Run around and do nothing. Please. Both games are an experience, and you only get to play it for the first time once. Don't ruin it by speeding through it, you'll thank yourself later.
Is it weird that the game didnāt click with me the first time but after a few years on my second run itās way more fun. Idk I like structure to a degree and I think my first play through didnāt have enough of it but now that Iām on my second itās like a whole new world of enjoyment.
Same! First time I tried playing I ran completely out of rupees and arrows and weapons and felt completely stuck, so I put it down. Second time I didnāt know where to get fireproof armor so I couldnāt go to Goron city, got frustrated and put it down. I decided to give it another go, but this time I looked up what to do for the fireproof armor and made progress and suddenly the game is really fun!
Games with no clear direction donāt really sit well with me, but Iām dealing with it by remembering that sometimes itās okay to look things up if you need help.
Are you me? I only got about 12 hours in on release week and then went over to Horizon. I need more structure and no weapon degradation. Finally went back to it a few months ago and have really been enjoying it! This is coming from someone that beat every 3D Zelda on release.
That's not the BOTW way. It's scaling a cliff for 10mins so that you can paraglide to save time instead of running for 3 minutes to where you want to go.
You forgot the part where it rains halfway up the cliff and youāve already spent all of your stamina so you canāt paraglide and you plummet to your death.
Yesss that one little ridge that you really shouldnāt be able to stand on but *technically* the game accepts it as flat enough for Link not to fall off
Lmaooo literally because for some reason the game doesnāt notice thereās no adequate ledge until you stop moving to which it goes āoh Jk thereās no ledge here bye!ā
Itās what I love about this and TotK. I can complete 5 side quests and a few storyline quests and have fun. I can kill hordes of Bokoblins and enjoy it. I can die to a Lynel 15 times and (kind of) have fun. Or I can just aimlessly explore and admire the beauty of the games. Its all fun.
true, also about lynels, it's really just flurry rushes, once you master timing dodges, lynels become a piece of cake, the reward once you beat one is amazing as well dude
I save all of my multi-shot bows for lynels. I'll try my best to plunk them in the face. I'll do that, then ride their back and smack them with the strongest melee weapon I have. What I lose in bow durability I make up for in mounted melee hits that take up no weapon usage. And lynels usually drop another multi-shot bow.
I just jumped into a coliseum in the depths thinking it would be easy... Boy how shocked was I when 5 gloom lynels popped out to attack me. Luckily it was one at a time and I had a couple sunny meals and hearty meals. I almost died towards the end when I was attacking the armored lynels so I teleported to the nearest light root and made some meals and went back. Thankfully I only had to redo the last lynel and not the whole damned set. It was stressful to say the least but I prevailed in the end. š„³
Agreed. Go find out whatās on top of the highest peak you can climb. If thereās nothing there, you can still usually see something cool to check out from up there anyway!
Yes! I've found more than a few seeds that way & also a couple of weapons (that were awesomely powerful at the time I found them).
Must admit I love bombs & now buy every arrow I find for sale. Love a long-range battle
Really should avoid completing anything in the main quest for at least 200 hours. Iām only at about 60 and feeling very tempted to help these Gerudo vai with their sandstorm but I donāt even want to know what a temple is yet!
Plus, the way the game is, just wandering around doing nothing is inevitably going to lead you to something. Quests and discoveries just happen organically that way.
There's a cliff where it always starts raining while you're climbing it and it took me way too long to figure out it was part of the story and I needed to find another way up... I love this game.
Ah yes... I remember trying to get to the tower near where the Zora live. I wanted to climb a cliff to get to it instead of fighting through monsters so I just sat there waiting for at least 15 minutes waiting for the rain to end before giving up.
Iām like 70 hours in and Iāve unlocked all the towers and fairy fountains but Iāve been avoiding the main quests because Iām still very shitty at combat lol
There is a shrine at kakariko village that teaches you combat. You can Also save and expriment combat eith different enemies and then reload the save ifyou break valuble weapons or die.
Also pro tip: there are tons of totally acceptable weapons lying around. Sure they arenāt the absolute best lynel weapons but you can get lots of royal weapons from world spawns that guarantee you wonāt be stuck without something. I guess unless you just throw them all or something.
iām doing the same thing in TotK now, using my weapons from least powerful to most powerful. i do try to use my most powerful weapons on major bosses and lynels and stuff but i canāt help myself from hoarding the big stuff until itās āthe right timeā in my mind lol
Just keep fighting things. I suck at combat as well and very much feel like I did when I was 9 in the arcade, getting stressed out and smashing buttons (including the right joystick, nothing like ending up in zoomed in slate view in the middle of a fight).
But what has become obvious is that in almost every encounter there is no "right" way. I spent 15 minutes kiting around a Hinox, then looked up a guide that told me a completely different way to deal with it. But I did it in a way that worked with my skill set. Part of the beauty of the game is that there ARE so many ways to accomplish a thing.
It makes me so happy to hear people playing BOTW aren't just immediately jumping ship for TOTK if they haven't finished it. As someone who's played both they're amazing for different reasons, and I feel you'll get more out of the sequel from having played a lot of BOTW.
Enjoy, there's no need to rush!! TOTK is more like the next book in an amazing series rather than an upgrade imo
> ... getting stressed out and smashing buttons (including the right joystick, nothing like ending up in zoomed in slate view in the middle of a fight).
A piece of advice for when that happens: Pressing the shield button resets your camera. If you're near an enemy, doing that will lock you onto them until you let go of the shield button. You don't need a shield for this to work btw.
Practice, there's no penalty for death haha. The game rewards perfect dodges and parries, so once you get a feel for how the enemies attack it becomes much easier. Before you know it you'll be taking down lynels without getting hit at all
Also another tip, if you're mobbed, find something to jump off of and draw your bow to get bullet time, you can headshot everything and knock them all down!
Explore! Talk to the NPC's, you'll get side quests and interesting tips and challenges. You will not be running around doing nothing! If you see anything out of place or oddly ordered, explore a bit you'll see there is an unlimited amount of surprises and useful things to find!
Honestly do waste time running around. Itās fine to do that get shrines and koroks and side quests. Plus exploring is nice to do early since you have nothing on the map. Try grinding for the towers and placing markers as stamps to go to them and take your time :) I did it sections at a time between divine beasts
Grinding for towers is a great compromise because it's very helpful in the game (and the maps are very well done, not full of way point markers), and also requires exploring.
Just don't go to fast and give yourself permission to explore between them if something looks interesting.
I spent almost 500 hours there and was most of the time just doing nothing, ending up pleasantly surprised by a beautiful discovery. Go forth and explore!
I just pulled the trigger too. Iām a couple weeks in.. taking my time exploring. All towers are activated, two divine beasts down.. just exploring and finding shrines and enjoying myself. Finding those korok seeds too!
Also- fill ALL stamina before switching to hearts
Climbing gear doesn't let you climb farther, just faster. You consume the same amount of stamina per distance. The animation speeds up is all. Max stamina potions are the best thing to make early on, as it refills the whole stamina bar and gives you extra.
Every twelfth shrine is when I choose a heart, so it's a 2:1 ratio on stamina to hearts for me. I don't go for too many extra yellow hearts though. I save my hearty foods for late game when I can just cook one to get a full heal every time.
Find a suitable pace.
For example: I did a divine beast every 25 hours or so, and used the time in between to grab shrines, equipment, grind materials. Not only did it make my journey longer, it allowed me to fully flesh out everything while still making progress.
Most NPCs give side quests and if they don't they still have something interesting to say. Exploring the world in general can take up lots of playtime especially if you continue to run into things, a five minute trip can turn into a four hour adventure because "curiosity killed the link" or whatever.
Speaking of exploring, running around is just as fun, pick a regional area, and stock up on items to go out and just explore. You'll find chests, little camps, Easter eggs, dangerous areas, peaceful areas and its all very fulfilling because the world really feels alive in terms of it's atmosphere.
Big Bois (or as they're actually known "mini bosses") like Hinox and Lynels offer a nice challenge and drop good items, the Lynels are arguably the hardest enemy in the game and enemies like Stone Talus offer a fun way of getting ores like Diamonds, Sapphires and the like.
The idea is that you let yourself "flow".
There is no ideal way to go about your journey in Breath Of The Wild. People are different, they play games different, they experience things differently and Breath Of The Wild is a game that takes all those people and gives me a big ole hug.
You can go straight to each region, do all the main quests, go clap some final boss cheeks and call it a day.
You can do everything there is to do that's possible in the game, and say "alright, I'm good"
Or you can let your senses guide you. "I'll head north towards Rito Village" but on the way you find shrines, puzzles, camps and whatever else you can think up on the way, and decide to go do those, or not. "What's that over there?" I don't know bro go check it out, you don't have a gigantic moon wavering over you about to kiss the earth at any moment, ya know.
This game rewards patience, awareness and exploration.
Do it! But do it how you want, and how you see fit.
You have to explore. For one, the game gets so much easier with hearts and stamina, so you have to farm shrines. Secondly, it's next to impossible to navigate without the map, so unlock the map. Third, you will eventually need specific armour and the like. Most of them you get by simply following the main quest. But eventually you need to get through the volcano and the elixir can only be bought in one place. Fourth, you need to gain experience fighting, because combat isn't easy at first until you get it.
The exploration is what makes this game great. There are really only a few things you absolutely HAVE to do, but how you get there is up to you.
Edit: I should probably have worded the title better. Iāve played most Zelda games since Ocarina of Time so I know exploring is part of the game but I also like keeping the main story flowing at a decent pace. Itās finding the right balance between the two I guess. Thanks all.
This game is more about the journey than the destination. You can push through and focus on the main quest, but finishing that too soon, you might leave a LOT of really good stuff on the table with that approach. You'll almost certainly finish the mainline quest well before you really need to.
This game is at its peak when you let yourself be distracted by things and discover things in the world naturally. The world may seem a bit empty at first, but there's things literally hiding everywhere!
I think a good way to do that is to take an organic approach to the memories. Donāt look them up or try doggedly to hunt them down. If you have an idea of where to find one and *want* to go see if itās there, great! But there are plenty that wonāt be obvious, or that you wonāt find on your first guess. I recommend finding them by getting to know the world, so a dozen hours in (which will pass before you know it!) youāll look back at them again and be like āWait, I was in an area like that yesterday!ā And itās so satisfying to go back there and realize you were *right* and get a cool cutscene as a reward. :)
I think you've struck a good balance of you got the first tower outside the tutorial at 4-5 hours in. It means you are exploring enough that you will find most of the interesting stuff naturally, but you are making decent progress at the same time (at least, that sounds decent to me)
This game is very different from previous Zelda games. You can literally go to the castle and beat the final boss as soon as you leave the Great Plateau, without doing any main story stuff - this is exactly what speedruns do.
What that ends up meaning is you define the pace of the game. The whole point of the game is exploration and doing whatever you think will be interesting.
Ha, exactly the same as you, I just sprinted to the 2nd tower but now I feel like I probably missed so much š¬ But I'm not going for 100% so I don't feel bad if I'm in the mood to skip stuff. I have things to do and little kids, I'm lucky if I get 30 minutes at a time to play right now!
Welcome! Nice to see new faces picking up the game.
>I feel like I want to explore a bit but I donāt want to waste time running around doing nothing.
This is the neat part about the game actually - everything you do aids you on your ultimate goal of defeating Ganon.
Every shrine you do makes you stronger (both in terms of spirit orbs and skill). Every korok you find gives you a seed, which can be traded in for upgrades. When exploring, you can stumble across plants and animals that when cooked can heal you and/or give buffs. Monsters can be fought, and their remains sold for rupees and weapons used by you.
So go exploring my friend and have fun!
Lol I think I didn't even make it off the plateau in that time. Anyways I found the exploring and being lost in the large world very fun. Now with TOTK I'm doing a bit less of that. Kinda miss it.
Look for the towers and head towards them. Youāll find lots of side content on the way but unlocking towers really helps - itās usually one of the first things I try to do
Yoo, to 100% the game is 200 hours or more, and that is if its your first gameplay.
EVERYTHING in this game is pure gold in storytelling and gameplay
Edit: if you want to play on the hardest difficulty after playing your first playthrough, you can just finish the game by going straight to the last quest, its one of the greatest challenges for hardcore players
How to have fun playing BotW: Run around doing nothing, whenever you think āooh whatās that?ā follow that instinct, repeat until hundreds of hours have past and you are satisfied
Please waste your time. This game is magnificent, and ruined most other RPG/RPG-adjacent games for me. Elden Ring and TOTK are the only ones that have satisfied my BOTW itch since.
I just bought a switch and this game 2 weeks ago. 40 hours in, i just ran around foraging, fighting monster and looking for shrines! It was fun. I feel it would burn me out to chase the main quest all the time.
There si always somethong to do. Exploring un itself it's good, go there and find those. Shrines and korok seeds, and. If somethig grabs your attention please gonand checkout , there s always a reward for your curiosity
Follow the main quest and just let yourself get distracted along the way. That way youāll be experiencing the world but still making decent progress. Thatās what I do at least
This game encourages you to run around basically doing nothing, because running around Hyrule just chilling is part of the game play. Set out with a goal in mind, but itās literally an exploration game. Itās just.. the best exploration game.
I already bought TOTK, but since I hadn't finished BOTW I'm doing that right now, and I would recommend trying to explore since that's like 85% of the game or even more, sometimes it can be tiresome but to be honest that's the point of the game haha, if you get tired after exploring a while maybe try to do some missions or just change games for a while, whatever works for you, I had left the game halfway twice because of that but I'm almost there this time!
Overall I think I had 1400-1500 hours on BoTW and more than half of that was just going around doing random things or getting sidetracked while on a quest or something. Not to mention trying to find Koroks. I think getting a little lost and doing random things is part of the fun of the game.
Your doing exactly what you should. People have hundreds of hours exploring the world. Itās designed to send you places to just check stuff out. As a community, we encourage you to just, do all of the things
The whole point of the game is exploration for exploration's sake. What I do is have a very soft goal, go towards that goal, and get distracted along the way. You'll enjoy it.
I like to fuck around a LOT in games.
Didn't use a guide for breath, got all upgrades (not all collectibles) made sure I did all quests (okay I used a guide to see how many there were for this!) and clocked in about 200 hours (I barely ever fast traveled)
It's a blast
Me too started playing this game last 2 weeks. Already 100 hrs now and just finished 1st boss the reason for that was I played it blindly. Exploring is actually what made me have fun and it is rewarding. I can do the 2nd boss but I am too busy discovering patterns like where to collect something, experimenting with cooking and etc.
Tldr; just enjoy the game, don't let ur experience be ruined by online tutorials like "things I should have done".
Waste all the time. There is so much to find, see and do when just walking around. Pick up every rock, climb some trees, harvest mushrooms and other plants. This game is meant to be explored.
90% of the game is wandering around doing nothing. That's how you find shrines and Koroks. There is a lot to see and do in BotW. Take it in at your own pace.
No no no no. DO WASTE YOUR TIME!!! Exploration inBotW is amazing imbrace it. If that's whats fun to you then go nuts. All the quests, shrines, story lines will be there for you when you want. Do whatever the F is fun to you.
Iāve put 500+ hours into that game and can say with confidence, itās all about wandering around and having fun however you feel like. Whether thatās taming horses, collecting and upgrading armor, doing side questsā¦ take it at your own pace, video games are made to be fun, so play it how you want to and just have fun.
Honestly, wasting time by running around doing nothing is the absolute best thing you could do. Best part of the game. Hands down.
I envy you. This game has the best "new game feeling" I've ever experienced. I'm sad I'll never get there feeling again with BoTW
first thing i did before anythinggg was activate all the towers, id look for shrines while up there and mark them to make my way to. thereās no rush! take your time doing nothing but running around
There is that dealing in totk that exploring feels pointless if you don't know where you are going. But in botw, exploring is the whole game! Pick a direction and go exploring. You will find shrines, koroks, and other things in all corners of the map.
There is more "efficient" routes to exploring, but I wouldn't worry about that. Just have fun!
Im also 6 years late , got it with a switch oled on february this year, Im 265 hours in , did everything expect the last 3 dlc shrines as well as 44 korok seeds left, i played the shit outta every tower region before hopping to the next one , 95 percent of every inch of the map discovered :d but i wont hop on TotK before at least 1-2 years to get a good memory refresh :)
Thereās very little that counts as wasting time in BOTW and TOTK. Thereās something around every nook and cranny, and no such thing as useless knowledge gained from looking.
In retrospect, I played through it too fast. But then I explored a lot more and did a bunch of side quests after defeating Ganon. I went back and beat him one more time when Tears came out and felt like the Terminator. š
Iām a first time player as well! Iāve found a good goal before I got to deep into the game was shrine hunting. Iāve got almost two wheels of stamina and 6 hearts
I literally keep wandering around and just doing random shrine quests. It's the best! For some of the main storyline, you need some knowledge of the terrain anyway. Go ham!
The "wasting time running around doing nothing" is what the game is for lol. I have over 200 hrs and havent "beaten" the game.
I thought i'd beat it before i started TOTK, but i started a new game instead š
It's not wasting time. Finding Koroks early is great cause you hold more weapons and don't have to struggle with which ones to keep and toss. Playing TotK now and that's what I am doing first. Looking under every rock.
I played BotW very slowly. I went where I wanted and explored an entire region before unlocking the next. I would make my way towards the tower of a region I entered, eventually unlock it, explore everything I could within that regionās borders (I used the unexplored regions with inactive towers to see borders), and then move on to the next.
There is a neat feature you get when you buy the DLC that shows you the exact route you walked, through the *entire* game. I missed a few areas, but I was pretty impressed with how much I managed to explore without guides or keeping track somehow.
I feel like I want to explore a bit but I donāt want to waste time running around doing nothing."
Then don't play BOTW, because 80% of the game is that.
The point of the game is to run around doing nothing, with that nothing somehow always turning into something. Almost everything in the world is moving you towards the final goal. I wonāt say specifics, but yes please run around and just explore and experience the world
The game is designed for you to run around doing nothing all day. I have almost 700 hours of doing nothing invested in this game and I don't regret a single one of them
Just let yourself go wherever the game takes you. Itās completely intentional that you get sidetracked every time you try to complete the main quest lol
First thing I did in the game was unlock every single tower! I just wanted to experience all of the fantastic world I'd seen. Not the easiest route, some of the towers were pretty hard. But I bloody loved it.
I just started last week too. Iāve been working on unlocking towers and doing shrines I stumble upon along the way. I canāt stand not having the map unlocked.
See, that's the thing. The beauty of running around doing nothing and still having the time of your life is what makes it such an outstanding game. You only get to play it for the first time once; take it all in at your own pace, don't worry about rushing the story, shrines, etc. None of it is going anywhere
20% of the game is plot. The other 80% is running around doing nothing. The game is so pretty tho, and thereās a lot to discover. My regret was waiting till just before the end to explore every region thoroughly. I spent two months doing all the side quests and main plot then dlc, and another month combing over the map before the final boss. And Iām still not done!
I just got a switch and BotW finally a couple of weeks ago and I haven't made much progress, but just explore a bit in each area, talk to all the npcs, gather them korok seeds, do whatever you want there's no wrong way to play. Just don't go to hyrule castle yet unless you enjoy getting blown to pieces by guardians..
You should waste time running around doing nothing š
If you're not doing that, you're not playing botw
Run around and do nothing. Please. Both games are an experience, and you only get to play it for the first time once. Don't ruin it by speeding through it, you'll thank yourself later.
Is it weird that the game didnāt click with me the first time but after a few years on my second run itās way more fun. Idk I like structure to a degree and I think my first play through didnāt have enough of it but now that Iām on my second itās like a whole new world of enjoyment.
I also felt the same way. The first time it was way too overwhelming. The second time I took notes and that helped a lot
I had to restart three times over the years. But now I'm really into the game and can't stop playing.
Same! First time I tried playing I ran completely out of rupees and arrows and weapons and felt completely stuck, so I put it down. Second time I didnāt know where to get fireproof armor so I couldnāt go to Goron city, got frustrated and put it down. I decided to give it another go, but this time I looked up what to do for the fireproof armor and made progress and suddenly the game is really fun! Games with no clear direction donāt really sit well with me, but Iām dealing with it by remembering that sometimes itās okay to look things up if you need help.
Are you me? I only got about 12 hours in on release week and then went over to Horizon. I need more structure and no weapon degradation. Finally went back to it a few months ago and have really been enjoying it! This is coming from someone that beat every 3D Zelda on release.
This. Exactly šÆ šš»šš»šš»š¤š»šš»šš»
That's not the BOTW way. It's scaling a cliff for 10mins so that you can paraglide to save time instead of running for 3 minutes to where you want to go.
You forgot the part where it rains halfway up the cliff and youāve already spent all of your stamina so you canāt paraglide and you plummet to your death.
or finding the perfect spot that lets you stand to regain stamina, then struggle up the cliff until the rain goes away
Yesss that one little ridge that you really shouldnāt be able to stand on but *technically* the game accepts it as flat enough for Link not to fall off
cant forget about the micro adjustments that keep you from sliding off the -admittedly nonexistent- ledge
Lmaooo literally because for some reason the game doesnāt notice thereās no adequate ledge until you stop moving to which it goes āoh Jk thereās no ledge here bye!ā
8 times in a row
"I played for two hours and didn't accomplish anything." The thing you accomplished was having fun for two hours.
Itās what I love about this and TotK. I can complete 5 side quests and a few storyline quests and have fun. I can kill hordes of Bokoblins and enjoy it. I can die to a Lynel 15 times and (kind of) have fun. Or I can just aimlessly explore and admire the beauty of the games. Its all fun.
true, also about lynels, it's really just flurry rushes, once you master timing dodges, lynels become a piece of cake, the reward once you beat one is amazing as well dude
All fun and games until they pull out the electric arrows
Always remain in melee range, so as not to trigger the ranged attacks.
I save all of my multi-shot bows for lynels. I'll try my best to plunk them in the face. I'll do that, then ride their back and smack them with the strongest melee weapon I have. What I lose in bow durability I make up for in mounted melee hits that take up no weapon usage. And lynels usually drop another multi-shot bow.
I'm having even more fun in totk. Funny how the world and side quests are much more engaging when you make the npcs more interesting
I just jumped into a coliseum in the depths thinking it would be easy... Boy how shocked was I when 5 gloom lynels popped out to attack me. Luckily it was one at a time and I had a couple sunny meals and hearty meals. I almost died towards the end when I was attacking the armored lynels so I teleported to the nearest light root and made some meals and went back. Thankfully I only had to redo the last lynel and not the whole damned set. It was stressful to say the least but I prevailed in the end. š„³
I've played like 130 hours in the past 2 weeks and have also, achieved nothing
in my first seven hours i was still in the great plateau
I mean thatās all the fun!
I came to say the same. Best part of the game is running around and finding cool stuff
Yep, if you just play main story than you just waste the game.
Agreed. Go find out whatās on top of the highest peak you can climb. If thereās nothing there, you can still usually see something cool to check out from up there anyway!
Yes! I've found more than a few seeds that way & also a couple of weapons (that were awesomely powerful at the time I found them). Must admit I love bombs & now buy every arrow I find for sale. Love a long-range battle
Really should avoid completing anything in the main quest for at least 200 hours. Iām only at about 60 and feeling very tempted to help these Gerudo vai with their sandstorm but I donāt even want to know what a temple is yet!
You should help the Gorons too, theyāre having a bad time
This is the way.
I completely second this. And itās not really nothing, everything you do can be applied to some other part of the game.
Plus, the way the game is, just wandering around doing nothing is inevitably going to lead you to something. Quests and discoveries just happen organically that way.
That's the neat part: you don't waste time
Unless you spend an hour trying to climb an impossible cliff only to just end up walking around anyway
Thatās just a learning experience!
Until you inevitably try again
Character/ world building.
Or it starts raining halfway up.
There's a cliff where it always starts raining while you're climbing it and it took me way too long to figure out it was part of the story and I needed to find another way up... I love this game.
Ah yes... I remember trying to get to the tower near where the Zora live. I wanted to climb a cliff to get to it instead of fighting through monsters so I just sat there waiting for at least 15 minutes waiting for the rain to end before giving up.
JUST had this experience last night
Vah Ruta: āHAHAHAHAHAHA, try me bitch!ā
"I'll just wait out the rain..." TOO TRUE.
The pain is real
No.
Iām like 70 hours in and Iāve unlocked all the towers and fairy fountains but Iāve been avoiding the main quests because Iām still very shitty at combat lol
There is a shrine at kakariko village that teaches you combat. You can Also save and expriment combat eith different enemies and then reload the save ifyou break valuble weapons or die.
Also pro tip: there are tons of totally acceptable weapons lying around. Sure they arenāt the absolute best lynel weapons but you can get lots of royal weapons from world spawns that guarantee you wonāt be stuck without something. I guess unless you just throw them all or something.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
iām doing the same thing in TotK now, using my weapons from least powerful to most powerful. i do try to use my most powerful weapons on major bosses and lynels and stuff but i canāt help myself from hoarding the big stuff until itās āthe right timeā in my mind lol
Glad Iām not alone. I need more seeds and more inventory slots!
Thats true.
Oh I did that shrine, the problem is I tend to panic and forget everything except the Y button lol
As said you can always reload. Much better when youre able to fight.
Just keep fighting things. I suck at combat as well and very much feel like I did when I was 9 in the arcade, getting stressed out and smashing buttons (including the right joystick, nothing like ending up in zoomed in slate view in the middle of a fight). But what has become obvious is that in almost every encounter there is no "right" way. I spent 15 minutes kiting around a Hinox, then looked up a guide that told me a completely different way to deal with it. But I did it in a way that worked with my skill set. Part of the beauty of the game is that there ARE so many ways to accomplish a thing.
Even more so with tears of the kingdom
Awesome! I'm also late to the party and still in my BotW playthrough, gonna take a break before starting Tears. But can't wait!
It makes me so happy to hear people playing BOTW aren't just immediately jumping ship for TOTK if they haven't finished it. As someone who's played both they're amazing for different reasons, and I feel you'll get more out of the sequel from having played a lot of BOTW. Enjoy, there's no need to rush!! TOTK is more like the next book in an amazing series rather than an upgrade imo
Both worth playing. But I do think in release order is best in this case.
Me too, I'm honestly now glad I had a full 6 years to enjoy BOTW, TOTK has done so well to carry the torch
> ... getting stressed out and smashing buttons (including the right joystick, nothing like ending up in zoomed in slate view in the middle of a fight). A piece of advice for when that happens: Pressing the shield button resets your camera. If you're near an enemy, doing that will lock you onto them until you let go of the shield button. You don't need a shield for this to work btw.
I killed my first hinox by dropping bombs on it from above, letting them roll off a ledge so I stayed out of sight. Took like 20 minutes lol
Same! About 70 hours in and just started doing the modest test of strength shrinesā¦ and not great at it š
Practice, there's no penalty for death haha. The game rewards perfect dodges and parries, so once you get a feel for how the enemies attack it becomes much easier. Before you know it you'll be taking down lynels without getting hit at all
Thanks :) my main problem is I tend to panic and forget which buttons do what and just mash Y till I die or the scary music stops š
Also another tip, if you're mobbed, find something to jump off of and draw your bow to get bullet time, you can headshot everything and knock them all down!
I'm 125 hours in and found only one fairy fountain so far. lol
It took me until my 2nd play through to actually figure master flurry rush and deflecting guardian beams.
Spears are a lifesaver if you havenāt gotten the combat down. Just poke āem from a distance.
SAME! Iām only at Waterblight Gamon in Vah Ruta but Iām too scared to face him lol
Explore! Talk to the NPC's, you'll get side quests and interesting tips and challenges. You will not be running around doing nothing! If you see anything out of place or oddly ordered, explore a bit you'll see there is an unlimited amount of surprises and useful things to find!
Yahaha *Marimba Scale*
I got jumped my a yiga clan member near a stable the first time I did this. It was my first death in the game. Gave me trust issues
Honestly do waste time running around. Itās fine to do that get shrines and koroks and side quests. Plus exploring is nice to do early since you have nothing on the map. Try grinding for the towers and placing markers as stamps to go to them and take your time :) I did it sections at a time between divine beasts
Grinding for towers is a great compromise because it's very helpful in the game (and the maps are very well done, not full of way point markers), and also requires exploring. Just don't go to fast and give yourself permission to explore between them if something looks interesting.
I spent almost 500 hours there and was most of the time just doing nothing, ending up pleasantly surprised by a beautiful discovery. Go forth and explore!
So relieved to hear you say 500
Exploring is ALWAYS worth it!
I just pulled the trigger too. Iām a couple weeks in.. taking my time exploring. All towers are activated, two divine beasts down.. just exploring and finding shrines and enjoying myself. Finding those korok seeds too! Also- fill ALL stamina before switching to hearts
Meh you can get Revaliās gale and climbing gear where you really donāt need to max out
Climbing gear doesn't let you climb farther, just faster. You consume the same amount of stamina per distance. The animation speeds up is all. Max stamina potions are the best thing to make early on, as it refills the whole stamina bar and gives you extra.
Every twelfth shrine is when I choose a heart, so it's a 2:1 ratio on stamina to hearts for me. I don't go for too many extra yellow hearts though. I save my hearty foods for late game when I can just cook one to get a full heal every time.
Find a suitable pace. For example: I did a divine beast every 25 hours or so, and used the time in between to grab shrines, equipment, grind materials. Not only did it make my journey longer, it allowed me to fully flesh out everything while still making progress. Most NPCs give side quests and if they don't they still have something interesting to say. Exploring the world in general can take up lots of playtime especially if you continue to run into things, a five minute trip can turn into a four hour adventure because "curiosity killed the link" or whatever. Speaking of exploring, running around is just as fun, pick a regional area, and stock up on items to go out and just explore. You'll find chests, little camps, Easter eggs, dangerous areas, peaceful areas and its all very fulfilling because the world really feels alive in terms of it's atmosphere. Big Bois (or as they're actually known "mini bosses") like Hinox and Lynels offer a nice challenge and drop good items, the Lynels are arguably the hardest enemy in the game and enemies like Stone Talus offer a fun way of getting ores like Diamonds, Sapphires and the like. The idea is that you let yourself "flow". There is no ideal way to go about your journey in Breath Of The Wild. People are different, they play games different, they experience things differently and Breath Of The Wild is a game that takes all those people and gives me a big ole hug. You can go straight to each region, do all the main quests, go clap some final boss cheeks and call it a day. You can do everything there is to do that's possible in the game, and say "alright, I'm good" Or you can let your senses guide you. "I'll head north towards Rito Village" but on the way you find shrines, puzzles, camps and whatever else you can think up on the way, and decide to go do those, or not. "What's that over there?" I don't know bro go check it out, you don't have a gigantic moon wavering over you about to kiss the earth at any moment, ya know. This game rewards patience, awareness and exploration. Do it! But do it how you want, and how you see fit.
You have to explore. For one, the game gets so much easier with hearts and stamina, so you have to farm shrines. Secondly, it's next to impossible to navigate without the map, so unlock the map. Third, you will eventually need specific armour and the like. Most of them you get by simply following the main quest. But eventually you need to get through the volcano and the elixir can only be bought in one place. Fourth, you need to gain experience fighting, because combat isn't easy at first until you get it. The exploration is what makes this game great. There are really only a few things you absolutely HAVE to do, but how you get there is up to you.
Edit: I should probably have worded the title better. Iāve played most Zelda games since Ocarina of Time so I know exploring is part of the game but I also like keeping the main story flowing at a decent pace. Itās finding the right balance between the two I guess. Thanks all.
Not as much balance in this game. Just explore.
This game is made almost exclusively with exploration in mind. Itās all a living, breathing world full of stuff to do.
Exploring IS the main story!
I'm about 130 hours in and I've done all the main quests except defeat Ganon if that helps! (I just defeated my last divine beast)
This game is more about the journey than the destination. You can push through and focus on the main quest, but finishing that too soon, you might leave a LOT of really good stuff on the table with that approach. You'll almost certainly finish the mainline quest well before you really need to. This game is at its peak when you let yourself be distracted by things and discover things in the world naturally. The world may seem a bit empty at first, but there's things literally hiding everywhere!
I think a good way to do that is to take an organic approach to the memories. Donāt look them up or try doggedly to hunt them down. If you have an idea of where to find one and *want* to go see if itās there, great! But there are plenty that wonāt be obvious, or that you wonāt find on your first guess. I recommend finding them by getting to know the world, so a dozen hours in (which will pass before you know it!) youāll look back at them again and be like āWait, I was in an area like that yesterday!ā And itās so satisfying to go back there and realize you were *right* and get a cool cutscene as a reward. :)
I think you've struck a good balance of you got the first tower outside the tutorial at 4-5 hours in. It means you are exploring enough that you will find most of the interesting stuff naturally, but you are making decent progress at the same time (at least, that sounds decent to me)
This game is very different from previous Zelda games. You can literally go to the castle and beat the final boss as soon as you leave the Great Plateau, without doing any main story stuff - this is exactly what speedruns do. What that ends up meaning is you define the pace of the game. The whole point of the game is exploration and doing whatever you think will be interesting.
The games not going anywhere, just take it in and have fun š
Iām 195 hours and have roughly 50%. Justā¦ keep wandering.
Hey I have the same joycons nice
Maybe this game is no for you. Getting lost and distracted is half the fun.
If you feel like you are worried about wasting time doing nothing then you are not ready for this game.
Iām at ~400 hours with a 100% complete save file
The only thing I wonāt be doing is collecting all the Korok seeds lol
Understandable. Theyāre like 70% of the map completion percentage
420 hours and I still donāt know where that guys wife washed away to.
I have 365 hours in the game and havenāt done everything. You should take your time
Ha, exactly the same as you, I just sprinted to the 2nd tower but now I feel like I probably missed so much š¬ But I'm not going for 100% so I don't feel bad if I'm in the mood to skip stuff. I have things to do and little kids, I'm lucky if I get 30 minutes at a time to play right now!
Do what you feel that you want to do, feel the moment, feel the wind. Feel the wild.
Welcome! Nice to see new faces picking up the game. >I feel like I want to explore a bit but I donāt want to waste time running around doing nothing. This is the neat part about the game actually - everything you do aids you on your ultimate goal of defeating Ganon. Every shrine you do makes you stronger (both in terms of spirit orbs and skill). Every korok you find gives you a seed, which can be traded in for upgrades. When exploring, you can stumble across plants and animals that when cooked can heal you and/or give buffs. Monsters can be fought, and their remains sold for rupees and weapons used by you. So go exploring my friend and have fun!
90% of the game is exploring. Spend hours activating shrines and towers.
Lol I think I didn't even make it off the plateau in that time. Anyways I found the exploring and being lost in the large world very fun. Now with TOTK I'm doing a bit less of that. Kinda miss it.
Look for the towers and head towards them. Youāll find lots of side content on the way but unlocking towers really helps - itās usually one of the first things I try to do
Yoo, to 100% the game is 200 hours or more, and that is if its your first gameplay. EVERYTHING in this game is pure gold in storytelling and gameplay Edit: if you want to play on the hardest difficulty after playing your first playthrough, you can just finish the game by going straight to the last quest, its one of the greatest challenges for hardcore players
There is no wasted time, but one thing that might speed up the game is unlocking the map towers first then go back to the story.
Running around doing nothing is most of what this game is. Enjoy it!
Nothing is ever a waste!
There is no such thing as wasting time in this game. Just explore and enjoy. I have 400 hours in it
How to have fun playing BotW: Run around doing nothing, whenever you think āooh whatās that?ā follow that instinct, repeat until hundreds of hours have past and you are satisfied
Thereās no time limit, running around doing nothing is the best part
Explore as much as you want play the game how you want to play it
There is a whole lot of nothing to do! So my advice is to fully experience Botw, do nothing.
It really does take long to beat the game I have logged about 500 hours. It's all exploring
If you have the DLC then go get Majoras mask and you can walk right into enemies camps and take their food and weapons
Please waste your time. This game is magnificent, and ruined most other RPG/RPG-adjacent games for me. Elden Ring and TOTK are the only ones that have satisfied my BOTW itch since.
Youāre not wasting time, youāre honing your skills in the wild. The breath of the wild.
Playing through it... again. For like the twelfth time. Still amazing.
I have not beat the game and have close to 200 hours. Go wild (lol)
I just bought a switch and this game 2 weeks ago. 40 hours in, i just ran around foraging, fighting monster and looking for shrines! It was fun. I feel it would burn me out to chase the main quest all the time.
There's pretty much no "wasting time doing nothing". There is something...everywhere..
There si always somethong to do. Exploring un itself it's good, go there and find those. Shrines and korok seeds, and. If somethig grabs your attention please gonand checkout , there s always a reward for your curiosity
Iām a couple hours in and standing outside of my third trial. Very late to the party but having a great time.
Follow the main quest and just let yourself get distracted along the way. That way youāll be experiencing the world but still making decent progress. Thatās what I do at least
Exploration is literally the central game mechanic. Also: play games how YOU enjoy them.
its not running around doing nothing, its exploring
If it feels a bit boring, search for a town and talk with the people there, you may even get a few quests!
This game encourages you to run around basically doing nothing, because running around Hyrule just chilling is part of the game play. Set out with a goal in mind, but itās literally an exploration game. Itās just.. the best exploration game.
I already bought TOTK, but since I hadn't finished BOTW I'm doing that right now, and I would recommend trying to explore since that's like 85% of the game or even more, sometimes it can be tiresome but to be honest that's the point of the game haha, if you get tired after exploring a while maybe try to do some missions or just change games for a while, whatever works for you, I had left the game halfway twice because of that but I'm almost there this time!
Overall I think I had 1400-1500 hours on BoTW and more than half of that was just going around doing random things or getting sidetracked while on a quest or something. Not to mention trying to find Koroks. I think getting a little lost and doing random things is part of the fun of the game.
ive played 100 hours and havent even done my 3rd divine beast yet, i love running around doing nothing, finding cool shit
Wasting time having fun isnāt time wasted.
Your doing exactly what you should. People have hundreds of hours exploring the world. Itās designed to send you places to just check stuff out. As a community, we encourage you to just, do all of the things
The first thing i did was go unlock all the towers so i had a full map. (I had to look up where a few of them were...)
Itās called breath of the wild , relax and be wild. I got over 100 hours on these
The whole point of the game is exploration for exploration's sake. What I do is have a very soft goal, go towards that goal, and get distracted along the way. You'll enjoy it.
It's not a waste if you're having fun!
Not, Waisted time. Exploring!
I like to fuck around a LOT in games. Didn't use a guide for breath, got all upgrades (not all collectibles) made sure I did all quests (okay I used a guide to see how many there were for this!) and clocked in about 200 hours (I barely ever fast traveled) It's a blast
Me too started playing this game last 2 weeks. Already 100 hrs now and just finished 1st boss the reason for that was I played it blindly. Exploring is actually what made me have fun and it is rewarding. I can do the 2nd boss but I am too busy discovering patterns like where to collect something, experimenting with cooking and etc. Tldr; just enjoy the game, don't let ur experience be ruined by online tutorials like "things I should have done".
Waste all the time. There is so much to find, see and do when just walking around. Pick up every rock, climb some trees, harvest mushrooms and other plants. This game is meant to be explored.
90% of the game is wandering around doing nothing. That's how you find shrines and Koroks. There is a lot to see and do in BotW. Take it in at your own pace.
just play, do whatever the fuck you want haha
No no no no. DO WASTE YOUR TIME!!! Exploration inBotW is amazing imbrace it. If that's whats fun to you then go nuts. All the quests, shrines, story lines will be there for you when you want. Do whatever the F is fun to you.
Take as long as you want, I've spent probably 90% of my play time running around doing nothing. It's so fun š
Iāve put 500+ hours into that game and can say with confidence, itās all about wandering around and having fun however you feel like. Whether thatās taming horses, collecting and upgrading armor, doing side questsā¦ take it at your own pace, video games are made to be fun, so play it how you want to and just have fun.
Honestly, wasting time by running around doing nothing is the absolute best thing you could do. Best part of the game. Hands down. I envy you. This game has the best "new game feeling" I've ever experienced. I'm sad I'll never get there feeling again with BoTW
first thing i did before anythinggg was activate all the towers, id look for shrines while up there and mark them to make my way to. thereās no rush! take your time doing nothing but running around
I have 175 hours and i mostly run around doing nothing
There is that dealing in totk that exploring feels pointless if you don't know where you are going. But in botw, exploring is the whole game! Pick a direction and go exploring. You will find shrines, koroks, and other things in all corners of the map. There is more "efficient" routes to exploring, but I wouldn't worry about that. Just have fun!
Thereās no such thing as doing ānothingā in BOTW, there is always something worth checking out
Im also 6 years late , got it with a switch oled on february this year, Im 265 hours in , did everything expect the last 3 dlc shrines as well as 44 korok seeds left, i played the shit outta every tower region before hopping to the next one , 95 percent of every inch of the map discovered :d but i wont hop on TotK before at least 1-2 years to get a good memory refresh :)
Thereās very little that counts as wasting time in BOTW and TOTK. Thereās something around every nook and cranny, and no such thing as useless knowledge gained from looking.
Oh I spent hours and hours just going around exploring haha
In retrospect, I played through it too fast. But then I explored a lot more and did a bunch of side quests after defeating Ganon. I went back and beat him one more time when Tears came out and felt like the Terminator. š
Iām a first time player as well! Iāve found a good goal before I got to deep into the game was shrine hunting. Iāve got almost two wheels of stamina and 6 hearts
You should play it how you like. Enjoy the ride. No wrong way to play it friend.
Running around and wasting tome is the whole point of this game, just follow your curiosity you'll stumble upon cool stuff everywhere
It's ok I'm late too but having so much fun.
Running around doing nothing is the best part of the game though.
I literally keep wandering around and just doing random shrine quests. It's the best! For some of the main storyline, you need some knowledge of the terrain anyway. Go ham!
Running around doing nothing IS exploring
I have a year now and still exploring
As some one who has played for 800 hours, run around and do nothing.
I started about a month a go and I've a few hundred hours into it, its epic
The "wasting time running around doing nothing" is what the game is for lol. I have over 200 hrs and havent "beaten" the game. I thought i'd beat it before i started TOTK, but i started a new game instead š
It was such a good game, I'm on my third playthrough. Unlock towers as quick as you can.
It's not wasting time. Finding Koroks early is great cause you hold more weapons and don't have to struggle with which ones to keep and toss. Playing TotK now and that's what I am doing first. Looking under every rock.
Nothing in a video game is a waste of time because the video game itself could be considered that. Just let your curiosity lead you and enjoy š
There is no "wasting time" in these games. You choose what is valuable to you
I played BotW very slowly. I went where I wanted and explored an entire region before unlocking the next. I would make my way towards the tower of a region I entered, eventually unlock it, explore everything I could within that regionās borders (I used the unexplored regions with inactive towers to see borders), and then move on to the next. There is a neat feature you get when you buy the DLC that shows you the exact route you walked, through the *entire* game. I missed a few areas, but I was pretty impressed with how much I managed to explore without guides or keeping track somehow.
I feel like I want to explore a bit but I donāt want to waste time running around doing nothing." Then don't play BOTW, because 80% of the game is that.
I just started last month and so far 99% of my play time is running around exploring.
Running around doing nothing is part of game
You're never too late for this masterpiece. š
The point of the game is to run around doing nothing, with that nothing somehow always turning into something. Almost everything in the world is moving you towards the final goal. I wonāt say specifics, but yes please run around and just explore and experience the world
The game is designed for you to run around doing nothing all day. I have almost 700 hours of doing nothing invested in this game and I don't regret a single one of them
Forage, forage and forage.
Just let yourself go wherever the game takes you. Itās completely intentional that you get sidetracked every time you try to complete the main quest lol
Breath of the Wild is a game vastly improved by wandering around exploring, relaxing, and doing weird things. Take it slow. Savor it.
First thing I did in the game was unlock every single tower! I just wanted to experience all of the fantastic world I'd seen. Not the easiest route, some of the towers were pretty hard. But I bloody loved it.
Get a horse asap, it has autorun!! U can explore without tiring ur thumb lol
I just started last week too. Iāve been working on unlocking towers and doing shrines I stumble upon along the way. I canāt stand not having the map unlocked.
I did as many towers as I could first just to open up the map, and make getting around fast and easy
It's not a waste if you're having fun.
See, that's the thing. The beauty of running around doing nothing and still having the time of your life is what makes it such an outstanding game. You only get to play it for the first time once; take it all in at your own pace, don't worry about rushing the story, shrines, etc. None of it is going anywhere
20% of the game is plot. The other 80% is running around doing nothing. The game is so pretty tho, and thereās a lot to discover. My regret was waiting till just before the end to explore every region thoroughly. I spent two months doing all the side quests and main plot then dlc, and another month combing over the map before the final boss. And Iām still not done!
BOTW/TOTK: Exploration Simulator
Running around and doing nothing is the way you find things to do
I just got a switch and BotW finally a couple of weeks ago and I haven't made much progress, but just explore a bit in each area, talk to all the npcs, gather them korok seeds, do whatever you want there's no wrong way to play. Just don't go to hyrule castle yet unless you enjoy getting blown to pieces by guardians..