If you’ve read the reviews or spent any time around someone who’s played it, you’ll already know that Nintendo‘s ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild‘ is just a ridiculous smash hit.
But it’s also really difficult. Areas aren’t item-locked – once you’ve got the paraglider, you can basically head anywhere – and you’ll run into boss-level enemies while you’re still whacking things with a stick.
So here’s a few tips for beginners if you’re trying really hard not to die.
1. Run like a coward.
Enemies lurk behind every corner, and you’re just not equipped to face off against, say, a guardian when your best weapon is a rusty broadsword. Not every Bokoblin outpost needs attacking. Sometimes, you just need to run away like a lil’ bitch.
Non-permanent weapons, shields and bows and arrows is a new feature for Zelda fans, but you get used to it pretty quick. Don’t use your best weapons on lower-level enemies for the obvious reason that you’ll damage it before you really need it. And BotW encourages creative thinking – there’s usually more than one way to skin a cat, or Bokoblin.
Ideally you want to hang onto a hammer, a blade, a torch and a Korok leaf (which helps you create wind), leaving you with some room in your inventory for back-ups.
3. Learn how to cook.
Cooking is an essential feature of BotW, but the game has no tutorials whatsoever. It sounds incredibly basic, but one thing I learnt by trial-and-error (and a real frustrating time) was that simply standing in front of a fire won’t bring up the ‘cook’ option – you need to be physically holding the items first.
Other tips from across the web include cooking meat with salt (for extra heart refills), cooking plenty of the same item together (the more you’ve got, the more valuable the overall product is), and never, ever mix side effects. They cancel one another out, so you can’t eat items for heat resistance and stealth at the same time.
4. Don’t forget each shrine’s extra chest.
The game will nudge you towards the shrines, which when completed gives you an orb that you can later trade for extra hearts and stamina. But most (all?) shrines also contain a chest with some kind of valuable – absolutely worth your time exploring the shrines fully.
A few tips to get you started: surfaces are slippery in wet weather. You can’t climb up an overhang. You will absolutely run out of stamina on the longer climbs (unless you eat a stamina-recovering piece of food) and you will fall and probably die. Most cliff faces will have a few ‘resting points’ to recover your stamina – find the flat and aim for it. Jumping up a cliff is faster but not stamina-efficient, so save this action for the shorter climbs.
6. Always aim high.
It’s 1000x easier to get the lay-of-the-land from higher ground. Your first port of call when entering a new area should be the tower, which will load your Sheikah Slate up with the corresponding map. Pay attention to the topography lines if you’re figuring out how to get from A to B, and remember that some enemies can be avoided by climbing along high ground.
7. You can pay extra at the inns for temporary bonus hearts.
