When you first fire up Breath of the Wild, cut-scene animation takes over to introduce the gameplay. You’ll find Link – and therefore yourself, since Link is the character you play – scantily attired in a sort of cryostasis tank.
Here in the Shrine of Resurrection, you’ll pick up your first tool, a Sheikah Slate. What’s more, there are treasure chests to be found in the Shrine, providing you with clothing. They are “well-worn garments,” to be sure, but they’re better than traipsing about in Link’s boxer briefs. (Itzal bridles at the notion that Demelza looks down on those who enjoy their boxer brief traipses; but if you’re gaming together and must observe the proprieties, fine.)
Once outside the shrine, it’s time to survey the kingdom, or at least, what’s in the immediate vicinity.
Not far away, you’ll see an Old Man – a comfortable, Santa-like figure who makes a Baby Boomer feel right at home– and, although you aren’t obliged to speak to him straightaway, it behooves you to chat him up sooner rather than later. (Note: the game describes him as Old Man. We are not being insensitive to his age, being Elders ourselves.) The Old Man might as well be called Man on a Mission, because he’s got an agenda, and it involves you opening four shrines and learning how to use the controls and tools soon to be at your disposal.
While you’re confined to the Plateau, the game pushes you along a fairly prescribed course. You can accomplish what you need to more or less in any order you choose – you could run around in your underwear for a while, if you liked, Demelza’s disapproval notwithstanding. But essentially, to progress further you must attend to the Old Man’s directives.
Follow the Sheikah Slate
Unless you’re a speedrunner (and if you are, you’ve come to the wrong website!), Follow the Sheikah Slate will be the first major quest of the game.
If you were to review your in-game map before completing this quest (use the minus button to access the map), you’d see nothing more than a hazy blue and black screen, not precisely what one looks for in a map, and a glowing yellow dot. Follow said dot. Much excitement ensues when you reach the dot’s location, and soon the hazy gray area is transformed into a regional map. What’s more, Link has a new main quest.
Zelder Tip #1: Until you complete this first quest, time doesn’t pass on the Plateau. That’s right, it’s perpetually mid-morning. You can explore to your heart’s desire without worrying that darkness will descend, and with it, creepy nighttime enemies. After completion, the clock starts at 11 am and marches on relentlessly.
Zelder Tip #2: When you find yourself on the newly-risen Great Plateau Tower and are ready to depart on your next quest, don’t just jump off in manner of Peter Pan. Link will fall. Link will die, leaving a big red X on the map to remind you of your failure. Not that we did this. Okay, we did. So trust us: At this juncture of the game, you must climb down the tower. There is, however, a series of platforms encircling the tower; rather than climb down the tower slowly, lattice panel by lattice panel, you can jump down from platform to platform.
The Isolated Plateau
The next quest requires Link to find and activate four “shrines,” which are mini-puzzles or mini-dungeons, depending on your perspective. When you activate a shrine, it acts as a fast-travel point. Completing a shrine – which we’ll define as reaching the monk in residence, since we often leave treasure behind – garners you a spirit orb. Collect four for a new heart or additional energy.
Zelder Tip #3: Take the four shrines in a clockwise fashion, starting from Oman Au (where you earn the Magnesis rune); then, moving from right to left around the Plateau, Jai Baij (Bomb rune); Owa Daim (Stasis); and Keh Namut (Cryonis).
Zelder Tip #4: If you see something sparkling, investigate. Gather up mushrooms, apples, and tree branches, whatever looks promising. You can also find a better pair of trousers in a chest in some ruins not far from the Temple of Time, if you object to well-worn ones.
Is Link hearing voices?
The Old Man isn’t the only one issuing orders that day. That’s a recurring theme in Hyrule: someone is always urging poor Link to do this, do that, find this, defeat that. Inevitably, it’s something that only Link can do, ranging from the monumental – destroying Ganon – to the trivial, such as bringing a lady some ice for her drink.
Thus, on the Plateau, be prepared for a disembodied voice prodding you to “try to remember.” Apparently, Link’s got a bad case of amnesia after his 100 years in the cryotank.
We found it passing annoying to be urged to reminisce when we were wearing hand-me-downs and armed with a tree branch, but hey, we’ve been trying to remember plenty in the past 20 years, let’s add Hyrule to the list of forgotten.
Zelda for Elders doesn’t purport to do walkthroughs. And if that’s your thing, others have done them better; we use them often ourselves. But we do humbly offer a few (more) tips.
A Few More Tips
- Once you’ve got the Bomb rune, bomb anything that looks like funny colored rocks of a certain size and configuration. You’ll soon come to recognize them. (They look a lot like the rock wall outside Demelza’s back yard, and since playing BOTW, she often feels a compulsion to press L when sitting on her patio.)
- Speaking of funny-looking things: Later in the game, you’ll be on the search for Korok seeds. You may spy a solitary rock that looks out of place, a large flower, or perhaps some traveling fairy lights in need of catching. The point is that when something looks different, it’s generally worth investigating. Generally. Sometimes different can also get you killed. (It is possible to collect Korok seeds before triggering Hestu’s quest.)
- Fight or flight: It can be to your advantage to run away from enemies. But that first day on the Plateau, you’ll need to confront some of them, either because they’re standing between you and somewhere you need to be or because they’ll drop items you desperately need when starting out – arrows, a bow, a bokobat. Demelza is a bloodthirsty wench and prone to exhort Itzal to “get ’em!” Itzal is more disposed to give enemies a wide berth, because “You’re not the one who has to fight them!”
- A last point: Those things that look like decayed metal spiders, ironically known as Guardians, come in several varieties. On the Plateau, you’ll find ones that are truly kaput, such as those around the Temple of Time; you can walk up to them and a “search” prod will appear on your screen. Press A to collect valuable Ancient parts. Other Guardians, such as a couple aropund the Eastern Abbey, are only mostly dead, and they will fire up if Link gets too close. If that happens, your best bet – at least at this point in the game – is to hide behind something and get out of their view, because one blast of a laser can take you out.
Once you’ve completed the Old Man’s mission, you’ll be rewarded with the Paraglider, an item that makes it possible to descend the Plateau tower without killing yourself. It will not surprise you that you’ve been given new instructions, however. Honestly, this constant nagging from all of Hyrule will not let up until the end of the game.
You’ll also finish the day sporting a fourth heart container. (We assume you will choose hearts over stamina initially, but it’s a tough call when you want and need both, of course!)
Zelder Tip #5: In addition to gifting Link with spirit orbs, the monks will also refill any depleted heart containers. So on this first day, when you likely have only a limited inventory of health-replenishing apples and herbs, don’t eat up your foodstuffs just before going into a shrine; let the monk refresh you. Exception: If you’re in danger of expiring before you reach the monk! That little Guardian scout in Oman Au can do some damage….
If you’re playing for the first time, you may be four or five hours in. If you’re an accomplished warrior with little patience for sightseeing, maybe you’re done in under two. We’re not speedrunners, and besides, we like to stop for snacks and cocktails, so a three- to four-hour session is grand for us.
At this point, you can proceed to the next quest – talking to a specific denizen of Kakariko Village – or you can wander around the Plateau some more. Shoot, you could even head to the Castle, although we don’t recommend it, and neither does the Old Man, by the way. Still, it’s up to you. (Demelza, naturally, wanted to go back for the better trousers, but Itzal gave her A Look.)
And, finally, what to drink on the Isolated Plateau: In commemoration of waking up from your lengthy slumber, we suggest some version of an espresso martini, the better to keep you awake and alert, if running into Guardians isn’t enough to get your heart racing.