The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
3 CommentsZelda: Breath of the Wild’s easiest way to gain hearts from food
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild offers you a variety of ways to play. Previously, we talked about how having loads of stamina is one of the most entertaining ways to play the game. But what if you actually need plenty of health?
Stamina is great for exploring, but when it comes to those all-important boss fights, you’re going to need all the health you can get. This guide will show you the fastest way to get the one ingredient you’ll ever need for temporary hearts: the Hearty Durian.
Nintendo via Polygon
The king of cooking ingredients
In reality, the durian is known as the king of fruits, or rather, the world’s smelliest fruit. In Breath of the Wild, it’s the king of temporary hearts. A single cooked Hearty Durian will restore three hearts, but more...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Daka Tuss shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
Full disclosure: The Daka Tuss shrine in the Lanayru tower region is one of our favorites. Both because of the fun rune puzzle, but also because the name sounds like a rimshot.
Use your magnesis to pick up the metal scoop at the bottom of the pool.
Maneuver it under one of the floating balls and pick it up.
Swing it around to your left over the caged-in bowl-switch and then shake it around a little to knock the ball out.
Take the metal scoop with you when you move on to the next room.
Use the scoop to pick up another ball.
Drop the ball on top of the bowl-switch’s cage.
Move the metal scoop to the bottom of the pool and drop it on top of the large pressure plate there. This will open the roof of the cage and drop the ball into the bowl-switch.
Before you exit, head back...
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Read moreThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
3 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: How to make your weapons last longer
Breath of the Wild’s weapons sometimes seem like they’re made of glass (where by “sometimes,” we mean “at every conceivable moment.”). Every time you swing a club or sword, thrust a spear or sling a bow, the durability lowers, and you’re one step closer to watching your weapon disintegrate into glowing blue shards. But are things you can do to make your favorite and most powerful weapons last longer. In this guide, we’ll show you how.
Use the right weapon for every enemy
Our entire strategy rests on this premise: You should save your best, favorite and most powerful weapons for the enemies that deserve them. Who’s deserving? The toughest monsters — the ones with the most hit points.
Put differently, don’t waste your powerful weapons — clubs, swords, spears, bows, arrows — on weak...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
13 CommentsBreath of the Wild guide: The Great Plateau’s secrets, hidden items and treasures
HIDDEN CHESTS IN THE LAKEThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s opening salvo takes place on the Great Plateau, which is full of secrets, hidden items and treasure. We document your canonical adventures — raising the tower, finding and beating the shrines, getting the paraglider — in our Great Plateau walkthrough. In this guide, we’ll show you the Great Plateau’s secrets, many of which contain great early game weapons.
How to find hidden items in Breath of the Wild
Before we dig into the specifics about the Great Plateau, it’s worth learning how to find collectibles in Breath of the Wild. There are a few general rules that you should follow — and (as is so often the case with this game), you can start creating lucrative habits on the Great Plateau.
Always explore
Whether it seems...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Ta’loh Naeg shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
The Ta’loh Naeg shrine above Kakariko Village is another combat-type shrine, but this one teaches you a few new tricks.
Again, we’re not going to walk you through it — the game does a great job of that on its own. Here are the highlights.
Turn left and right before the fight begins to find chests containing an eightfold blade and a shield of the mind’s eye.
Side hop by locking onto an enemy with LZ and pressing left or right on the left thumbstick to strafe, then jumping.
Perform a perfect dodge to launch a flurry rush.
Perform a backflip by locking on, pressing back (away) on the left thumbstick and jumping.
A well-timed backflip will also unlock a flurry rush.
Perform a perfect guard by locking onto an enemy and parrying with the A button at the right time.
This, too,...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
1 CommentZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Shrines
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s shrines are a familiar new twist on the dungeons that have been winding their way through Nintendo’s storied franchise for decades. In this guide, we’ll teach you about shrines: what they are, what they do, why you should find then and how to do that.
Shrines: walkthroughs and puzzle solutions
We've organized our shrines guide based on geographic locations. Each tower unlocks a portion of Breath of the Wild's map, and the shrines that appear in those regions appear beneath the region names below.
Great Plateau tower region
Oman Au shrine (magnesis trial)
Ja Baij shrine (bomb trial)
Owa Dam shrine (stasis trial)
Dueling Peaks tower region
Bosh Kala shrine (The wind guides you)
Ta'Loh Naeg shrine (Ta'Loh Naeg's teaching)
Ree...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Shee Vaneer and Shee Venath shrines walkthrough and puzzle solutions
The two shrines of Shee Vaneer and Shee Venath in the Dueling Peaks tower region are a little different from other shrines — there’s no physics- or rune ability-based puzzles to figure out. All you have to do is visit both shrines and remember what you see.
Here’s the spoiler: You have to make the floor in Shee Venath look like the floor in Shee Vaneer and vice versa. We’re going to walk you through how to figure this out on your own, or you can just skim over it and skip to the bottom where we drew the solution.
Head into the Shee Vaneer — it’s the one on the south side of the river very high up on the cliff. After you ride the elevator down, turn to the left. Ride the platform up to get a view of the floor. Take a screenshot or draw yourself a picture (or scroll down a...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Ya Naga shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
The Ya Naga shrine near the Lake Tower has a deceptively simple trick to it: You can use both kinds of remote bombs at the same time and detonate them in whichever order you choose.
Take a second to familiarize yourself with the room. There are stairs on both sides that lead up to a large stone block on a rail. Under the stone block, there’s a funnel and way up on the ceiling are a bunch of breakable blocks.
Climb up the stairs on either side of the room and place a square remote bomb on top of the block.
Head back down and drop a round remote bomb into the funnel (you can kick it in if you miss the mouth of the funnel).
Step back.
Detonate the round remote bomb to launch the stone block and its payload toward the ceiling.
Quickly switch to the square remote bomb and...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Dah Kaso shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
There’s no trick or puzzle to the Dah Kaso shrine in the Central Tower region — it’s to the west of the Great Plateau along the Digdogg Suspension Bridge. It’s just a straight-up fight against a guardian. We’re not going to give you step-by-step instructions here ("Step 1. Hit it, Step 2. Hit it again."), just a few pieces of advice.
If you’re worried about the fight, check your meals for anything that will boost either attack strength or defense — whichever you feel is more lacking for you.
When it tucks its arm(s) in and starts spinning its head, it’s about to fire its laser. Get out of the way.
Use the pillars to help avoid its laser — each hit will drain a little over two hearts.
Make sure you hit the chest on your way out to pick up an ancient core.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Jee Noh shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
The Jee Noh shrine in the Wasteland tower area could be called stasis trial part two. Before you take on this trial, make sure you’ve got a few arrows to spare.
Walk forward and watch for the ball to move along the conveyor belt in front of you.
Hit the ball with your stasis rune ability, then shoot it with an arrow — remember that hitting something you’ve time-frozen will store up that energy for when it time-thaws.
The ball should drop into the bowl behind it, opening the door on your right.
In the next room, you have to repeat the process, but with a couple of guardians shooting at you. Just keep moving and do the same thing — stasis the ball and shoot it with an arrow. The guardians’ shots are slow-moving, so you can avoid them easily.
The door will open on your left...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Ka’o Makagh shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
The Ka’o Makagh shrine near the Lake Tower is a bit more confusing and a bit more work that most other shrines, but it’s also got more than the usual treasure.
Choose your magnesis rune and use it to open the giant metal doors in front of you.
Turn right and fight the guardian you find there. Use the environment to your advantage — there are stairs up onto the platform next to you on the other side. Use the stairs to get a drop attack on the guardian if you’re having trouble.
Heal up, then make a quick circuit of the room before you do anything else — there’s another guardian patrolling on the other side of the room.
In the back left corner of the room — on the far side of the platform with the stack of blocks and chest on top — activate your magnesis again and pull the...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Akh Va'quot shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
How to get to Akh Va'quot shrine
Breath of the Wild’s Akh Va'quot shrine is located on a hill behind Rito village, in the Tabantha tower region at the northwest corner of Hyrule.
How to solve the puzzle
Equip your most expendable weapon (which is probably your least powerful weapon). Akh Va'quot shrine requires you to hit a lot of things. Because weapons break so quickly in Breath of the Wild (and every hit shortens a weapon’s lifespan), you should save your most powerful weapons for enemies, not shrines like this.
To solve the Akh Va'quot shrine puzzle, you need to arrange the fans in such a way that all of the spinning things (sorry for the technical jargon) are blue. Hit one of the fluorescent light-looking things (so much jargon), and it will rotate a fan.
It is,...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
6 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild guide: Everything you need to know about horses (like how to kill them)
Breath of the Wild continues a longstanding Legend of Zelda tradition: putting Link on horseback. Much of Link’s equestrian pursuits are new and different, too, and in this guide, we’ll teach you what you need to know. That includes everything from taming to saving, customizing, where to look for some of the game’s best steeds — and maybe accidentally killing one with fire (a little).
How to tame horses
Horses are skittish, so you need to approach them slowly and silently.
For many horses, it’s enough to press the left thumbstick, crouch and sneak up behind them. For special steeds like the Giant Horse and the white stallion (more on her below), you may need to drink an elixir or eat a meal that temporarily increases your stealth. If you’re having trouble catching a horse, remember...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsZelda Breath of the Wild: The Royal White Stallion side quest
When you arrive at Outskirt Stable, you’ll meet a man called Toffa. Speak to him, and he’ll tell you the story of the white stallion — and give you the Royal White Stallion side quest.
From Outskirt Stable, take the road north, turning left at the first intersection. Cross Manhala Bridge and follow the road right, around and up a hill. Dismount and look around. The wild white stallion is in this area. (Browse the gallery above for maps that show you the way.)
If you haven't upgraded your stamina, you won’t be able to catch the white stallion. Also, even though all horses are skittish in Breath of the Wild, this one is terrified of everyone. She’ll bolt at the first sign of company. To sneak up on her, we ate and drank stamina-boosting food and elixirs.
You’ll need stamina...
Opinion
29 CommentsZelda: Breath of the Wild with high stamina is the best
The Legend of Zelda: Breathe of the Wild has a massive, open world. In fact, the game’s vast landscape is one of its best features. There’s plenty of ways to journey around Hyrule, be it by paraglider, riding a ridiculously large horse or running and climbing everywhere you go.
The latter is my favorite way to get around (and using this map really helps). So let’s talk about:
Why building for stamina is the most entertaining way to play the game
Why it’s actually wasteful to spend Spirit Orbs on Heart Containers
There are no wrong ways to play, but maxing out your stamina as early as possible is a better way to play.
Health is secondary
There are 120 Shrines for you to locate in Breath of the Wild. Each one rewards you with a Spirit Orb. Four orbs allow you to either gain a Heart...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
9 CommentsHow to find and tame the Giant Horse in Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gives you tons of options to explore its world. One of the best ways to do that is by taming and riding a horse. There are special techniques required to taming horses and once you’ve master the art, you might want to find a horse that’s special to you.
May we recommend The Giant Horse?
Nintendo via Polygon
Um, that is one big horse
The Giant Horse is a very unique mount for several reasons. It has infinite stamina, but isn’t very fast. It has the most strength of any horse. And oh yeah, it’s GIGANTIC. It towers over Link’s head and is twice as big as every other horse. It’s majestic yet imposing and if you’re lucky, it’ll let you ride it.
So how do you get this luxuriously large mount? You’ll need to know where it’s...
Opinion
3 CommentsZelda: Breath of the Wild’s early game is easy to grind for great loot
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an enormous game with an open world full of places to explore and stuff that will kill you. These kinds of challenges will be familiar if you’ve played recent entries in the Elder Scrolls or Fallout series, but the game might be a bit overwhelming if you’re a casual Nintendo fan.
I’m going to help by pointing out ways to increase your power quickly, as well as explain the most efficient ways to get the stuff you need to undertake the game’s challenges. This information could be seen as spoilers if you want to figure everything out for yourself, so this is your warning.
The first step is ...
Identify your needs
It’s best to think about open world games as having two interwoven progression paths. The first is the narrative; following the quests...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsBreath of the Wild guide: Where to find and how to beat all shrines
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is filled with more than 100 shrines. In this guide, we’ll show you where to find and how to beat them all, in every region.
We've organized our shrines guide based on geographic locations. Each tower unlocks a portion of Breath of the Wild's map, and the shrines that appear in those regions appear beneath the region names below.
THE GREAT PLATEAU REGION
Oman Au shrine (magnesis trial)
Ja Baij shrine (bomb trial)
Owa Dam shrine (stasis trial)
DUELING PEAKS TOWER REGION
Bosh Kala shrine (The wind guides you)
Ta'Loh Naeg Shrine (Ta'Loh Naeg's teaching)
Ree Dahee shrine (Timing is critical)
Hila Rao shrine (Drifting)
Ha Dahamar shrine (The water guides)
HATENO TOWER REGION SHRINES
Myahm Agana shrine (Myahm Agana apparatus)
...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsBreath of the Wild guide: Myahm Agana shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
Turn to the right and climb the stairs to the top.
Run up to the controls to activate the eponymous apparatus — it’s a motion-controlled marble-in-a-labyrinth puzzle (but it doesn’t look like anything to me).
Before you try to navigate the ball through the labyrinth, tip the maze toward you, then jump over and work your way back to the chest to pick up a phrenic bow.
Get back to the controls — you’ll have to jump toward the bowl where you’re trying to get the ball and work your way around to the left and back up top.
There are two ways to solve this puzzle. You can carefully and patiently work the ball through the maze like you’re expected to, or you can literally turn it on its head — flip your controller over and you’ll be presented with a blank slate to work with. You’ll...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsBreath of the Wild guide: Ha Dahamar shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
First, you have to get there. This shrine is surrounded by spikes that you can’t jump over. Climb up to the cliff to the west and use your paraglider to soar over the spikes and get inside.
Once you’re inside, pull up your cryonis — you’re going to be using it a lot. Stick to the right and follow the walkway deeper into the shrine. When you get to the shallow pool, create an ice block to let you continue.
A little further along, there will be water streaming down the wall on your right. Create another ice block right on the wall and jump up to the platform.
Turn around — there’s another platform above where you just came from with a chest. Create two more ice blocks on the wall to get you there. Open the chest for a purple rupee.
Turn back around and climb about...
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough
0 CommentsBreath of the Wild guide: Hila Rao shrine walkthrough and puzzle solutions
The first step of this shrine is getting past Magda who is very protective of her flowers. There’s no getting around her, just don’t step on the flowers. No seriously, don’t step on her flowers.
Inside is pretty straightforward. At the first pool of water, just wait for the plank to float past, hop on and go through the door. (Alternately, you use your cryonis to drop a block of ice in the middle and use that to climb across.)
Repeat the process at the next, wider, channel. Just work your way forward and to the right, then wait until the planks deliver you to do the door on the other side.
The next room has a circulating pool that will take a little more work. First, watch for the chest and use your cryonis to create a block of ice under it. Open it for some ice arrows.
...
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