4 Tips to Help You Survive in ‘Zelda: Breath of the Wild’

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is easily Link’s biggest adventure to date, filled with hundreds of people to talk to, just as many enemies to deal with, a handful of epic boss encounters to defeat, and what feels like thousands of puzzles to solve. As you might expect from a Legend of Zelda experience, you’ll have to locate and overcome each of these challenges to successfully defeat Calamity Ganon and unlock Breath of the Wild’s biggest secrets. But thanks to the game’s new open-world formula, things are a little different and more intimidating this time around.

For the first time in the Zelda series, the entire cast of characters have been laid out in a story that branches across the whole kingdom of Hyrule with an in-game map comparable in size to RPG’s like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Now, it’s your job to venture through the landscape and uncover the best way to defeat Ganon. With an entire physics system, weapons arsenal, and interwoven set of mechanics for you to learn however, there’s a few things you should know about Breath of the Wild.

So, whether you’re a seasoned veteran attempting a second playthrough or a newcomer looking for a few handy strategies to give you a leg up during your journey to save the kingdom, here are a few tips and tricks to help you along the way.

Memorize Your Recipes

In Breath of the Wild, cooking is your best friend when it comes to preparing for a challenging encounter or navigating a hostile environment. While roaming around Hyrule, you’ll come across dozens of ingredients which can be used to cook hundreds of different meals, but the trick with each one is to remember what combination you used so that you can make it against should the need arise. Since Breath of the Wild doesn’t have a recipe book for you to flip through, you should always thumb over completed meals and use the Nintendo Switch’s screenshot feature to snap a photo for later use.

Sneak Around Your Enemies

Even though Link is a very capable fighter regardless of the weapon he uses to battle his opponents, he’s also relatively good at sneaking around them, provided you equip him with the proper armor and food buffs to do so. Just about every enemy you’ll find in Breath of the Wild is susceptible to a sneak attack, which is performed on an unsuspecting enemy while crouched down. Always take advantage of this powerful move whenever you can do so, and be sure to keep in mind that it’s most effective during the night when enemies are asleep. Or, feel free to sneak around enemy positions altogether, which allows you to preserve your weapon durability for bigger foes and bosses.

Build Yourself a House

Once you’ve completed the first few main quests present in Breath of the Wild, you wind up in Hateno Village, where you’ll have the opportunity to purchase and build yourself a personal home you can use to store many of your valuables. Instead of proceeded straight up to the research lab, head off towards the first path on your right once you enter the village. Here, you’ll find a construction crew with a questline for obtaining the house. While it isn’t as functional as personal homes in say, Skyrim, it allows you to store valuable weapons on the wall for later and you can sleep for free — both of which are well worth the investment. Plus, you’ll meet Bolson, who’s easily one of the best NPCs in Breath of the Wild so far.

Use Any Zelda Amiibos from Your Collection

While many of Nintendo’s amiibo-capable video games don’t offer any meaningful benefits when using the small collectible figures with them on a regular basis, Breath of the Wild has a gigantic list of items you can earn from activating your amiibos in-game once per day. The rewards range from powerful weapons, armor, and equipment to the legendary horse Epona, and all spawn in-game instantly once you’ve activated the amiibo on your Nintendo Switch. The catch is that you won’t always get worthwhile rewards, but thankfully, each amiibo will always provide you with a hefty amount of cooking supplies or ammunition when used.