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[Flying Toaster]

Is it just me or are bow's the real stars of the show weapon wise? I have done so much epic damage with just bow shots.

 

[mindatlarge]

Mind sharing how? I must be doing something very wrong. Most I've ever had at one point was about 1,500... most the time I run around with a few hundred.

How?

Spoiler

If you want to do some traveling and want some major help with money, go to Hebra Tower, and look for a little cabin from the air, glide down and talk to the dude to start the snowball bowling mini-game. For every strike you get, you net 300 Rupees and it's repeatable. You can easily net around 1500 Rupees for 5 minutes time with all strikes, if you end up getting a spare, you still get 100 Rupees. There is a method that pretty much ensures a strike every time as well by standing behind the NPC and kinda slightly standing to the right side of him and dropping the snowball. Oh, and the first strike he gives you an ice rod if you have a weapon slot open but all subsequent strikes he'll give you the 300 Rupees.

Step by step:

1. Go to the Pondo's Lodge (it's a log cabin , you can see it from on top of Hebra Tower) (When you're about to start a new session, make sure to teleport to Hebra Tower then glide down to the cabin, if you loaded a save to spawn at the lodge, for whatever reason, Pondo might have a slightly other position in this special case and ruin the set-up.)
2. Start the minigame
3. Grab the ball and target Pondo
4. Without moving your camera, close in on him and line up your snowball so it just touches the moose statue's edge of its eyeball. Walk up against him to make this alignment. And this doesn't have to be perfect for you to be pretty consistent.
5. Simply drop the ball, while keeping the target on Pondo.

 

[Rodin]

My Wii U says that I put 37 hours into TP HD and I did very few sidequests and never went out of my way to collect heart pieces.

Yeah ok but it's unfair to say that all those hours of TP are all equally top notch, there are some parts that are less good, and the quests you're suggesting that "expand" the game's lenght are nowhere near as good as what Breath of the Wild offers in that regard.

 

[sanstesy]

My Wii U says that I put 37 hours into TP HD and I did very few sidequests and never went out of my way to collect heart pieces.

Yeah, that's not 40 hours. I played through Twilight Princess 2 years ago and didn't even come close to 40 hours when finishing. More like 30ish.

 

[Lupin the Third]

So for the main quest in Zora's Domain

Spoiler

I had to go up the mountain and fight that Lynel. I tried it a few times with my best swords and bomb arrows and I barely hurt him and he..... He just one shotted me constantly.

Then I decided to sneak around a bit, see if there's something. Yup, I saw a few shock arrows and sure enough I eventually got all 20 of them.

Am I a wuss for this or did you guys do the same? Be honest!

I had already explored a good amount before doing this quest and i just zipped elsewhere to just buy them outright. It still made me go through the motions except the collecting though.

 

[yatesl]

So for the main quest in Zora's Domain

Spoiler

I had to go up the mountain and fight that Lynel. I tried it a few times with my best swords and bomb arrows and I barely hurt him and he..... He just one shotted me constantly.

Then I decided to sneak around a bit, see if there's something. Yup, I saw a few shock arrows and sure enough I eventually got all 20 of them.

Am I a wuss for this or did you guys do the same? Be honest!

I did that dungeon second, after ~30 hours, so I already had plenty of

Spoiler

shock arrows

and

Spoiler

upgraded Statis

, so even though I didn't need to I went up there and just cheesed him with a 60 attack sword.

 

[Human Trashcan]

Yeah you are saying most games lose that sense of doing something new after 40 hours, but I would argue almost none of the zelda games do, except this one. I always felt zelda games were 40-50 hours of pure non stop brilliance, excellent variety, level design, puzzles, exploration, a nice balance of it all. This a lot bigger so it's a lot less focused. Plus because you have all the tools at the start of the game there aren't many surpirises along the way.

I loved the game at first, then like 30 hours in I felt like I figured out the game. I could see how they just placed a korok puzzle there, a hiniox there, another enemy camp there, a shrine riddle here, a stable there, the same few enemies over and over. The magic of what i get from zelda games which is I know every single new location I go into will bring some new gameplay situation or new game mechanic is gone.

Now that I have accepted tha 60 hours later I am enjoying it a lot more. The main quests are still great. Every once in a while you do stumble into something unique but it's no where near as common as in past zelda games. But of course past zelda games never had core gameplay mechanics this good. So it's a trade off, and I think different people value different aspects of game design so that's going to shape the different opinions.

Good post, you explain the same feelings I went through with BOTW well. Like the first 30 hours were pure brilliance and discovery, then I started to feel like I'd seen its tricks and was slowly starting to feel like I was going through the motions, but I made my peace with the fact that I wouldn't feel like at the beginning again eventually. That's just the nature of the beast with open world games. I do wish there were some more things they could've done to surprise us, like there's no reason every area has to go through the same kind of process from meeting the village elder through the divine beasts, but they do, and it feels formulaic. Midway through my playthrough I first went to Hyrule Castle and that totally gave me that feeling of awe again, and made me wish the dungeons were more like that.

I think for the next one they just need to introduce more things in the world than shrines and korok seeds, and make the dungeons less formulaic.

 

[jariw]

No kidding! I'm at roughly 35 hours and have finished just under half (50 someodd) of the Shrines. I've put stamps on a few of the ones I've found to come back to later; those are all "Major Test of Strength" ones. I hate having to chew through 3-4 weapons and a shit-ton of arrows to beat them.

If you register the shrine in the Sheika slate, the unfinished shrine gets another icon than the completed shrines.

 

[Emu-Fred]

Just finished playing BOTW.

Oh my god.

I don't think I've played a game that lived up to the hype so hard.

Move aside Ocarina of Time, this is THE best Zelda game.

I have over 90 hours and still nowhere eve n near completion.

Nintendo has set a new bar for 3D Zelda and I am excited to see what the next one will have in store.

Almost tempted to say best game of generation.

 

[Thud]

So for the main quest in Zora's Domain

Spoiler

I had to go up the mountain and fight that Lynel. I tried it a few times with my best swords and bomb arrows and I barely hurt him and he..... He just one shotted me constantly.

Then I decided to sneak around a bit, see if there's something. Yup, I saw a few shock arrows and sure enough I eventually got all 20 of them.

Am I a wuss for this or did you guys do the same? Be honest!

I killed it.

 

[Lupin the Third]

Spoiler

If you want to do some traveling and want some major help with money, go to Hebra Tower, and look for a little cabin from the air, glide down and talk to the dude to start the snowball bowling mini-game. For every strike you get, you net 300 Rupees and it's repeatable. You can easily net around 1500 Rupees for 5 minutes time with all strikes, if you end up getting a spare, you still get 100 Rupees. There is a method that pretty much ensures a strike every time as well by standing behind the NPC and kinda slightly standing to the right side of him and dropping the snowball.

Step by step:

1. Go to the Pondo's Lodge (it's a log cabin , you can see it from on top of Hebra Tower) (When you're about to start a new session, make sure to teleport to Hebra Tower then glide down to the cabin, if you loaded a save to spawn at the lodge, for whatever reason, Pondo might have a slightly other position in this special case and ruin the set-up.)
2. Start the minigame
3. Grab the ball and target Pondo
4. Without moving your camera, close in on him and line up your snowball so it just touches the moose statue's edge of its eyeball. Walk up against him to make this alignment. And this doesn't have to be perfect for you to be pretty consistent.
5. Simply drop the ball, while keeping the target on Pondo.

Thanks for posting this. Quoting so I can find it again later after I get to that region.

 

[Lupin the Third]

Sorry for the double post.

 

[Cartho]

So for the main quest in Zora's Domain

Spoiler

I had to go up the mountain and fight that Lynel. I tried it a few times with my best swords and bomb arrows and I barely hurt him and he..... He just one shotted me constantly.

Then I decided to sneak around a bit, see if there's something. Yup, I saw a few shock arrows and sure enough I eventually got all 20 of them.

Am I a wuss for this or did you guys do the same? Be honest!

You're not alone! I tried several times and got utterly wrecked so gave up and treated it like a stealth section!

 

[Com Truise]

This is just not true at all.

I mean, obviously I'm talking about my experience with the game but if Test of Strength shrine no.12 managed to fill you with the same excitement as the first one...well that's great then.

 

[Neoweee]

You're not alone! I tried several times and got utterly wrecked so gave up and treated it like a stealth section!

My clever solution:

Spoiler

I bought the damn arrows in other cities.

 

[Papercuts]

Older Zelda games aren't 40 hour games for a first playthrough, nevermind 50 hours. Where do you people pull these numbers from?

I actually did take 35-40 to get through TP and SS. They're pretty long, even if a lot of it is bloat (especially for SS).

I'm nearing 80 hours in BotW and still have a little less than 1/3 of the shrines to go.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

The final armor upgrade animation is amazing. 😂

 

[The Lamonster]

Almost tempted to say best game of generation.

Hard to say which generation it falls into.

 

[spock]

Not every open world game is focused on exploration, so they don't need to keep this aspect fresh in order to stay entertaining. Games like BotW however, have nothing but their exploration to offer. Which means that once the magic is gone, by which I mean that you start seeing the building blocks the world is made of, it's all over. Every stone circle, every enemy skull cave camp, even the shrines are a constant reminder that you are playing an open world game that needed to be filled with recycled content. It gets tiring after some time and considering how big the world is, there just are not enough Eventide Islands and Yiga Hideouts to keep things fresh.

I'm 40 hours in and avoid fast travel. I still have a crazy ton left beyond exploration which in it self has gotten even cooler over time as I learn more mechanics and how to better work within the game world.

The game has gotten better and better, the more I settle in to just "being link" as a person in the game world not focusing on any one thing beyond having fun and keeping things fresh. For example I'll work on finding a shrine or tower, than maybe hunt and forage for abit, after that switch over to another quest or exploring the map. Practicing combat, getting money, trying new recipes, and the list goes on and on.

Earlier today I spent 40 minutes or so simply searching a lagoon/ocean/inlet area for treasure using magnesis as a exploration and survey tool. Found 5+ chests, was very very cool and basically a mini game built into the game organically.

I'm astounded how fresh things are staying for me when i dont hyper focus on just getting to the end game. The world it self calls the player to simply engage and dance with it.

I really hope the make a bunch of DLC and expansions. Simply adding to the map would be a great and simple way to give Zelda some major legs this generation.

 

[emb]

Older Zelda games aren't 40 hour games for a first playthrough, nevermind 50 hours. Where do you people pull these numbers from?

Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword both took me about 35 hours on first playthrough. I was definitely not moving fast, but I could easily see more patient, exploration minded people taking quite a bit more time than that with 'em.

The actually older ones? Yeah, probably not. Some of them probably took me longer than that though, stumbling through as a confused child with little sense of purpose.

 

[Ladekabel]

Third dungeon down. It was the Goron dungeon which while I still liked it is my least favorite of the three I did so far.

So I remember watching a video prior to release where somebody got to a graveyard in the wild. There was a Korok seed which you get with apples and a statue which he shot with a bow

Spoiler

and it got glowy eyes.

Did watch this video on my phone where I'm not logged in with my channel so I can't find it easily. Anyone know which spot I'm talking about? Searched for hours and while I found lots of other stuff didn't find the place I was looking for.

 

[mindatlarge]

Thanks for posting this. Quoting so I can find it again later after I get to that region.

Glad to help. It's extremely easy and consistent, so you should be rolling in Rupees once you try it out.

 

[spock]

Just finished playing BOTW.

Oh my god.

I don't think I've played a game that lived up to the hype so hard.

Move aside Ocarina of Time, this is THE best Zelda game.

I have over 90 hours and still nowhere eve n near completion.

Nintendo has set a new bar for 3D Zelda and I am excited to see what the next one will have in store.

Almost tempted to say best game of generation.

I'm only at 40 hours but, this without a doubt in the top 3 best single player gaming "experience" I've ever had (Mario64 is in one as well).

Nintendo seriously raised the bar here.

 

[MiamiWesker]

Older Zelda games aren't 40 hour games for a first playthrough, nevermind 50 hours. Where do you people pull these numbers from?

Every single 3D zelda game has taken me over 50 hours. What do you do? I do every single thing, I make sure to 100% all of it.

 

[Rodin]

I mean, obviously I'm talking about my experience with the game but if Test of Strength shrine no.12 managed to fill you with the same excitement as the first one...well that's great then.

You're just taking one part (tests of strenght, which incidentally is one that can't really vary that much) of one of the activities (completing shrines) and expanding that to the entirety of the game's world, mechanics and content in general. So again, no, that post is not a correct representation of how this game is built. Not even remotely close. No offense, but it's just a poor generalization.

 

[Prof. Bathtub]

Third dungeon down. It was the Goron dungeon which while I still liked it is my least favorite of the three I did so far.

So I remember watching a video prior to release where somebody got to a graveyard in the wild. There was a Korok seed which you get with apples and a statue which he shot with a bow

Spoiler

and it got glowy eyes.

Did watch this video on my phone where I'm not logged in with my channel so I can't find it easily. Anyone know which spot I'm talking about? Searched for hours and while I found lots of other stuff didn't find the place I was looking for.

It's near Fort Hateno.

 

[Nia]

I got to

Spoiler

Saria's

Lake. I left a Silent Princess in her memory.

Spoiler

 

[victreeb3l]

Just finished playing BOTW.

Oh my god.

I don't think I've played a game that lived up to the hype so hard.

Move aside Ocarina of Time, this is THE best Zelda game.

I have over 90 hours and still nowhere eve n near completion.

Nintendo has set a new bar for 3D Zelda and I am excited to see what the next one will have in store.

Almost tempted to say best game of generation.

This is by far the best game I've ever played. It's not without flaws but as a total package, I haven't experienced any game that brought me more joy.

 

[jariw]

Good post, you explain the same feelings I went through with BOTW well. Like the first 30 hours were pure brilliance and discovery, then I started to feel like I'd seen its tricks and was slowly starting to feel like I was going through the motions, but I made my peace with the fact that I wouldn't feel like at the beginning again eventually. That's just the nature of the beast with open world games. I do wish there were some more things they could've done to surprise us, like there's no reason every area has to go through the same kind of process from meeting the village elder through the divine beasts, but they do, and it feels formulaic. Midway through my playthrough I first went to Hyrule Castle and that totally gave me that feeling of awe again, and made me wish the dungeons were more like that.

I think for the next one they just need to introduce more things in the world than shrines and korok seeds, and make the dungeons less formulaic.

Yeah, but even if the world itself doesn't provide that much surprises after 50+ hours, there are still lots of sandboxy things I can do in the game, which (at least to me) adds more fun than the world/store itself. Bokoblin camps are fun training grounds for all kind of runes, I'm still trying to perfect my traveling-by-log-through-the-air skills, testing new kind of cooking, trying to approach wildlife in different ways, and so on.

 

[akidnamededdy]

Yeah, but even if the world itself doesn't provide that much surprises after 50+ hours, there are still lots of sandboxy things I can do in the game, which (at least to me) adds more fun than the world/store itself. Bokoblin camps are fun training grounds for all kind of runes, I'm still trying to perfect my traveling-by-log-through-the-air skills, testing new kind of cooking, trying to approach wildlife in different ways, and so on.

Speaking of this, how the hell do you pull this off? Every time I try the log just flies out from under me.

 

[Wanderer5]

Daaaamn Hyrule Castle is not messing around. I was able to get to

Spoiler

the memory that was there and also some good reading from zelda diary/research.

Going to upgrade the ancient armor more, get more food, and finish the memory quest before I return.

 

[Bog]

So I'm just starting out... I got out of the cave at the start and headed towards the skull cave with the three baddies off to the side and died pretty easily. Any pointers for starting off?

There are two types of people who should buy strategy guides. The type of person who enjoys looking at art from one of their favorite games and owning any piece of collectable merchandise from said game. And you.

 

[archreaper93]

If I see a star fragment light or that greenish light in the mountains, can I warp to somewhere closer and go get it? Or do those disappear when I warp?

 

[Kinsei]

Speaking of this, how the hell do you pull this off? Every time I try the log just flies out from under me.

Try balloons? That's how I travel by flying object.

 

[papercan55]

Third dungeon down. It was the Goron dungeon which while I still liked it is my least favorite of the three I did so far.

So I remember watching a video prior to release where somebody got to a graveyard in the wild. There was a Korok seed which you get with apples and a statue which he shot with a bow

Spoiler

and it got glowy eyes.

Did watch this video on my phone where I'm not logged in with my channel so I can't find it easily. Anyone know which spot I'm talking about? Searched for hours and while I found lots of other stuff didn't find the place I was looking for.

Near Hateno fort wall, talk to the researcher in the little house amongst the trees.

 

[It's Reyn Time!]

I got to

Spoiler

Saria's

Lake. I left a Silent Princess in her memory.

Now do the same with a

Spoiler

sword and shield in Mido Swamp.

 

[MiamiWesker]

Good post, you explain the same feelings I went through with BOTW well. Like the first 30 hours were pure brilliance and discovery, then I started to feel like I'd seen its tricks and was slowly starting to feel like I was going through the motions, but I made my peace with the fact that I wouldn't feel like at the beginning again eventually. That's just the nature of the beast with open world games. I do wish there were some more things they could've done to surprise us, like there's no reason every area has to go through the same kind of process from meeting the village elder through the divine beasts, but they do, and it feels formulaic. Midway through my playthrough I first went to Hyrule Castle and that totally gave me that feeling of awe again, and made me wish the dungeons were more like that.

I think for the next one they just need to introduce more things in the world than shrines and korok seeds, and make the dungeons less formulaic.

Yup they just need to be more creative with activities and puzzles in the main world. There is no reason that the only puzzles you solve in the overworld are mostly korok puzzles repeated over and over. The thing is they took most of that stuff and stuck them into shrines which i am glad it's there but it's not as organic as just finding something in the world you have never seen before. I feel everything in BOTW is in little categories repeated. All the shrines have the puzzles, the towns have most of the quests, the environment has random korok puzzles, hinox encounters are the same. Even the lynel battles look the same, it's always a clearing that it guards. When past zelda games the world was filled with all sorts of unique stuff in every location. Take MM, in the swamp you are floating through the air avoiding poison swamps, going through a canoe ride mini game, going stealth in a monkey palace; then in the snow mountain you are finding invisible platformer, you are rolling down the mountian as a Goron, going through ice puzzles. And it goes on and on with each section, every area something new, almost nothing repeated.

That's what BOTW I feel needs. That unique feeling in each region. It should stay totally open, it should keep all these new amazing mechanics but each region needs a unique better personality rather than it looks different or it's hot or cold.

 

[spock]

If I see a star fragment light or that greenish light in the mountains, can I warp to somewhere closer and go get it? Or do those disappear when I warp?

You can warp to it via fast travel. Did it yesterday. No clue what a falling star fragment is for yet but I have one.

 

[Inferno313]

Does the memories quest conclude once you get all of the memories, or do you have to go back to Impa? I've still got the ones in

Spoiler

Gerudo Desert

, and

Spoiler

Hyrule Castle

because I haven't been to those areas yet. Can I get the one in

Spoiler

Hyrule Castle on my way to Ganon

at the very end of the game, or should I head in there to get that memory before

Spoiler

I make my final foray into the castle

?

 

[BFIB]

What are some good stamina recipes for the dueling peaks? Want to get those shrines tonight.

 

[akidnamededdy]

Try balloons? That's how I travel by flying object.

Ah, I was thinking of the thing where you chop down a tree, stasis the log, whack it a bit and then stand on top and ride it like a missile.

Regarding balloons though - is there some trick to making them last longer? I've tried flight using them tied to logs before but they always pop just as it's getting good.

 

[Kinsei]

Does the memories quest conclude once you get all of the memories, or do you have to go back to Impa? I've still got the ones in

Spoiler

Gerudo Desert

, and

Spoiler

Hyrule Castle

because I haven't been to those areas yet. Can I get the one in

Spoiler

Hyrule Castle on my way to Ganon

at the very end of the game, or should I head in there to get that memory before

Spoiler

I make my final foray into the castle

?

You have to go back to Impa because

Spoiler

There's one last memory you need to find once you get all of the ones listed in the slate.

Ah, I was thinking of the thing where you chop down a tree, stasis the log, whack it a bit and then stand on top and ride it like a missile.

Regarding balloons though - is there some trick to making them last longer? I've tried flight using them tied to logs before but they always pop just as it's getting good.

No clue. I wonder if you can attach new balloons right before the current ones pop?

 

[Madness]

Does the memories quest conclude once you get all of the memories, or do you have to go back to Impa? I've still got the ones in

Spoiler

Gerudo Desert

, and

Spoiler

Hyrule Castle

because I haven't been to those areas yet. Can I get the one in

Spoiler

Hyrule Castle on my way to Ganon

at the very end of the game, or should I head in there to get that memory before

Spoiler

I make my final foray into the castle

?

Spoiler

Go back to Impa after all 12 done to get the final one

 

[archreaper93]

You can warp to it via fast travel. Did it yesterday. No clue what a falling star fragment is for yet but I have one.

Cool. Also, how long do they stay on the map?

 

[blame space]

even places of the map i thought i explored are filled with fun stuff to find. this game is so good.

EDIT: only until morning i believe ^

 

[bomblord1]

Ah, I was thinking of the thing where you chop down a tree, stasis the log, whack it a bit and then stand on top and ride it like a missile.

Regarding balloons though - is there some trick to making them last longer? I've tried flight using them tied to logs before but they always pop just as it's getting good.

I've wondered this as well they pop in seconds

 

[Jzero]

Cool. Also, how long do they stay on the map?

Not long enough, i run to get it and it's gone when i get there

 

[Ladekabel]

It's near Fort Hateno.

Near Hateno fort wall, talk to the researcher in the little house amongst the trees.

Thanks!

 

[Thud]

What's the schedule for those

Spoiler

dragons

?

Need to track down some scales and horns.

 

[spock]

Cool. Also, how long do they stay on the map?

Not sure as I made it to the star while it was still there. Was at least 2-3 mins. I tried flying first than said screw it and fast traveled as close to it as possible.