Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Sheikah Sensor is all you get in game, I'm afraid. Worse still, some shrines won't even show up on it until you complete their associated quests. There are plenty of online guides and maps to help you out though, and there's a nice little bonus for completing all the shrines in the game, making it well worth the effort.

In terms of the best side quests, I'd recommend Stranded on Eventide (island in the far SouthEast of the map), the Stolen Heirloom (complete all the other quests in Karariko Village) and the Thunder Helm (complete all the other quests in Gerudo Town.) The first two of those are also Shrine Quests, so you'll need them on your way to finishing that goal too.

@Matt_Barber Thanks for the response. I know there aren't any other items you can get to find shrines, but I was hoping there might be some other way to locate them like how the shrines and lightroots are connected in TotK, of maybe you could pay someone to mark a missing one on the map like how you can pay the guy at Hateno Tech Lab to fill in missing spots in your Compendium. I didn't know there was a prize for completing them all, though, so maybe I will just have to resort to the internet after all.

And I've definitely already done the Eventide Island side quest and I know I haven't done the Thunder Helm one because it's in my list but I haven't done all the Gerudo Town ones yet, but I don't think I even know of the Stolen Heirloom quest yet. I don't remember doing much in Kakariko at all other than the boy who wanted to make his mom's recipes, so I'll have to look into that one. Thanks.

I enjoyed buying the house in Hateno that was scheduled to be demolished. It gives Link a place to sleep for free, and a place to store valuable weapons and shields (like Link's house in TOTK, except no customization options). Other than that, I think you've covered it. I used an online map to find the shrines I didn't find on my own - outside of roaming and waiting for beeps from the Sheikah Slate, there's no other way to find shrines in BOTW.

@Xyphon22 Yeah, the sheika sensor beeping is all you have to find the shrines. If you don't want the hassle, I wouldn't blame you for finding a map or walkthrough to find the remaining shrines. If I remember right, some of those shrines don't appear until you've completed an environmental puzzle. I beat botw with 90-ish shrines, and just found the rest after beating gannon.

Heads up, after you beat gannon, when you re-enter the game, all the spawning enemies will still exist just like before you beat gannon.

Also, I didn't think you could access/play the Champion's Ballad expansion until after you beat gannon. Maybe I'm wrong. For me, Champions Ballad came out after I beat gannon. So, I don't know how that works.

@mjharper Cool, thanks. I've bought the house but haven't furnished it as it didn't really seem that useful and cost a lot of money, but I guess it's at least an easy quest and I have plenty of money. That stinks about no other way to find the shrines as I usually hate resorting to looking online, but I guess if it's just for side stuff and not important to beating the game (which I've already done before anyway) then I can make an exception.

@WoomyNNYes Thanks, yeah I didn't bother with the DLC my first time through (maybe it hadn't come out yet, I don't remember), but I did it almost as soon as I completed the four Divine Beasts this time, so you definitely don't have to wait until you beat Ganon. It was a lot of fun.

@Xyphon22
Look for that rare deer/unicorn/horse creature thing if you haven't found it already.

I remember seeing it when I was up in some of the northern mountains in the snow. It was pretty sweet.

@rallydefault Ooh, good call there. I know right where it appears because I've seen it, took a picture, and tried to ride it but it always bucks me off. But I have completed my stamina wheel since the last time I tried, so I should definitely be able to ride it now and I'm interested in seeing what happens then. I had completely forgotten about that!

You definitely don't need to do all the shrines prior to finishing the game. If anything I'd recommend going early, otherwise you're in for an underwhelming fight that'll offer little challenge.

It is worth doing all four Divine Beasts and getting the Master Sword though, because you don't want it to be too hard either.

I dunno how much of Hyrule Castle you explored during your first playthrough, but it's definitely worth going through the entire area, and you can (and should) do that way before actually confronting Ganon. There's lots of cool stuff there, such as lore items (Zelda's and Rhoam's diaries being the most obvious ones) and locations, minibosses, Koroks, weapons, the best shield in the game, and even a hidden shrine. Once you've found the shrine you can go on to do whatever you want to do elsewhere in Hyrule, and then just teleport back there when you're done with the rest of the game and ready to face Ganon.

I finally finished up my playthrough of BotW last night. I did all the quests recommended on here. The Stolen Heirloom in Kakariko was a good one, and I never would have known about it if it wasn't mentioned on here, so thanks! I don't remember the exact number, but I found around 105 shrines on my own, and then just looked up where the last 15 or so were. Awesome reward for doing them all, so it was worth it! I still prefer TotK, but I understand those who prefer BotW.

@Xyphon22 What was the reward for completing all 120 shrines? I don't remember.

@WoomyNNYes the reward you get is The Hero of the Wild outfit.

@WoomyNNYes Yeah, I'm not entirely sure why it's called that, but as someone whose favorite game of all time is the original Zelda, it's pretty cool to have that outfit. Too bad it's only after I'm already done with the game. I guess if I ever decide to go back to do the last quests I haven't done it'll be there for me.

I started a new game of BOTW. I've played to kakariko village, hateno village, satori mountain, unlocked 3-4 towers so far. I've been noticing the game seems to possibly have more rich cinematic effects than TOTK in some ways. BOTW's morning and night sun/moon lighting effects reflecting on the grass, also more pronounced morning fog mist effects.

And there's something about BOTW's simplicity, in contrast to TOTK, that gives BOTW an impressively pure classic game experience. Coming from playing 200 hours of TOTK, the de-cluttered world of BOTW is a nice change of pace. (de-cluttered = no zonai devices, no fusing/building, no great distances between the sky islands, ground level, and the depths.) Oh, and having infinite upgraded bombs, man that's nice.

@WoomyNNYes that's the main reason I want to play botw again. It's such a nice calming experience. I haven't played it since totk so it'll be interesting going back to it. There's not much this year for me on switch, so I've been going back and playing zelda since it's my gaming comfort food. Right now I'm on skyward sword and I almost chose botw over it. But since TTYD is next month, I didn't want anything overly long leading up to it.

I haven’t been back to Breath of the Wild in ages. I will give it a go, I appreciate the comments above about calming experience.
Although I will probably miss fusing weapons and attaching items to arrows

Whilst I certainly appreciate that 'objectively' it could be considered that TOTK is an absolute masterpiece, it really fell short for me in comparison to BOTW. An an overall concise single experience, BOTW truly was a phenomenal one-off.

For the next installment, I'd love to see Nintendo go back to a more linear approach.... but with branching pathways perhaps? (Similar to something like Sekiro, the game 'opens up' in the latter half and you have more agency regarding exploration and/or the way you choose to tackle things)

I didn't know you can take out korok balloons with bombs!🤣👌 I'm on my new playthrough of BOTW, desperate for weapon slots, and also low on arrows. Every time I see one of those orange korok pinwheels (the korok balloon shooting challenge), I kept thinking, "I'm not wasting my damn arrows on balloons!" Well, bombs work too, it seems. Korok seed attained, arrows saved!🌈

Hi, has anyone completed the dlc quest Champion Revali's Song?

I am confused and not sure where to go. Any hints or tips please?

@yayasolete13 Austin John has a 6min youtube guide: