think, maybe I upgraded Tulin once. Can I upgrade his bow damage further?

Gerudo is the only temple I haven't finished yet. Not sure if I should upgrade any of the other sages.
I currently have Tulin, Sidon, Mineru, Yunobo.

(I'm working on collecting all Sage's Wills. I have gotten 5 total, and I believe I used the first 4 on Tulin a while ago.)

@WoomyNNYes You get one upgrade per sage - I wish there were more

That’s pretty much why I found TOTK bland to explore compared to BOTW. In fact I’ve just downloaded BOTW again and might even start playing again, since it offers such a different challenge compared to the new game. TOTK feels very unfocused in terms of how people are encouraged to explore, half the time I get somewhere I feel like I’m cheating. To some it feels liberating but for me it felt painfully easy 😂.

@Lazz Ohhhh, I see now. A sage can only be upgraded once. Well that simplifies things for me. Thanks @Lazz!

@jedgamesguy I hear you, I am one of those that loved the freedom . Also - I felt that the higher enemy difficulty enhanced the exploration, and I had more fun using the environment and abilities planning my attacks. Exploration was easier, but the vehicles did allow me to reach more places that I otherwise would have likely skipped. I prefer the TOTK world/abilities - but I understand why others will prefer BOTW.
@WoomyNNYes Happy to help

GDC has now released the TOTK presentation by Nintendo

https://gdcvault.com/play/1034667/Tunes-of-the-Kingdom-Evolving

Dropping this here for people that want to look into the nitty gritty of the game’s mechanics and programming. I wrote a comment a few weeks ago saying that I wanted to see it and now I have, it’s brilliant. Do give it a watch.

@jedgamesguy Thanks for the link! Was looking forward to catching the full stream.

@jedgamesguy Ah, man, I wish that GDC TOTK developers video was on youtube so I could watch it on a tv. Thanks for sharing the link!

@Ulysses @WoomyNNYes you’re very welcome, I hope this can start a new wave of appreciation for the absolute technical genius that went into making this game. I have my opinions about the game’s story and the sameness of she open world but the innovations in sound and physics cannot be ignored.

@Lazz way I see it with the world’s unique levelling system with regard to enemy colour, the game will always get laughably easy at a certain point, no matter how dynamic and entirely player driven the mechanic is. Fuse changes the game though, I went back to BOTW and appreciated how simple the mechanics were by comparison, picking up a sword and using it rather than using Fuse to make a weapon on the fly. It’s why the experiences in each game is fundamentally different.

@jedgamesguy I agree completely. The fuse system makes it an entirely different experience. I really enjoyed it, and it led to more creativity on my end. However, I do wish that there was an option to create an unbreakable weapon. It would change the game, maybe make it too easy, but including an option (maybe after all shrines were completed) to make the master sword stay whole, even if the fuses can break, was something that I was hoping for. Yes, the master sword regenerates, but it's not the same. To your point, the games are very different.

Honestly some of the better segments of this game for me are the ones that seemingly over-rely on breakable rocks blocking your way. The most basic exploration of an underground area that just keeps going is really cool, and the handful of times they do that and it feels like you really end up traveling a distance are awesome.

I am here to ask for help, but PLEASE don't spoil me on this game.
Are there any early-game Rupee dupe glitches??

@CaleBoi25 I don’t know about rupees, but as far as I know there’s glitches to duplicate items that can be done at any point in the game. Ideally you’d clone valuable ones and sell them.

@CaleBoi25 You can't duplicate rupees. If you get expensive items, like gems, you can duplicate them and sell them. A diamond is the most expensive. You can get 500 rupees for a diamond. But if you get a ruby, or sapphire, topaz you can duplicate them and sell them - they can get like 100, 150, 250 rupees.

It was easier to duplicate items in the early version of the game, which is why I disabled automatic updates on my switch, so I can keep my 1.1.1 version of TOTK. You can still dupe in current versions, but it's a more complicated process.(too complicated?)

I think the easiest way to make money in TOTK without duplication is to cook meat skewers and sell them. Cook 4-5 raw prime meat, or gourmet meat, and when you sell them you can get up to 250 rupees. Gourment meat will fetch the most money - you can regularly get them if you kill deer and rinos near the horse stable in that northern winter region. There are other areas in the game that can yield the higher quality meat, but I don't know them off hand. If you get lower quality meat from deer, you can still make decent money. I think cooking 4-5 bird leg meat can also still fetch like 50+ rupees.