10 Tips to Jumpstart Your Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Playthrough

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a really fun game, similar in many respects to Dark Souls, which is, of course, why I’d highly recommend it to anyone who played Dark Souls using my previous guides and enjoyed it, or vice versa. So, as before, I’ve compiled 10 tips to improve your experience in the game. These help the most at the start, but you can apply them at any time.

#1: Learn to cook

Many times have I put in ingredients to a dish to test what they’d make, only for the result to be some Dubious Food. This heals only one heart, usually canceling out the effects of your ingredients. If you make a good recipe, the game lets you check what went into it (go to the cooked food tab and select the dish, then select “recipe”). To avoid this (because it wastes ingredients), never try to cook insects on their own, never put monster parts in with food, unless you want to turn just your monster parts into a healing dish, and never cook rock salt on its own. Also, never add ores or wood to a dish, or else it’ll turn into Rock-Hard Food, healing you only a quarter of a heart. Learning to cook properly can allow you to create food with a myriad of buffs for Link.

#2: Don’t try to jump off the Great Plateau

You’ll get off in time, but jumping off will just result in you being respawned at the wall with one less heart, and, if you continue, your death. Simply follow the convenient in-game quest guides.

#3: Don’t worry about conserving weapons - there’s enough

Weapons in this game don’t have a lot of durability, and because of that you can be drawn to try to avoid using them to conserve their durability. I know I did that a lot. But there are enough weapons in the game that you don’t have to worry too much about this. You can always find more weapons, and some powerful weapons respawn after certain events - for example, the Royal Claymore on top of the Woodland Tower respawns every Blood Moon. I’m not encouraging you to go swinging your strongest weapons on every enemy (you should use stronger weapons on stronger enemies), but don’t actively avoid attacking enemies simply because of your weapon’s durability.

#4: Enemies will get stronger

As you progress through the game, defeating more and more enemies, eventually they will become stronger. I honestly don't know how long this takes, but it's a fair amount of time. The enemies’ strength is represented in four colors: red, blue, black, and silver, in that order (blue through gold if you’re on Master Mode). Enemies will eventually be upgraded in tiers, so be prepared for that after a night of monster hunting.

#5: Notice which equipment type gets full the most

Later in the game, you’ll get the ability to expand your inventory slots in exchange for Korok seeds. You should see what kind of equipment you tend to have the maximum amount of the most to determine the first one to expand. This was shields for me, but it could be swords or bows for you.

#6: Prioritize Sheikah Towers

When entering a new area, try to prioritize reaching the Sheikah Tower immediately, as that unlocks the rest of the map. The Breath of the Wild map has, conveniently, terrain height, which allows you to plan your routes out far more effectively. Often, though, you’ll need unique gear for the region before you can reach the Sheikah Tower.

#7: Avoid tougher enemies

When you start out the game, you’ll occasionally encounter an enemy much tougher than you can reasonably handle. Avoid them whenever possible until you become strong and skilled enough to effectively fight them. Rushing them and dying repeatedly is not a good strategy. Trust me, I know.

#8: Do side quests

Side quests can unlock certain merchants, grant helpful rewards, and even unlock new gameplay mechanics. You can prioritize them as you wish (I personally did almost none my first playthrough and regretted it), but don’t avoid them altogether.

#9: Explore

I’m surprisingly bad at this in open-world games, but remember to take some time off doing specific things to just explore areas of the map. You can find Shrines throughout the map, you can tame horses, you can find animals… there’s all sorts of amazing stuff out there that the devs put there on purpose! I highly encourage you to go look for it!

#10: Buy and sell items frequently

You’ll often run out of items such as arrows, and the best way to buy them is from traveling merchants. You’ll find all sorts of wares, from meat to monster parts, and you’ll want to have the rupees on hand for buying them. Selling ores is a good way to get rupees - but remember not every transaction uses rupees. You’ll find cooked food, elixirs, and special equipment for the area you’re in, all items that will save you a lot of time and energy.

That’s 10 helpful tips to make the beginning of Breath of the Wild a little easier, and all these tips can be applied to Tears of the Kingdom as well, to be honest. I will be making a separate list for that one, though. Regardless, thank you for reading!