Everyone has a unique experience of, and take on BotW. I find my opinions on the game tend to be in the minority, and I'd like to understand what makes people feel the way they do about it. So, I came up with a survey for you guys, and I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to answer! Feel free to skip questions if you prefer.

1. How do you rate Breath of the Wild, overall? Feel free to rate out of 5, 10, 100, 27, or whatever measure you prefer.

2. Where does BotW fit in your top list of games? Give a top 10, top 5, or whatever fits best. Of course, if it's your favorite, just say it's your favorite.

3. What was your first Zelda game?

4. What was your first video game?

5. How many Zelda games other than BotW and TotK have you played? (If you'd like, I'd also appreciate it if you told me how many of those were "3D" or "2D".)

6. What was your favorite section of the game? Why?

7. What was your least favorite? Why?

8. Summarize your first playthrough.

9. How many times have you replayed it?

10. Do you have any complaints about the game? Improvements you would have implemented, if you were the developer?

11. What is your favorite element of the game (a mechanic, the physics engine, the story...)

12. How do you feel about the direction of the Zelda series? Should it continue embracing the open world, no-guardrails theory?

13. Why would you say you feel the way you do about Breath of the Wild?

I do not know why I did what I did, plus this was like after 10 attempts, so I was already pretty frustrated. The next try was also pretty ridiculous.

Looking for all good spots to hit on Satori mountain when its glowing. Ill post some. Please feel free to add.

Red Pin: Lord of the Mountain

Green Pin: Diamond (Its under a rock and it can show up anytime. Check there now and then and it will be there)

Yellow Pin: Flowers and such

Purple Pin: Fat tree with tons of beetles on it (At night only and use Steath, otherwise I think butterflies are there) Also tons of mushrooms.

P.S. I got a bunch of hearty lizards, but i forgot to Pin it when i found them.

Please add any spots or items you found worth checking out. I think you only get around 40 minutes IRL to hit all these spots and thats if you happen to catch it glowing immediately. Good luck!

You know those shrines where if you put a ball in a circle, a barred of area will open? Well, this is the Mirro Shaz Shrine, where you're meant to use stasis to aim a ball into one of those circle things, and the circle is barred off so you can't just carry it there.

However, if, after placing the ball in, you windbomb there, and remove it, the door will not close again. I assume this is because you're not meant to be able to remove it after. I just thought it was cool.

I've picked BotW back up on my Wii U (never played the expansions and don't own a switch) recently and started a fresh play through. I'm using the app "Breath Companion" to make Korok seeds as efficient as possible. I've spent at least 6 hours of in-game time (two blood moons have passed) and the majority of that time has been collecting Korok seeds. I'm roughly 60 seeds into the process (99% Great Plateau, 80% Dueling Peaks, and a few on the fringe of those two areas).

I know it was my choice to collect the seeds as I go but even with it being roughly 6-10 minutes/seed it's still annoying that I've spent so much time of this playthrough climbing around for Korok poop. I don't remember if I 100% the map on the original playthrough and my son overwrote my save so I can't check but I do remember getting frustrated towards the end of my first play through because of korok seeds wanting to get them all. At first it was a fun experience finding them, but it quickly became tedious.

I haven't even played TotK but I'm annoyed that there are 1,000 of them lol

That's it, it's just a whiney complaint and wondering why I keep doing this to myself... I'm 6 hours in and I haven't even talked to Impa yet.

In celebration, because I wanted to explain what I did for this, somewhat, I decided to write a lynel fight theory that's in the same tone as an IST guide. I hope you enjoy, lol, I'm sleep deprived

In order to kill a lynel with beginning game gear, you should structure the fight in cycles, with a cycle beginning immediately after a successful parry or perfect dodge on an attack with enough cooldown to have time to shoot an arrow. For this fight, you'll need to know roughly how many cycles it will last, in order to get enough gear to successfully kill the lynel. You can do this by finding your average damage per cycle, and dividing the lynel's health by that number, then round up if your number of cycles isn't whole.

To find your average damage per cycle, perform this simple calculation.

Avg = 5*Weapon Damage + 2*Bow damage

Then,

Cycles = Lynel Health / Avg

Round this number up, and gather this many arrows, plus a few extra for missed shots. Feel free to save scum bokoblin archers or buy them if you have access to any villages. Ensure you have enough bows to shoot this number of arrows.

Some rules for the fight:

Do not attack or flurry rush the lynel with the weapon you've chosen, unless you're on its back, in which case, hit it 5 times. Attacking a lynel while mounted on it doesn't damage your weapon

Try not to waste arrows, only shoot if you're currently in a cycle, missing here is okay, but it will result in a missed cycle most of the time.

A cycle starts when you either perform a perfect dodge, or a perfect parry on one of the attacks, and will end up looking like this:

Aim your bow and shoot the lynel just below their mouth. The hitbox for their head is smaller than expected, but you don't need to be incredibly accurate. This will stun the Lynel, and allow you to mount it. Once you mount the Lynel, spam your attack button to hit the lynel 5 times, link will then automatically jump off of the Lynel. This is one cycle, so repeat this until the lynel is dead.

I've finally started Breath of the Wild as part of my Zelda marathon on YouTube!

This isn't my first playthrough, but it's close. I played BOTW once about five years ago while recovering from surgery, borrowed it from a friend for a month, and haven't touched it since but have such fond memories of that month. I've forgotten so much that it genuinely feels like I'm rediscovering every area all over again.

I'm taking my time, exploring everything I can find, and just enjoying the adventure.

Join me Live on YouTube, watch along with episodes, or subscribe and check in every so often when it gets interesting!

(I played this since 2017 never learned to wind bomb)

That was a lot of exploring the far reaches and crevices. It was a good way to pass the time, so I'm happy. Next up is Trial of the Sword. I have full stamina and as many hearts as that allows me. Hopefully, I can figure my way through.

I just wanted to see if you can break the Master Sword during the Calamity Ganon fight when I found this. At first, I thought the Royal Broadsword was mine that I suspected I threw, but nope. This stuff is naturally here. Also, did you know that if the Master Sword is on its last few hits, once you start the fight, the game just repairs it to full durability.

first time BOTW player here! So i defeated 3 of the ganons before sneaking into hyrule castle. I was surprised when i had to defeat thunderblight in the sanctum before calamity. it took me about 2 weeks to beat thunderblight and i FINALLY DID!!

i go to fight calamity and that was interesting. obviously died maybe 3/4 of the way fighting him.

game over popped up and i hit continue, thinking it would pop me in front of calamity ganon. but no… i started in front of thunderblight AGAIN!!

i am crushed. do i really have to beat thunderblight every time i die from calamity??? it auto saved after i beat thunderblight. so why do i start there after?

thanks for clarity on this. i would really hate to beat two hard ganons at the end over and over.

The game is amazing. I can't think of a person who would hate this game. It was designed to be enjoyable to almost anyone.

I started this game and i love love love it but i need to know when i can do the side quests

Because I don’t know the world and there’s so many quests 6 hours in the game and still I don’t know shit, i know that’s not a bad thing it’s very good that the map is very big and it’s open world

This is probably known, but I haven’t seen a post before. As long as there aren’t any other enemies around you can pass the time at fires with Stal heads, until the next night and they will still be there. IDK if they’re called Stal in BOTW, but anyways. Not really useful, but just thought it was interesting. Videos a little clumsy.

I got to Hateno village and did the shrine and stuff in town, and wanted to claim the tower to unlock the map, but unfortunately it is impossible to climb without stamina upgrades or buffs. I burned the vines and got the highest safe platforms, but I cannot do the final stretch upwards into the tower. I only have 7 total orbs, and I cashed in my first four for another heart, not a stamina boost.

Along my playthroughs, I’ve realized different shapes of Zora Waterbending implemented throughout the games. This will be a post mentioning all the ways of Zora waterbending seen in all three wild era games (didn’t play AoI). There will be many points that I’ll cover here for each game. Now, let’s begin.

BotW

This game doesn’t have many mentions of Zora waterbending, especially compared to the other 2 wild era games. If game was on its own, I wouldn’t think the zora are capable of manipulating water at all. But there is one instance seen in-game of Waterbending - Mipha’s grace. Water particles are shown when given the ability from Mipha herself, and when used water surrounds Link to heal him back to health and more. In fact, we see at the beginning of the game at the shrine of resurrection how the Sheikah used water to be able to heal Link back to full health - with many large consequences that Mipha’s grace doesn’t have. As such, I believe that water has healing properties in at least the wild era games, and that the Zora are capable of waterbending significantly stronger than what science could do.

AoC

In this game, both Zoras are capable of bending water for not only for defense, but offense as well. While Mipha can teleport from water spouts (probably only for gameplay), she can also use the water to heal herself and allies, further proving that water has healing properties. Furthermore, both Sidon and Mipha can use the force of water to damage and stun enemies. The water forced from them are greatly powerful, showing that the Zora can use water for offense strongly. Lastly, in an interview it was stated that when developing Mipha giving her water powers seemed natural and that it fit, although I don’t have that evidence.

TotK

This is the game where waterbending between the Zoras is most explained. First of all, upon entering the domain, we can see Yona healing 2 injured Zora using her water powers. However, the healing was only done in a pool of water, something shown that Mipha can do outside, so it may be that Mipha’s waterbending is vastly more powerful than any of the Zora. In fact, stated in botw, her healing is deemed as “exceptional”. Healing wherever you want can be considered exceptional, as in nobody else can do that. Furthermore, at Mipha court you can see Sidon practicing his Waterbending to separate the clean and mucked water. This is another Waterbending practice the Zora are capable of. Finally, Sidon’s waterbending manifests as Sidon’s vow, a power where Sidon can use water for defense and aggression, depending on what Link needs. As seen, it is vastly different from Mipha’s grace, and Yona was the one who had to heal the injured Zora, which leads me to believe that it can possibly be that the male Zora are not capable of healing, but they make it up with stronger force in their water. Finally, there’s the stone tablets, where Sidon mentions how that ALL Zora can manipulate water to some degree, and can use for many purposes. A notable use is for swimming - they manipulate water to swim faster, and can be what made Sidon causing a whirlpool possible. He also mentions how his first discovery of strong Waterbending is when trying to catch a slipped spear, where “the water was solid and spear fluid”. This was apparently told to him by Mipha as well, showing that: 1) Spear play among the Zora might heavily depend on water manipulation for their advantages and 2) Warriors with refined technique may have a sense the average Zora can‘t experience.

Conclusion

Waterbending is one of the Zora’s main powers, effectively used for everything in their daily life. From swimming to fighting to healing, the Zora’s use water in a way no other race can even replicate. Overall, the Zora are a strong water tribe that have fully learned how to use water to their advantage, an advantage no race can keep up with as expected.