Outsmart Your Enemies With These Breath of the Wild Tips and Tricks

Breath of the Wild is the newest addition to the Zelda series and one of the biggest yet. The map is massive compared to other Zelda installments and is filled with things to do. There isn’t an in-depth tutorial in game that sets you up for what’s to come, and within minutes you are thrown into the ruined land of Hyrule to explore on your own. Don’t panic: here are 50 tips and tricks that will help you along the way.

Complete all the Divine Beasts

While it’s tempting to go straight to Hyrule Castle and battle the Calamity Ganon, it’s wise to complete all the Divine Beasts first. Not only do you get special abilities after completing the Divine Beasts, but when you finally do face Ganon, the Beasts take down a significant amount of Ganon’s health.

Divine Beast Vaah Ruta

There’s really no order in which to complete the Divine Beasts but conquering Divine Beast Vah Ruta would be a good place to start. This is the Zora dungeon, and upon completing it, you will receive Mipha’s Grace. This ability will give you full health if you were to lose all your hearts, which is a good ability to have early in the game.

Get the Master Sword before you fight Calamity Ganon

While the Master Sword isn’t the strongest weapon in the game, it helps in fighting Ganon as the sword lights up in the face of evil and becomes more powerful.

Use your shield to damage Guardians

At first, Guardians are terrifying: the music and tempo change suddenly and then you’re being ran down by an Octorok with six legs. An easy and quick way to kill Guardians is by parrying its laser with your shield. Lock onto the Guardian and wait for it to build up its laser, right as the laser flashes, hit A to parry.

Parry a Guardian’s laser to deal some damage

Cut off the Guardians legs

If you can’t get the timing right for the parry, another easier way to kill a Guardian is by hacking at its legs until they break off. If you can manage to break each leg, the Guardian will have significant damage done and be immobile, which makes it easier to attack.

Use Ancient Arrows

If you’ve got the Ancient Arrows, all it takes is one shot to a Guardians eye and it’s done. You can pick up Ancient Arrows in Akkala at Robbie’s lab. You will need Ancient parts for him to craft them, however.

Use Flurry Rush

The Flurry Rush allows Link to deliver multiple strikes on enemies while time slows down. To do this, lock onto an enemy and wait for them to attack you. At the last minute, use the analog stick to dodge in a certain direction and press X at the same time. If your timing is right, time will slow down and you’ll be prompted to hit Y.

Aim for enemies’ heads

While using a bow, aim for enemies’ heads as this will do more damage.

Use the high ground to your advantage

Jumping or falling from higher ground will allow for Link to do a powerful strike on enemies. Alternatively, pulling out the bow will slow down time. So, Obi-Wan your enemies and have the high ground.

Being sneaky in combat does extra damage

Crouching down or hiding in tall grass will make it harder for Link to be spotted by enemies. Sneaking up on enemies unnoticed will allow Link to perform a sneak strike, which will instantly kill low-level enemies and do a good amount of damage to higher-level ones. It also does damage to nearby enemies.

Do a Sneakstrike for some extra damage

Use Magnesis in combat

If you’re in combat and happen to be struggling, look around: chances are there’s a metal box or ball that you can pick up with your Magnesis rune and use as a weapon.

Use the Paraglider to attack camps from above

Jumping or falling allows you to deliver more damage, but sometimes you don’t always have the high ground. If you spot a camp, try climbing somewhere high and use your Paraglider to fly over the camp to attack from above.

Use the elements to your advantage

If you’re fighting an enemy of fire, use an ice arrow (and vice versa) to do significant damage.

Use your weaker weapons first

When fighting a low-level enemy, there’s no reason to use a weapon that deals high damage if you have a weapon that deals less damage: it’s easier to take down a lower-level enemy with a weaker weapon than it would be taking down a high-level enemy.

Stronger weapons

If you’re looking for stronger weapons, Hyrule Castle seems to be the best place to loot. While it is one of the toughest dungeons in Hyrule, it’s worth it to sneak in and grab some high-level weapons and then get out.

Use lightning to your advantage

The weather in Breath of the Wild is impressive but can also cause you some trouble. If you find yourself in a storm, it’s best to unequip any metal armor, weapons, and shields as you can attract lightening. You can use this deadly weapon Mother Nature gave you to do some damage on your enemies simply by dropping a weapon or shield on the ground during a storm near your target. Of course, wait right before the lightning strikes to hightail it out of there.

Easily defeat Stone Talus

These monsters are giant rock creatures that resemble a cluster of rocks until you’re right up on them, and then they gather together to form the beast. You can shoot arrows at the big hunk of purple rock usually located somewhere on its head (that is its weak spot), or you can simply run up on the creature and climb up onto its head and deliver devasting blows with your sword to the weak point. This takes less time than trying to hit the rock with an arrow.

Climb up on the Stone Talus to strike its weak spot with your sword

Make sure your weapon inventory is fully stocked

One frustrating thing about Breath of the Wild is how easily your weapons break. There’s nothing like fighting an enemy and your weapon breaks, and all you have left in your weapons inventory is a tree branch you picked up a while ago. Weapons are easy to come by, so make sure your inventory is stocked.

Upgrade your inventory compacity

While you find Korok seeds, turn them into Hestu as soon as possible to keep upgrading your weapons inventory. There’s nothing like having to take the time to swap weapons around because you don’t have enough room.

Find the Great Fairies

Fairies play a role in almost all the Zelda games, usually to aid Link in his quest. In Breath of the Wild, the fairies can upgrade your armor for you, raising your defense. There are four Great Fairies in this land of Hyrule, but be warned, each fairy will request that you give her a great sum of rupees before she will upgrade anything for you.

Upgrade your clothes

It really helps to upgrade your clothes at the Great Fairy Fountains. Your defense can be raised significantly, which makes battling your way across Hyrule easier.

Don’t sell all your items

It may be tempting to sell all those items you’ve found to get that extra rupee, but it is worth holding onto some of them. You need a lot of items found throughout Hyrule to upgrade your clothes and you can also use gems and materials you find to make jewelry in Gerudo Town (such as the diamond circlet that helps protect you from Guardians).

Don’t sell all the monster parts you pick up

If you have an overabundance of monster parts and have enough potions, don’t go selling them all to just any merchant. Instead, unlock Kilton, a special merchant who trades monster parts for a special currency that you can then use to buy special gear from him.

Kilton has special gear that you can buy 

Be on the lookout for the most valuable ingredients

One big thing about Breath of the Wild is the cooking. You must cook recipes to gain hearts or to momentarily add hearts to your life meter. Cooking different recipes have different effects on Link, but to gain the most out of your recipes, look for Hearty ingredients, such as Hearty truffles, fruits and vegetables, fish, etc. They can be found throughout Hyrule.

Hearty ingredients adds temporary hearts to Link’s heart meter

Gaining Boosts

Cooking with certain ingredients will give you different boots. These range from keeping you cold in hot climates or vice versa, give you more stamina, make you shock resistance, or build your stealth. When you get ingredients that can be used to obtain these boosts, they will have an indicator to let you know.

Use elixirs

Making and drinking elixirs gives you boots and buffs. If your heading into a cold climate but don’t have any warm clothes, you can drink a ‘spicy’ elixir to keep Link warm.

Use elixirs to help you along your journey

Spot Shrines easily

One way to spot Shrines is to wait until it is dark and climb somewhere high; shrines in which you have not completed will glow orange, and you will be able to easily spot them in the night.

Hidden Treasure Chests

There are a lot of hidden treasure chests in river beds and at the bottom of ponds and lakes. An easy way to spot them would be to use the Magnesis Rune. Anything metallic that can be picked up by Magnesis will be highlighted in pink; this makes it easy to spot treasure chests in water.

Use your Sheikah Slate to find items

If you take a picture of an item and it is registered in the Hyrule Compendium, you can set the Sheikah Slate to detect the item when you’re close to it. It works the same as the shrine sensor.

Making climbing easier

Apart from drinking a stamina potion or eating something that boosts your climbing ability, finding the climbing gear outfit will allow you to climb faster. They are hidden in shrines and with all the pieces worn together, it raises your ability to climb quicker significantly.

Hylian Shield

The Hylian Shield is the iconic shield that Link wields in Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and A Link Between Worlds (and Skyward Sword if you beat the challenge). This shield can be found in Hyrule and is one of the most durable shields Link can have. It is in Hyrule Castle’s Lockup, which is located in the southwest corner of the castle.

The Hylian Shield can be found in Hyrule Castle’s Lockup

Pay attention to your surroundings

While there is a lot going on in Hyrule, be on the lookout for anything that just doesn’t fit in. If there is a random giant hole in the ground, maybe look and see if there is a boulder you can roll down into it; you may be rewarded.

Use your shield to quickly get down hills

You can surf on your shield, which is pretty great. To shield surf, press ZL to raise your shield and then jump and press A while near a slope. This allows Link to shield surf, which cuts your time in half while making your way down a hill (and it’s also just fun).

Find shooting stars

At night in Hyrule you may see something flashing across the sky. This is a shooting star that you can track to receive a star fragment that can later be used to upgrade clothes or sold for rupees.

Pay attention to the weather

The weather changes in Breath of the Wild frequently, and different bugs and animals come out during certain weather changes.

Smash crates

Use bigger weapons to smash open crates to get items and even weapons; try not to use bombs, as they obliterate everything and send it flying in every direction.

Turn ChuChu Jelly into whatever jelly you want

If you are in need of the White ChuChu Jelly, you can simply shoot a blue ChuChu with an ice arrow. You can do this with fire and shock arrows to get whatever ChuChu jelly you need.

Bust open ore deposits

Smashing these purple rocks will drop ore. You can sell these to make some quick rupees and also use these to make jewelry.

Look out for side quests

When you’re at a stable or in a village, try talking to the habitants there as sometimes they will ask you to do them a favor and will reward you.

Fishing

While there isn’t a fishing pole and a boat, you can still catch fish in Breath of the Wild. The easiest way to fish is by spotting a school of fish and throwing a bomb in the middle and detonating it.

You can buy a house

You are given the opportunity to buy a house in this Zelda game. It’s located in Hateno Village, east of the entrance and across the bridge. You need to talk to the man wearing pink pants (yes, pink pants) to buy the house. You can furnish it and decorate it with your weapons and shields, just talk to the pink-pants-wearing-man to purchase the furniture and wall mounts. The main thing about the house is it gives you a free place to sleep to replenish your hearts.

Turn off the HUD

This will turn off the map and the temperature gage. This makes the game all the more immersive and takes adventuring to the next level.

Pass time at Stables and camps

You can pass the time around the fire at stables or make a fire of your own using wood. This lets you pass time quickly, so you don’t have to run in circles waiting for a specific time of day.

Set things on fire in the rain

The physics engine in Breath of the Wild is incredible, but sometimes can be a pain: when it rains it limits what Link can do. You can’t set fires in the rain as naturally the rain would put out the fire. But, if you’re just itching to catch enemies on fire or just want to, you know, burn down a forest, you can use fire ChuChu Jelly. Just drop it on the ground and watch it go.

Be wary of strangers

The Yiga Clan have it out for Link, and they disguise themselves as regular people to get you to talk to them and then they attack you. So, if you see someone standing next to the road or in the middle of nowhere, it’s more than likely a Yiga Clan member and it’s best to just avoid them altogether.

Change the color of your clothes

Breath of the Wild allows players’ a little more freedom when it comes to how Link looks. You can change the color of your armor anywhere from yellows to purples and black. You need to head over to Hateno Village and visit the Kochi Dye Shop. The only thing you cannot dye is the Champions tunic!

You can use those Octorok balloons

 You know the weird purple things Octorok’s leave behind? You can attach them to whatever you’d like to make the object float. Sure, you can sell them or cook with them, but there’s no fun in that. Attaching the balloons to objects can help solve puzzles, or better yet, you can attach them to a raft floating somewhere in Hyrule to create an airship. Yeah, that’s right, an airship.

Shoot the little blue rabbit

If you’re in a wooded area around Hyrule, there’s a chance you might see a glowing blue creature that resembles a rabbit, known as “Blupee”. If you happen to see it, keep your distance and crouch to make yourself less noticeable as it does scare easily. Take out your bow and aim for the little feller because hitting it causes it to drop rupees.

Hit the Blupee for some extra rupees

Feed your horse

If you’ve just found a new horse, try feeding it some food to raise its affection towards you so that it’s easier to control.

Feed the dogs

If you’re at a stable and come across a dog, give it some food and sometimes they will lead you to something useful.

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