Welcome to Hyrule, adventurer! The Legend of Zelda, released in 1986, throws you into a dark, epic quest across a vast land filled with secrets. As the hero Link, you’ll wield your sword, explore treacherous dungeons, and gather essential items to rescue Princess Zelda from the clutches of evil. It’s a journey for anyone who loves to uncover hidden paths and overcome challenging foes.
This guide is your companion for mastering every aspect of this classic adventure. We'll help you navigate the sprawling overworld, conquer every dungeon, and find all the secrets scattered throughout Hyrule. Whether you're struggling with a particular boss, need help finding a crucial item, or just want to ensure you don't miss anything, we've got you covered.
Combat
Master melee, ranged attacks, and defensive maneuvers like Perfect Block and Flurry Rush in The Legend of Zelda. Learn all combat techniques.
Link possesses a variety of combat techniques from the start, focusing heavily on melee attacks, which are the primary source of damage. Ranged weaponry is excellent for initiating combat from a safe distance.
Combat Techniques:
- Melee Attacks – Standard attacks vary in damage and speed based on the equipped weapon. Lighter weapons attack faster, while heavier ones are slower.
- Chaining Attacks – Pressing the attack button repeatedly creates combos. This is most effective against unaware enemies, as aware enemies will block.
- Jump Attack – Running and attacking mid-air performs an overhead smash. If performed from a height, it creates a shockwave upon landing that damages and knocks back enemies, allowing for follow-up melee hits.
- Charge Up Attack – Holding the attack button makes the weapon flash. Releasing it performs a spinning attack hitting all enemies in range. Heavy weapons perform multiple spins and a shockwave-creating overhead slam.
- Throw Weapon – Melee weapons can be thrown for a critical hit. Boomerangs return after hitting, allowing for reuse.
- Bow and Arrows – Allows for ranged attacks. Arrow trajectory is affected by gravity, requiring higher aiming for distant targets. Different arrow types exist: Fire Arrows (set enemies ablaze, melt objects), Ice Arrows (freeze enemies/objects), Bomb Arrows (explosive damage, destroy weak walls), Ancient Arrows (deal Guardian-powered damage), and Shock Arrows (electrocute enemies, activate machinery).
- Perfect Block – Holding block and pressing 'A' just as an attack or projectile hits deflects it or performs a short counter-attack. This does not reduce shield durability.
- Staggering – Timing a block press just before an enemy's melee attack deflects it and stuns the enemy temporarily, leaving them open for follow-up attacks. This only works against melee attacks.
Avoiding or Countering Attacks:
The Legend of Zelda can be challenging, with enemies inflicting significant damage quickly. Link has several methods to avoid or mitigate damage.
- Blocking – With a shield equipped, blocking nullifies most standard melee attacks and reduces damage from others. It is less effective against elemental or AOE (Area of Effect) damage and reduces gear durability.
- Perfect Block – As described above, this deflects projectiles or allows a counter-attack without reducing shield durability.
- Staggering – As described above, this deflects melee attacks and stuns enemies for a follow-up.
- Dodging – A quick side/back step moves Link out of danger, useful for unblockable attacks or during boss fights. Successful dodges create opportunities for counterattacks.
- Flurry Rush – Performing a side/back step immediately before an enemy attack triggers a slow-motion window, allowing Link to land multiple melee attacks before the enemy recovers.
- Strafing – While locked onto an enemy (using the lock-on feature to focus on a specific target), Link can move sideways or circle behind them. This is useful for positioning.
Weapon Damage, Elements and Types
Learn about weapon durability, damage multipliers, elemental effects (Fire, Ice, Electric), and weapon types (One-Handed, Two-Handed, Spears, Bows, Shields) in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Weapons and shields in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild have a durability mechanic and will break after a certain amount of use. Link can carry multiple weapons to switch between them as needed. Weapons generally deal damage equal to their attack stat, with bonuses applied for critical hits, sneakstrikes, and thrown attacks.
Attack Type Damage Multipliers:
- Normal attack: 1x attack power
- Critical Hit: 2x attack power
- Sneakstrike: 8x attack power
- Thrown Weapon: 2x attack power
Some weapons are imbued with elemental properties (Fire, Ice, Electric) that add bonus damage and can inflict status effects. These elemental bonuses are in addition to the weapon's base attack strength, unless the weapon is used against an enemy of the same element.
Elemental Weapon Bonuses:
- Fire/Flame Weapons: +10 base damage, chance to set enemies on fire (causing them to run until flames stop), instantly kills ice-element enemies.
- Ice/Frost Weapons: +10 base damage, chance to freeze targets (shattering the ice deals 5x weapon attack power), instantly kills fire-element enemies.
- Electric/Thunder Weapons: +20 base damage, chance to electrocute targets (causing them to drop equipped weapons/shields).
Weapons can also have special traits that grant bonuses to base damage, durability, or throw distance.
Weapon Types:
- One-Handed Melee: Fast, can be dual-wielded with a shield, good for blocking.
- Two-Handed Melee: High damage but slow, cannot be used with a shield simultaneously, best against stunned or unaware enemies.
- Spears/Polearms: Long range, fast attack rate but lower damage, cannot be used with a shield simultaneously, useful for keeping enemies at a distance or applying elemental effects.
- Bows: Used for ranged attacks with various arrow types (standard, Fire, Ice, Electric, Bomb, Ancient, Light).
- Shields: Used to block incoming attacks, can be dual-wielded with One-Handed melee weapons.
Being Sneaky and Enemy Detection
Learn how to master stealth in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Discover crouch-walking, Sneakstrikes, and enemy detection states to gain the upper hand.
Hey there! Combat in Breath of the Wild can be pretty tough if you're not quite nailing the dodges and blocks yet. But don't worry, the game gives you a super useful way to handle enemy camps and tricky situations: stealth! Using sneaky tactics can seriously give you an advantage, so it's definitely worth getting the hang of. Let's break down how to be a silent ninja!
Here's how to stay hidden:
- Crouch-walking: When you press the crouch button, Link becomes way quieter. This is perfect for getting up close to enemies to scope them out. If an enemy starts to get suspicious because you're making too much noise, just crouch down to instantly quiet yourself until they lose interest.
- Sneakstrike: Just like in a lot of other games, if you can creep up behind an enemy without them noticing, Link can pull off a devastating backstab. This will either instantly defeat them or deal a massive chunk of damage.
Understanding Enemy Awareness
Enemies have three different 'states' of awareness that change how they act towards you. You can tell which state they're in by the color of the little question mark icon that pops up above their heads. Knowing these will help you plan your approach:
- Anonymous: This is the default state. You won't see any question marks, meaning the enemies haven't spotted you. They'll just be doing their usual patrol routes, which you can watch from a distance to figure out the best time to strike or sneak past.
- Suspicious: You'll see a yellow question mark above an enemy's head. When they're suspicious, they'll look in your direction and might start moving towards you. If you let them get too close, or if you're standing out in the open where they can see you, that yellow mark will slowly turn red. If it fills up completely red, they'll become aggressive and attack! But, if you can quickly break line of sight and duck behind some cover, they'll usually lose interest pretty fast.
- Conflict: This is when they've spotted you and are ready to fight! Enemies will attack on sight. Your options here are to defeat them all, or to run away, break their line of sight, and hide until they calm down and stop searching for you.
Runes
Discover all five Runes in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Remote Bomb, Magnesis, Stasis, Cryonis, and Camera. Learn their uses in puzzles and combat, and how to upgrade them.
Runes are a new addition to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and they give you certain abilities that have uses both in solving puzzles and in combat situations. There are five Runes in total and Link will be given them quite early on in the game. In addition to their base forms, Runes can be upgraded at tech labs found in the world to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their effects.
These Runes include the following, listed below in order of appearance:
Remote Bomb Rune
The Remote Bomb Rune can be used in the same way as bombs can be used in previous Legend of Zelda games – primarily as a resource to blow up obstacles or destroy sections of weak walls (often indicated by fairly obvious cracks). Link can generate infinite number of Remote Bombs using the Rune, but after using one there will be a brief cooldown period during which another cannot be created. The bombs that are created by this Rune in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are remote bombs, which means that once you plant/throw them, you'll need to hit a specific button command to detonate them. It's a good idea to move Link out of the explosion range when you do.
Unlike previous games in the series, there are two types of remote bombs in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – spherical bombs and cubic bombs. Spherical bombs can roll down slopes, chutes and structures whereas the cubic bombs will stay put and fit specific sockets. In this way, they can be used to solve a number of puzzles.
Remote bombs can also be used in combat to damage (or even kill some weaker) enemies, unlock blocked entrances to caves/shrines and kill wildlife or explode mineral deposits in order to quickly gather resources.
Magnesis
The Magnesis Rune allows Link to identify and manipulate pieces of metal in the environment. These pieces of metal can be used to remove blockages or obstacles from areas, open doors, create bridges and create ledges/platforms that can be used to cross gaps or hop to out of reach locations. With the Rune active, any metal that can be manipulated using the Rune will appear highlighted in a purple color and whilst targeted by Link a piece of metal, it will change to yellow.
Magnesis can be used in combat, although perhaps not as effectively as Remote Bombs. Magnesis can be used to pick up metal objects and drop them on enemies, push enemies off ledges or to usefully create a section of moving cover which can be used to defend Link against incoming projectiles and lasers.
In the environment, the Magnesis Rune can be used to create bridges across gaps/rivers or to pull half-buried metal treasure Treasure Chests out of the ground so that Link can loot them.
Stasis
The Stasis Rune can be used to freeze a specific object in time for a short period. This can be used as many times as you like but each time after using it, there will be a brief cooldown period during which it is temporarily unable to be used. This can be used to slow moving objects/hazards/obstacles to move past them safely, pause and navigate moving platforms or to freeze and manipulate objects in the environment. Certain objects can be frozen and then hit with attacks a few times to store up energy which will be spent once the Stasis period ends, sending it flying in the direction indicated.
Stasis can be used in the wider world to propel boulders and other manipulable heavy objects into crowds of enemies and when upgraded, can be used on enemies themselves to either hold them out of combat when fighting a group or to allow Link to pummel them silly whilst they remain immobile.
Cryonis
The Cryonis Rune allows Link to summon up to three blocks of ice. Only three blocks of ice can be generated at a time and if you attempt to create a further one, the first of the three blocks before hand will be dismissed. These icy blocks are useful in that they can be used in rivers to create icy platforms that we can cross (useful in cold areas where the water will freeze you) or in waterfalls to create platforms that can be used to climb to the top. It is possible, to generate a block below certain items, such as gates to lift them upwards.
Camera
The Camera Rune is the last of the Runes that you'll acquire in the game and it allows Link to take screenshots of the environment. This can be useful in some dungeons for taking a screenshot of a particular section of puzzle so that you can look back at it as you travel elsewhere as required.
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