The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has just been released. Faced with such a huge game and almost infinite possibilities, many questions arise. Don’t panic, Phonandroid offers you 10 tips and tricks to get you started in the Nintendo game!
You have just acquired The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom but do not know where to turn when faced with the countless possibilities offered by this disproportionately generous open-world game? It’s understandable: this title is likely to keep you busy for hours and hours. It’s not always easy to know where to start and what to do once you have access to this seemingly limitless “open world”.
This is why, at Phonandroid, we offer you ten essential tips you need to know in order to start your adventure in Hyrule in the best conditions. Here we go, follow the guide!
There is no right or wrong way
Like its big brother Breath of the Wild in 2017, Tears of the Kingdom is not only a non-linear game, but it also leaves you the choice to explore in the way that suits you. You have just accepted a quest, you are on your way to your destination, but you come across a shrine (or another quest) on your way?
Do not hesitate to explore it, or even to take a closer look at the possible point of interest that caught your eye. Play Tears of the Kingdom thinking “total freedom” first of all: no one will come to remind you that you have to go to such a place, or accomplish such a mission. The game will set you no barriers other than your imagination. Better yet: you will never really be stuck as there will always be other things to do on the side, in case you waste time on a specific quest!
Come out covered, come out armed
You will again have to deal with a famous mechanic from Breath of the Wild: your weapons break (even shields). Their durability is very low, although Tears of the Kingdom allows them to be reinforced with the Amalgam mechanic (which allows you to merge a weapon with another, or an inventory item). Also we invite you more than strongly to constantly keep a more or less full inventory in this category.
Your weapons won’t last long anyway, you’ll never have to regret having to throw one away to replace it with a slightly more powerful one. Just try to optimize your weapon stock by varying it (one-handed or two-handed weapons, spears, but also elementary weapons allowing you to use fire, ice or lightning) and replacing the less powerful ones as soon as you have the opportunity. Moreover, this remark also applies to bows and shields.
Don’t miss the most important item in the game
In Breath of the Wild, it was not possible to leave the Prelude Plateau tutorial without obtaining the paraglider. This precious artifact is a kind of glider allowing you to jump into the void and float in the air to fly over the surroundings. In Tears of the Kingdom, the paraglider is not immediately given to you, and one feels a little handicapped without this essential object to freely survey the places or descend from heights without risk. In addition, it is possible to miss it if you want to start exploring directly!
We therefore recommend to head straight for the watch fort once you have set foot in Hyrule, then follow the start of the main quest until you unlock it (it won’t even take half an hour). After that, you are free to walk around as you wish!
Fill your pockets (and get rich)
The amount of objects of all kinds that you can pick up, from the simple apple to the most devastating weapon, is phenomenal in the world of Tears of the Kingdom. As the game does not bother with managing the weight of the inventory and the capacity limit of the latter seems unattainable unless you “farm” until you are more thirsty, pick up absolutely everything you find. It will never be useless, because you can either restore your health, or prepare dishes, improve your weapons… and above all, resell your useless surplus.
Making money in Tears of the Kingdom isn’t that hard since you will always have things to sell. And even if they bring in little, you’ll have so many that your purse will fill up faster than expected… which is a good thing, because you’ll soon need them (especially for clothes, which are as expensive as they are essential).
Boost your stamina before thinking about your health
In Tears of the Kingdom, Link’s evolution is again based on the system of shrines to visit and complete, at the end of which you will obtain beneficial lights. As soon as you have collected four of them, you can exchange them for a unit of life (in the form of a heart) or additional stamina. Even if it will obviously be necessary to raise your life gauge a little from time to time, increasing stamina will really be more important, especially for running and (especially) climbing.
The game map being quite balanced in terms of challenge, you will rarely experience massive difficulty peaks forcing you to be very resistant. Besides, it will be easier to restore your health than your stamina gauge, no food ascending the latter, and the recipes provided for this purpose being much rarer. So consider acquiring two stamina reserves then a heart, and so on, for example.
Curiosity is anything but a bad flaw
You do not never enjoy a game like Tears of the Kingdom as well as trying lots of things, even what may seem stupid. Your curiosity will be increased tenfold when you have powers as incredible as those of Link’s arm in this episode.
So don’t be afraid to interact with the environment, to move elements, or even to destroy them: burn piles of leaves or blow on them, lift rocks, blow up rock piles… there are a lot of secrets everywhere, a lot of which are linked to quests. Since we refer to it, also talk to all the characters, and especially those above which you will see a small red circle containing an exclamation mark.
Involve Link in Top Chef
In Breath of the Wild, Link learned to cook, to the delight of players who could experiment with the many possibilities of culinary “crafting”. This mechanic is back, and in addition, each new recipe discovered is now recorded in a kind of dedicated codex. Although it is possible to finish the game without cooking, apart from a few sequences which will impose it, it is very appreciable to try a whole bunch of grubs and to have the pleasure of discovering what we have been able to do simmer!
Read also – Test Zelda Tears of the Kingdom: Nintendo takes us to seventh heaven
In addition, cooking does not only give you more life: this can temporarily increase many of Link’s attributes, from its attack to its stealth through its speed, or its resistance to damage as well as to extreme temperatures. Cooking is also very relaxing in this game, so feel free to take advantage of every pot at your disposal and experiment with recipes with what you have on hand.
Become a real fashion victim
The amount of outfits Link can wear is staggering. During your adventure, you will regularly collect pieces of clothing, which will be classified into three types (low, high and head). This allows you to build outfits with various properties. Each completed outfit gives you a bonus comparable to recipes, except that they are permanent as long as the complete set is equipped!
You will find them as well in chests everywhere, between shrines and caves, but also as quest rewards. Make sure to collect as many items of clothing as possible to have a varied wardrobe, and to alternate the different styles of play adapted to the environment and the situations.
Have fun with the new powers
If you have already played Breath of the Wild, this reflex will be almost imminent, and will go hand in hand with point number 6. However, Link’s new powers in Tears of the Kingdom are really designed to experience anything and everything and let your imagination run wild. Admittedly, you might not be able to build a fire-breathing tank with Grasp, and we won’t blame you (here, we already can’t make a four-wheeled machine that rolls properly ). But try a bit to assemble all the possible and imaginable objects, to build bridges, enough to reach heights that you thought were out of reach.
And above all, we can’t say it enough, try to merge your weapons with other weapons to strengthen them and give them surprising powers, or even objects to give them new properties. Amalgam’s power is fun, (almost) limitless, and often useful. As for the mechanics of Infiltration and Retrospective, they will make you explore the environment more to reach seemingly inaccessible places : think carefully, and you will see that almost anything is possible!
Save arrows and items that reinforce them
While we recommended that you collect just about everything on your way, there are some items that are much more valuable than others during your adventure in Tears of the Kingdom. The Amalgam concept makes the bow and its ammunition even more important than before, because you will thus make your own arrows of fire, ice, lightning… or even other types of elements.
Rarer than in Breath of the Wild, gems give phenomenal elemental power to arrows, so you will have to keep them and only use them against powerful enemies. Of course, you can still (well) sell them, or use them for other types of crafting, but their use in the context of fused weapons is important enough to remind you.
You now have all the cards in hand to start the adventure serenely in Tears of the Kingdom! Feel free to offer your own tips and tricks in the comments.