Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

@Zuljaras if you really want a challenge try beating Ganon with a mop. It's possible lol.

@blindsquarel Just a normal first playthrough
@Kermit1 Nope Not ready for challenges

I enjoyed the game in a very casual way It is the very first game that I got with my Switch in September 2017. I played a little and then stopped but with the coming of TotK I decided to start fresh and beat Ganon

And I read that the world was empty etc. ... it is a wild world ... not everything has to be near each other. No wonder why it got the GotY award. SO much love went into making it! And I beat it on version 1.0 no updates or anything.

@WoomyNNYes I did it! I defeated Calamity Ganon and finished the game! He wasn't as hard as that Thunderblight Ganon boss, that's for sure. ^^' XD

@AshleyGamer1995 You beat it already!? ..... Ahhh, so you found THE ROOM at the castle! (where the Ganon fight starts). I thought, for sure, you'd spend a while exploring the castle area. It's so cool and moody, I LOVE IT. .....The Hylian shield is lurking in the castle. Did you find the shield?

The final battle is kind of epic. I liked it. Congratulations! Such a cool game. Glad you were able to finish it.

So, are you pretty much done with the game? Or are you going to try do anything else, like complete all shrines?

@WoomyNNYes I didn't explore all of the castle (I had to soar up using Revali's Gale for the last boss battle), but yeah I did get the Hylian Shield, because I know it and the Master Sword are old favourites and makes them complete with Link. I am pretty much done with the game, just not 100%, but I may consider that for my second future playthrough all over again. For now, I choose to do another different game of my choice, or retro ones sometimes. (Thank you and good day.)

My first week in the game: flees from Decayed Guardian
My first month in the game: Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting Guardian Stalkers. Hehehehehe.

Welp I have about 30 shrines left to unlock and need to finish the DLC so this will be a good way to prepare for TotK.

Brought the conversation to the BOTW thread. Disregard if you know any of these already.

If single hits from Waterblight Ganon were fatal:
Find fairy fountains so you can upgrade your armor/clothes (resource collecting required to upgrade). There are four fairy fountains in BOTW. The number of times you can upgrade your armor depends on how many fairy fountains you've found. There's a fairy fountain behind the shrine on the north side of Kakariko Village.
cook a single radish, or multiple radishes and see how many temporary health hearts it adds.(temporary hearts are yellow)(I often set my sheika sensor for radishes for this VERY reason👌🌈)

Make sure your sheika slate sensor is turned on & set to find shrines.(disregard if it already is on)(don't feel bad about skipping the Major Test of Strength shrines. You can come back later)

Advanced Moves:
Kakariko village at nighttime, there is a guy practicing with a sword? by the cooking kettle, he will teach you how to dodge, I think? (side jump and backflip?)

If you time a shield parry correctly, you'll be rewarded. I can't recall who teaches you this "perfect parry".

@WoomyNNYes There’s also the Kakariko shrine which teaches you the exact same things: Backflip, side hop, and parry. It’s a guardian scout that ends up teaching you the moves.

Thanks @StarPoint. Your memory appears better than mine. XD

@WoomyNNYes Yes I found the fairy fountain in Kakariko. She took 100 rupees and told me I didn't have anything to upgrade. lol. I've been thinking about getting the expansion pass as I've heard it makes the playthrough a bit better. After beating Waterblight Ganon I have 5 hearts. I kept mostly upgrading the stamina. Seems like I need to add some more hearts.

I do have the shrine sensor on but it only works when I'm already close and practically there already. Sometimes though, it beeps and I can't figure out where it's coming from (hot/cold game I know, but still). I've found most of the shrines so far by spotting them from a tower and gliding to them. They usually end up being further than I expect and in the middle of an area I've never been to. I've only not been able to complete one of them so far. I've done maybe 16 of them I think.

I'll probably have to spend more time exploring the areas I've opened up with unlocking the towers. I may have gotten a bit ahead of myself. I tried getting to the tower on top the castle and that wasn't happening...after that is when I found the Zora stuff.

Do the shock arrows repopulate by that horse guy in Zora? I couldn't beat him so I ran away to fight Waterblight Ganon, wondering if it's worth going back...

FWIW, the Switch profile says I've played BOTW for 'over 25 hours'. I do think part of my desire to make progress is that most games I play are 4-8 hours and it's done and over. I also have 25+ hours on Mario Odyssey. It's VERY rare I play a single game this much, in fact, I probably never have (except for Mario Kart). I did end up buying Mario Kart on digital (even though I already own it physical) so I can quickly switch to it as a palate cleanser without messing with the game cartridge.

@Dreamliner I think the arrows respawn with the blood moon, as do the other environment weapons and all the monsters.

@Dreamliner

Expansion pass: If you get the expansion pass, it will add expansion pass specific side quests. And those side quests/puzzles will lead to chests with the expansion pass gear. Majora's Mask is one of those pieces of gear, and it makes you invisible to enemies, and yeah, that will make things easier. The caveat is, you can't upgrade expansion pass gear. (technically, the enemies think you're one of them. and enemies will act accordingly if you walk up to them, sometimes it's amusing)

Upgrading gear: Oh, the fairy meant, you don't have the resources in your inventory to upgrade your gear. While speaking to the fairy, you can ask her to upgrade again, and when you highlight your pieces of gear, it will show you what resources are needed to upgrade them.

Invisible shrines: Some shrines required completing a puzzle to reveal them. I can't recall if if an NPC quest unlocked some, or a deku seed puzzle. It was something like that. When I beat the story, I still had about 20+ shrines left to find. I wandered around until I figured out the puzzles. Since it's been 4-5 years since I found & completed those shrines, I can't recall much. I'm not the most clever person, so if I could find them, you'll probably eventually figure it out. (It's possible I resorted to a youtube video for finding all shrines for the last 2-3 shrines, but I'm not certain I had to go that far)

I loved unlocking all the towers. 😆

Regarding shock arrows repopulating by the Lynel in Zora region, I'm not sure they repopulate. Maybe they do after a blood moon? I went through much of the game without using those arrows, because they are so hard to come by. I found shock spears & swords to be easier to come by, and would keep one of them on hand to shock enemies and take their weapons.

Okay, so I'm starting to like the game more now. I still am having to travel a lot to find shrines though. I just finished the 3 brothers Hinox, that last one was tough.

I also got caught in a blood moon half way through slaying my way through a group of enemies...that was...fun. Ugh.

As I get more hearts & stamina plus get a better handle on the controls & abilities I am liking it better. Enough to play through for sure. Pretty positive I won't have a desire to play all the sidequests, maybe a handful to see if they yield anything useful.

I also figured out bombing fish & selling meals was the best way to get rupees, now I'm good on arrows.

Sure would be nice to have more slots for weapons, always nervous to drop something for fear I'll need it. Now I'm wondering if I should get the expansion pass and/or mess around with those NFC packs I see online.

Oddly enough, I was convinced I'd keep the Switch docked all the time, it's been the exact opposite. I've docked it once and LOVE playing handheld.

@Dreamliner Pay Hestu with Korok Seeds to expand weapon slots. It's real cheap at first, then they gradually get more expensive. As you progress in the game, Hestu changes locations, so you have to know where to find him. His first location was on the path between dueling peaks stable & kakariko village. His second location is a stable by a river just south of hyrule castle. https://www.zeldadungeon.net/wiki/Hestu

Regarding bombing fish.... and speaking of water, have you tried looking in water with magnesis?🤔

I noticed early in the game, that bokoblins on horseback shoot arrows and often miss, and you can pick up their arrows. I just ran around hoping not to get shot, but there is a more efficient method. (and then ninetndo patched it to nerf that method). After the nerf, you just have to save the game & reload that save file every 10-15 arrows. It does take a bit of time, so it's not a crazy exploit, but it is effective. It's how I still get arrows. There are enough things you'll need money for, I don't think you'll mind. Although, in case you're not interested, I'm purposely not embedding the youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9LebFPGGLw

@WoomyNNYes Yeah I've found several chests in the water. I Just wish the weapons were a bit more plentiful. Overall though I'm pretty happy with this game. I ended up playing almost 6 hours yesterday, crazy!

Debating picking up the Expansion Pass.

@Dreamliner Struggling to find weapons? Have you tried sneaking into the castle? I don't want to say any more. If you're worried about triggering ganon, don't. It's part of the game.

@Dreamliner Finding the master sword will help too. Although, you can only use the master sword when it glows. It only glows & powers up in the presence of guardians and bosses. You can't really use the master sword if it's not powered up. If it's not glowing, it does half as much damage and will break. If it breaks, you'll have to wait for like 5-10 in-game days? until you can get it back. If I remember right, the game will tell you when it's ready again, and it will be where you originally found it. edit: oh, @mariolover92 below remembers better than I.

@WoomyNNYes The Master Sword actually doesn't break. It just runs out of energy after enough use, and after that, you'll have to wait for 10 minutes before you're able to use it again. It'll still stick around in your inventory, so you don't have to go back and get the Master Sword all over again.

On a side note, I tried out Trial of the Sword, and it's honestly rather hard... I don't know if I'm able to do it honestly. It seems like you have to do the whole thing in one sitting without running out of hearts.

@MarioLover92 you can cheese Trial of the Sword (kinda) if you plan it out a bit. I haven't gotten the DLC for BOTW but I have seen many people play it and I've seen many "tutorials" and strategies for it.